Social CRM Is Back, But Not for Me…Yet?

While CRM magazine and the other publications under the Information Today banner have a presence on social media sites like LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, I am not a fan of social media in my personal life. I have a profile on LinkedIn, but I don’t post to it on a regular basis and only check it when I get a major notification through the mobile app. I’m also pretty sure that I have a page on X, but I can’t remember the last time I posted something to it. I never bothered getting on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, WhatsApp, or any of the dozens of other platforms available today.

I just never saw the need. If I want to wish a friend or relative a happy birthday, I prefer to call or text rather than reaching out through a DM or post. I prefer to get my news from traditional media rather than a TikTok feed. And if I haven’t spoken to someone since high school, there’s probably a good reason that we didn’t stay in touch, and so I don’t see the need to reconnect on Facebook now. I also don’t feel compelled to put my every thought, concern, preference, product recommendation, or dinner choice out there for the entire world to see. I don’t think anyone really cares what I think of the latest Nike sneakers. And I don’t need something I post today coming back to bite me in the butt 10 or 15 years from now.

I thought I was the only one in the world without a social presence, but I’ve been hearing more and more from friends and family that they’ve abandoned social media. One friend of mine gave up social media for Lent this year and hasn’t gone back since. Another friend deleted his Facebook account as a New Year’s resolution.

I do, at times, wish that I had set up a social media profile, though. I can see the appeal of reaching out to a company through a hashtag or @ message. This is especially true when I have customer service issues. I dread having to hunt for a customer service phone number, then navigating complex phone trees and interactive voice response menus before getting someone on the line who can actually help with my problem, only to be placed on hold for 20 minutes while that individual looks up my account and searches for the answer to my question.

As this month’s cover story, “Social Re-Emerges as a Customer Service Channel” (page 14), points out, social media is re-establishing itself as a viable channel for customers and companies to communicate with one another. The medium has come a long way in a few short years, and where social media failed before, artificial intelligence is bringing it back into CRM prominence. The integration of AI and automation is now enabling businesses to provide faster, more efficient, and potentially personalized customer support that wasn’t possible the first time around.

“Having bots on these channels, particularly self-service bots, has made people realize that they [usually] don’t have to call a company, which many prefer not to do,” Verint’s Jason Valdina says in the article.

The key theme throughout the article is that companies are definitely keying in on social media as they try to enhance their customer service, and that is only going to continue as these platforms proliferate and AI makes them more viable.

The lure of social customer service isn’t enough for me to finally get on social media just yet. I do, however, strongly encourage everyone already on social media to take advantage of this capability as often as possible.

Leonard Klie is the editor of CRM magazine. He can be reached at lklie@infotoday.com.

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