I was reading "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu last night. This text has been a popular classic for developing strategy for business and rightly so since being competitive is often much like a battle in war. I was struck by one of the passages in the book that read "without deception you cannot carry out strategy, without strategy you cannot control the opponent ".
I appreciate the brilliant insights in this book and I do not mean to take this out of context here but there are many interesting thoughts revolving around this concept in modern business and I must challenge it as a sensible approach in the current global marketplace. Though a brilliant strategic mind Sun Tzu had for war and battle, I cannot help wondering what this author would have written considering the reality of social media and a flattening world economy as it relates to customer relationship management.
Strategy for Social CRM
My first thought around strategy for Social CRM is that we must never consider the customer as the "opponent" or someone you should be out to conquer. The reality is that collaboration and adding value to a mutually beneficial relationship has far more power than any divisive approach. Since customers now have access to so much information and public opinion, they can easily see through smoke and mirrors. With all of the mistrust in the geopolitical marketplace, consumers are hungry for a more personal and accountable relationship with you and they are taking more time to carefully pick who they will do business with. You must make customer experience your top priority and actually care about what you are delivering and how you are delivering it.
Competition is global and crosses many international boundaries yet to be defined.
There is also more and more aggregation of data which will only continue to offer more transparency.
We have gone through a phase with technology automations that were not always used effectively and this has turned many folks in search of more personal connection with their venders and suppliers.
Clumsy use of phone prompt systems, email auto responders, web sites that only allow you access via email or a ticketing system and yikes "Robo Calls" all have left a taint of frustration with many folks who want to buy your products or services.
If you can use technology innovations in a way they remains transparent and effortless, only then can these tools make a difference in building your customer relationships. Make your customer appreciate the value they bring to you, be honest and care about giving or providing something they can truly benefit from and you can gain their loyalty and trust. Chris Brogan co-authored a book called "Trust Agents" where they devote a good portion of this book exploring this very concept. I highly recommend it.
People want to talk to people
One of my common rants in circles of discussion regarding social technologies is that people want to talk with other people not technology, so if the tools get in the way of the conversation they take away value from the relationship and if they empower more conversation and engagement then they add value. Take facebook for example, which I choose to use personally rather than professionally, as long as this helps me keep in touch with my friends or family and can nurture existing relationships it is a useful tool but it can never become the relationship itself since I alone hold the responsibility for that. If the technology went away I would still have the responsibility with these relationships. The difference though is that these kinds of tools can really help you manage more relationships and as long as you do not lose sight of the quality and priorities with your relationships.
Dependency with perspective
I suppose it is ok to be a little dependent on the tools over time. As a guy that helps companies implements these tools into their web programs yea... sure get addicted, it is good for business. If you use them more they will only offer a greater positive impact as long as you keep them in perspective.
Trends in the industry are telling us that people now get it when it comes to social media and as we see the gap between social networking and customer relationship technology systems lessen we will not only see more folks using them in new and exciting ways but they will grow more dependent on these socially aware CRM tools. Competition will transform more often into collaboration and we will all benefit from the new social culture that it creates.
"15 people fast" or "300 people strong"
For example our small but mighty company is made up of a group of specialists. Each adds value to the bigger picture of meeting the needs and satisfaction of our customers. We are globally dispersed and connected through our web based tools. This allows us to function actually more efficiently than a more traditional business all housed from a single bricks and mortar location. Since we are able to draw upon labor pools in areas with specialized skills and varied economies we are actually able to provide greater expertise with efficiency and added value to our customers. Our application of Social CRM also keeps our overhead lower and thus passes even more value to our clients. In addition, having Social CRM as a foundation for our operations and delivery infrastructure we can scale up or down to meet growing demands or downturns in the marketplace without passing on additional costs or losing any of our core knowledge assets.
