Social CRM Made Easy
Social CRM Made Easy
Taking customer engagement to a whole new level
Summary
Introduction.... 2
The community manager’s goal: grow and nurture a community of advocates.... 3
Online customer service as a vital next step.... 7
Self-regulation : customer engagement nirvana.... 9
Conclusion.... 10
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Social CRM Made Easy
Introduction
From Customer Intelligence to Customer Engagement, the entire company is
involved, but who is the right spokesperson for a company?
The advent of social media has changed the consumer decision making process, and at the same time the modalities of interaction between brands and their customers. Faced with widespread consumer adoption of social
networks, businesses are equipping themselves with web and customer relationship specialists to put social response strategies into place for Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums. They are called community managers or web
consultants and are the spokespeople of the brand online.
Who are these online experts and what do they do? How do they work with the different departments that must
deal with customer feedback?
From customer intelligence to customer engagement, the main challenge is TIME
Customer Intelligence
Social Media Monitoring
Research
Marketing
PR
Sales
• Consumer
insights’ analysis
• Campaign
measurement
• Crisis
management
• Lead
generation
• Competitive
intelligence
• Influencers
outreach
• Online footprint
measurement
• Prospect
outreach
Customer
support
• Complaints
management
• Technical
support
Other
• HR
• Executive’s
reputation
• etc...
Customer Engagement
Based on the March 12, 2010 “Defining Social Intelligence” Forrester Research report.
1
How Affluent Luxury Consumers Use the Internet and Social Media
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Social CRM Made Easy
The community manager’s goal: grow and nurture a
community of advocates
Turning strangers into advocates, the ongoing process of marketing
Affluent people in the U.S., and therefore potential luxury brand clients, are more present on social networks than
the average population. Among those polled in a Unity Marketing study1, 78% have at least one social network
profile, usually Facebook, and 50% have used social media to learn more about a brand, see new products, or
comment about a brand. There is one constraint, however. Luxury shoppers declared that they simply don’t have
much free time to be “very” active on social networks. This framework has allowed luxury brands to take advantage of channels other than Facebook to connect with their customers and advocates. Rather than depending on
third-party networks, some luxury brands simply provide positive online support and interaction through their own
website.
“Marketing is the ongoing process of engagement whereby
strangers are nurtured into advocates.”
Trey Pennington
For small and large companies alike, a community manager’s main mission is to underpin the brand in its marketing strategy by creating a community of advocates. A community manager accompanies a brand throughout the
entire process of:
•
•
•
•
Identification of potential buyers and influencers for a brand
Advocacy and evangelism towards people who are not familiar with the company and/or its products
Content creation for “community” members
Interaction in the “community” while taking notice of new expectations and changes
A truly vital connection between the brand and web users, a community manager is present across the entirety of
social networks and presents him or herself as an intermediary between brands and their customers.
Community management for large communities: the “command center”
experience
Some robust monitoring systems have been developed by certain brands like Dell or Gatorade to allow teams of
community managers to relay information from one group to another, time their communications, communicate
internally, and follow their work flow and impact over the long term...
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Social CRM Made Easy
Gatorade’s “Mission Control” Command Center
Gatorade is a brand that receives an enormous number of mentions on social
media published each day by a large community of fans, which is why they decided to launch a social media “Command Center” in June of 2010 to handle
the sheer volume of information. The command center was designed to create
“positive experiences” for people talking about the brand, allowing employees
to visualize conversations, sentiment, and track the performance of current
campaigns. They are the link between online customers and Gatorade’s entire
organization. The team goes beyond Gatorade’s brand by monitoring online
discussions; the sports landscape online, proactive social media outreach, media performance, brand attributes, and sports trends and buzz. They track the number of tweets and terms
relevant to the brand, as well as competitors, athletes, and sports nutrition-related topics. Automatic sentiment analysis is currently used to determine the tone around certain key topics, products, and campaign
launches, all keeping certain engagement goals in mind.
