Social CRM: Evolution and Building Blocks

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) has undergone a major change from being a strategy that focused solely on establishing financial bonds with customers to one that promotes both transactional and interactional relationships with customers. This has given rise to a new form of CRM which is known as social customer relationship management (SCRM) or CRM 2.0. Hence, this study develops and proposes a conceptual model to address relationships between customer relationship management, social media technologies, customer engagement, positive word of mouth and brand loyalty. This paper brings significant contributions to hospitality CRM literature and marketing communication theory. It serves as a reference for hospitality practitioners who can derive insights on the potential economic advantage such as brand loyalty and consumer behaviour benefits in the form of positive word of mouth which can result from the effective implementation of a SCRM strategy.

Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) is one of the approaches used by companies and service institutions in managing and engaging customer interactions happening on social media. This study attempted to present the significant relationship between SCRM and social media performance of the DPP schools. This paper suggested adopting a relationship-marketing approach, integrating customer relationship management with social media strategy, for educational institutions under the Dominican Province of the Philippines, with the use of the Technology-Organization-Environment model with the diffusion of innovation insights into the relationship marketing. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between SCRM and the social media performance of schools while the respondents are strongly satisfied with the services provided by schools through their respective social media accounts. The research recommends the conduct of SCRM evaluation to validate whether SCRM strategies are aligned with the goals of the institution. Further, future researchers can investigate the 'responsiveness' of schools in terms of SCRM and conduct a study on engaging and impactful content relating to enrollment.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a concept for increasing companies’ profitability by enabling them to identify and concentrate on their profitable customers. CRM and knowledge management, have great influence in the success of an organization. A number of CRM approaches focuses on technology applications, but the critical role of knowledge management has now become an active research area. The customer’s value has become apparent for the leading companies in today’s competitive environment. Therefore they are constantly trying to improve their relationship with customers via their customer relationship management systems. Knowledge Management (KM) can also help to improve the quality of the information obtained by CRM. However, in order to be more effective, KM should be provided with a steady and ongoing process of gathering information from outer sources in cooperation with the CRM system. In this study, a Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) model has been integrated with CRM and KM in four stages. Then, in order to improve the performance of CKM, a Social CRM (SCRM) is proposed. SCRM would help in reaching the customer in a more efficient manner through online. SCRM can improve the overall profitability of the organization as direct feedback from customers are made available online which can motivate other customers to buy the products. This research study mainly focuses on the integrated SCRM model with CKM to compete with the online customers and to add values to the product based on the feedbacks of the customers.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be used by an organization as a tool and strategy in meeting the expectations of their customers. The term Social CRM is an approach that allows intensive interactions between customers, customers and organizations, and customers' interaction with the systems by utilizing Web 2.0. Social CRM offers new capabilities of social networks that provide powerful new approaches to surpass the traditional CRM. The fundamental changes offered by Social CRM are in terms of empowerment, connection, and value generated. An example of Social CRM in healthcare is extending healthcare services through social networks where many kinds of interaction can be supported. The main goal of this chapter is to introduce a promising future research direction, which may shape the future of integrative customer relationship. In this chapter, we examine customers' expectation concerning the process of empowerment, social networks, and participation to make customers more proficient in dealing with their own issues. This chapter also discusses and demonstrates how Social CRM will help customers have greater control in controlling the process of interaction (empowerment) with organizations and among themselves.

In the ever-increasing competitive and customer-centered global market, the role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is essential to the performance, longevity, competitiveness and profitability of enterprises. The study aims to provide an overview of the impact of emerging technologies on traditional CRM and Social CRM. Therefore, through a critical review, this study explores the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Big Data Analytics (BDA), Data Mining and Machine Learning (ML) technologies in CRM. Based on the results, the above-mentioned technologies can significantly improve CRM. More specifically, their successful implementation enables enterprises to stay ahead of competition, to get to know their customers, improve their overall performance, Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS), increase profits, and reduce time consumption, risks and costs. Finally, by integrating these technologies, enterprises will offer more personalized and customized products and services and greatly improve customers' satisfaction, acquisition, relationships, loyalty, experience and retention.