Collaboative cultures built on trust
One of the things more and more companies are realizing is that you have to build a collaborative culture and sensitivity in your workforce of care and respect for your customers. It is especially important and possibly more challenging to achieve as more and more folks will be working from home, logging into their companies Social CRM system, putting on a head set and joining into a online "Go-To-Meeting" type collaboration session. In the end game our customers are people that want to connect to people. In general I think they/we all want to collaborate and contribute and not be dominated or controlled and all of the rules of human nature regarding us being creatures of social habit apply.
It is a brave new world out there in the Social CRM space and plenty of tools to distract us but we shall all have to remember "There is Art in Truth" if we want to win the hearts and minds of our next generation of customers. Building trust and loyalty are the most important factors of any successful relationship.
Building a Joomla web site can be a daunting task if you realize all that the Joomla CMS framework is capable of. We have broken this down into seven easy to follow steps that can get you started in the process of achieving superior results with your new portal. We hope this can help ease your mind and provide a simple process and approach.
Step One: Defining your business goals. The first step in this process is to clearly understand what the goals are for investing your time and money into this project. What quantifiable results do you want to achieve with this initiative and who else will be involved in the process of achieving these goals. Very much like starting any new business you want a clear understanding of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
Step Two: Defining your Project Plan. Once you have a clear idea where you are going you need to develop a stratgic plan for getting there. Project plans need to consider where you want to go both short term and long term with this project. It needs to have a focused and phased approach that takes into consideration your available time and resources over time to sustain this project. It needs a timeline and content acquisition checklists that will help you stay on target and on focuse with your priorities.
Step Three: Defining the Look and Feel. The firs actual development tasks with your Joomla Project are to define your design and choose your template or process of implementing one. There are three key parts of a template you need to consider. 1. Graphical design elements: Colors and style 2. Layout options: “Wireframes” or in Joomla terms Module Positions 3. Features and Functionality: Standards compliance, special modules and capabilities. It is important to realize that the Joomla template is a foundation for which you will build your site and you need to consider this decision carefully. However, you can easily change templates in the future with often little effort
Step Four: Defining Content and Navigation Now that you know how you want your Joomla web site to unfold, both from a design perspective and from a roadmap ahead you can start mapping out the intended content and collecting any graphics or generating article copy. Typically you will want to bring every page of content into an offline document that can be edited prior to inserting into your new site. Sometimes if this is a site redesign you can cut and paste from an existing site. If you plan to get the most out of search engine optimization you will want to get targeted keywords generated and pass these on to your authors for consideration in developing the copy. Now is a good time to think about the Sections and categories for which you will organize your content and how you want your users to navigate with the best possible user experience. It is a good idea to use a mind mapping tool to define your site navigation.
Step Five: Features and Functionality With a clear understanding of the content you want to present and manage you will have a better idea of the types of Joomla Extensions that you will need to implement this. With over 4000 extensions and the list is growing every day, you may need to make lists of the options, compare the features and review the demos and reviews before installing them on your site. Once you have narrow this down you can then test them on your new site once you get it installed. Sometimes you may find that there are not existing components that provide the features or functionality that you need. This will require creating a development spec that clearly itemizes the features you want to add to an existing extension or for building a custom extension for your site. It is a good idea to get this sorted out early in your development process.
Step Six: Installation and Configuration Once we have all of our objectives, a defined roadmap, site plan and specific template in hand we can begin the installation and configuration process. Some ISP’s have automated tools for installing Joomla but I prefer to get the latest release directly from the Joomla.org site and to install it manually. Once Joomla is installed we go through a process of configuring this specific for your needs. Installing extensions, installing the template and setting up the parameters. Once you get the baseline of your site configured with all of the components, modules and plug-ins and perhaps a couple place holder content articles and menu items it is a good idea to make a back up copy of this and there are inexpensive extensions that can automatically do this for you.
