Effectiveness of Social Media Platforms in Customer Relationship Management

This research aims to identify the effectiveness of social media platforms in customer relationship management as organisational marketing strategy. The research methodology includes primary and secondary research, questionnaire, quantitative research, and positivism philosophy. The literature review covers the concept of customer relationship management, customer feedback, customer strategies, use of social media, and barriers faced by managers of Marks & Spencer in managing customer relations through social media. The research objectives are to understand the concept of customer relationship management, discern the importance of social media platform in marketing strategy of Marks & Spencer for managing customer relationship, and examine different barriers faced by managers of Marks & Spencer in managing customer relations through social media as a medium of marketing.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
(Effectiveness of social media
platforms in customer
relationship management)

ABSTRACT
Main purpose of this research is to identify the effectiveness of social media platforms in
customer relationship management as organisational marketing strategy. This is a main purpose
that will be attained through different methods. These are primary and secondary research,
questionnaire, quantitative research, positivism philosophy etc. In this, secondary data has been
gathered from books, articles etc. sources within literature review, whereas primary data will be
gathered from questionnaire. Therefore, all these are essential methods that would be beneficial
for researcher in attaining research aim and objectives in successful manner.

Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Overview of the research
The term social media is defined as a computer-based technology that assists the sharing
of thoughts, ideas and information by building communities and virtual networks. Social media
is Internet based and provides users electronic communication of content. Along with this,
customer relationship management introduces to the combination of strategies, technologies and
practices, which are uses by companies with purpose to manage and evaluate customer. In simple
word, it is an essential technology for managing company’s relationships and interactions with
customers and potential clients (Kwayu, Lal and Abubakre, 2018). Main goal of CRM (Customer
relationship management) is to enhance business relationship with different stakeholders that are
customers, suppliers etc. CRM helps business organisations stay connected to customers,
improve profitability and streamline process. Therefore, use of social media platforms such as
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc., are effective for an organisation in improve relationship of
customers towards their business services, practices and products. All these social media
platforms are not only used for promoting and advertising new products but also essential in
providing customer service as well as resolve disputes.
Background of the M&S
Marks & Spencer is a chosen British multinational retail organisation with headquartered
in London. Company was founded in 1884 by Michael marks, Thomas Spencer. M&S is
specialising in manufacturing and selling clothing for men, women and children, most of the
products are in own label. Company is also well-known for its food and food products. M&S
wants to improve relationship of their customers through social media platforms. There are
different platforms used by M&S such as Instagram, Twitter and many others (Tanwar and
Kumar, 2019). With the help of these platforms, M&S attract their customers towards products
or services. In this platform, company displays their all products with different categories as well
as provide accurate information regarding product’s quality, features, price etc. All these
information helps company in making strong relationship with their customers.
Research Aim
“To identify the effectiveness of social media platforms in customer relationship
management as organisational marketing strategy.” A study on Marks & Spencer

Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of customer relationship management.
 To discern the importance of social media platform in marketing strategy of Marks &
Spencer for managing customer relationship.
 To examine different barriers faced by managers of Marks & Spencer in managing
customer relations through social media as a medium of marketing.
Research Questions
 Explain the concept of customer relationship management?
 What is the importance of social media platform in marketing strategy of Marks &
Spencer for managing customer relationship?
 What are the different barriers faced by managers of Marks & Spencer in managing
customer relations through social media as a medium of marketing?
Rationale and importance of the research
Main rationale of conducting this research is to identify the effectiveness of social media
platforms in customer relationship management as organisational marketing strategy. With the
help of this research, researcher can easily recognise different social media platforms and its
benefit in managing customer relationship.
Current research is highly significant for various stakeholders, which are customers,
M&S, students and researcher. For students, current research helps them by enhancing their
understanding about social media platforms and its effectiveness in management of customer
relationship. For researcher, present investigation is important for them by improving their
research skills (Wolf, Sims and Yang, 2018). These skills are data collection, time
management, decision making and many more. For M&S, current research or topic facilitates
them by enhancing their understanding regarding the benefits of CRM in their business
performance. For customers, present study assists them in enhancing their knowledge about the
brand i.e. M&S. Therefore, all these are main stakeholders that will facilitate from current study
or topic.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the process of collecting secondary information from different sources
that are articles, books, magazines etc. All these sources facilitate researcher in achieving
research aim and objectives through research questions. These are described as below;
Concept of customer relationship management
According to Alalwan and et. al., (2016), customer relationship management is a process
of managing interaction and relationship with customers. The main motive of customer
relationship management is to enhance the business relations. Through customer relationship
management, Marks and Spencer can gain insight into the perspective and behaviour of people
and modify their business activities in order to provide better products and services. Customer
relationship management helps in identifying sales opportunity, manage marketing and store
customer and their detailed information. It includes the practices, guidelines and principles that
Marks and Spencer follows while interacting with customers. There are various benefits of
customer relationship management which are gained by Marks and Spencer such as it improves
customer service, retain customers, increase sales, improves efficiency and provide better
analytics. The Customer relationship management of Marks and Spencer manages the contacts
and information of customer in order to build their profile. It helps in availing easy access to
information on behaviour of customer like previous communications with client across different
channels and purchase records. CRM enable company to have customer- facing, social media,
chat and email touch points which can be accessible at one place. It is a tool through which
Marks and Spencer can retain their customer by implementing sentiment analysis, customer
support, automated ticketing and customer service automation so that they can retain the
customer by defusing problem.
According to the Garrido-Moreno and et. al., (2018), CRM tool helps in sharing better
knowledge by building knowledge base, allowing communication between team members and
establishing best practices workflows. It also allows greater transparency by assigning task,
delegating authorities and showing work who is doing what. Through customer relationship
management, Marks and Spencer can gain visibility on their business process, collaboration and
mutual understanding. It is specially designed to improve the sales, enhance customer interaction
and running the marketing campaigns. Customer relationship management is important as it
helps in gaining details of customer so that they can easily track them and determine which

