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Build a Presence
OCIAL CRM PROGRAMprogram, you’ll want to initiate one. Add to this a set of metrics that are relevant to
your firm or organization and define how you will recognize success. The following
questions take you through the balance of the considerations as you undertake develop-
ment of a project specification around Social CRM.
• What are your Social CRM objectives? For example, are you looking to improve
your organization’s innovation processes, effect service improvements, under-
stand and respond more quickly to competitive offerings, or develop a customer-
based influencers’ program? Watch out if you answered this question “all of the
above.” Start with a manageable objective.
• What is your organizational culture? This matters because you are potentially
pressing for internal and operational changes. If you’ve read Who Moved
My Cheese (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998), you’ll understand the significance of
accounting for culture and planning for change. If you haven’t read it, from the
title alone you can guess the issue, and why this matters (and, why the book was
a best seller!).
• What drives your delivery experiences? Regardless of whether you are manufac-
turer, a service firm, a nonprofit, or municipality or something else altogether if
your organization serves someone—and I’m assuming it does as otherwise you
probably wouldn’t be reading this—then there is a process by which you create
the experiences that drive their conversations about your brand, product, or ser-
vice. Understanding that process is key to implementing Social CRM.
• Who else needs to be a part of your Social CRM program? At one level, the
answer is “your entire organization.” However, this answer doesn’t really
help you at a planning stage or early implementation. Who are your allies in
Operations, Marketing, Customer Service, Human Resources, and Legal? What
are the roles and expectations for each? Build that team.
• Speaking of your legal department or other similar control department, do you
have social computing policies in place now for your organization? If not, add
this to your task list: With employees directly participating in a Social CRM
program, ensuring that they understand how to communicate outside the orga-
nization (and when/when not to) through social channels is essential.
• How will you measure success? Effectively tapping the results of a Social CRM
program will necessarily involve tying business analytics to social data. What
are your primary social and business KPIs, and how will you use them to tune
your program and demonstrate—quantitatively—success?
Following are specific suggestions and methods for accomplishing each of the
previous tasks.