On March 8, Omar Rois, one of the founders of Xeerpa, was at Darwin SocialNoise surrounded by the stunning 19th century walls of their offices. He’d come with one purpose: show his audience the sexy side of the acronym CRM. It’s the side that looks each customer in the eye and wants to offer them what they need.
Appropriately on International Women’s Day, Omar began his talk by telling the story of one of the most important women in his life: his great-grandmother.
This “CRM expert,” as her great-grandson described her, managed a small store in northwestern Spain. She knew everyone who came through the door. “She knew every single one of her customers by name, what they usually bought, and even how much they’d be spending. And if someone stopped shopping at her store, she’d find out and would try to win them back!”
Omar’s great-grandmother was doing 1:1 management of her customers, no doubt about it.
Any major company aspires to do the same today albeit on a much larger scale. But how does a company like Netflix, with 120 million customers around the globe, personalize their experiences and know its customers? What is social CRM and why does your company need it?
During the inspiring Keynoise session organized by Darwin SocialNoise, attendees were shown how now brands can leverage the data from social networks to improve and customize their relationship and know its customers. They learned how they too could have a personal relationship with every one of their current and potential customers, just like Omar’s great-grandmother.
Big sports teams (with their amazingly large fan base on social media), consumer goods companies like Heineken, and public bodies like Turespaña are already taking advantage of the information they gain through social login on their platforms. “These companies know the profiles of the people they’re addressing and they use a differentiated communication strategy for each of them,” added Omar. “Even the media is investing heavily in CRM technology to really understand the person behind the numbers.”
What does a company need for social CRM?
A business needs to deftly manage data capture, analytical intelligence, and execution capacity to be able to reach a person with the impact that person wants to receive. Omar explained that “many companies have the data but they can’t analyze it. In other cases we’re seeing that businesses haven’t addressed the execution layer satisfactorily.”
Once the technical aspects are under control, brands can gain a 360º view of their customer, merging their CRM with their social CRM to roll out a marketing strategy fully based on customization.
After running the tour of Xeerpa’s tool, Omar Rois could rest assured that he’d met his goal for the morning.