Modelling CRM in a social media age

This paper is to examine the negotiating issues and aspects of emerging Web 2.0 technology in customer relationship management (CRM) namely social CRM or CRM 2.0 helps individual or organisational to exercise multi-channel interactions beyond its traditional mechanism. The social CRM provides entities the ability to broaden services beyond its usual practices, and thus provides a particular advantageous environment to achieve complex goals. It discusses recent trends of social networking sites like Facebook, Tweeter, LinkedIn, etc. as means of e-negotiation. It allows people to have greater control of information flow of interaction. Some cases were analysed to depict recent notion of social networks activities in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The implication of this general review is to highlight the status of social networks for negotiation to influence others.

Companies that successfully integrate Social Media (SocMed) as a tool for their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) will create a synergy that will further enhance business performance and growth. Unfortunately, not many SMEs realize this potential and because of that Social Media adoption for CRM and other purposes among SMEs is still very low. This study aims to develop a research framework of Integration between Social Media utilizations and Customer Relationship Management practices on business performance and growth. The findings will help to formulate strategies on how to further enhance the use of SocMed and CRM to improve business performance and growth.

The study focused on examining the social customer relationship management impacts on the customer loyalty of five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia. Customer relationship management included the dimensions of customer value, long-term partnership with the customer, customer knowledge, reliance on technology, trust, and social media communication. The study population consists of the customers of five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia. A convenience sample was taken from 500 customers, while the validly retrieved responses were 413. A quantitative approach was conducted in statistical analysis through SPSS and AMOS software. The study demonstrated that social customer relationship management dimensions are impacting the customer loyalty of five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia. Subsequently, the recommendations centered on the establishment of a complaints handling unit to speed up service, identify problems, identify the sites of deficiencies, and take the necessary and appropriate solutions to these problems.

The interaction between academic community members in universities is fundamental in facilitating the learning management process and workflow, thereby necessitating a communication tool system that is unrestricted by time and place. Social customer relationship management as a communication tool through social media is also essential. Therefore, this research employed a mixed-method exploratory design to evaluate 2421 subjects determined based on a proportional random sampling technique from the academic community of universities in four cities in Indonesia. The data collection method used an online interview questionnaire, and the coding techniques, namely open, axial, and selective coding, as well as the value stream analysis, were used. This research found that Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) can be a communication tool between the academic communities in higher education. This tool can be exploited by utilizing effective social media platforms, namely Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, integrated and connected as a center for information retrieval.

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’

This chapter explores the integration of social media into Customer Relationship Management (CRM), highlighting its significance in modern business practices. It covers the rise of social media in business, focusing on key platforms and their impact on CRM. The chapter discusses strategies for integrating social media into CRM, emphasizing the importance of aligning these with business objectives. It examines tools and technologies for effective integration, engagement techniques, personalization strategies, and the role of social media in customer support. Additionally, it addresses ethical and legal considerations and forecasts future trends in social media and CRM integration.

Social Media – A Strategy in Developing Customer Relationship Management

Firms are increasingly extending their customer relationship management (CRM) strategies to social networking sites (SNS), moving from just communicating with their customers to learning more about them (Forbes 2016). Customer relationship management performed on SNS is called social CRM, which is defined as “a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment” (Greenberg 2010). The use of social CRM helps organizations to engage more with customers (Malthouse et. al. 2013). Engagement helps in building trust with the company (Vivek et. al. 2012).

The developments triggered by marketing technologies in the information system of companies that took place in the mid-1990s through the tools of knowledge management, data mining, data quality, and social CRM, became effective in the construction of new business environments. The system called Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which has been widely disseminated in the business environment, has been one of the factors that makes relationship marketing in company management manage all relationships with customers. CRM is more than marketing, as it allows its management, sales and new business, and consequently impacts the evolution of e-commerce. Thus, the objective of this research is to identify and explore the effects of customer relationship management on the evolution of e-commerce and what its potential would be. We used a methodology with a qualitative approach, descriptive and exploratory, by systematic mapping method and deductive hypothetical, whose data collection technique was the systematic literature review research, seeking international articles in the databases indexed in the Capes platform (scopus), in the period 2015/2018, related to the theme. Inclusion and exclusion criteria through selection of articles performed by software: VosViewer and Excel. Electronic commerce is becoming more and more prevalent because it is characterized by easy access to information, being an ubiquitous trade with low transaction costs, which in an abstract place contributes to the realization of an economic market.