The telecommunications and travel and tourism industries offer huge potential for customer relationship management (CRM) outsourcers that are keen on taking advantage of the demand for social media services, according to Ovum, an independent research and advisory firm.
About 57 percent of telecom companies and 54 percent of travel and tourism companies use social media CRM, offering much promise for outsourcers, according to Ovum’s (News - Alert) report titled, “Profiting from Social Media in CRM Outsourcing.”
“There is certainly demand for social media CRM services that outsourcers can take advantage of, particularly in the travel and tourism and telecoms sectors,” said Peter Ryan, Ovum analyst and author of the report, in a statement. “However other sectors also offer great potential for CRM outsourcers to grow their revenues.”
According to the survey, the third biggest user of social media CRM is the public sector, with 45 percent. Coupled with the expected increase in outsourcing in the public sector in regions such as the U.K due to huge spending cuts, this could be a strong growth area for outsourcers.
The main social media functions providing a growth opportunity for CRM outsourcers lie in the monitoring of social media forums, customer service and business development.
Many enterprises do not have clear CRM objectives, but are rather focused on becoming a market leader. This situation offers excellent opportunities for CRM outsourcers to help their clients define what is needed for their business.
There are immense opportunities to grow revenues by winning new clients through social media CRM. Outsourcers can re-enforce their relationships with existing clients, by offering them a new service.
CRM outsourcers need to develop a profitable business model. Social CRM vendors are concerned about how to charge for their services. Many vendors are choosing per time-unit or per transaction model. As the market matures, pricing models will need to evolve to ensure the highest possible margins are achieved.
Recently, a TMC (News - Alert) blog said the growth of social networking is not slowing down any time soon and as more and more commerce is being initiated based upon social network chatter. The need for companies to monitor and participate in these online conversations grows by the day. Social CRM is something most companies aren’t focusing on in a concerted way.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Tammy Wolf