Customer relationship management (CRM) is vital in running a successful business.

A proper CRM system starts by helping you to assemble a full view of your interactions with each individual customer. But CRM has evolved and is now so much more. It helps organizations gain insight into the behavior of their customers, and modify policies and operations to ensure that customers are served in the best possible way. This insight enables you to nurture existing customer relationships and increase retention through better customer experience, while also attracting new customers.

One of the ways a business can gain insight is through social listening. Social listening involves monitoring conversations, analyzing feedback, and addressing customer inquiries and issues.

Social listening can be even more powerful when it is used in the process of building and managing a customer community. In an active community, customers can research products in real time,  engage with others to troubleshoot problems, and post reviews of products. These communities are an easy way for companies to monitor customer needs and preferences. It is also a way to empower your customers to serve themselves, and make them feel more connected to your staff and other customers.

Are you thinking about developing a community strategy? See the video below, with Beyond the Arc CEO Steven Ramirez, for a key element to remember when leveraging communities as part of your customer relationship management strategy.

Join us in Washington, DC April 24-26, 2017 for CRM Evolution.About the 2017 CRM Evolution conference:
Fortunately, you can find the biggest collection of the brightest and most influential people in the CRM industry at the CRM Evolution conference. Conference Chair Paul Greenberg and the editors of CRM magazine are working together again to bring you some of the best CRM analysts and consultants, project leaders, and vendors in the industry.