neil woodcock’s marketing blog

Marketers are working in exciting times.  Never before have we been able to get so close to our customers and engage with them in such a timely and relevant manner.  Harnessed with customer relationship management (CRM), Social Media can deliver financial benefits to companies no matter what sector.  The benefits are centred around increasing ‘customer insight and engagement’ and are not peripheral but fundamental to driving business performance.  Financial benefits apply across the customer lifecycle, in acquisition, retention, value development and managing cost to serve.  In addition, social CRM can deliver insight which will help drive real customer centric innovation.  Finally, the knowledge gained on customer behaviour, attitudes and mood will help drive benefits throughout the value chain, impacting on suppliers (e.g. forecasting demand) and intermediaries (e.g. shaping in-store promotions).  However, pioneers in large companies face three hurdles;  (1) organisational readiness, (2) over-hype and over-expectation and (3) project management failings.  At the end of it all, Social CRM is about PEOPLE and RELATIONSHIPS and demands a customer focus like never before.  Forget that and you have little chance of success.  This article is in three parts.

If you are interested, leave your name and email as a comment below to receive an advance copy of our article on this (to be published May 2010).