The evolving data architecture of social customer relationship management

Social media enables the brand to extend its personality to engage with consumers on their terms, at the time, place and channel of their choice. Replacing traditional customer relationship management (CRM) with a Facebook fan site (for instance) presents advantages but also strategic risks for a brand. If knowledge of brand advocates, High-Value Customers, High-Value Prospects and influencers is considered an asset for the business, the asset needs to be owned and managed over time, and that is not possible in the social-only environment. Social and CRM in combination are likely to be more effective than individually. In linking social data with CRM data, multiple identities, privacy and data protection issues, and which data to hold on the database (vs. leave in the social media ‘cloud’) are all challenges that need to be addressed. The social customer relationship management (SCRM) strategy will be driven by marketing, but will have an impact through all the business functions from customer service through to brand marketing. Eight stages of the SCRM strategy are outlined from ‘Listen and Learn’ through to ‘Measure and Evaluate’