IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM) [624527]

IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 27 | Page
Institute Of Management MET -Bhujbal Knowledge City Social Media and Customer Relationship Management.

Megha Y. Patil

ABSTRACT – CRM is an abbreviation for Customer Relationship Management.CRM can be said to be
customer centered, that is (i.e.), the customer is put at the center of all the information that relates to him or her,
and authorized people within the organization are allowed to access this information. CRM is a business
strategy that goes beyond increasing transaction volume. Today’s business environment is extremely dynamic
and experience rapid changes as a result of technological Improvement, incre ased awareness and demands to
serve their customers electronically.CRM is a stra tegy used to learn more about customers needs and their
behavior in order top develop stronger relationship with them. So cial media is the outline content created by
people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. Social media fundamentally alter the state
of online communication towards a dialogue among web -users as well as organizations and their targe t groups.
The combination of social media and CRM creates an enormous opportunity to enrich customer interaction s
and give businesses a way to manage and measure how they use social networking while successfully engaging
social customers. This research pap er indicates the integration of social media with customer relationship
management (CRM) strategies, and defines the benefits of this integration for business.

Keywords – CRM (Customer Relationship Management ), Social Media, SCRM.

I. Introduction
There are s o many definitions and interpretations of CRM. A general definition will be that it is an
enterprise approach to understanding and influencing customer behavior through meaningful communications in
order to improve customer acquisition, customer retention, customer loyalty and customer profitability .
Organization that practices CRM can be said to be customer centered, that is (i.e.), the customer is put at the
center of all the information that relates to him or her, and authorized people within the organiz ation are allowed
to access this information. Many businesses such as banks, insurance companies, and other service providers
realize the importance of CRM and its potential to help them acquire new customers retain existing ones and
maximize their lifetim e value. Its objectives are to increase profitability, revenue, and customer satisfaction. It is
said that for a corporation, the „unhappy customers are it‟s greatest source of learning‟ and these words are
frequently used in business meetings and tr aining workshops for employees engaged in customer Relationship
Management (CRM) activities. These famous words were spoken by Bill Gates, and at that time, the world was
re-discovering the art of listening to the customers by implementing better CRM practices. A company could
discover insights from their customers ( If happy or unhappy) and use these insights to improve processes and
products so that they can make it better for their future customers. Social media, a concept that has given people
a common platfo rm, for sharing their news, views and opinions regarding the happenings around them. Social
Media fundamentally alter the state of online communication towards a dialogue among web users as well as
organizations and their target groups. Also consumers use new media to participate in social networks, which
enables them to create and share content, communicate with one another, and build relationships with other
consumers (Henning -Thurau et al. , 2010, p 312). Social media has been used in several contexts rel ated to
different technologies and what they can accomplish. Social media may be defined as the production,
consumption and exchange of information across platforms for social interaction. Social media has
progressively allowed individuals to rely on the I nternet to communicate, speak read or comment. Using social
media, customers are able to interact with nearly any company and express their opinions at their convince.
Social media appears to offer benefits to companies in all sectors.

Objective
The obje ctive of this study is to indicate the integration of social media with customer relationship
management (CRM) strategies, and defines its benefits for business.

Type Of Research
The methodology employed for research is exploratory in nature and does no t include primary data
collection. No survey or response method is used. Data is collected from several secondary sources like journal
articles, research papers, websites and online social media portals.

IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 28 | Page
Institute Of Management MET -Bhujbal Knowledge City II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Greenberg (2009) stated in his study that t he term “social media” has been used in several contexts
related to different technologies and what they can accomplish. Social media may be defined as the production,
consumption and exchange of information across platforms for social interact ion .Using a similar approach but
without explicitly defining social media.
Andzulis, Panagopoulos,& Rapp, (2012) explained in his study that all customers are now „customer
benefits‟ and that every interaction is an integral part of a new collaboration b etween the company and the
customer, yielding CRM 2.0.
According to CREDOC (2009) , 57% of French Internet users consult the opinions of other users
before purchasing various products and services. Specifically, these new media enable conservations between
customers about such topics as products and company reputations.
Mangold & Faulds,(2009) stated that before the development of social networks ,companies retained
control over the messages that they diffused and the time in which customers would have acc ess to them
.Companies lose “control” once a message is broadcast as it is recovered by customers who will comment on,
share or question it. The customer can “talk” directly with the brand and other customers.
Manish Parihar (Jan 2012) founded that altho ugh the traditional touch points with the customer are to
stay, but the new generation online tools have radically changed in the way that companies connect and relate to
their customers t he concept of customer experience management has been an extension o f the new -age customer
relationship management.
Lehmkuhl Tobias & Jung Reinhard (Jun 2013 ) stated in their study that the triggers of SCRM are
technological advancements and societal changes leading to an empowered web user. Persons are engaged in a
public and direct dialogue with organizations and their peers in order to derive personal utilitarian and affective
value. SCRM added to that point by facilitating customer engagement as a means to establish mutually
/beneficial relationships.