But only 20% of brands clearly recognize an advocate base
With the rise of the “Like” button around the web, consumer dynamics and our affinity for brands provides a link
between social metrics (i.e. the number of followers on Twitter, the number of views on YouTube, etc.) and return
on investment calculations, the top internal priority for brands in 20111. Community managers are the first point of
connection with social data and sift through it to determine the impact of your brand’s messages and the success
of the community management program. A business’s ultimate goal is to increase revenue via social media, but
only a minority of brands are actively deciphering which “fans” form their advocate base.
“Consumers’ affinity reaches (on average) its limit at five brands”
Cone study
According to a Cone study3, consumers’ affinity for brands reaches its limit at five. Beyond that, a web user cannot dedicate constant attention and involvement. There is a sharp contrast, then, between the number of positive
grades attributed to a brand’s web content (“fans”, followers, “likes”) and its number of true advocates. A brand
may have thousands of “likes” with few true advocates and without a true “community” of fans. Given these limitations, it is up to a community manager to determine who are the true advocates among self-proclaimed “fans” or
“likers”.
In “The Tipping point,” Malcolm Gladwell presents 3 different profiles of people that contribute to the spread of positive word-of-mouth. The role of a community manager is to determine who the mavens, connectors, and salesmen
are for a brand to develop a communication strategy which develops ties that can help spread its messages as
well as bring in information from external sources. “Mavens” are sponges for information in specific domains, for
example, that can provide valuable information about your competitors and feed new marketing content. “Connectors” are just that, connecting multiple communities together to diffuse a message, while “salesmen”4 may just help
“sell” a brand to others, promoting its benefits and added value. Once a clever marketing campaign or promotion
has attracted them to “like” or “follow” a brand, relevant content can maintain brand affinity and develop a closer
proximity with customers in the quest for advocacy and positive word-of-mouth.
Analysis: 2011 Internal Goals In Corporate Social Strategy: Proving Value and Change Management (2/2) Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang
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2010 Consumer New Media Study
3
2010 Consumer New Media Study
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gladwell dot com - The Tipping Point
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Social CRM Made Easy
Contrary to Gatorade’s approach, some companies are primarily using social media for customer support issues.
Some “functional” brands, whose customers use social media to report a problem or complaint or ask for information, have web consultants that act much in the same way as traditional customer service operatives, except they
work online. In the case of Orange telecom, a team of web consultants was recruited directly from the customer
service department and trained to interact with people online. The training is a crucial step, as people do not use
an online platform in the same way or for the same reasons as another. On forums, for example, web consultants
may need to ask permission before joining the community and answering questions. It is often in the brand’s best
interest, in fact, to first listen and determine which current members of the community are already answering questions on their behalf before wading in themselves.
Interview : Fabrice Feugas, Community Manager for PriceMinister
Price Minister’s Community Manager has more than 3 years experience with the online
second-hand store, a French version of eBay, if you will. Visitors to the site can find
new and second-hand products, and sellers are composed of private and professional
sellers. For the moment, a FAQ is in place for customers to search for answers, and
community management activity is still developing.
Transparent community management
Fabrice Feugas explained in an interview that he is transparent as a community manager in each space where the company is present. On Facebook, for example, unhappy vendors that did not agree with Price Minister when they launched an offer for
professional vendors used the official page to express their disapproval, occasionally leaving defamatory
messages. Fabrice Feugas began to talk with the people that were posting there. He deleted some of the
message, explaining why each time (posts for their competitors such aseBay; attacks on their services; etc.),
stressing that he was available to have discussions in private should people wish to do so. In forums, Mr.
Feugas has spoken with certain forum moderators and knows in which ones he can intervene and which
should be left alone.
Turning detractors into advocates
Since Feugas began as community manager, there have been only 2 serious Price Minister detractors that
needed to be addressed directly. One “influential” blogger wrote a post calling Price Minister “crooks” that
was rather visible (on the first page of Google), explaining that he had sold a phone via the site that, upon
return from the buyer, was not returned to him and neither was his money. Price Minister’s customer service
center had identified the phone as a counterfeit product and blocked his account. Feugas revealed that the
blogger had left out some of the story, including another attempt to sell a counterfeit phone via their site.
He contacted their legal services,department which informed him of a French law that obliges the blogger
to post the company’s response to a defamatory post at the top of his article. This would allow them to get
the best of the situation, taking advantage of the blogger’s visibility as well as defending their legal stance on
counterfeit articles.
Another person that Feugas had identified as being particularly vocal on their Facebook page now has a long
history with the brand. After repeatedly leaving negative messages, he was banned from the page. After private discussions with Feugas, he was readmitted to the group, and after continued discussions in private the
“detractor” has become an advocate of the brand, even defending them when another person complained
on their Facebook page about a purchase she had not received.
Minister when they launched an offer for professional vendors used the official page to express their disapproval, occasionally leaving defamatory messages. Fabrice Feugas began to talk with the people that were
posting there. He deleted some of the message, explaining why each time (posts for their competitors such
aseBay; attacks on their services; etc.), stressing that he was available to have discussions in private should
people wish to do so. In forums, Mr. Feugas has spoken with certain forum moderators and knows in which
ones he can intervene and which should be left alone.
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Social CRM Made Easy
Price Minister’s Ultimate Community Management Goal
In the end, Feugas explained that Price Minister’s goal is to develop advocates that defend the site and
respond for them on other forums, just like their previous critic. He is also looking into other social developments such as social CRMs that allow a continual follow of the same client online and offline, referred to as
the “unique voice of the customer” at Synthesio.
As community manager, “there is no such thing as bad communication, you just have to know how to use it
to your advantage…Even if people speak poorly of us, it gives us the opportunity to use it as a talking point
and turn it in our favor.”
Case study : Victoria’s Secret’s 11+ million fans
Never has selling underwear been so glamorous. Victoria’s Secret,
launched in 1977, is known for its strong brand image and now for its
fashion shows, but its social media strategy has garnered attention
over the past couple of years. They have had a straight-forward ecommerce website for years which includes promotions like their “Secret Rewards”, gift cards with unknown amounts of money charged
to them that customers receive in exchange for their purchases during
the promotional period, and have focused on Facebook (and to some
extent Twitter) for their social media strategy. Instead of sending “fans”
to the website, Victoria’s Secret brings content directly to consumers
where they already are. Last year they even created a design specifically for their 11+ million fans.
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Social CRM Made Easy
Online customer service as a vital next step
One online response is read by 9 web users, on average
70% of web users are influenced by others’ comments and the visible complaints of
other customerss online can play a pivotal role in their purchasing decisions. According
to findings from the IAB and Lighstpeed Research, the most popular channel for complaints is online (44%), followed by phone (36%) and letter (22%).
The 90-9-1 law remains true online: 90% of visitors are spectators, 10% contribute, and
1% of the contributors are extremely active, posting several times per week. This means
that although the number of comments online may be less than the number of calls to a
call center, a web consultant’s answer will be viewed 9 times for each contribution. Each
response also provides a ‘trace’ for future clients.
When polled as to what tone or “personality” consumers expect brands to adopt on
social networks, the majority of respondents chose ‘professional’ (37%) followed by
‘friendly’ (33%). Only 12% chose ‘funny’ and 9%, ‘cool’5.
“Web consultants” are the new customer service teams
“Web consultant” or “online customer service agent” roles are increasingly present in
businesses. Trained within the framework of the customer service department, they
respond directly to customer requests and problems online. The e-Commerce Sector,
which is highly implicated, turns to web consultants for not only resolving customers’
problems but also providing answers for future consumers and the 90% of “lurkers”.
Specialized in customer service, the activities of these web consultants reduce costs
thanks to the higher visibility of answers online, and therefore fewer calls from people with the same question.
When Social media connects with CRM platforms and call centers to build social customer support
The last step will be connecting social media and CMR platforms like Salesforce with call centers to allow for fluid,
connected customer support. Customers are increasingly turning to Twitter for customer service6, but there is no
way to ensure that they are not given undue priority over customers who are waiting in line for assistance at an
airport, for example. When all touch points are connected, customers will be responded to equally no matter which
channel they use, and customer service agents will be able to connect the dots between the various touchpoints.
& 6 Tweet Relief for Travelers - AOL Travel News
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http://thesocialcustomer.com/shawn-santos/34382/why-social-media-disruptive
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Social CRM Made Easy
Cisco’s Social CRM
Based on the fact that companies increasingly see themselves as being passed over by consumers’ expectations on social media, Cisco developed a Social CRM solution, called SocialMiner. This platform allows
companies to respond to clients on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks, to prioritize tasks and to distribute them. As John Hernandez, Vice President of Customer Collaboration at Cisco, explains, companies
need to cut down their internal silos and enhance their dialogue process to be able to meet customer expectations online and to reduce costs. Cisco discovered that 43% of visits to its online support forum replace
claims files that are opened via more traditional and more expensive channels. Indeed, the average cost of
processing a claim by phone is $ 162, while an instance of online support does not exceed $ 0.06.
Increased communication between Marketing and Customer Service departments, the formalization and organization of dialogue, and listening to the voices of consumers are all essential to the success of real social
CRM within any company.
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Social CRM Made Easy
Self-regulation: customer engagement nirvana
A brand’s intervention via a community manager or by the customer service
department is not always welcome
Wikipedia, for example, shows the force of auto-regulation that exists online. Certain communities have created
themselves around auto-regulation, and a new member must gain acceptance by other members in order to gain
their trust and build goodwill. If we look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, people communicate online for the same
reasons that they do offline – to seek information for their well-being, to ensure their and their close ones’ personal
security, to belong to communities that align with their own values, to develop/reinforce their own self-esteem,
and to be recognized for their expertise. When talking about a brand or even complaining, people are not always
expecting someone to be listening. People talking online are similar to people talking offline. Sometimes they want
a response, or an answer will help change their mind (or reinforce it in your favor) along the consumer decision
journey.
Experts are the most reliable source of information in forums
Forums existed long before the rise of social media, developing their own rules of moderation and backed by forum
administrators that regulated them as well. In certain online forums, answers are chosen as the “best answer” so
that future visitors know immediately that the question has been answered accurately. In cases like these, having
community managers intervene is not only a waste of time and money, but their interventions detract from the value
of the comments provided by forum experts who are perceived as independent and trustworthy.
Even in the case of false comments, a growing concern for many brands, citing the founding of certain companies
that promise to erase negative or false comments, or bury them within Google search results through SEO and
SEM techniques.
A company’s goal is self-regulation
It is impossible for all companies to hire enough people to respond to everyone on the web who is talking about
them. A common question is whether or not every person’s needs have to be addressed. From an economic point
of view, the effort needed to reach the long tail of people talking about you online is more costly than addressing a
selected target of people that can then help in community management tasks. Engagement “nirvana” is the formation of a base of fans and advocates via online customer support, community management, and quality products
and services that then defend the brand and answer questions on your behlaf. It is a long process that involves all
of the elements of community management to get to this point, by becoming a valued presence in communities
that are important to the brand.
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Social CRM Made Easy
Conclusion
Community management is a new field that is developing, but listening to social media can help a brand determine how it can best be used to reduce the amount of time between collection of social data and the use of it
internally, as well as the flow of information from the company towards various communities. Community management can help a brand interact with various communities that are important to it online, keeping in mind that
not every brand can be a “star” on social media, but it can reach out to people that matter to it. The next step
is providing enterprise-wide customer support. Although your brand may not always need to intervene in social
spaces online, there should be someone dedicated to listening to what is going on who is empowered to be able
to respond when required. This implies a change in the business structure which we’re unable to go into in detail
here, but that encompasses the acceptance of horizontal information exchanges at the level of the entire company. The ultimate goal is self-regulation from web users and a reduction of bottom line costs.
About Synthesio
Synthesio is a global, multi-lingual Social Media Monitoring and research company, utilizing a powerful hybrid
of tech and human monitoring services to help Brands and Agencies collect and analyze consumer conversations online. The result is actionable analytics and insights that provide an accurate snapshot of a brand
and help answer the ultimate questions – how are we really doing right now, and how can we make it better.
Founded in 2006, the company has grown to include analysts who provide native-language monitoring and
analytic services in over 30 lanuages worldwide. Brands such as Toyota, Microsoft, Sanofi, Accor, Orange
and many other well-known companies turn to Synthesio for the data they need to engage with their markets, anticipate and prepare for emerging crisis situations, and prepare for new product or new campaign
launches.
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