Social CRM blossoms from good old human nature and a wave of new tools - now is the time to plug in

The transition from Traditional CRM to Social CRM is a bit of a paradigm shift while still being rooted in the basics of human nature. This new wave still includes all of the elements of traditional relationships where trust and loyalty are king. Business has always been social to a certain degree this is just a revolution in the way people are communicating through a new tool set. There is also a significant shift in "Who is in charge". It began with the consumer taking charge through the evolution of the web and Globalization. This all required you to compete globally vs locally. The trend is that collaboration will become more horizontal vs vertical. The military/enterprise [esk] (vertical) top down authoritative management model will be transformed over time to a lot more (horizontal) network based collaboration and contribution oriented. CRM magazine's latest issue is all about Social CRM and this phenomenon. Well worth the read and they have a beautiful graphic that illustrates their projected map of the future.

Where do Small Businesses fit in?

So the big question here is where is all of this leading for the small business owner or entrepreneur launching a start-up? How can this evolution create opportunity for those new innovators and how can they compete with the big boys in the marketplace?

I believe the accessibility of this new technology can really level the playing field if implemented with a smart plan that targets the right priorities. The trick is that it is all about listening effectively and being able to respond. There are a ton of great case studies on this in the book "Groundswell " and throughout the blogosphere.

Quite the BUZZ and fight for market share

The buzz is defiantly out there for Social CRM and Social technologies in general. The race is on for who is going to get the best market share of the social wave(s). I say waves since there are so many viable niches. Take the contrast between a linked in and myspace as a fair example. I am very surprised that I have grown such a significant following on my twitter page in a very short time period (@cnpsupport) and last week Google pushed out the "Google WAVE":

Google WAVE: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

Twave: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/twave/

I also posted last week about 1000 twitter apps that I found online. I am building a pretty good list for facebook right now as well. These are all indicators of serious momentum.

With all of these powerful tools flooding the market you really have to be on your toes and it is easy to get overloaded with information. This all comes back to developing a good listening strategy and implementation plan for the right technologies. The social technology boom is a natural fit with traditional customer relationship so it is just figuring out what is going to be the best approach for you. It is going to take a lot of careful thought and some "testing of the water" to get the right plan. Remain flexible to change and then you have to have the discipline to execute it consistently over time.

Platform for future proofing your business

Since our conception our model has been to provide support for a variety of open source tools that provide solutions to particular pains and challenges faced by the average small and midsized business. They all face hurdles trying to increase sales , lower costs or to become more competitive in a global marketplace. The CRBM Platform offers fully integrated capabilities once only available to large companies with deep pockets. Most often small businesses grow from one or a couple people's great ideas or innovations and this means that these entrepreneurs often become overwhelmed with wearing many hats and juggling a lot of information and tasks all at the same time.

Having a good web based infrastructure and consolidated tool set to help them create, scale and manage a role and process based organization while increasing their marketing and communications efficiencies and reach is of vital importance. For these systems to be effective they have to be an integrated part of how companies do business, come from the leadership (top down) so starting early is always better, before other habits are formed. It is a well know fact that properly implementing technology can have a significant impact on success at any stage in your company's growth. It can have a equally devastating consequence if implemented poorly or the wrong decisions are made along the way.

The right tool for the right job

The right customer relationship business management system (CRBM) will help future proof your business.  However, it can be a daunting task sorting out which tools to implement and when. It is just a lot to get your head wrapped around in concert with all of the new social technologies, while you are trying to do all of the other aspects of developing your product or service and responding to the needs of your customers. For any business with a face on the web it is not a matter of "if" you need a CRM, because you do, but rather how effectively you can use the right tools for your business model.

Building Value, reducing costs and better execution

For the reasons stated above we have put significant effort into our new Value Building Methodology , designed to help small businesses bridge that gap between their people, the right technology and an effective strategic plan. We are finding that with this proven process for defining requirements and implementing carefully thought out strategies in the project life cycle, that we can guarantee success like never before.

With the current economic conditions in a global economy, no one can afford to miss their targets or duplicate efforts.  Companies need to attract more customers with less resources, they need better business intelligence to respond faster to their customers, they need to consolidate their technologies, improve efficiency with their team collaboration and they have to reduce overhead. To do this they need to get the best value out of their vendors and the technology choices they make. They also need to align and train the people integrating with these systems to be as effective as possible.

Plan for success

It is very clear that the only way to do this without a lot of hit and miss is to use a Value Building process to:

1.       Identify the right questions to be asking

2.       Identify the right tools to connect the right dots

3.       Identify the right processes and map them to the technologies

4.       Build a targeted strategy that matches your business model

5.       Creating a realistic action plan and timeline

6.       Track the results and align/update program with feedback

This may sound like some of the same old project management methodology stuff but we have some twists that really take this up a few notches. Since most of the Social technologies are new and continue to change, this program is structured but quite fluid to adapt to the chances not only in technology but within your organization. We also incorporate a baseline technical support contract that includes a bunch of bundled services and discounted rates for the CRBM Platform . This brings deployment costs down for customers while allowing us to respond more effectively to help make each program more successful. Customers benefit from the growing customer community, falser innovations and collective knowledgebase.

In conclusion:

The WAVE of Social CRM is something that small businesses need to jump on and ride effectively if they are going to get a place at the table.

Social Technologies and application of CRM tools are evolving and you need to remain flexible in your approach yet be consistent over time and keep listening to your customers (or you will lose them).

If you do not develop the right strategic approach and realistic execution plan you could end up spending way more money and time than you should or you could just miss the bus all together. Who can afford to do this in the current state of the economy?  This is a series of make and break decisions so make sure you pick the right tools, develop a solid plan and get good advice and support from the right vendors along the way .