Social CRM Said Boosting Sales Productivity by 11.8%

March 9, 2012

nucleusresearch-socialcrm-improvedsalesproductivity-mar2012.jpgSocial customer relationship management (CRM) makes sales people 11.8% more productive, according to [download page] a survey released in March 2012 by Nucleus Research. In fact, 21% of social CRM users said that sales productivity improved by more than 20%, while a further 37% cited productivity gains of 10-20%.

By contrast, just 7% indicated no productivity benefits.

Adoption High, but Struggles Remain

Roughly 4 in 5 companies that use CRM applications are using some type of social CRM technology, with the most common use being integration of an external network such as Facebook or LinkedIn with an existing CRM application (47%). Other technologies used by respondents include an internal social-type network (36%), integrated presence monitoring and instant messaging (25%), and push updates such as activity feeds or chatter (22%).

Even so, many CRM users appear confused by social CRM – in fact, 16% said they did not know what this was, and just 8% identified themselves as best-in-class in use and evaluation of these technologies.

These users may have time to get up to speed, at least when it comes to using social CRM to respond to customer service issues made through social media: March 2012 data from Ovum suggests that only 10% of consumers from developed countries have tapped into social media for customer service, although that proportion rises to 32% among consumers in emerging markets.

Mobile Access to CRM Also Improves Productivity

nucleusresearch-mobilecrm-improvedsalesproductivity-mar2012.jpgMeanwhile, data from Nucleus Research’s “The Value of Mobile and Social for CRM” indicates that the value of mobile access to CRM outweighs even that of social, with mobile access increasing sales force productivity by an average of 14.6% among users. An impressive 3 in 10 mobile CRM users said that productivity improved by more than 20%, with a further 46% citing gains of 10-20%, meaning that three-quarters of mobile CRM users saw productivity improvements of at least 10%. By contrast, just 2% said they saw no measurable benefits from mobile access to CRM.

Overall, 74% of respondents said that they have enabled access to CRM applications.

Other Findings:

  • The most popular mobile device for sales force automation (SFA) access is the iPhone (67%), followed by Droid (48%) and iPad (46%).
  • The most common selection process for mobile device CRM access is by management deciding and dictating what device is used (40%).

About the Data: The Nucleus Research data is based on a survey of 223 CRM decision makers, analyzing deployments of both vendors in the CRM Value Matrix and niche CRM vendors in the US and Europe. Respondents included small, medium, and large enterprises using both on-demand and on-premise CRM applications.

The Ovum data is based on a survey of more than 4,000 consumers across four developed countries (the US, the UK, France, and Germany) and four emerging countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).

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