What is CRM 2.0?

***top-search.shtml***

***tier3square.shtml***In late 2006 I began hearing about CRM 2.0.  CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management.  I'm not a big consumer of industry acronyms and hype because at the end of the day, I always believe that a business needs a plan. And if they incorporate the knowledge they gain from day to day operations into that plan, they will have success. The thing is, CRM 2.0 sounds like a new set of tools that will get more of the knowledge that a business needs to make course adjustments during the life of their CRM initiative.

It's kind of fun watching everyone discuss this. While I feel CRM 2.0 will probably be a set of new tools built around new concepts for data aggregation, what that data aggregation looks like could be different based on differing corporate needs and CRM strategies. At the end of the day, it's all about customer loyalty and I expect a lot of experimentation to happen shortly.

Social Networking or Social CRM

I started in on the social networking as it first appeared on the radar screen. I experimented with everything from Spoke to LinkedIn. The only networking site I still use is LinkedIn. Not sure why I stayed with it because it's only now starting to do things I find valuable.

Being able to integrate LinkedIn (and other services) to CRM platforms has some definite tactical value to a sales organization. Assuming the organization has led the charge with a good plan and has clearly defined what new customers should look like, a sales person needs a clear path to gain access to decision makers within a prospect company; and this is clearly where LinkedIn has some advantages and fits into the CRM 2.0 portfolio.

Sites like Twitter just make sit and wonder about what kind of person sits in front of a computer (business or personal) and provides up to the minute tidbits on what they are thinking or doing. Maybe someone can shed some light on how that might tie in to a CRM strategy down the line. I'd love to know.

Mashups

I work with SalesLogix regularly and the new 7.5 beta I'm involved with is introducing mashup and sparkline technology. What I haven't done yet is really get under the hood to see how easy it will be to integrate data from multiple sources.

Business Intelligence has always been something that enterprises in the middle market seem to struggle with (maybe because that don't have a plan). I think Mashups are more tactical in nature. What I mean is that anything a sales person (who deals with one to one relationships) needs to give them an insight into how to engage a prospect will be done thru Mashups. Marketing people are focusing on aggregates and segments. I don't know, they may help there as well. It will be interesting to see this develop even further as a concept.

****bottom-ad-collapse.shtml***

New Customer Interaction Methods

Another area that is being tested by the likes of Dell (http://www.dellideastorm.com) is the ability for customer to become far more involved in processes that have been traditionally internal. In this case, Dell allowing its customers to provide suggestions to this site, and these suggestions can be promoted and demoted by other visitors to apply the proper aggregate weighting.

Dell creates retail products, so this may not be appropriate for all businesses. I'm still hoping to stumble on some great business to business ideas. I know that Oracle has come up with some interesting ideas here. I hope more surface soon, especially for middle market clients!

***C2_invitation_2122150***

Return to CRM Articles from CRM 2.0

***SOCIALIZEIT***

Link to Effective CRM Consulting

***bottom-search.shtml***

Effective CRM Consulting Home