Comments on the Social CRM Report by the Altimeter Group

The Altimeter Group recently released "The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management" Report, authored by R “Ray” Wang and Jeremiah Owyang; you can find the report here.

Here a few comments; interested in yours once you have had a chance to read the report:

Overall:

• Monumental effort; I applaud the initiative and energy: Over 100 conversations; 12 influencers called out, 30 Vendors providing input.
• Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the result these efforts benefit us all; nascent areas (such as Social CRM) require formality, semantics, frameworks and the results of this effort provide that and more.
• "Avoid the Hype – Deploy Social CRM for Business Value" Bravo! Simply love how this is a business focused, centered, measured no nonsense approach..

Some specific points / comments on the report content:

• "Social CRM enhances the relationship aspect of CRM and builds on improving the relationships with more meaningful interactions."

Indeed; but one of the key things to keep in mind is that these interactions are now social; you don't behave the same in different contexts, you are a leader in some situations and a contributor in others, you are quiet on some and vocal in others. The content is important and a key element of the context are those that surround you (physically or virtually).

• "Social CRM programs may start at the departmental level, but over time, must gain corporate buy in to transcend functional fiefdoms in sales, marketing, service, etc."

Indeed; Social CRM follows (or should follow) the same path that traditional CRM had.. the old "who owns the customer relationship" question is here again (actually.. never went away).

• "Customers Have Moved – Organizations are Falling Behind"

Absolutely true; however caution needs to be raised here that the answer does not lie into fully automated and human devoid systems and approaches.. we will require systems, we will require scalable processes and procedures, but we will require humans behind and at the front of these.. remember the Clue Train mantra..

• "Social Customer Insights Form the Foundation for All Social CRM Use Cases"

Indeed; listening is the key to understand who, what, where, why, how much, how often of your target audience; understanding what they need and figuring out how to make that converge with your business objectives will lead you to define the right strategy and tactics.... Hopefully listening to your clients is not a new concept at your company; likely where you will need to develop capabilities and find new skills is on the interaction part.

• "Using Peer 2 Peer Lead Generation." "Proactive Social Lead Generation reaches customers who would like to be educated by the organization or its ambassadors."

One of the key opportunities for us to figure out and harness; clearly we are entering the area where the place for relationships to be gained and marketing to be executed is the feed.. How do we harness peers to help the right information flow to the right place and with the right level of endorsement / credibility?

• "Peer-2-Peer (P2P) Unpaid Armies (SP3). "Harnessing your advocates."

Of key importance for the organizations to scale (besides the systems, processes & procedures) is the humans; these humans are inside & outside your organization.. find them, engage them, understand them, "compensate" them (no, not money)

There is much more to call out; but this is already a long post....

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com