Getting Your Social CRM Strategy Right: Steps 7 – 12

By Barton Goldenberg

Think of the ISM 12-step process for creating any organization’s Social CRM strategy as a checklist of requirements to create a successful Social CRM strategy implementation road map. Here are steps 7 – 12:

Step 7: Determine Customer Desires and Impact on Customers

Follow these steps to gather valuable customer input throughout the Social CRM initiative:

• Work with customers to understand their Social CRM needs.
• Listen carefully to customer feedback regarding planned Social CRM functionality.
• Determine which Social Media communities are suited for the organization’s Social CRM strategy.
• Work with both the organization’s customer-facing personnel and customers to determine the appropriate way to obtain needed customer information.

Step 8: Determine Social CRM Competitive Alternatives & Metrics

To ensure that the organization’s customers will accept and adopt the organization’s Social CRM strategy, perform a competitive Social CRM analysis.  Afterward, find out what competitive applications are available to customers in the marketplace.

Step 9: Provide Social CRM Program Observations and Recommendations

Prepare and deliver a formal Social CRM Program Observations and Recommendations document.  This document should include:

• The Social CRM vision
• Identifies Social CRM business requirements
• Customer inputs
• Highlights of the requisite people, process and technology issues

Present these observations and recommendations to the executive team and to the business leaders of customer-facing departments for comment and approval.

Step 10: Create a Social CRM Road Map

Create a Social CRM Road Map.  This road map is a critical step in pulling together several inputs that will have an impact on the overall success of the organization’s initiative.  Chart these inputs on a three-year quarterly log.  In addition, be sure to identify dependencies among relevant initiatives.

Step 11: Recommend a Social CRM Program Management Approach

This step offers suggestions for implementing the recommended Social CRM strategy and resulting Social CRM road map.  It typically includes:

• Project management office recommendations
• Project management office policies
• Project management office procedures
• Organization design
• Project governance structure
• Project roles and responsibilities.

Step 12: Prepare the Social CRM Program Business Case

The business case is the document that most organizations use to approve the Social CRM investment.  The Social CRM Program Business Case should consist of these five parts:

• Executive summary
• Financials
• Key risks and mitigating factors
• Operational/organizational impact issues
• Appendices detailing the basis of the value proposition

In the next blog post, I will examine the process for selecting an appropriate Social CRM software vendor and negotiating the best deal with the vendor.

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Barton Goldenberg, is the founder and president of ISM Inc., customer-centric strategists/implementers serving best-in-class organizations globally. As a CRM leader for 30 years, he was among the first three inductees in the CRM Hall of Fame. Recognized as a leading “customer-focused” author, his latest book, The Definitive Guide to Social CRM, is hailed as the roadmap for Social CRM success. Barton is a popular speaker on “maximizing customer relationships to gain market insights, customers and profits”. He is a long-term columnist for CRM Magazine and speaker for CRMevolution and frequently quoted in the media.