Success and Failure in the Time of Social

Michael Krigsman Esteban Kolsky
Asuret, Inc. thinkJar
617‐905‐5950 913‐256‐5759
mkrigsman@asuret.com esteban@thinkJar.net
Twitter: @mkrigsman Twitter: @ekolsky

#crm #scrm #itfail

What is Social CRM?
“Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy,
supported by a technology platform, business rules, processes
and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in
a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually
beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business
environment. It is the company's programmatic response to
the customer's control of the conversation.”
̶  Paul Greenberg
What is Traditional CRM?
Definition of CRM (from Mitch Lieberman):
 Core contact management
 Name, address, phone, email
 Place to store transactions and history
 Orders, invoices, issues, communications
 Place to manage future business/pipeline
 Prospects, Leads, Opportunities, Campaigns
Key Differences Exist…
Traditional CRM Social CRM
Operational Relationship-based
Controlling the customer Customer is in control
Hierarchical Collaborative
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
 The more things change, the more they stay the same
 History repeats itself
 Social CRM builds on traditional, operational CRM
 Failure persists and lessons must be learned
 Examining the past helps explain and predict the future

Social CRM

CRM
Understanding CRM failure
Traditional CRM failure rates
 Gartner 2001: 50%
 Butler Group 2002: 70%
 Selling Power, CSO Forum 2002: 69.3%
 AMR Research 2005: 18%
 AMR Research 2006: 31%
 AMR Research 2007: 29%
 Forrester Research 2009: 47%

.
Failures persist despite millions 
invested in prevention. Why?
It’s easy to ignore
warning signs
CRM Success Environment
People and project – not technology

© Copyright 2010 Asuret Inc. All rights reserved.

© Copyright 2010 Asuret Inc. All rights reserved.

 Devil’s Triangle
Dysfunctional
industry structure creates
overlapping and
conflicting agendas
Devil’s Triangle
Conflicts of interest are embedded in the enterprise 
software industry (including CRM) 

Confused buyers
Silos and internal disputes

Wacky system integrators

Customer success vs.
consulting revenue

Schizophrenic software vendors

Loyalties split between
customers and integrators
 People talk about
stopping CRM failure
Talk
is
cheap
 And creates…
Train wrecks of business 
disruption and waste
Social CRM is Different
Mostly, because as we evolve…
…this does not work anymore.
Social media is about conversation…
...listening carefully...
…engaging…
…and collaborating together.
Failure: Poor engagement with customers
 Transition from operational to engaged metrics
 Need to change measurement, incorporate Social KPI
 Goals, objectives are still CRM‐driven, but accommodate Social x
 Social projects require engaged conversation
 Lack of engagement drives other problems
 Difficult to measure “Return on Engagement”
 Disengaged companies do not create trust
 Trust creates long‐term loyalty, return business
 Trust does not facilitate success; traditional failure points remain
 Social business means evolution
 Openness, transparency, trust, conversations
 Not mandatory, but desirable
 Social CRM success environment
Feedback Engagement

Transparency Brand Equity

Conversation Collaboration
© Copyright 2010 Asuret Inc. All rights reserved.
Examples of Social CRM success
 MySpace
 Faced with failing customer service, rebuilt based on communities
 Recognized that listening to customers is mission critical
 Nike
 Nike+ built a community for sharing data and info, create buzz
 Flexible on goals and plans essential
 Starbucks
 Several ongoing projects aimed to spread brand, build loyalty
 Coordination among stakeholders critical to success
 Levi’s
 Using multiple channels to leverage “ambassadors” (advocates)
 Bridging gap between social culture and social technology was key
 Achieving SCRM success
Is easier
said
than done
Key Lessons
 Engage, internally and externally
 Gather feedback and opinions
 Listen, learn, grow
 Keep goals in mind
 Kumbaya feels good but doesn’t further business
 People don’t want relationships, they want engaged commitment
 Social is about people
 Not about technology
 Not about processes
 Not about measurement (but business‐oriented metrics are important)
 Don’t Replace CRM, Extend it with Social
 Stand‐alone, siloed Social CRM means failure before starting
 Add social objectives, goals, needs, and wants to CRM
For more information contact:

Michael Krigsman, CEO Esteban Kolsky
Asuret Inc. thinkJar
Email: mkrigsman@asuret.com Email: esteban@thinkJar.net
Web: http://asuret.com Blog: http://www.estebankolsky.com/
Blog: http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures Twitter: http://twitter.com/ekolsky
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mkrigsman +1 (913) 256‐5759
+ 1 (617) 905‐5950

All slides © Copyright 2009 Asuret Inc. and

thinkjar LLC. All rights reserved.