By Kathy Herrmann, partner, Pathlight Solutions

Friday, February 12, 2010

The #SCRM community recently practiced what it’s been preaching when Paul Greenberg pulled together the top thought leaders in SCRM to a summit in Washington. Many thanks to Paul for being the magnet that pulled us all together — and my personal thanks for including me in the event.

Where to start? First, much to my surprise, we had almost-full attendance despite the snow and travel challenges. I was a local and almost got scared from braving the roads, but knew I needed to be there given the number of stellar attendees. And I’m pretty darned sure that’s what motivated the other attendees to brave the travel tribulations too.

What I loved about the group was the open discussion, and sometimes debate, within the conference room and in the evenings’ various social gatherings. We don’t always agree with each other, but everyone handles the debates with professional courtesy and a willingness to evolve their thoughts. That’s how we all grow.

After the jump are the 7 takeaways that struck the loudest chord for me.

The 7 takeaways

1. Start with customer strategy: Focus on humans first. Make that focus the cornerstone of your strategy. Everything else, including technology, is moot until you do. Start by mapping your company’s customer experience. Gain an honest understanding of your customers’ sense of satisfaction. Go beyond mere surveys by having open dialogues with your customers. Be sure your executive-team members have their own conversations as well. They need to hear the raw responses from customers so the messages will have a full impact. Fortify your strengths and retool where your customer strategy fails. Continue to have dialogue with customers to see how you’re doing. Repeat.
2. Customer expectations: What matters are your customers’ expectations for their experiences with your company. Sure, you still need to run your business with efficiency and effectiveness, but build your processes around the customer expectations — not in spite of them. Customers have expectations for immediacy; find ways to meet those expectations. Sometimes that will mean alerting the customer that a complete answer to a complex question may take time — but at least give them that information.
3. Co-creation with customers: This doesn’t have to be grandiose. Sometimes co-creation can be small or iterative – but it should always be shaped by customer expectations. Thus, you have to understand those expectations, which means understanding your customers (and not merely what you think you understand). See #2.
4. Social CRM refers to a collaborative corporate mindset: This mindset must extend beyond marketing or customer service. If your company is going to be truly effective, then it needs collaboration within the organization and across departments, as well as with customers and external partners.
5. Social CRM is a team sport: Effective SCRM impacts culture (people), business processes, and technology. There are smart employees and consultants but no one person will have all the answers needed to build a comprehensive strategy. Expect to build a team comprising internal folks mixed with external consultants as needed.
6. Social CRM technology is evolving: The technologies themselves are starting to mature but will need to continue innovating in lock-step with growing business demand and expectations. Stop debating definitions of Enterprise 2.0 versus SCRM versus whatever else. At the day’s end, tech solutions are all about creating pathways to connect your audiences (customers, partners, employees, and prospects) and foster collaboration. The rest is labels and semantics. When it comes to technology, think best-of-breed across solutions that will play well together. Corporate needs will change, as will solutions. Whatever you implement needs to be up to the task of evolving, too.
7. The SCRM Accidental Community practices what it preaches: We’re all excited about our work — and eager to foster success with each other, our companies, and our clients. We’re sharing our knowledge within the community and extending it outward. And we’re forming collaborative partnerships with each other. We’re open to new members and we embrace new thought.

Note: Brian Vellmure has a list of his own six takeaways. You can check out his thoughts here.

There’s another #SCRMsummit being offered in Atlanta in May so be sure to go if you missed the one in D.C.

Personal Observations

I learned a lot from the presenters and other attendees. I also had great fun meeting up with folks I typically only engage with in social media channels like Twitter, blogs, and Skype. And I can’t make a post like this without mentioning a few people (their Twitter handles shown in parens).

Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe) — Thanks for pulling us all together and for being a driving force in the SCRM community.  Also for sharing your depth of knowledge in fun ways and for being an all-around gentleman. You have helped me — and are continuing to help me — in ways that mean so much and I am highly appreciative. You also inspire me to follow your example and share with others.

Natalie Petouhoff (@drnatalie) — Loved visiting with you! Thanks for your insights! You’re definitely part of the Ladies Who Rule club and one smart cookie. Like Paul, I appreciate the way you extend yourself to help others and helped me. Looking forward to our next visit.

Jesus Hoyos (@Jesus_Hoyos) — We’re going to have great fun working together. I can’t wait — and I’m looking forward to learning more about CRM in Latin America.

Adam Metz (@theMetz) — Thanks for all your great ideas — and you gave me so many during a short meeting. I just want to link a cable from your brain to mine and download. Looking forward to continuing to get to know you.

Mitch Lieberman (@mjayliebs), Mark Tamis (@marktamis), Wim Rampen (@wimrampen), Mike Boysen (@mikeboysen), Michael Krigsman (@mkrigsman) — I enjoy our Twitter and Skype conversations, and it’s all so much better in person. And we rock together! Mitch is right: Give us three months together and our community would change the world.

Brent Leary (@brentleary), CRM magazine’s David Myron (@dmyron), and Prem Kumar Aparanji (@prem_k) — Enjoyed solving the problems of “Sapaclesoft” with you guys. We rock together.

[Editors' Note: "Sapaclesoft" was a thought exercise conducted at the #SCRMsummit. Michael Krigsman has a Slideshare capturing the essence of the exercise.]

Brian Vellmure (@CRMStrategies) — I had great fun talking with you and gained a few dandy ideas. I especially loooved the book idea. Hoped I helped you as well. BTW, listening to you talk with your son gave me a glow. What a great dad you are!
[Editors' Note: Vellmure's #SCRMsummit post can be found here.]

Bruce Culbert (@bruceculbert) — Glad to meet you and thanks for your offers to help.

Scott Rogers (@jayhawkscot), Jim Berkowitz (@jberkowitz), Ed Sullivan (@ed_sullivan), Philip Soffer (@phsoffer), Margot Heiligman, Wils Wurtz, Mike Fauscette (@mfauscette) — I had fun chatting with you and hearing your stories. Looking forward to continuing to build relationship with you all.
[Editors' Note: Fauscette's #SCRMsummit post can be found here.]

Esteban Kolsky (@ekolsky) — Dude, you were missed but there in spirit.

Everyone else — Glad to have a new connection to you and looking forward to following your leadership.

[Editors' Note: This blogpost first appeared on Kathy Herrmann's own blog. The editors appreciate her generosity in allowing us to mirror it here.]