Microsoft adds social listening capabilities to CRM

The ability to develop actionable insights by listening to social conversations is among several powerful new capabilities that have been added to Microsoft Dynamics CRM portfolio.

Microsoft introduced a comprehensive set of new marketing and social listening capabilities to its Microsoft Dynamics CRM suite which are designed to help organizations match their customers to the right products and services, engage with them in the right way at the right time and nurture relationships.

The company said the launch delivers on its promise of rapid innovation with functionality that helps marketers be smarter, efficiently drive and manage campaigns, engage with and care for customers in a personalized manner on virtually any device, anywhere. One of the key aspects of the update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 is the social listening capability. Breaking from typical industry practice, Microsoft said it has brought social listening capabilities to every sales, service and marketing professional within an organization to empower more employees with deeper insights.

"Businesses want solutions that give them market insights and the ability to deliver amazing customer experiences," said Bob Stutz, corporate vp for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "The new Microsoft Dynamics CRM update democratizes social listening, adds new marketing capabilities for more impact and enables businesses to deliver outstanding customer service. With this new release, we are essentially changing the CRM game."

The ability to listen is the starting point for every relationship which is why Microsoft said it has emphasized social listening. The company’s new service adds the capabilities for people to analyze and act on market intelligence from social conversations, including measuring sentiment across a wide array of social channels. It also allows users to track product, brand, competitor and campaigns globally and in real time to gain true understanding of their customers and their business across the social Web.

Other upgrades relate to Microsoft Dynamics Marketing (formerly MarketingPilot) where changes were made to make the design of powerful marketing campaigns easier and more intuitive. Marketers have been given the ability to reach customers more effectively across multiple channels, manage leads, deliver millions of email messages daily and perform deep marketing analytics in 35 markets in 10 languages.

Other advancements came in the often overlooked area of customer care. Microsoft said it created a new “unified service desk,” application for call centers that provides insight into customer needs across every channel, including the Web, social and mobile. For example, alongside the capabilities gained in the recent acquisition of Parature, Microsoft Dynamics CRM now offers customers a choice in deploying customer service capabilities ranging from self-service via support portals, Facebook and Twitter to Web chat and video capabilities, all of which leverage a shared knowledge base to ensure answers can be delivered consistently on the right channel at the right time.