1. NucleusResearch.com
Phone: +1 617.720.2000
Nucleus Research Inc.
100 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
THE BOTTOM LINE
Nucleus’s analysis of social monitoring and social engagement solutions have shown that
there are real returns to be gained from social CRM efforts, and smart companies are
looking beyond the “nice to haves” of greater customer engagement to what social can
deliver in real, achievable returns that the CFO will buy.
Nucleus has looked at hundreds of social CRM deployments over the past year, followed
the acquisition announcements as competing vendors work to build out their social
listening and campaign portfolios, and heard a lot of pitches about customer experience,
customer engagement, and customer centricity. All the activity and innovation are great,
but what does it mean for the CFO who actually has to write the check? There are no new
rules for calculating the ROI from social CRM. The same old rules of ROI and credibility
apply when you’re looking at making the business case for a social technology investment,
be it internal, external, listening, or campaigning.
THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL CRM
There are only three types of benefits: those that increase revenues, those that reduce
costs, and those that increase productivity. The key to building a credible business case is
determining which application of social technologies is likely to deliver on one of those
areas and how it is likely to be achieved.
There are no new rules for calculating the ROI from social CRM.
In building the business case for a social CRM investment, companies need to first look at
breadth and repeatability to see where they’re likely to get the greatest bang for their
buck. The more people using an application (breadth) and the greater frequency with
which they use it (repeatability), the greater the potential ROI. As you look at your laundry
list of potential social CRM projects, rating them in terms of breadth and repeatability will
quickly tell you the ones that are likely to get you a positive, provable ROI − and result in
more budget for other projects.
RESEARCH NOTE
SELLING SOCIAL CRM TO THE CFO
July 2013 Document N105