Step Seven: Populate your Joomla web site with content. Having a good baseline for your framework in place and backed up prior to beginning to populate content and fine tuning the configurations helps you move quickly and safely through the content population stage in your project. This is the point where we provide training or you would go through tutorials on content management techniques. Once you get this underway most of the outcome is in your hands. With a good support team that is well rounded in both strategy, branding and marketing expertise as well as the technical support and programming expertise you can increase your effectiveness through a collaborative development approach. We highly recommend that you work with a qualified team to guide you through this process. In the end it will give you a much more professional web site, better train your team and give you the technical support to get the very best value out of your investment.
Moving Forward Joomla CMS is a superior choice for growing a solid business online. There are endless extensible possibilities and freedom to expand this as a platform for success. There are many other steps you can take to optimize your content and leverage more in-depth capabilities of the Joomla framework over time but this should get you an overview of the initial steps for getting started. With a good strategic and tactical plan you can keep your focus. In a world fill with exciting possibilities it is very important not to lose sight of your intended business results. Regardless of your web expertise, choosing a qualified support team to help you build, launch maintain your project will give you the very best return on your time and capital investment.
Be sure to visit our new http://JoomlaDesignServices.com web portal for an example of a site built using this planning process and to find valuable resources for Joomla development.
Social Media and Social Technologies have many new building blocks and take time to impliment
Keep an eye on these folks to learn the current trends in Social Web Technologies
The social wave just keeps getting bigger every time I look. Today I was building out my profile on Plaxo and found this great Web TV Show http://thesocialweb.tv/ If you are planning to work with a social community for your business then there are 39 and counting episodes that review a lot of the current trends and technologies in social media. These guys are sharp and have a lot of interesting guests and comments in their conversational format.
Couple thoughts on how I have positioned our use of social media.
My Social Framework
In addition to managing our 6 corporate portals and contributing to my blog, I currently manage several social network profiles; Facebook for connecting with family and friends, MySpace for my music profile, Plaxo and Linked In for business and professional networking. Then Twitter to communicate with industry pros and a community that connects with my Blog at www.cnpintegrations.com/myblog/ (so far around 20,000 followers). On top of that since we are using Social Media for part of our SEO strategy. We have accounts on Flicker, Digg, Stumbled Upon, Picasa, Delicious and many many others... to connect our messages and inter-link with each other. There are more that I will get involved with over time but this is plenty to keep me/us busy along with getting any real work done or saving time to spend with my family.
Careful with how you spend your time
This is such a time commitment and I see so many folks involved with even more than we are... I do wonder when they sleep. The trick is before you just start signing up that you think out a strategy of how you plan to use these tools to best serve your purpose and that will consider what will your best use of time. I had been advising folks to get active with a blog for years before I actually started posting regular on mine just because I did not have the time to commit to it. I knew the affect it could have on our site traffic but unless you are ready to be consistent then it could waist time since it has to grow over time and you need to continue to contribute content or you lose your readers and when you start up again you have to build a new audience from scratch. Make sure you establish your priorities and stay focused so you can get the best return on your time and talent investment. Each implementation is as unique as the individuals involved in making them happen. There are unique considerations for all of the social technologies that require thought and a keen eye on current trends if you want to implement them successfully or now waste a bunch of time. Remember all we have in this world is our time and once it is spent we cannot get it back.
I wrote a piece a while back about Customer Conversation Management or "CCM" which is really the essence of the new CRM 2.0 and now getting the label Social CRM. Regardless of the term you prefer to use to describe it the reality is that the customer is in charge of the engagement these days since they now have so many choices and your competition is global. I have plenty of blog articles here that further explore this concept but when I found this video, I had to put it up since it hits the core of the problem many companies have today with their customer engagements.
Build Value by following a success program and planning carefuly
I have been following the ITtoolbox.com discussions lately and ran across these comments below. It reinforces much of what we have learned and why we have designed a consulting practice around our Value Building Methodology. Notice the date of these articles. In other words this is not new information but folks are still making the same mistakes nearly 4 years later.With the new Social CRM and social technologies that we have to now integrate into these systems it is only going to get more challenging.
