Social Customer Relationship Management

Over the past decades, many companies use CRM strategy to oversee the activities of the customers (Ngai, 2005; Chen & Popovich, 2003; Mendoza, et al., 2006 cited in Mosadegh & Behboudi, 2011). The processes and the technologies in the traditional CRM is designed to maintain relationships for potential repeat purchases. Customer management is based on the operational responses, which is from the sales, marketing and customer services sections. Data and information collected from the customers are processed in the CRM system to create better customer 's strategy (Mosadegh & Behboudi, 2011). However with the explosive growth of social media, companies need to embrace a new strategy which is the Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM). "Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes and social characteristics , designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It 's the company 's response to the customer 's ownership of the conversation" (Greenberg, 2010). The business strategy is based around customer engagement and interactions, with transactions being a by product. The transparent operations increase customers ' trust and loyalty, thus become advocates for the company (Mosadegh & Behboudi, 2011).

SCRM support the customer management phases and by engaging the customers to the business, sales is improved and cost is reduced. The Customer Framework 2011, Figure 1 shows the areas of benefits (Woodcock, Green & Starkey, 2011).

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SCRM is used to track, monitor, engage in, and manage conversations and relationships with the customers, prospects and influencers in the social network platforms. Many businesses use SCRM software to engage with communities, and create viral contents to encourage conversations and social presences, with the aim to strengthen the

Bibliography: 1. Mosadegh, M.J. & Behboudi, M. (2011) Using social network paradigm for developing a conceptual framework in CRM. Australian Journal of Business Management Research, 1 (4) July, pp.63-71 2. Woodcock, N., Green, A. & Starkey, M. (2011) Social CRM as a business strategy. Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 18 (1) pp.50-64 3. Greenberg, P. (2010) The impact of CRM 2.0 on customer insight. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 25 (6) pp.410-419 4. Baird, C.H. & Parasnis, G. (2011) From social media to social CRM: reinventing the customer relationship. Strategy & Leadership, 39 (6) pp.27-34