Who says you can’t go home again? When I first started this blog back in 2007, I had no idea what it might become. Now, after six years, hundreds of posts, and a few “owners” later I am back working with a lot of the team I knew while initially launching CRM Outsiders. One of … Continue reading »
Filed under CRM Outsiders …
Whether the discussion is B2B, B2C or B2Any, personalizing the conversation is key
Last week, I spoke at Social Business Atlanta. My talk was on the three P’s of avoiding social CRM failure (the article that started that train of thought rolling can be found here), so I served as the voice of caution and/or the source of comic relief for the event. The other speakers were among … Continue reading »
Applebee’s: if you’re in a social media hole, put down your shovel
Will Rogers once said, “when you’re in a hole stop digging.” He certainly did not have social media in mind, which is a pity when you think about it: he would have killed on Twitter, and he could have checked Yelp! for customer reviews of Wiley Post’s flying abilities. However, it is a saying that … Continue reading »
Listening to your customer via social is good for service, but listening to competitors’ customers is great for sales
Here’s a scenario for you: a company gets a social analytics tool and starts messing around with it. Initially, as is the case with most businesses, early applications are akin to “ego surfing,” where the company looks for mentions of itself (a handy exercise if you want to find issues to direct to your support … Continue reading »
The Top 20 CRM Blogs of 2012
You want to learn about CRM, or you want to refine and expand your understanding, but you don’t know where to start? Well, the blogosphere’s one good place to start learning, but it’s become a crowded, confusing place, clogged with blogs of disparate quality and written by people with motives that are less than mostly … Continue reading »
6 ways to screw up with social CRM
By Chris Bucholtz Some things are more digestible in numbered groups: the five stages of grief, the 12 days of Christmas, the seven habits of highly effective people, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Here’s one for you: the six ways people screw up social CRM. That’s not just a random grouping I came up … Continue reading »
Exceptions vs. Understanding: How Customers are Getting Smarter About Comments
By Chris Bucholtz Last night, I was seated at the bar of the 1400 in Alameda (housed in the historic pre-1900 Croll’s building), battling a crab dinner to the death. It’s hard to be dainty when eating a whole crab, what with the cracking and slurping and clinking of tiny forks and whatnot. Luckily, the guy … Continue reading »
CRM Means Relationships: Do Your Processes Allow Marketing to Sustain Them?
By Chris Bucholtz Customers don’t buy from companies, generally – they buy from people. That goes especially for return customers; if they interact with the same salesperson, and a relationship grows, the potential for recurring sales and up-selling increases exponentially. This doesn’t have to stop with your sales efforts – it’s something you can carry … Continue reading »
Customers’ Experiences with Technology Feed their Service Expectations
By Chris Bucholtz Customers are starting to become more aware that the experiences they receive from the businesses they buy from are the result of deliberate decisions. They’ve felt the effects of good and bad experiences, but today a newly aware class of customers is starting to consciously understand how those experiences come about. Part … Continue reading »
CRM’s Forgotten Features: Reminders
By Chris Bucholtz (Editor’s note: this is the fifth and final entry in our series on features in CRM that can expand your ROI – but which frequently go forgotten or ignored. Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be found here, here, here and here. Now, we say final – but if you think you have another feature that … Continue reading »