customer is profitable. Marks and Spencer generally use customer relationship management
system to deal with existing customer as well as acquire new customers.
Customer’s feedback
It has been identified that customer’s feedback from social media is very effective in
managing customer’s relationship at Marks & Spencer because the company has great presence
on different platforms of social media. When customers put their needs and requirements related
to specific product, company could easily launch the product according to the preference of
customers. With the assistance of feedback, company could easily know about the grievances of
customers and with this they make changes in their product and service so that they could retain
their existing as well as attract new customers.
Customer’s strategies
One of the best customer strategies for Marks & Spencer include using different channels
of social media to understand the requirements and needs of customers. This assists in
understanding the channel most suitable for targeting audience.
Use of social media
Marks and Spencer could increase their social presence on social media because it helps
in increasing open communication which assists companies to understand requirements of
customers. This assists Marks & Spencer to respond efficiently and proactively to those
requirements.
Way to use social media
Marks & Spencer use social media more effectively by different ways which include:
planning, considering audience, remembering social media is social, dedicating time to social
media and experimenting. Company should create objectives and goals and connect goals of
social media to goals of organisation. Considering social media platform that is mostly used by
customers and after that creating interactive online presence. The next step is to dedicate proper
time because it is very critical for the success. The last and important one is evaluating and
adjusting strategy of social media until company finds what works for the organisation.
Importance of social media platform in marketing strategy of Marks & Spencer for managing
customer relationship

As per the viewpoint of, Elena, (2016) there are various importance of social media
platform in marketing strategy of Marks and Spencer for managing customer relationship.
Through social media platform the brand awareness of company gets improved. The platform is
profitable and stress free digital marketing platforms that can help in increasing the business
visibility. Marks and Spencer is active on different social media platforms in order to increase its
customer base and attract more and more people towards the brand. In marketing strategy social
media platforms plays an important role in engaging more customer and improving brand loyalty.
Social media platforms help in managing customer relations by interacting and communication
actively and satisfy them with their thought and issues. Social media platforms play important
role in communication and networking platform. Marks and Spencer has created a voice on social
media platforms in order to improve their brand awareness and image in Market. In order to build
strong customer relationship, Marks and Spencer make an effort to engage their employees, run
promotion and sale activities, respond quickly and hold contest and competition. Social media
platforms in marketing strategy helps in connecting and improving the relationship with customer
by engaging more and more customer with its products and services.
According to the Foltean, Trif and Tuleu, (2019), effective use of social media platforms
is to increase the brand recognition, improve converting potential, improve customer insight,
increasing organic ranking on google and develop better experience. There are various effective
ways of social media such as it provides customer support, resource for existing and potential
customer and to sell something. In order to maintain the healthy relations with customer it is
essential to ask regularly for feedback so that Marks and Spencer can improve their services and
product. The customer relationships can be managed by improving communication with
customers, address complaints and negative feedback, reward loyal customer and interact with
customers on regular basis. The feedbacks of customer must be effectively managed by defining
the objectives, collecting feedback across multiple channels and using feedback for internal
brainstorming.
Different barriers faced by managers of Marks & Spencer in managing customer relations
through social media as a medium of marketing
As per the opinion of Abedin, 2016), there are different barriers which are faced by
managers of Marks and Spencer while managing customer relations through social media. It is
the responsibility of manager to engage and interact with customer on social media for

