Social Customer Relationship Management: State of the Art and Learnings from Current Projects

The Social Web is transforming the relationship between companies and customers. It offers the means to redesign the fundamental structure of customer service systems and to refocus on the relationship aspect of customer relationship management (CRM). Although various examples illustrate how companies may use Social Media in the field of CRM, the necessary IT systems are still open for research. This paper investigates the use of Social Media in CRM processes and their functional requirements using a collection of case studies from the literature. The findings show that firms may use Social Media in several forms to enhance their CRM processes, but also that Social Media-specific processes arise that require dedicated functionalities in the field of Social Media monitoring, management and interaction.