Customer Relationship Management, a Winning Strategy

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This article has no intention to be exhaustive. Its objective is to highlight the importance of CRM in business, and hopefully provoke an insight like “why did I not implement that yet?” 

Is CRM a software? A technology? A process? More than that. 

It is a business strategy with outcomes that optimize profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction, adding value to the company and to the customer, by organizing around customer segments, fostering customer-satisfying behaviors and implementing customer-centric processes.

CRM allows:

· Greater customer insight

· Increased customer access / learn how the company can serve them better

· More effective inter-actions

· Effective internal and external communication

· Integration throughout all customer channels and back-office enterprise functions

· Maps customer journey

· Performance measurement on every step of the journey, especially the “touch points” and “moments of truth”

· Proactive management as you have a real time database

· Knowledge on customer reactions to the product and services

· Customer management, supporting decision making process

· Collecting customer profile information

· Collecting customer buying profile and preferences

· Collecting customer services expectations and preferences

· Team management as performance is being tracked

· High Management awareness

· Better contract/commitment management

· Shorten cycles

· Improved sales leads

CRM is about making every customer feel like they have a one-to-one relationship with you. 

Effective CRM gives you the opportunity to show your customers that: 

· You know and recognize them 

· You understand them 

· You care about their needs, questions and concerns 

· You want to deliver services and products they need the most 

· You appreciate their business

· You believe on their success

With CRM, employees, customers and other stakeholders will have a clear idea of:

· The value proposition the company is offering

· The nature of the customer experience to be delivered

· The importance and benefits of CRM to the enterprise strategy

· The customer-centric enterprise values

Having said all that, let’s talk about implementation and operation.

Implementation

The first step is to have the company aligned on the customer-centric strategy as it may change decision-making process, roles & responsibilities, priorities, inter-departmental support and metrics, people’s behaviors and attitudes.

Prepare your teams for customer centered organization before, during and after the implementation.

The high management involvement is paramount and shall not only launch the program but also follow regularly the evolution demonstrating the importance for the business to everyone.

A change management process is welcome at this stage.

Now that we have the company ready to change, let’s start the implementation by:

· Reviewing customer journey, customer experience by mapping them in details.

· Mapping all transactions and its metrics and targets, independently if currently is something you can track

· Understanding all operational and management needs

· Involving everyone in this implementation process

· Trying to learn as much as possible about the current systems available in the market 

· Identifying in the company your CRM champions, the ones who will lead, test, troubleshoot first

· Listing all functional, strategic and operational requirements

   - Among such requirements, some which is good to remind you:

           . On-line, cloud based platforms (today privacy is not anymore a big issue)

           . SaaS (software as a service) where you benefit from improvements, evolutions, corrections, updates and have a clear/assertive budget plan

           . Ability to interface with other company platforms

           . Mobile .capability (basic nowadays)

           . Plan for at least 5 to 10 years ahead (don’t use current numbers to determine the size of transactions, database, players)

Consider hiring someone with the knowledge to help in this first step until selection. There are many organizations that are specialized in implementing CRM and can present the pros and cons of these options. A simple web search of “CRM” will result in a list of dozens of organizations that work in this area. Visit their websites to review their services and consult testimonials. Also, drop in on web chatrooms and discussion forums about CRM. You can get many advices.

There is no better or worse. They need to be analyzed against your goals, preferences, requirements and you will get to the one which will better fit to your needs.

Summarizing, the implementation process shall have these steps:

· Define your vision

· Define your strategy

· Define your business objectives

· Get you team on board

· Review the customer journey and processes

· Identify the metrics

· Prioritize your initiatives

· Define your roadmap

Operation

Imagine your teams, all integrated, meaning knowing on real time basis all details about each customer, their transactions, their level of satisfaction, their last purchases or requests and your performance, their business and what they value, how they are performing and what you could to help/add value to their operation.

Imagine you can track pro-actively all interactions, getting alerts, flags on your center/system or on your mobiles, allowing you to act preventively to mitigate performance risks.

Imagine your high management being informed on a real time basis on important aspects of the customer operation of your product and the performance of the services/support.

Imagine your customer following your performance and perceiving all your focus and energy for his success.

Imagine working together with customers and suppliers to the best of all.

Imagine how much opportunity you have, how many “doors” are open…

This and much more can be achieved with CRM strategy and operation.

Go for it and enjoy the results.

June 19

References:

Gartner CRM handbook

www.innocationpei.com

www.salesforce.com

ebook CRM dor Dummies – Jorge Carrola Rodrigues