Wednesday, April 25, 2012
In order to be effective, social customer relationship management (CRM) must be implemented organization-wide, rather than departmentally, according to CRM expert Lloyd Gofton.
Writing for Business 2 Community, Gofton notes that companies' marketing and customer support departments often debate which of them "owns" the organization's social media, in order to claim a greater portion of the company's budget. This, Gofton argues, is detrimental, as it limits the potential effectiveness of social CRM.
Instead, Gofton believes companies should strive to institute a social CRM philosophy that spans across the company, incorporating many departments to improve the overall deployment of the technology. Such a policy can allow social CRM to operate on all levels, and for staff from different areas to collaborate to the company's overall greater benefit. Above all else, Gofton writes, the focus should always be on the customer.
The question of how best to use social CRM is likely to become increasingly important in the future. In a recent study, Gartner found that CRM is CEOs' "favorite IT capability." Discussing this result, Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, concluded that this is due to CRM's ability to improve customer retention. As Gofton argues, however, only collaborative deployment of social CRM can lead to an optimal customer experience.