Customer Relation ship Management
Customer: The customer is the only source of the companies‟ present profit and future growth.CRM
can be thought of as a marketing approach that is based on customer information.
Relationship: The relationship between a company and its cust omers involves continuous bi -directional
communication and interaction.CRM involves managing this relationship so it is profitable and mutually
beneficial.
Management: CRM is not an activity only within a marketing department, it involves continues
corpora te changes in culture and strategies.CRM requires a comprehensive change in the organization and
people.
CRM used in business for identifying the new selling opportunities. Also it deliver instant , company –
wide access to customer histories.CRM has emerged as a popular business strategy in today‟s competitive
environment. It is a discipline that enables the companies to identify and target their most profitable customers.
It involves new and advance marketing strategies that not only retain the existing cus tomers but also acquire
new customer. There are three key elements to successful CRM initiatives : people, business process, and
technology.

IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 29 | Page
Institute Of Management MET -Bhujbal Knowledge City

Figure 1. Benefits of CRM.

CRM activities allows for increased call center efficiency, improved close rates, marketing processes,
improved customers profiling and targeting, reduced cost, increased share of customer and profitability. CRM
provides enhanced opportunities to use data and information to both understand customers and co -create value
with them. This requ ires a cross -functional integration of processes, people, operations, and marketing
capabilities .
In this new Era, product centric approach changes into the customer centric approaches, the focus of
marketers has shifted towards their customers and more d eliberately on their experiences, which will be
elaborated in subsequent sections.

Social M edia
The world is becoming „glocal‟ from global and is squeezing its economic, social and political
boundaries thus giving it a common platform for development . The convergence of the media has expanded the
usage of internet that gave birth to social media. The term “social media “has been used in several contexts
related to different technologies and what they can they accomplish. Social media may be defined as t he
production, consumption and exchange of information across platforms for social interaction. Social media has
taken the web world by storm .It has completely revolutionized the ways communication used to take place even
a decade ago. It makes use of web -based technologies to transform and media monologues into social media
dialogues. This technology is mostly of grate interest to those that are interested in search engine optimization
and Internet marketing . The social media technology also supports the democratization of knowledge and
information transforming people from mere content customers to content producers. People now rely more on
social to learn about events and influenced more than ever by their peers. As a result, S ocial Medias now play a
significant role in forming public opinion.
In the age of the web 2.0 and almost present broadband internet connections, a large majority of the
online public are communicating with each other through a new medium. Apart from e -mail and instant
messengers, th ey communicate through the medium of blogs, micro blogging websites and social networking
websites like face book , Twitter, LinkedIn and many others.(Ahuja,2010) .
Some of the popular social media websites are:
Face book , Orkut , MySpace, Google+ – Mains tream social networking sites.
LinkedIn – Professional networking site.
Blogs like Word Press , BlogSpot – used for broadcasting and publishing data
YouTube – Video sharing website.
Wikipedia – The open –source online encyclopedia
Flickr , Picasa – Picture sharing websites.
Twitter – Micro -blogging websites where one can post only 140 characters at time.

IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 30 | Page
Institute Of Management MET -Bhujbal Knowledge City In some cases, Social media may be considered the technological support enabling the interaction and the
development of virtual relationships. This technology is known as web 2.0. Evans ( 2008) defines social media
as a “group of internet -based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web
2.0,which also allows the creation and exchange of user -generated content” .

