Social CRM: Huge opportunity for IT, BPO Companies

In my previous post titled Rise of Social CRM and how IT & BPO Companies can Profit from it, I have emphasized the importance of Social CRM and how IT and BPO Service Providers can leverage this opportunity. In this post, I want to share statistics that highlight the sheer size of this opportunity.

According to a recent survey by Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) among its members, it was found that:

• Only 17% of members have integrated social media channels into the corporate website. Accessing an online community requires a different log-on and password, and uses a different UI than the corporate website.
• Only 8% of members have integrated the new channels into their CRM/incident management system. After a decade of trying to build the “360 degree view of the customer,” none of the social media interactions are being tracked.
• Only 8% of members include social media channels in performance dashboards. So if you suddenly start neglecting a social media channel, no alarms or notifications exist.
• Only 3% of members address social media channels in SLAs. If you aren’t setting customer expectations for service levels, achieving high customer satisfaction will be challenging as traffic via these channels increases.

Also refer to the following presentation titled Effectively Leveraging Social Media as a Support Channel by John Ragsdale. Some note-worthy stats in this presentation are:

• Slide #12 Low usage of Social Media channels for providing Customer Service & Support
• Slide #22 By 2011, a significant % of customer issues will be resolved using Social Media and Communities as compared to Self-service, Web-chat, Email and Phone.

IT Service Providers can capitalize on this opportunity by:

• Development and Maintenance of Engagement Platforms and Communities
• Integration of “Traditional” CRM apps with Social CRM functionality for 360 degree “view of customer”
• Master Data Management – A major issue in CRM projects, more so in Social CRM

BPO and KPO Service Providers can leverage this opportunities by providing:

• Social Media based Customer Support in addition to traditional channels such as Phone, Web and Email
• Social Media Monitoring, Reporting and Analytics
• Creation of brand specific Social Media Content
• Social Network Analysis

Social media are bringing about a dramatic shift in Marketing and Customer Support processes. Those IT and BPO service providers who build competency to address this change and offer services to their clients will benefit. And first movers will benefit the most from it!

What do you think? How should IT and BPO service providers should leverage this opportunity? Please do share your thoughts: