In China, WeChat is leading the Social CRM with an entire system made to better engage Chinese customer, tag them and create personalized journeys.
What is Social CRM?
Social CRM, or social relationship management, is customer relationship management (CRM) and engagement fostered by communication with customers through social networking sites.
Traditionally, CRM were developed via letters, phone calls or emailing. With the rise of social networking sites, it was the opportunity for companies to better reach their audience in platforms they connect, for most of them, at least once a day.
Social CRM are for example present on Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram in the west. In China, WeChat SCRM is leading the way.
Social CRMs allow companies to collect data about their users, create better communications, access a large range of insights and develop advocacy.
Social CRM in China
In China, WeChat is leading the Social CRM Structure with the WeChat social app combined with the WeCom application.
The WeChat Social CRM allows companies to connect with their customers using Official Accounts and WeCom. WeCom is an interface dedicated to companies’ sales teams to better connect with customers.
The Social CRM can then be linked to other CRM such as Drip or Youzan.
Setting up your WeChat Store
t is possible to combine Wechat, CRM and online store using Youzan.
For this part, we asked Devi, Head of Digital at Dekuple China, to give us more insights about WeChat stores.
Why having a private store is an interesting option in China?
Online shopping has become an indispensable way for Chinese consumers and it can bring 3 kinds of value for brand/company:
- Brand value: Establish and disseminate brand image and specific brand culture. It is also a manifestation of the company’s strength.
- Data value: Facilitate the collection and classification of TA’s data and other data, also make TA portraits to realize precision marketing.
- Marketing value: One more sales channel which cover a wider customer group and delivery products directly to customers and shorten the sales process. It is convenient to connect to other network platforms for dissemination.
In which platform is Dekuple China launching private stores? What are the advantages?
The structure of Youzan Store is more flexible, many forms of operation can be carried out according to the merchant’s own situation, with diversified functions. Youzan allows to establish a complete service ecosystem to provide more additional services for merchants.Youzan can be empowered through external interfaces, connect online and offline business.
QR Codes
In China, people are using QR Codes daily to pay, follow an Official Account, or order in restaurants. QR Codes are everywhere and are the gate for companies to start an offline to online journey.
For Social CRM usage, QR Codes are the starting point. Users simply scan a QR Code at an offline store for example, and are guided towards an entire online journey especially created for them.
Having different QR Codes, for different purposes, is the key for brands to start tagging and segmenting their audience.
Chinese consumers behavior
Chinese consumers’ behavior differs from the west in terms of journeys. They tend to compare a lot of the different products available both offline and online before purchasing. Knowing which consumer has visited an offline shop, scanned a QR Code there, before visiting the online shop and put a product in a cart he abandoned, is the key to convert him/her.
Social CRM allows brands to track all contact consumers have with them, their product preferences and actions towards them. Understanding them is a real added value for identifying purchase intentions, better analyze and engage followers, build awareness and improve overall communications.
WeChat SCRM
WeChat SCRM is the perfect tool for both clienteling and membership.
Clienteling is the practice of establishing better relationships and presence with customers, using collected data. The goal for companies is to convert those customers and followers into members.
Membership points out the differences between followers, customers and gather best practices to convert them into members. Members are loyal customers, who can have access to coupons and other promotions to reward their loyalty.
WeChat SCRM acts in favor of an integrated user experience in only one environment including:
- Official accounts: Customers can chat with the brand, access to the store location thanks to the location-based services, etc…
- WeCom: Track interactions of sales staff with clients
Steps for Setting up your Social CRM for China
- Define the different audiences you want to identify
- Set up your QR Codes
- Create the tags they should be identify with, related to their behaviors
- Imagine the journey each segment audience should follow
- Define the strategy for each segment
Dynamic tagging
Users are tagged for every action they make. If they scan a QR code in an offline shop, they will be identified accordingly. Every user can have an unlimited number of tags, tracking every gesture they made related to the brand.
Below are some examples:
- Follow the OA from offline store called X
- Follow the OA after reading Article Y
- Has clicked on Ad Z
- Has bought product A
- Has abandoned a 200$ value cart containing 2 products A
- Has tried a customization with features B and C on product A
- Has used coupon in offline store U
- …
Parametrics QR Codes to onboard
Because tagging the audience involves a way to track behavior, QR Codes are the perfect tool for it. Every brand should have different QR Codes for each store and each event they go to.
In China, consumers are used to scanning QR Codes and will naturally do it if they see one. It is also a good way to track the behavior of Chinese customers abroad.
Analysis and measurement
When users are selecting particular items, or different elements of a personalized product, it allows the brand to know about their clients’ favorite designs, adapt their stock and develop more suitable products.
WeChat Social CRM attaches different pieces of information to followers, customers and members to constantly track users’ behavior and leverage it.
Advanced segmentation
Tagging is complementary with segmentation. When tagging identifies different behaviors, segmentation allows brands to gather customers with the same behavior, so the same tags.
How to Segment your Audience
The brand can decide its own way to segment its audience: by how they followed the official account, what they bought, the amount they used to spend, etc…
Another way to segment users is to identify rather they are at the top or at the bottom of the conversion funnel. Brand usually identify 5 different stages to associate with 5 objectives:
- Follower: with the goal to onboard them
- Lead: with the goal to generate a purchase intention from them
- Prospect: with the goal to drive a first purchase
- Client: with the goal of generating loyalty and more purchase
- Advocate: with the goal of keeping them satisfied
Once brands are able to identify each segment, they have to understand how to speak to them.
Customized communication to engage
The best practice is to adapt the brand communication to each segment. Different content should be sent to different audiences.
Therefore, some articles should target a specific audience and not be sent to one who can see it as irrelevant. Furthermore, when a content can suit several audiences, it could be interesting to adapt the images and description. Brands should also think about doing A/B testing on different designs and wording to find those who are catching more impressions and conversions.
Adapting the communication to each segment makes the content perform better.
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty program are tools for Brands to get more engagement from their followers, and fidelize them.
An example of a loyalty program is the one from La Mer. La Mer created a point system, where customers collect points on the Mini Program each time they buy items on it. Many different products are then available at the points store, where customers can exchange their points for La Mer products.
Source : Milled.com
Brands can also giveaway coupons and birthday gifts via the Mini Program to reward the more loyal customers.
Swarovski x DLG Case Study
DLG created a loyalty program for Swaroski hosted within the brand’s WeChat Official Account, with the purpose to encourage repeat purchase intentions from existing clients.
Source : digitalluxurygroup.com
Customers could enjoy special perks and services and the program came with a tiered membership structure. The more users are ascending the tiers, the more perks they get. In addition, users can also access gifts and vouchers thanks to a points system.
Tips to Create your User Journeys
A user journey is a person’s experience during one session of using a website or application.
Towards a better user experience with personalized user journeys
User journeys are the different paths your visitors can take when they are coming in your channel platform. A good marketing strategy is to build different user journeys for each type of customer you have.
The first step is to define the different types of customers by segmenting them. Segmenting your audience is a preliminary to build an efficient marketing automation. To do so, users would be tagged for each action there are taking on your platform such as clicking on a tab, adding a product to their cart, abandoning a cart or sending a request to a chat, and so on.
Once the different user segments defined, it is important to analyze their behavior using data analysis. This way, the brand can build better answer each segment needs and personalized their journey in a purpose to optimized the user experience.
Adapting your brand user journeys to a Chinese audience
A Chinese user journey will for sure involve WeChat. WeChat has the advantage of being a SuperApp including a large range of services, making the journey more complete and diverse.
Brands can leverage several WeChat features to enrich their user journey:
- WeChat Official Accounts
- WeChat Channel (videos)
- WeChat Live Stream
- WeChat Store
- WeChat Ads
- …
O2O opportunities
Tracking Online and Offline Behaviors
WeChat allows brands to track new followers’ origin on Official Accounts, by collecting data from QR Codes, articles, link sent, and much more. As an example, each time a QR Code is created, users who scan it are automatically segmented with the appropriate tag on the WeChat OA follower database. This way, brands can easily know from where are coming new followers: a QR code on a flyer, another one shared on articles, the pop-up store QR Code, or even if followers are coming after having read a specific article you shared.
Location-Based Services (LBS)
This LBS feature is available on WeChat for brick-and-mortar stores. Businesses can use a map to indicate their store location to their visitors
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Dekuple China is a Marketing Agency dedicated to the growth of Digital Footprint and Inbound Marketing techniques in China.
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