improving the sale and growth of Marks and Spencer. Social Media platforms helps in managing
customer relations by connecting with their potential customers. The manager of Marks and
Spencer creates fresh and meaningful content in order to communicate and interact with
customer. The content includes the description of products and services, new arrivals and
discount and sale schemes. Barriers which are faced by manager while managing customer
relations through social media are responding quickly, creating attractive and innovative content
to attract customer, developing strong and distinct voice and responding social media platforms.
These are the challenges which is faced by manager of Marks and Spencer. It is necessary to
overcome these issues by increasing audience engagement, personalising customer experience,
sharing user generated content and listen to customer feedback.
According to the Vinerean, (2017), management of Marks and Spencer deals with
customer strategy by identifying the touchpoints of customer so that company can grab the
attention of more and more audience. Marks and Spencer focus on developing effective customer
strategy by making customer happy and building driven customer service team. It is essential for
the organisation to make their customer feel happy by handling their complaints and issues.
Marks and Spencer must listen actively and engage with their customer so that they can resolve
the issues frequently. Company must also focus on running the contents and competition for
attracting maximum customer and encourage social recommendations through which sale and
profitability of business gets improved.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is described as the chapter that provides different kinds of
methodologies for accumulating, analysing and interpreting information. This is the chapter that
facilitates in analysing validity and reliability of information so that objectives could be easily
attained in systematic manner. Some of the research methodologies that are included in the
present research are: research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research choice,
data collection etc.
1. Research Design
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is the first layer of the research onion which
has certain set of principles concerning the stance from which the investigation is conducted. It is
generally studied in terms of epistemology, axiology and ontology. In the present investigation,
investigator will select epistemology philosophy because it is about valid and appropriate data
needed for the investigation and how researcher could obtain it (Nayak and Singh, 2021). The
epistemology is further classifies in three parts that include: positivism, interpretivism and
realism. Investigator will show dependence on positivism philosophy because it is about
assuming that knowledge is independent of the subject being studies and it analyses the gathered
numeric data in a very short period of time. It is scientific in nature and often finds in studies that
are qualitative in nature.
Research Approach: Research onion suggests that after selecting the appropriate
philosophy, research approach must be picked. The approaches are classified into two major
kinds that are: inductive and deductive approach. Investigator will choose deductive approach
because it is about development of numerical information based on the information gathered in
literature review and gradually checks the information if it holds in certain contexts. The
deductive approach is effective in measuring and analysing the numerical information in shorter
time period (Babii, 2020). On the other hand, inductive approach is not chosen because it about
evaluating non-numeric information in shorter time period and operates with the research that is
qualitative in nature.
Research Strategy: Research strategy is very necessary in the procedure of conducting
investigation as suggested by the research onion. The research onion recommends that strategies
could include surveys, case study research, systematic literature review, experimental research,
action research, grounded theory etc. The strategy is generally chosen according to the

information required for the investigation and the purpose of study. The current study focuses at
carrying out information about the effectiveness of social media platforms in customer
relationship management so researcher will choose systematic literature review and survey.
Systematic literature review will be chosen by investigator because it is about collecting
information from published data and sources (Bairagi and Munot, 2019). It includes sources
books, journals, articles, newspapers etc. Literature review is the chapter that covers major
information about the whole research. On the other hand, investigator will select survey to gather
quantitative and primary information in very short time duration. This kind of information is
easier to collect and very useful in attaining defined objectives of the investigation. One of the
greatest benefits of survey is it assists in gathering data directly from the source of information.
Research Choice: Research choice is defined as the research methodology that focuses
on procedure of accumulating information in systematic and proper manner. It assists in
gathering authentic, valid and reliable data. The choice is divided into two kinds that are: mono
method, mixed method and multi-mixed method. Investigator will choose mono method because
it assists in making choice between two choices that are qualitative and quantitative. The
researcher will choose quantitative research choice because it is about accumulating that is
available in quantitative manner (Igwenagu, 2016). The whole research will be based upon
numerical information because it is believed that this type of information is valid, authentic and
accurate in attaining the aim and objectives. On the other hand, researcher will not select
qualitative research choice because it is about collection of data that is present in theoretical form
and it takes longer time to evaluate such kind of data.
Sampling: Sampling is referred as the research methodology that is about selecting
certain number of participants to gather valid and authentic information. It is one of significant
methodologies in the research onion because it assists in including representatives from the given
large population. It is not possible to select whole population for conducting so particular
number of respondents are included. This is further classified into two kinds that are: probability
and non-probability sampling. Investigator will choose probability sampling because it helps in
choosing respondents in a large number. The major benefit related to the probability sampling is
it follows random sampling method in probability sampling. Random sampling defines that
researcher does not specify any specific conditions while selecting respondents. On the other
hand, non-probability is not chosen because it does not allow in choosing particular number of

