Michael MaozSocial CRM is about as hyped as tulip bulbs in 1630′s Holland. Everyone is doing it, even if there is no ‘it’ to ‘it.’
Social CRM is a pervasive but in aggregate inchoate attempt to regain the voice of the customer that we stifled through IVR, search, outsourcing and self service. Into the mix step two groups external to the enterprise: ad agencies and business process outsourcers in the customer service space.
Why not the agencies? They are creative, no doubt. They will help you refine the top of the funnel in ways that will make a marketing manager’s head swim. But while the Creatives fill the top of the funnel, they will not have enough knowledge of our impact on the operational areas such as logistics, customer service, returns, order to cash. So the bottom of the funnel remains wide open.
It will be like massaging the heart while slitting your femoral artery.
This Social phenomenon is a matter of style and substance, a tango that is tied together into a successful dance when customer metrics are at the core of the processes. How does this impact retention? Share of wallet? Cost to serve? Brand recognition? Brand impact? Customer happiness? Competitive differentiation? Retention?
Somehow I don’t see the agencies getting this right.
And you? What do you think?
Category: CRM Customer Centric Web Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership Social CRM Social Networking Social Software Tags:
13 responses so far ↓
1 Phil Soffer April 2, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Hi Michael,
Provocative point. I think you are spot on that certain agencies will view SCRM as another purely promotional vehicle. Many of them are clearly not interested in the creation of deep engagements between companies and their customers, and if the kinds of campaigns you allude to absorb a lot of the Social CRM mindshare, it will be to the detriment of Social CRM.
I suspect, however, that there will be some agencies that “get it” more than others, and some that partner with the right companies to do it right.
A few questions that will help people understand whether agencies get Social CRM:
* Tell me how we will identify the customers who are most likely to become active advocates for us in the future.
* How would you recommend that we change our lifetime customer value metrics on the basis of the work you’re proposing we do? What metrics should we use to track the value of this project over the long term?
* What is your recommended strategy for dealing with customer complaints or service-related questions that may emerge through this social channel?
* What business processes in our organization need to change to take into account the work that you’re proposing, and who will need to be brought on board?
I’m sure there are other such questions, but that’s the general idea.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment here.
Phil Soffer
VP of Product Marketing
Lithium
2 uberVU - social comments April 3, 2010 at 5:12 am
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3 Muchiri Nyaggah April 3, 2010 at 6:05 am
I think so too Michael. Agencies tend to begin their engagements with a significant amount of tunnel vision. Social CRM is not about marketing or promotions or the number of followers the brand has. It is CRM at the core first, which is beyond their ‘field of view’. The likelihood that agencies pushing Social CRM for a single use case, in this case Marketing, will bungle the job is extremely high.
4 The Social CMO April 3, 2010 at 10:51 am
Hello Michael,
I have to agree with you here that any firm who would leave Social CRM in the hands of an Ad Agency alone would be foolish.
The changes needed to implement our vision of Social CRM based on The Social CRM Continuum are foundational to the business requiring complete reengineering of process and supporting systems AND the participation of ALL stakeholders.
Smorganizations or Social Media Organizations is the topic of my upcoming book and here is an introductory post from our blog http://bit.ly/a18ies
Feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss further.
Cheers
Jeff
@JeffAshcroft
5 Barry Dalton April 3, 2010 at 11:10 am
Michael,
I agree. Two challenges I see with the agency as social crm engagement focus 1) scale and efficiency – it may not be an issue now for most in terms of volume. But, for many, agencies will eventually be overwhelmed. It would be like putting rotary phones back in the contact center. 2) I like use the phone analogy. Would a company today have it’s PR guys go into the contact center, put on a headset and start taking calls? So, from a service and support perspective, how is social crm any different?
As a BPO, I’d be interested to hear your opinion on that player.
Thanks
Barry
6 Brian Prentice April 4, 2010 at 6:48 am
Interest perspective Michael. I guess the question I have in my mind is how much of the SCRM job does the agency own? If the assumption is that it’s an end-to-end responsibility then you’re probably right (although I think Phil Soffer adds a valid perspective).
But if go back to my experience working with agency (granted, that’s a lonnnnnnnng way back) we (as in marketing) always treated them as creative but took directly responsibility for the operational aspects of the campaign ourselves. Why would that type of delineation be different in a SCRM world?
Love to hear you thoughts and insights on that.
cheers,
Brian
7 Kathy Herrmann April 8, 2010 at 10:40 am
I agree with Phil. Some agencies will get it and some won’t.
Members of the SCRM community shouldn’t write agencies off, though. We should seek to team up. Agencies (or marketing departments) are on the leading edge of many social initiatives, even if these early moves are siloed. Thus, these initiatives become the springboard to more substantial changes.
However, successful SCRM requires moving beyond the siloes to a holistic view of the company and agencies will lack that view. It’s not a knock of agencies. They have a specific focus and for most companies, it’s not intended to be impacting the company’s overall corporate strategy.
8 Joseph Kingsbury, Text 100 April 8, 2010 at 11:25 am
I agree with Phil and Kathy that some agencies will get it and others won’t. But practically speaking, I also think much of this rests not just on who should/can ‘own’ this theoretically but the real skills gaps that exist internally (and whether they’ll need outside help). In the near term I think external agencies have a window of opportunity here, and over time this type of function is likely to absorbed into the actual business unit.
My personal bias though is that communicators focused on building relationships in digital spaces on behalf of clients are positioned well here. That could include ad agencies but I’m inclined to lean toward PR centered on human interactions (not pushing content) and a knowledge or willingness to know clients’ CRM at a deeper level. But remember, if companies botch the human interaction, none of the back end stuff matters.
Joseph Kingsbury, Text 100
9 Fabio Cipriani April 8, 2010 at 1:03 pm
A good strategy for CRM consulting companies is to build partnerships with ad agencies (which are already holding many large corporate accounts), so both approaches match and the whole story brings benefits for both parties.
10 jourik migom April 9, 2010 at 4:47 am
I think you narrow down ad agencies to a bunch of creatives. Nowadays succesfull agencies try to have impact on the clients’ business, not just on the mind of the communication mgr. This means that succesfull ideas are business ideas, not just communication ideas.
Because of this, ad agencies attract people with different backgrounds (more IT/CRM people have definately a place in an agency nowadays)
It will – as mentioned by some before – be a question of partnerships between smart agencies and smart CRM people.
11 Peter Applebaum April 11, 2010 at 5:45 am
Ad agencies have a campaign focus; social CRM needs a program focus. It’s as simple as that.
To see traditional agencies trying to embrace digital and/or social marketing is the ultimate in awkwardness. It’s not as if they haven’t had time to adjust their thinking & business models; they just don’t know how. The web has been commercialised for 15 years yet still they worship at the alter of the TVC. And it will never change.
Ad agencies will prove to be the buggy whip manufacturers of the 21st century.
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13 Andrew Durkin, MUSTARD PR April 12, 2010 at 11:09 am
Each organisation will find the right strategy for them. Surely SCRM is not under the ownership of any one individual and to be effective it will need to embrace Employee Mining Management (EMM) to get the holistic view of actions and consequences.
On advertising agencies – those that get it will have an offering and those that don’t – c u l8er. Hey, here’s a novel idea, the market will drive it!