The social CRM mashup
by Jeff Risley
October 27, 2011
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In 1993, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers wrote the book The One to One Future and helped launch a new marketing discipline called Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Peppers and Rogers envisioned the day when mass marketing gave way to mass customization of products, services and communication, where marketers managed individual relationships with individual customers, and where the key success metric was share of customer not market share.
As CRM grew, it quickly became focused on the “Management” part of the equation with an emphasis on technology, large enterprise database software systems, and massive direct marketing and email campaigns. With exceptions, of course, it has been light on the “Customer” and “Relationship” parts of the equation.
Then things changed. Social media changed the landscape and put customers in charge of the conversation. It gave them an unprecedented voice in the market.
Because of social media, marketers are rediscovering the original intent of Peppers and Rogers’ work, leveraging conversations and data packed away in millions of databases around the world to build relationships between them and their customers.
The best way for pharma marketers to prepare for this new beginning is with a solid understanding of social CRM’s components.
Social
Social media is the soul of social CRM. It gives the discipline its character because it reorients a marketer’s mind from products to customers, from messages to conversations, from “I’m in control” to “the customers are in control.” Without this fundamental mind shift, social CRM won’t work. Regardless of the technology used, the character of a social media strategy must be the same: human.
Customer
There are many types of customers, and we use the word “customer” in a broad sense when it comes to social CRM. A customer in the pharma world is a patient that buys and uses your products. It’s a caregiver or family member that researches those products (a customer of information). It’s a HCP that prescribes your products (a customer of science and solutions).
Relationship
Markets are relationships. Why? Because we’re human. We seek out relationships—with people, companies, products and even brands. Deep, emotional relationships give our lives meaning. And conversations are embedded in relationships. Those conversations take the form of product and service recommendations that people trust. That’s the most valuable social media currency around.
Management
The right mind-set and strategy is key for beginning a social CRM initiative, but it’s the “how” that gets it done. Like any successful marketing, it requires an action plan. Our approach has five steps.
• Discovery
• Data aggregation
• Data analysis, customer segmentation and insight development
• Customized engagement strategy development
• Outcome review
“Markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies,” The Cluetrain Manifesto authors wrote. Adapting to these smarter markets is no longer an option. Rather than shy from this situation, pharma marketers can recognize it for the opportunity it is. We have at our disposal the tools and knowledge to give customers what they want—a relationship with the people that bring them life-changing, lifesaving drugs.