How social media brought the "relationship" back to CRM?
Tags: crm, socialmedia
Published: 2020-10-01 11:55:24

[Customer relationship management](https://www.cloudanalogy.com/), or CRM, systems were originally intended to help companies keep track of customer orders and the company's interactions with them to manage the business relationship. The problem was, there really wasn't a relationship. It was more about data management, where the company kept an eye on the customer's interaction with it, but the customer didn't really have a lot of collaborative interaction with the company, so there was no real relationship. .

Social media has changed that. It has never been easier for consumers to interact with organizations on a personal, but very public level. Often referred to as Social CRM, the focus has shifted entirely to the consumer. Customers can now control the conversation and interaction between customers and companies is much more important than in the past. Consumers no longer simply receive the information the business chooses for them to receive. Now customers can shape that information with little more than a "tweet" or a "like." Collaboration, the foundation of successful relationships, is back.

Unsurprisingly, organizations are trying to figure out how to track these interactions, questions, comments, and the solutions they involve. When the need arose, the software was developed to meet that need. In short, there is software that can help you manage your online interactions.

**The next evolution of CRM**
Social CRM is not a new concept. It is simply a new way of doing business, just as email and online commerce were new ways of doing business when they first appeared. The idea is to interact with consumers through social networks. Ideally, these interactions result in collaborative discussions about the company's products or services and the wants and needs of customers. Clients are much more interested in the partnership and companies receive feedback quickly and can respond accordingly. This will affect an organization's customer service, market research, product launch, reputation, and [brand management](https://www.cloudanalogy.com/). If done correctly, the program will result in increased consumer loyalty, as customers will feel a stronger personal connection to the company or organization with which they do business. It can also be a profitable way to win new customers, as current customers recommend products and services to their own networks. It has become a kind of high-tech word-of-mouth advertising.

**How is CRM software integrated?**
Customer relationship management software helps organizations monitor and manage all interactions with their customers electronically. The Sage, Salesforce, and NetSuite CRM programs are some examples of such software. The software offers support in the following areas, all of which can be improved with the data obtained from your online interactions.

**• Contact management:** Customer contact details are integrated into your order history, invoices, sales and marketing contacts. In addition to knowing which salesperson is working with the customer or who to send invoices to, you can add comments and resolutions to your social media interactions with that customer. It is also a great place to find out who follows and interacts with your company through networks.

**• The communication:** CRM software enables users to control all forms of customer communication: face-to-face, email, direct mail, phone calls, and now social media. A program like NetSuite CRM, for example, allows multiple users to access the same data, ensuring that communication history is always available, even if the primary employee working on the account is out of the office or unavailable. to track. Customer request. A colleague can easily log in and see what the past interaction has been and the current interaction status.

**• Commercialization:** All CRM programs make it easy for companies to track the interests of their customers and guide their marketing plans accordingly. Interactions on social media are just one more way to track consumer interest in certain products or [services](https://www.cloudanalogy.com/).

**• Customer service and support:** Using a single software to track all customer interactions makes it easy to see the status of an order.