Another word on Social CRM – as a punter

I attended the SocialCRM panel debate at Social Media Week London  (#smwldn). See the last post for some quick tweeted insights from the event and also have a look at the vid for the event :

http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/smw_london?layout=4&clip=pla_d6bf2e93-cabf-45e2-b425-d95e5edf91fb&color=0xffad4b&autoPlay=false&mute=false&iconColorOver=0xe17b00&iconColor=0xb96500&allowchat=true

I wrote a longer piece about it on my agency blog (http://www.brassagency.com/blog/the-social-crm-panel-at-social-media-week) and as I mentioned there, I’ve got a  historical interest in CRM.

And here’s a more contemporary (as in, the same day I sat in the panel discussion) view on (S)CRM, as a punter.

I needed (no, really – needed as in my old ski / hiking jacket zipper had bust) to get a new jacket for walking up Snowdon on the Sunday of #SMWLDN. So, being within a few yards of Long Acre, I mooched about the Jack Wolfskin (http://www.jack-wolfskin.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx) shop. It was a great experience – the staff knew their stuff, all really friendly and no heavy sell and I bought a great jacket. (Great = after one rain and snow soaked trip up Snowdon it kept me dry and warm!).

So, to the CRM bit. Being giddy about the jacket and the fact that I wanted to check out the brand community (something I rarely do actually) I checked out JW on Facebook, twitter and also on their site. Nothing, Nada to engage with. Actually nichts would be better, as JW is a German company.

Yes, there’s a Facebook page but it hasn’t been updated for a year and there’s also what looks like an official twitter account that has zero activity and just a handful of followers.
I’m curious as to why no active engagement, as the walking / climbing outdoor community (from what I’ve seen) are an engaged lot.  So I’d have thought the brand would have been active across the social graph. If I had been caught (willingly) in a conversation on twitter or FB or been asked to sign up to a newsletter, or been given an incentive in store to capture my info – I would have done so happily. And I would have spread the word. Which I did on the Snowdon trip to some extent but that was to one person and not amplified on my social network/s. Opportunity missed so far I think. And yes, I’m going to contact them  

The same trip I and my new jacket were on. my photo.