A Conceptual Framework of the Challenges and Benefits of Social Customer Relationship Management

Introduction

Although a reasonably new communication channel, the web has already seen many generations and sustained the mighty speed of technological enhancement (Almeida, 2017). It is an accepted fact that technological advancements have brought about a lot of changes in human lives. More specifically social media has been influencing various facets of personal and professional relationships (Di Virgilio et al., 2022a). Business organisations are also adapting themselves to this gigantic wave of change brought about by social media that is associated with customer relationship management (CRM). To reinforce their sustainability, businesses have intensified their reliance on information (Hıdıroğlu, 2020). The technologically savvy customers partake in social media communities to exchange information about the services or products of an enterprise. This outlook has changed the conventional approach towards managing customer or product information (Buttle, 2009). Wereda & Woźniak (2019) observe that contemporary establishments are emphasising on fostering effective and long-term connections with clients. This helps in improving the organisation-customer interface while functioning as a persuasive technology in business.

In addition, such advancements have led to technological developments consolidating various business models, thereby encouraging organisations to adapt their strategies based on the evolving digitised ecosystem. Consequently, organisations are able to increase and enrich their competencies in extracting information and knowledge from customers (Saura & Bennett, 2019). The swift diffusion of knowledge and information has been allowing companies to improve their efficiency as well as to offer new products and services to their customers. Maecker, Barrot and Becker's (2016) research shows the encouraging role of social media interactions for organisations helps them in managing their brands and customers, developing suitable metrics and recognising various opportunities in the social media context.

To improve and maintain relationships with customers, companies adopt CRM strategies (Paliouras & Siakas, 2017). CRM is an inclusive strategy that enables organizations to identify, acquire, retain and nurture profitable customers by building and maintaining long-term relationships with them (Chen & Ching, 2007). A successful CRM strategy is based on three main factors; who is the target audience, the value of the relationship for the organization and the customer, and system and software to implement strategies (Paliouras & Siakas, 2017).

The traditional system in managing customer relationships is based on studying the target audience and focusing on what it needs for the marketing campaign to come to fill the gap. But, now, the gap is getting bigger because customers are looking for the best through what they share on social media sites and not through a one-way communication system (Taylor et al, 2018). Social media has posed a very big challenge in managing relationships with customers. The number of social media users has increased dramatically. In 2021, there are around 4.66 billion internet users’ clients on the planet out of the 7.83 billion global population. Of which, 92.6% access the internet utilizing cell phones. The assessed worldwide infiltration is at 59.5% in 2021 (Lambert, 2021).

Social CRM is considered one of the crucial factors in organizations and their reputation among customers/users of social media, which in turn enhance customer engagement and loyalty (Malthouse et al., 2013). It is evident that The Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in various sectors across the globe (Hassan & Soliman, 2021; Soliman et al., 2021); compelling the organisations to adapt themselves to new practices so as to offer products and services through digitised channels. In fact, the pandemic accelerated the digital transformation and elevated its significance (Almeida et al., 2020). According to Irge & Yalçın (2020), the outbreak of pandemics demonstrated that physical or human mobility would decrease while intensifying digital communication is it in professional or social interaction. This shows that technology-driven communication can be identified as the latest strategy to ensure competitiveness and sustenance of the organisation in the industry. Hence social CRM enables relationship building with the existing customers and the future customers too (Hassan et al., 2019).