CRM Insights Blog

Leaders in SCRM Software

Many of the traditional providers of CRM applications are expanding their offerings into the SCRM software realm to take advantage of changing business needs and the continuing growth of social media sites.  However, not all social customer relationship management software is the same, and not all of the traditional providers of CRM software have been completely successful at making the jump.  SCRM software varies in some key aspects from traditional customer relations management software, and some of the big-name players have been unable to identify those differences and adapt their offerings accordingly. 

SCRM software is different than CRM offerings in some specific areas, including the type of information collected, how data is interpreted, and how the knowledge gained is used both internally to the business and externally to interact with customers and potential clients.  CRM applications are traditionally data-driven and procedurally exact, while social customer relationship management software is constantly changing to keep the interaction between business and customer meaningful and current.  Traditional CRM is business-driven, while SCRM is customer-driven.  This difference makes designing and deploying SCRM applications harder because the lines are much blurrier when dealing with people versus numbers.

Rising leaders in SCRM software development have also been very good at designing CRM solutions and have been able to adapt their software solutions to include social media interaction.  They have designed applications that can help businesses generate leads from customers searching for a particular type of product or service on the web and draw them in with focused marketing and attractive content.  And since listening and immediate feedback are cornerstones of effective SCRM, these same leaders have been able to engage clients in social dialog with their SCRM software programs as well, a vital component of customer retention and satisfaction.

SCRM providers like Salesforce and Nimble are making huge inroads into the marketplace through their ability to cater to the needs of small and medium-size businesses.  Salesforce offers software for social listening, rapid marketing website deployment, and social performance management, among others.  Nimble, a solution that lets users capture all of the major social media feeds simultaneously and link them to business contacts, is only a couple of years old but continues to gain traction in the marketplace.  Both of these providers are adding new features and applications to their systems regularly.  The appeal of these products is that they offer cloud-based solutions that can be quickly adapted and deployed for businesses trying to stay on the leading edge of SCRM utilization.

The ultimate leaders in SCRM software development and deployment will be those that are the most adept at developing solutions to meet customer needs, generate meaningful leads for the business, and maximize customer retention and satisfaction.  With only an estimated 15 percent of all businesses worldwide that could be taking advantage of it using customer relationship management software, the field is wide open, and the market potential is huge, and it could be that even smaller players in today’s marketplace rise to the top of the constantly-expanding social CRM software realm.