Social M edia CRM (SCRM)
SCRM is a Social Customer Relationship Management. The integration of social media with customer
relationship management (CRM) strategies -is the next frontier for organizations that want to optimize the power
of social interacti ons to get closer to customers. With the worldwide explosion of social media usage , business is
feeling extreme pressure to be where their customers are. The social CRM from technological standpoint
bridges social media with the traditional CRM.
Social me dia holds unprecedented potential for companies to get closer to get closer to customers and,
by doing so, facilitate increased revenue ,cost reduction and efficiencies . Businesses are rapidly embracing
social media not only to build virtual communities, b ut also to create innovative social commerce programs,
improve customer care and streamline customer research. With so much to gain, companies need to invest the
effort to understand how to break through the noise and offer current and potential customers a reason out to
them via social media. The blend of social media and customer relationship management (social CRM) enables
your brand to truly listen to your customers more than ever before. It enhances your traditional CRM by
listening for and with social media conversations, tracking new leads from a Tweet or Face book post and
moving them into your sales funnel .
Social media continuously generate hoards of information so that it be comes difficult for enterprises to
monitor them. As a result ,an increasi ng number of CRM developing companies of CRM developing
companies are now offering social media integration their CRM.
CRM customization allows your social media accounts to be linked and managed through your customer
relationship management software .I t helps businesses in devising business strategy using the insight gained
from societies. The benefits offered by SCRM or social CRM are:
 Improved peer –to-peer interaction in offering customer support.
 Market feedback research
 Idea management
 Brand posit ioning and promotion
 Product launching

CRM helps business in streaming operation and improve customer dealing. Integration of social media
to it further enforced its usefulness in helping businesses to connect and serve their customers better. Custo mer
channels have to identify before a company can build and manage its customer relationships via social networks.
Once done, the full potential of Social CRM can be realized: because nowadays, customers like to use the social
networks to share information abo ut themselves and their interests. Social CRM in the current state is just a
beginning of the larger shifts that are likely to take place on the foundation stone of today‟s emerging directions.

III. BENEFITS OF SOCIAL CRM
Several benefits are observed such as it raises marketing return on investment and development of
product quality .Improve effectiveness of marketing through innovation and creativity. Encourages companies
to identify new business opportunities through new and existing customers through socia l networking,
Reduction in sales commission costs throug h community building around a product or service .Increase
Research and Development capabilities and innovative idea through social customer‟s initiatives. Create
abilities to increase customer loyalt y through promotion of transparent dialogue and also encourage
employee/customer interaction. Ability to decrease customer‟s service costs through self helping communities.

IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 31 | Page
Institute Of Management MET -Bhujbal Knowledge City

Figure 2 -Business benefits of Social CRM.

The social CRM from technological s tandpoint bridges social media with the traditional CRM.Thus the
complete picture is only to established when different components weaved around social media are integrated
with levereged by the CRM system. Social CRM offers tremendous opportunities for an organisations to get
insight into its own compititors brand perceptions. These insights can be used to fine tunes various strategies,
such as promotions,customer engagement etc. Oraganization can work closely with its customers to co -create
product service ideas. It also offers opprtun ity to enaga ge with customers via newer channels such as micro
blogs and communities leading to higher customer association with the company and brands. Traditional CRM
is based on an internal operational approach to manage customer relationships effectively .But Social CRM is
based on the ability of a company to meet the personal agendas of (its) customers while at the same time
meeting the objectives of its own business plan .It is aimed at customer engagement rather than “customer
Management” .
While adopting social CRM there are plenty of challenges.Most imap ortant is a privacy of user data+ is
critical concern.While most social listening tool can only access „public‟ data .There are spacific regulataions
that prevent stora ge and usage of such information. Social media ID‟s would also need to varified in order to
prevent interaction with unauthorised persons. give the different aspect organization need to think and also looks
into the readiness to adopt SCRM for future scope .

IV. CONCLUSION
The coming years will see more integration of social media to customer management platform. The
integration procedure depends upon the social media maturity level of your organization with companies at the
initial stage needing more comprehen sive social media plans. These brands are using social media as a meaningful way to
develop relationships with their customers and publicity of their products. Customers are connecting and having
conservations about enterprises through social media, whethe r enterprises are actively engaged or not, and brands
risk being raised if they fail to participate. Social CRM is an opportunity for organization to become customer
centric. It contents the new communication and collaboration medium of social media to imp rove the existing
business processes of marketing, sales & services. Technology will play a vital role in taking social CRM to
take next level of maturity .It is concluded that social networks holds unprecendented potential for companies
to get closer t o cusatomers faciliate increased in revenue,cost reduction and efficiencies.Bussiness are
embracing social medias for virtual communities also to improve customer care.

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IOSR Journal of Business and Man agement (IOSR -JBM)
e-ISSN: 227 8-487X , p-ISSN: 2 319-7668
PP 27-32
www.iosrjournals.org
2nd national conference on Value Based Management – Business for value or Values in Business 32 | Page
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