Research firm Gartner has issued a new report noting that it expects IT budgets to increase significantly in 2013 and 2014, led by both cloud computing and CRM initiatives. The reasons given are pretty simple: cloud will provide for cost savings and other long-term efficiencies. Gartner posits that CRM investments will increase due to an … Continue reading »
Tagged with social CRM …
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 »
How to Kill Your Business by Merely Pretending You’re Customer-Centric
By Chris Bucholtz Every company in the world is customer-centric – just ask them! They’ll all tell you that’s the case (except maybe Ryanair – but their CEO is so full of it, he’d probably say they were customer-centric, too). Sadly, we as consumers all know that customer-centricity is actually fairly rare. No matter what … Continue reading »
Are you seizing social to see yourself as customers see you?
By Chris Bucholtz At the CRM Evolution show last week in rainy New York City, the Tuesday morning “breakfast session” hosted by Paul Greenberg was a notable gathering. The names in the room went beyond the panelists; the audience was full of big-name analysts, executives and smarty-pantses. Had a meteor hit this room, the CRM … Continue reading »
The new ROI of social: Risk of Irrelevancy
By Chris Bucholtz Social CRM, or at least the business use of social media, is by now accepted by virtually every organization – even by those who aren’t yet actively engaging in social activities. Social is a given by now, if only because it’s a crucial tool that’s being used by the vast majority of … Continue reading »
Tweeters Behaving Badly: Why You Need To Think About Personas as Part of Your Social Media Strategy
By Chris Bucholtz One of the things social media allows us to see clearly and instantly is that some people don’t get social media. I see this every day in the CRM Outsiders Twitter feed (we’re @CRMOutsiders, by the way). Many of the people following us and being followed by us pre-date my arrival, including … Continue reading »
SCRM Basics: Twitter, Why and How
A few years ago, when I worked over in San Francisco, I would occasionally commute using the “casual car pool” system – in other words, at a designated congregation point, I’d get into a vehicle with a total stranger so that person could save bridge toll and I could save bus money. It was less … Continue reading »
Lesson From a Spotty Social Media Strategy
(Editor’s note: chatting around the office can result in outbursts of coherence like this one, from David Bockian, who recapitulates this story and distills it to its essence – and even mentions ferrets in the process – the editor) If you make a business decision that causes your customers to say, “What were you thinking?”— … Continue reading »
Social CRM is no Place for a “Show Me” mindset
Talking to the big brains at CRM Evolution in New York this week was at once refreshing and frustrating. It’s refreshing that people are thinking so hard about what customer relationship management could evolve into, how deeply it can spread into an organization, and how many business people will nod their heads when they hear … Continue reading »
Webinar June 7: Get Paul Greenberg’s Expert Assessment of Social Media and CRM
One of the many nice things I discovered when I sat down at my desk here at SugarCRM for the first time was that the crew here had already set up a webinar with Paul Greenberg. I can’t speak highly enough of Paul. He wrote the CRM at the Speed of Light trilogy-plus-one (hey, all … Continue reading »
