Vendor Relationship Management

Given the rise of the Social Web, the new role of the customer and the concepts of Social CRM have counterpart in business supply chain processes: Vendor Relationship Management (VRM). Beyond employee customer interactions and Operations led production and delivery processes, what are the additional points of impact in the creation of the customer experience? What about businesses with a more complex supply chain, or whose control over the delivery experience depends on the direct or indirect contributions of other firms and organizations? Think about vacation and destination travel services, where a holiday package offered through American Express may involve multiple customer facing partners. How do the concepts of Social CRM transform?

The Cluetrain Manifesto holds that the best marketing is conversational, built around interaction between the business and its customer, and between customers themselves. This philosophy underlies Social CRM in that it ties the conversation not just the transaction into the business processes. Vendor Relationship Management is about the application of the social tools that create and support collaborative conversations throughout the supply chain and delivery channels. To the extent that the Social Web is the evidence of push back by consumers against traditional marketing in favor of a more collaborative experience with brands, products , and services VRM is about extending the sought after collaborative experiences to the entire supply chain.