This is a discussion, please provide a response with a good source...

Customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved over the years thanks to the rise of social media. Prior to social media, CRM was personal and existed between the customer and the employees. The face-to-face interactions gave the employees the opportunity to chat, remember their names, concerns, and even offer a small freebie from time to time (UMGC, 2020). In today's market, CRM takes place primarily via social media. Customers are now able to "@" or direct message (DM) companies easily whenever they have questions, concerns or comments regarding the company or their product. Customers are made to feel seen and heard which builds trust and loyalty. Social media can be seen as a negative for many companies. Companies are forced to make political/social stands that align with the beliefs of their customers often making the brands rebrand themselves to fit their customers values.

For an online merchandise store like CompanyOne, I'd recommend they use Sprout Social as their social and analytical CRM tool. Some of the pros of Sprout Socials includes having a well organized dashboard for messages, tasks, feeds, publishing, discovery, and reports. "Sprout Social's analytics, brand monitoring, follower management, and reporting capabilities are all useful and practical" (Paul Chaney, 2015). The major drawback of Sprout Socials includes limited number of social networks. Users have access to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ page and LinkedIn but not Pinterest and Instagram. Sprout Social also has a limited number of social networks and is expensive compared to other CRM tools which might be seen as a problem for smaller businesses.