A Balanced Scorecard Approach to Social CRM Performance Measurement

Abstract

The use of social media by businesses to reach, engage and serve customers, called Social CRM (sCRM), has soared in recent years. The initial enthusiastiasm that preceded many quickly launched sCRM initiatives, however, often soon subsides in the face of management challenges emerging due to the lack of best practices and standard approaches. These process immaturities pertain as well to sCRM performance measurement activities, which unfavourably coincides with an increasing need to reliably measure the effectiveness and benefits of sCRM activities. Social media managers are currently methodologically ill-equipped to meet the demands of increased accountability. Although a limited number of vanguard firms have developed insular frameworks to address this issue, there are currently no satisfactory generic solutions on the market. This paper presents a measurement framework based on balanced scorecard (BSC) for effective sCRM performance measurement. It was developed by thoroughly researching the specific design and practical requirements of sCRM measurement. Based on this the presented sCRM scorecard outlines four key areas of sCRM performance. For each of these crucial performance areas, practitioners are provided with scorecard examples and groups of suitable metrics for evaluation.