Introduction to Research Methods
In modern era, social media emerged as one of the biggest and most potential platform to advertise and market products and services. Now a days most of the business have stared using social media such as Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools. On the other hand, the competition among business has become so intense that businesses are required to retain their customers. In present scenario organizations seeks for the ways through which they can enhance their customers base and manage relationship with customers. This research will reflective how the use of social media can help in developing better relationship with all customers.
Samsung is one of the leading manufacturer of smartphone in current market. Samsung is facing tough competition from Apple. Further both these brands have emerged as biggest rivals of each other. In order to maintain its existing market share and customer base, Samsung Mobile is required to make sure that it develops effective relationship with all its customers. This report will focus on whether or not it possible for Samsung to improve Customer Relationship Management using social media.
Conduct research to find literature review relevant to research question
In the present era, the competition among business in mobile industry is increasing at a very good pace. It can be stated that with the increase in users of mobile phone, the companies operating in this industry has also increased to a great extent (Nambisan and Baron, 2007). Nowadays companies such as Samsung, Microsoft, Apple etc. are seeking for different ways through which they can build strong relationship with their customers in order to retain them. In every two or three months, a new model is launched with improved design and upgraded technology. This means that businesses in this industry are required to maintain good relationship with their customers in order to understand their need and demand (Kim and Ko, 2012). In this context, social media has emerged as one of the most potential for businesses to interact with their customers. Further with the help of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, brands are able to make people aware about upcoming models, their features, new offers etc.
Significance and benefits of using social media in customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) can be defined as the action plan and strategies which organization implement in order to interact with customers and analyze their need and demand. One of the main aim behind using CRM strategies to build and enhance business relation with all customers. As per the view of Sashi, (2012) customer relationship management is not only considered as a pure business but it is one of the most effective technique for developing personal bond with people in the market. Establishment of such kind of bond drives a business to new heights of growth and success. However Jansen and et. al., (2009) argued that bond between customers and company is important because it helps in understating the actual need a demand of people in market. Majority of the time businesses fail because they are not able to cope up with changing need and preferences of customers. This is one of the major reason regarding why businesses are now eager to developed effective and efficient strategies (Gupta and Lehmann, 2005).
The use of CRM tool can help organizations to get become more visible in terms of their client base. Kim and Srivastava, (2007) has explained that with social media can be termed as very effective tool in customer relationship management. Nowadays businesses can create their official page on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This can help companies to tackle some of the most important factors such as decline of sales and rate of customer turnover. On the other side of this De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, (2012) has asserted that it is not an easy task for manager to develop a good bond and relationship with all their customers. Customer in modern era, are able with lot of choices and alternatives which means that it is very difficult for a business enterprise to gain loyalty for them (Ngai, 2005). If the people in market find any fault in products or services then they switch to the products and services which are offered by other market players. For instance, if the product is not available on time then, customers are encouraged to choose and use the other alternatives available in marketplace.
One of the most important benefits of using social media in customer relationship management is that it is very cost effective. According to Rust and Chung, (2006) business are not required to bear additional cost at the time of using social media. By adding social media channels in existing CRM practises, companies can easily lead in market with the new information which can be gained from social media. However Lin and Lee, (2005) argued that at the time of interacting with customer through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter also helps businesses to respond quickly to the changing need and demand. Further with the help of publishing tweets, new post on Facebook and videos on YouTube at regular interval, organizations can easily create a strong bond with the people in market.
As per the view of Lin and Lee, (2005) social CRM nowadays matter because it supports companies in getting aware of what other people are discussing, complaining and giving reviews about a particular company. One of the major reason behind the development of strong bond between customers is that interacting with customers helps in creating sense of satisfaction among people as they started to perceive that business are really taking care of them. On the other side of this, Aula, (2010) has argued that, people tell companies that what kind of changes or modification thy want in existing products or services. The use of social networking sites as integrate the communication to various aspects associated with maintaining a strong relation with customers. in addition to this, there are several benefits of effective bond between company and all its customers (Libai and et. al., 2010). One of the major advantage is that it enhances the degree of client loyalty. This results in increasing sales and profitability of business for long run (Hoffman and Fodor 2010). Organization are also able to gain competitive advantage with the help of social CRM practises as their customers do not switch to any other brands available in the marketplace. Along with this, use of social media in customer relationship management also supports companies to get all the new notifications at one particular place. Another benefit of social CRM is that it helps businesses to get aware of the online behaviour of people in market. Evans and Davis, (2005) has asserted that it has become very important for organizations to understand behaviour of people within market. This helps business to get aware of the changing market trends and needs of