Nature and Nurture

Everyone has nature and engages in nurturing.

Traditional CRM attempts to crunch all data into the form of individual characteristics, i.e.translating all data into a descriptions of individual nature. Effectively, this meant behaviors, e.g. purchase and web analytics, were converted to attributes.

With social networking coming to the fore, there are two new types of data available: relationships and conversations. CRM practitioners should resist the temptation to crunch these new types of data into individual characteristics. Rather, they should find the means to analyze these sources in their native forms. Use conversations to predict conversations to recruit the right conversationalists into the brand’s fold. Use relationships to predict relationships to establish new relationships with the brand.

Similarily, start analyzing behaviors using behavioral analytics.

An object in motion stays in motion. A change in characteristics implies influence by another. Beyond using native techniques for each type of data to analyze that data type, CRM practitioners should also be analyzing data in each type to infer data in the other types. A change in behavior may imply a conversation occurred.

Everyone has nature and engages in nurturing. Social CRM practitioners should embrace analyzing nurturing data in its native form and should be analyzing all data sources to derive nurturing data from other types. This way, they will optimize their opportunities to sustain the relationship between people and their brand.