Five Tips to Strengthen CRM Efforts in Today’s Digital World

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In this age of customer engagement the relevant brands of tomorrow are leveraging social media for their customer relations today.

Here are 5 tips brands can employ to strengthen their connection to customers.

1. Crowd Source for Innovation

While it’s important to have creative and intelligent people working for you to maintain innovation for your brand, social media represents a glorious opportunity to discover a wealth of untapped resources for free. Who better to ask for input on how to improve your product or services than the ones who are willingly paying to use them now?

We buy products because we feel we have a need for them and so, in addition to finding fault with our products when they don’t satisfy our needs, your customers can offer solutions to improvements that your own team may have overlooked. These customers are often willing to share this with you at no charge, so making your brand accessible on Facebook or Twitter and in visiting your customers to share thoughts and concerns on improving products or services can only result in a beneficial outcome on both ends.

2. Share Your Story

Take the opportunity to share who you are as a brand whenever possible. Many companies and organizations race to share a message of “what they do” rather than “who they are”. In reality it is the latter that makes or breaks a brand. Use social media to find creative ways to make your customers feel a connection to your brand. Offer creative videos of the associates who work for you that show they are as human as the customers who buy your products. Demonstrate your brand’s commitment within the community it operates.

The point is to be let people in on the “why” you do what you do instead of the “what it is” that you do. Sharing your story is the way to do that and the more creative you can be, the more effective you will be.

3. Monitor Social Media for Conversations About Your Brand

More than ever, it’s essential today that you know what people are saying about your brand, and my United Breaks Guitars experience demonstrates what can happen to a company that’s unprepared for a social media crisis. One aspect of a now ever growing CRM response company I co-founded since “United Breaks Guitars,” is the offering of a full suite of social media monitoring tools that help companies manage their reputation by picking up on the conversations being had about them.

We aren’t the only platform out there offering this service but the fact is that if you can’t hear what people are saying about your brand, how can you possibly react at in a timely manner, let alone at all. Any good relationship requires good listening skills and in business, that requires good listening tools.

4. Be Quick to Engage With Your Customers

Related to #3, simply listening to your customers is not enough, especially since what consumers want most is to feel valued and know that their concerns are being heard. The best way to do that is to respond to them quickly and proactively when they might not have thought you would. Studies show that the speed at which you react to a bad customer service experience affects how expensive it may become for you. I have heard stories about airlines that have monitored generally negative comments from traveling passengers on Twitter and surprised the passengers upon landing with a resolution. That kind of service does not go unnoticed and makes people feel like they matter.

Of course, there are countless other examples about bad service that goes unrecognized and these often serve as case studies for why attention to your entire customer base is a must. In this era, where every patron matters, you need a system that ensures no complaint is left behind; a concept a growing number of startups are lining up to offer this an essential service.

5. Create Winning Content

Content is still king and in a loud online environment, you need to find ways to cut through the noise to get your message through. Social Media offers a cheap yet effective way to be heard. My United Breaks Guitars story has been heard by over 150 million people, however that video cost me only $150 to produce. The video was innovative and creative, while also being relatable to people everywhere and that’s why it went viral in just days.

We all have a story to tell, so find ways to tell yours that elevates your platform above others. At the end of the day however, it still requires great content and imagination, so start thinking and have fun with the process.

Dave Carroll
Dave Carroll is an award winning singer-songwriter, professional speaker, author and social media innovator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He began his music career with his brother Don in the band Sons of Maxwell and has been enjoying success as a solo artist for the last four years. His ability to extract the essence of a message and craft it into song is a rare gift that is attracting fans of all ages while his sense of humour and disarmingly warm stage presence makes each live experience a memorable one for audiences around the world.

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