What is social CRM and why you should invest in one

What is Social CRM?

Social CRM stands for Social Customer Relationship Management. It involves the integration of social media and instant messaging channels, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Line, WeChat, alongside traditional channels so customers can interact with businesses via their preferred channels. This means better customer service and greater marketing insight gathered from customer social media data.

Why do businesses need a Social CRM?

Social media apps have gained immense popularity in the past decade. The best part of social media is that it engages well with all generations including Gen X, Y, and Z. It has given room to express, engage, and enlighten. From daily updates to online shopping, social media covers everything. 

Social CRM makes it possible for a business to communicate with customers using the channel of their choice – whether by phone, live chat, email, WhatsApp. 

Social CRM uses data analysis about customers’ history at every touchpoint with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth. It also allows you to remain connected with your customers and develop a better connection with them, which benefits not only the company but also the customers. One can communicate with customers using a messaging channel of their choice on the go, extend the business’ reach to a broader base of buyers and allow the company to generate more leads and happier customers!

Social CRM also does a lot for the business by providing an all-encompassing view of the consumer. In this day and age, customers use a multitude of social media applications and a Social CRM solution helps in bringing them all together as one.

Using a Social CRM solution allows the business to gain a better understanding of the client’s interaction with the brand allowing for a better customer approach. It provides a dashboard of social media activity that simplifies the act of social listening, allowing businesses to jump on opportunities if and when they arise. This solution integrates itself with Traditional CRM and acts as an additional way to manage customer relations. It not meant to replace one-to-one client management systems but act as a supplement to them and vice versa. 

Using Social CRM for marketing

Social CRM helps businesses make customer engagement a two-way street i.e. more interactive. Compared to a traditional email marketing strategy, social media and instant messaging statistically boost 2.5x more engagement rate, 6x more open rates and 8x more click rates to links and media files. Customers tend to be more willing to reply to a personalized message directed to their phone.

Using Social CRM for customer support

By tracking and managing customer contacts across messaging channels and business functions, customer service teams can deliver dramatically better service and markedly improve resolution times. SleekFlow inbox tackles the problems of multiple channels and non-cohesive experience and allows multiple support team members to reply and collaborate on solving enquires from WhatsApp, WeChat, etc. on the go. 82% of SleekFlow users reported higher NPS scores from their customers, and 72% more customer retention – demonstrating that social CRM delivers real commercial benefits.  

Read more: 3 Communication Problems Companies Make on Messaging

Using Social CRM for inbound sales

There are multiple ways and benefits of using Social CRM and instant messaging to generate and convert inbound leads. Companies and brands have reported that using instant messaging (e.g. SleekFlow website messenger) to kickstart conversations with customers has been far more effective than the traditional “contact us” button, whereas having QR codes of instant messaging displayed at offline locations boosted leads generated by 22%. 

Track each prospect’s progress and location within the customer journey using Social CRM. Sales teams can create a personalized experience for specialized users, rather than using the traditional CRM blanket approach. 

Beyond individualization, sales teams can expect to see an improvement in retained and referred business as customers become recommenders and advocates; and that leads to increased revenue. In a survey of SleekFlow customers, 76% reported increased customer loyalty and 62% increased sales revenues. 

Read more: Top 4 Inbound Lead Generation Tips for Small Business

Who should use Social CRM?

As the world evolves into a day and age where technology is extremely important, any company which has a consumer-facing business should be looking into applying WhatsApp, Facebook, or WeChat CRM into their business. Take SleekFlow’s client base as an example, companies in the e-commerce, consultancy, recruitment program, software, hospitality industries all benefit drastically. Another point to note is that the advantages of this type of CRM make it a necessary addition to businesses who currently rely solely on Traditional CRM methods.

Can a business not achieve the same using Google or Facebook Ads?

You won’t be wrong in considering that the revenue does increase by using such advertisements. For example – The luxury Swiss watchmaker Breitling saw ad recall leap by up to 25 points after its Facebook campaign starring some of the biggest names in Hollywood was seen by 35.2 million people worldwide. However, these advertisements are not Social CRM! They don’t allow you to manage customers or cater to their needs and hence do not necessarily increase the customer base! Social CRM is often confused with just plain old social advertising, but it’s indeed a lot more! You may be asking yourself something at this point:

How should I start Social CRM?

Honestly, the answer to that question is not that complicated. Social CRM software is readily available on the market these days, and some companies even offer it for FREE  to start with! All the one requires to do is register and connect the channels as desired! Once set up, Social CRM does wonders for the business and is often used in conjunction with sales and marketing automation modules to maximize the number of customers. This makes the business reach markets never even thought of before. In conclusion, the world heading towards an era where Social Media plays an integral part in everyday life. It has become essential to employ Social CRM techniques in businesses to assure that customers aren’t lost to companies that have already implemented these solutions! 

👉🏻Check out SleekFlow’s rating on the SAAS review website BigMongolian!