Invest in good training, support and consulting to align your initiatives
To implement CRM effectively it often takes an outside consulting team to help plan, execute, train and align an organization's people and processes with the technology. Thinking you can just buy some software that an ambitious CEO or IT manager likes and that you can implement it without a full support package from a qualified consulting firm is a path for disaster. It tends to be a rather expensive proposition on so many levels when you do not invest in the right balance of consulting with your technologypurchase. It is a myth that one you purchase the software and turn it on that your investment is over. This will become a paridigm shift in most cases for the way you do business and will continue to evolve over an extended period of time.
Open Source solutions positions you for future needs
This is one of the reasons we like solutions built off of an open source code base. The cost of entry on the software is much lower so you can get more implementation resources and training for the same investment while not being held over the barrel on the software should you want to modify the system to meet unique requirements down the road. Many of these requirements you may not even know you need yet.
Full Article:
Disclaimer: Contents are not reviewed for correctness and are not endorsed or recommended by ITtoolbox or any vendor. Popular Q&A contents include summarized information from CRM-Select discussion unless otherwise noted.
1. Medium-size company wanting to facilitate revenue growth purchased SFA software without any sales strategy. They expected that the software would make their life easier. As most SFA software, it came with its own pre-packaged best practices, which did not fit the company's processes. The implementation dragged out as the company realized that they had to re-examine their processes.
2. A large company purchased call center software to address the growing backlog of thousands of unanswered customer emails. After the software was implemented, training followed. During training, the users scream: we can't use this system, we won't use this system. Two reasons: first, same as #1, little effort was made to align process to packaged functionality, and second, no effort was made to engage the users and build champions among them.
3. A fast-growing company with a solid CRM strategy purchased and implemented SFA, Call center, and Marketing automation software. They did not, however, consider the importance of data quality in the beginning. The Result: reports could not be trusted, pipeline and trending was worthless, and the project went through a major crisis until these issues started getting addressed.
After a number of years, the company in #1 has abandoned the original SFA software and opted for a more simplistic and less costly solution from an SaaS vendor. The company in #2 has taken a step back, re-examined their CRM strategy, re-mapped its processes, and rebuilt most CRM components. The company in #3 has continued building upon the described solution, overcomming the initial data quality issues.
Outside the scope of pure CRM systems, but within the scope of business-critical systems, plenty:
All boil down to: 1) Rubbish needs analysis 2) Rubbish solution analysis and selection on top of poor needs analysis 3) Poor end-to-end implementation, with little outcome-based assessment of the implementation team (with a serious stress here on training and external change mgt) 4) Zero, or poor metrics in place to measure success, not only before, but during, at time of go-live, and for 12 months minimum after.
The key points are 80% point one, and 20% point two. The third and fourth are merely confusing factors, that while important, could not *really* (other than in a completely dysfunctional org) exist without the first two.
CRM implementations fail for three reasons, and it all boils down to Human Nature! If a business owner can overcome these three things, CRM will pay for itself rather than be a huge expense.
1) CRM implementations live and die by its EMPLOYEES acceptance... PERIOD!! If the user refuses to use it, IT BECOMES AN EXPENSE!!!
2) Not only is there no BENEFIT for a user to learn and use a CRM application, it's actually a DETRIMENT for an end user to learn and use a CRM application!!!
3) If you encounter a businessman who is looking to purchase a CRM solution, regardless of price or company, they should be able to answer, INTELLIGENTLY and TRUTHFULLY, this one simple questions... "How will your EMPLOYEES benefit from learning and using a CRM application?" If they cannot, they will LOSE MONEY ON THE PURCHASE. Let's see if they can actually ENFORCE the use of a CRM if their sales department is under the impression that it will help line the pockets of the CEO/OWNER even further while THEY have to work harder with no compensation to learn and use it for that purpose.
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I was reading "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu last night. This text has been a popular classic for developing strategy for business and rightly so since being competitive is often much like a battle in war. I was struck by one of the passages in the book that read "without deception you cannot carry out strategy, without strategy you cannot control the opponent ".
