I recently came across this article on CIO from David Taber, author of "Salesforce.com Secrets of Success" and CEO of SalesLogistix. Taber discusses when and why customer service should run the CRM show. Of course, this is a topic near and dear to our hearts here at Helpstream. We've always believed customer service is the "on-ramp" to community and is the first phase of the Social CRM Virtuous Cycle. Taber says, "Nirvana comes when sales, marketing, and customer service are all equally using — depending on — the CRM system for their success. But few companies achieve this. And besides, somebody has to go first." Beyond just incorporating customer service into your CRM system, letting it take the lead allows your company to move beyond CRM to Social CRM.

Taber goes on to discuss how any company whose business relies on repeat customers and long-term customer relationships is an ideal candidate for CS-led CRM. We couldn't agree more. Our thriving online customer service communities are a vital first step in Social CRM. Bringing your customers together in a community means they are able to engage with your company and other customers to solve problems and share insights, while creating additional sales and marketing benefits, such as generating word-of-mouth marketing, learning the opinions of your customers, and effectively nurturing leads.

The difficulty of getting employees to use your CRM system is also addressed by Taber. Our take again goes back to the importance of the social experience. If your customers are actively engaged in your customer community, your marketing, sales and product development departments, to name a few, will be clamoring to take advantage of the customer insight that comes from community participation.

Taber concludes by pointing out that "the customer support function has more interaction with customers than nearly any other group. Getting them fully leveraging your CRM system creates a data asset of tremendous value." We take this concept even further by engaging customers and letting their support needs and feedback speak for themselves. After all, that's what the social Web is all about — leveraging individual voices for the betterment of the group.