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, Instagram, Line, WeChat,and others, alongside traditional channels so customers can interact with businesses via their preferred channels.
Unlike traditional CRM, which focuses on managing customer data and interactions through emails, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings, social CRM embraces the dynamic nature of social media. This allows businesses to listen to customer feedback in real-time, respond promptly, and create personalised experiences that enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. By utilising Social CRM, companies can gain a competitive edge, as it enables them to stay connected with their audience, understand their preferences better, and foster a community around their brand.
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 and offers valuable insights into customer preferences, behaviour, and sentiment, which can inform marketing strategies, product development, and customer service improvements.
Social CRM uses data analysis about customers’ history at every touchpoint with a company to improve business relationships with customers.
By adopting an Social CRM strategy, businesses can enhance their customer engagement, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth and profitability in a highly competitive market.
Using a Social CRM software 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 is not meant to replace one-to-one client management systems but act as a supplement to them and vice versa.
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.
Here are some effective Social CRM marketing strategies:
Personalised content marketing: Use data gathered from social media interactions to create personalised content that resonates with specific customer segments. Tailor your messaging to address the unique needs, preferences, and pain points of your audience, making your marketing efforts more relevant and engaging.
Real-Time customer engagement: Leverage Social CRM to monitor social media channels in real-time and engage with customers promptly. Responding quickly to inquiries, comments, and feedback can enhance customer satisfaction and build a positive brand image.
Influencer collaboration: Identify and engage with influencers who align with your brand values and have a significant following in your target market. Collaborating with influencers can amplify your reach, build credibility, and drive more engagement and conversions.
Social listening and sentiment analysis: Utilise social listening tools within your Social CRM to track and analyse customer sentiments and conversations about your brand, products, and competitors. This insight helps you understand market trends, customer needs, and areas for improvement, allowing you to adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
Customer feedback and reviews: Encourage customers to leave reviews and provide feedback on social media platforms. Use this feedback to improve your products and services, and showcase positive reviews to build trust and attract new customers.
Targeted social media campaigns: Create targeted advertising campaigns on social media platforms based on the data collected through Social CRM for marketing. Segment your audience based on demographics, interests, and past interactions to deliver more relevant and effective ads.
Loyalty programs and exclusive offers: Use Social CRM for marketing to identify your most loyal customers and reward them with exclusive offers, discounts, or access to special events. This not only boosts customer loyalty but also encourages word-of-mouth marketing.
Integrated marketing efforts: Ensure that your social media marketing efforts are integrated with other marketing channels, such as email marketing, content marketing, and offline campaigns. A cohesive approach ensures consistent messaging and maximises the impact of your marketing initiatives.
By implementing these strategies, businesses can leverage social CRM to enhance their marketing efforts, build stronger relationships with customers, and drive growth.
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, instagram, Facebook, 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.
Here are some effective Social CRM strategies for customer support:
Omnichannel dashboard: Integrate all social media channels into a single, unified support dashboard within your Social CRM. This allows your support team to manage and respond to customer interactions from one place, improving efficiency and consistency. Ensure your Social CRM supports seamless interaction across multiple channels, including social media, live chat, and more. This allows customers to reach out through their preferred channel and receive consistent support.
Quick response templates: Develop a library of response templates for common inquiries and issues. Customise these templates to maintain a personal touch while ensuring quick and accurate responses to customer queries.
Training and empowering support teams: Regularly train your support team on the latest social media tools, customer service best practices, and company policies. Empower them to make decisions that enhance the customer experience and resolve issues promptly.
By implementing these strategies, businesses can leverage Social CRM to deliver superior customer support, build stronger relationships, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Read more: 3 Communication Problems Companies Make on Messaging
Social CRM for sales
As we saw it above, 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 chat messenger) to kickstart conversations with customers has been far more effective than the traditional “contact us” button,
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
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 a Social 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:
What is the best Social CRM software?
Honestly, the answer to that question is not that complicated. The best social CRM on the market these days is SleekFlow!,
All you have to do is register and connect the channels as desired!
SleekFlow stands out as the best Social CRM software for several compelling reasons:
Comprehensive omnichannel integration: SleekFlow seamlessly integrates multiple social media platforms and messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and more. This allows businesses to manage all customer interactions from a single, unified interface, ensuring no message is missed and providing a consistent customer experience.
Real-Time customer engagement: With SleekFlow, businesses can engage with customers in real-time, responding promptly to enquiries and feedback. This immediacy enhances customer satisfaction and fosters stronger relationships, leading to higher conversion rates and improved customer loyalty.
Advanced automation: SleekFlow offers powerful automation features that streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending automated responses, scheduling follow-ups, and routing messages to the appropriate teams. This increases efficiency and allows sales and support teams to focus on high-value interactions.
Deep customer insights: The platform provides robust analytics and reporting tools that deliver valuable insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and sentiment. These insights help businesses tailor their marketing strategies, personalise customer interactions, and make data-driven decisions to enhance overall performance.
User-friendly interface: SleekFlow is designed with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for teams to navigate and utilise its features effectively. The intuitive design reduces the learning curve and ensures that businesses can quickly leverage the full potential of the software.
Scalable solutions: The platform can handle increasing volumes of customer interactions without compromising on performance or user experience, for all size companies.
And so much more!
By offering a comprehensive suite of features, advanced automation, deep customer insights, and exceptional ease of use, SleekFlow emerges as the best Social CRM software for businesses looking to enhance their customer engagement, streamline operations, and drive growth..
This makes the business reach markets never even thought of before. In conclusion, the world is 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!
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