Exploring social customer relationship management in Australian small and medium enterprises

Social customer relationship management (SCRM) is a new business concept and strategy that utilises and integrates social networking with ‘traditional’ CRM processes and strategies in order to bring about superior engagement with customers. There is a paucity of scholarly empirical research into SCRM in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper describes the first large-scale survey-based study in Australia that explores the role and nature of SCRM in SMEs. Using a sample of 967 Australian SMEs (comprising 540 SCRM adopters and 427 SCRM non-adopters) and employing both descriptive and simple inferential statistics, we investigate the current level of SCRM adoption, types of social networking sites used with SCRM, business objectives for SCRM engagement, methods of sourcing or implementing a SCRM system, SCRM implementation-related activities, as well as the benefits and barriers related to SCRM implementation. The study results reveal that SCRM adoption by Australian SMEs has been relatively ad hoc, superficial (even primitive) and usually not supported by a formal integrated strategy and policy framework. Although SMEs that have adopted SCRM did so with the expectation of benefits, particularly in terms of building brand and establishing customer loyalty/intention, the study shows that SCRM benefits are often not immediately apparent in the short term; the results also indicate that lack of time and knowledge of how to implement SCRM effectively are critical barriers to successful SCRM adoption by SMEs. Our findings suggest further research is needed in this area.