respondents. Hence, 20 employees will be selected to gather information about the effectiveness
social media in customer relationship management (Cuervo‐Cazurra and et. al., 2017).
Time Horizon: Time horizon is very significant in the research onion because time is one
of the significant elements in conducting research. It simply defines how many activities in time
researcher plans to collect information. There are two options available in time horizon that are:
longitudinal and cross-sectional time horizon. Researcher will select cross-sectional time horizon
because it assists in scheduling activities in longer time duration.
2. Data collection and analysis
Data collection: Data collection is defined as procedure and technique that are used for
collecting information. It is being classified into two kinds that are: primary and secondary data
collection. The researcher will select both the methods of data collection. Primary method will be
used in the research because it is about collecting of raw information that means this type of
information will be gathered for the very first time. This kind of information is essential because
it uses questionnaire technique in which particular number of respondents will be selected to
attain targets in shorter time period (Melnikovas, 2018). On the other secondary method is used
for gathering already used and published piece of information. This kind of information is easily
available but it needs to be checked if it helps in attaining targets or not. This kind of data is
available through sources such as books, articles, journals, newspapers etc.
Data analysis: Data analysis is the part that focuses on evaluating and examining
information to check the validity, reliability and authenticity of data. In the current research,
investigator will use frequency distribution analysis to evaluate the numerical information.
Ethics, validity and reliability: The researcher will focus on attaining targets and
objectives by doing it ethically. Researcher will not harm respondents while gathering
information from them and investigator has also focused to protect the information that is
confidential for the chosen organisation. The collected data will be valid and reliable because
data will be gathered through valid primary and secondary sources.
Time plan: For scheduling the whole activities of research, investigator will take help of
Gantt chart because it divides every activity with appropriate time duration (van Hees and et. al.,
2016). This clearly schedules each activity in systematic and proper manner. It generally divides
activities according to time duration.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abedin, B., 2016. Diffusion of adoption of Facebook for customer relationship management in
Australia: An exploratory study. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing
(JOEUC). 28(1). pp.56-72.
Alalwan and et. al., 2016, September. A systematic review of extant literature in social media in
the marketing perspective. In Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society (pp.
79-89). Springer, Cham.
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету. 97(1). pp.77-87.
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Cuervo‐Cazurra and et. al., 2017. Research methodology in global strategy research. Global
Strategy Journal. 7(3). pp.233-240.
Elena, C.A., 2016. Social media–a strategy in developing customer relationship
management. Procedia Economics and Finance. 39. pp.785-790.
Foltean, F.S., Trif, S.M. and Tuleu, D.L., 2019. Customer relationship management capabilities
and social media technology use: Consequences on firm performance. Journal of
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Garrido-Moreno and et. al., 2018. The missing link: Creating value with social media use in
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Igwenagu, C., 2016. Fundamentals of research methodology and data collection. LAP Lambert
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Kwayu, S., Lal, B. and Abubakre, M., 2018. Enhancing Organisational competitiveness via
social media-a strategy as practice perspective. Information Systems Frontiers. 20(3).
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Melnikovas, A., 2018. Towards an explicit research methodology: Adapting research onion
model for futures studies. Journal of Futures Studies. 23(2). pp.29-44.
Nayak, J.K. and Singh, P., 2021. Fundamentals of Research Methodology Problems and
Prospects. SSDN Publishers & Distributors.
Tanwar, K. and Kumar, A., 2019. Employer brand, person-organisation fit and employer of
choice: Investigating the moderating effect of social media. Personnel Review.
van Hees and et. al., 2016. Challenges and opportunities for harmonizing research methodology:
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Vinerean, S., 2017. Importance of strategic social media marketing.
Wolf, M., Sims, J. and Yang, H., 2018, March. Social media? What social media?. In UKAIS (p.
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information.
Data analysis: