The Problem With Social CRM Statistics

The problem with statistics in general is that 86.5698% of them are made up and then 110% of the remaining true ones are manipulated and overinflated to make points they can’t possibly make with 100% accuracy.

The other problem with statistics is that 100.5% of them aren’t talking specifically about your business and therefore can’t with 1000% precision tell you what you need to be focusing on.

Ninety-six percent of people will tell you that sucks.

So, where you you even begin to start figuring out how your audience and markets will react to your Social Business switch and Social CRM implementation without those precious stats we all Google almost daily?

The Problem With Using Statistics

Okay, in all fairness, not all statistics are crap. Through our years of applying the scientific method to marketing and advertising research we’ve pretty much got a semi-firm grip on how to sample universes and arrive at conclusive (if not perfect) results.

The problem really comes in when every company wants to base ALL decisions on statistics gathered by other people for different reasons. It’s impossible to come to any real conclusions and efforts when everyone’s looking for the easy way out.

Do you want to know how your audience will react to Social CRM initiatives and strategies powered by your company? Well, do a quick Google search and you’ll find that XYZ Incorporated (who exist in a similar field) tried basically the same thing with their audience and got a results sample back that was 76% positive.

You’re thining about making a major corporate overhaul to the internal communications structure and your previous action was littered with terms like quick, similar, their, basically, sample, etc, etc. Even if their results were 100% accurate (which they aren’t) and they sampled 100% of their audience (which they didn’t) and were under the exact same set of criteria that you are (which they weren’t), their results STILL couldn’t be guaranteed to translate perfectly to your brand and target markets.

The Most Scientific Solution

Do you want to know how your audience will react to Social CRM initiatives and strategies powered by your company? Ask them.

The most scientific way to be certain of how your particular audience will react to upcoming changes is to sample your exact audience and find out. Hold focus groups, send out email surveys, track them down one-by-one and ask them in person. However your audience responds most favorably, use that method to actually take the time to learn for yourself.

Most good Social CRM software will connect into your existing CRM systems and allow you to reach out and communicate, so let that be step number one: reach out and explain your upcoming strategy ideas to your audience and see what their exact statistic comes out to be. Whatever that question may be.

Should we use a new email template once we switch to Social CRM so everything matches? Ask.
Should we schedule daily contests on Facebook and will people even take part in them? Ask.
Would actively ramping up our efforts on Twitter be beneficial? Ask.

You’ll be surprised how far you can get and how much you can learn by simply asking the people you want to know about.

So, next time you’re trying to find the easy way out and learn something about your audience by Google-ing to find stats from other companies about other people, take a step back and figure out a way to use your successful communication channels to ask the people you’re hoping to learn about before doing something that may affect their view of your brand.

It’ll pay off in the long run.

I’m 100% certain of it.

Thoughts?

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