The spirit of CRM
CRM is an approach which diversifies the customer facing
processes, according to Customer groups of different value to the Enterprise.
CRM is about tuning the consumption of Enterprise resources, in order to provide
increased value to the valuable Customers.
‘Tuning the consumption of Enterprise resources’ means trying
to identify optimal approaches in investing existing budget to handle the
Customer relationship. Optimal approaches would entail the direct & flexible
linking between Customer value to the Enterprise and service level or pricing
offered.
Enabler of this approach is Customer insight: the knowledge
of the Customer by the Enterprise, the Customer’s value to the Enterprise and
the Customer’s preferences in the relationship with the Enterprise. If this
information is unavailable, the Enterprise is unable to apply any of the above
mentioned practices. CRM is about developing Organisational processes &
competences, which shall allow the Enterprise to better learn from the Customer
and adopt to the Customer’s needs, thus positioning itself to better serve the
latter.
CRM is about transformation of an Entreprise, from
product-centric to customer-centric & solution-focused.
CRM is about viewing ‘one face of the Customer’: the ability
to consolidate records related to a single Customer, in order to produce a
holistic view (or 360 degree view) of that Customer.
CRM is about having ‘one face to the Customer’. All Customer
Touch points (e.g. sales personnel, service personnel, call centers, invoices
etc) should have the same level of consistent & timely information on a
Customer, and act in coordination
(cross channel alignment).
CRM is about
enabling the measurement of marketing efficiency: reducing marketing campaign
cycle times & increasing ROI on marketing programs, while increasing customer
satisfaction & loyalty.
CRM is about
automation & standardization of customer facing processes.
CRM is about innovation: the ability of an Enterprise to
identify new ways to handle the relationship with specific Customer groups, ways
that are valued by the latter (e.g. offering similar service content on the web
channel, to that of the conventional channels).
CRM is a simple concept, which can be quite difficult to
implement in the context of a complex Enterprise which markets numerous products
via many Customer touch points (CTPs) to thousands or millions of Customers
(e.g. banking or telecom industry).
Barriers to a successful CRM
Barriers to a successful CRM, can be any of the following:
- Internal resistance to change – lack of process
management funding
-
difficulty in identifying the Customer (data related to the customer are
unlinked or stored in silos)
-
problems in capturing Customer data (i.e. web
registration forms may discourage the visit to a web page)
-
difficulty to
organize internally in order to implement the diversified customer facing
processes (selling, order handling, problem management, billing, customer
retention) required (e.g. implementing complex service levels or invoicing).
-
difficulty to measure customer value or CLV
-
Many retailers do not capture any
customer data, unless they promote a loyalty program
CRM information systems
In a complex Enterprise, the necessity to implement an
information system to support these customer facing processes and capture, store
& exploit customer profile & behavior info efficiently, is
obvious. This CRM information system has to be linked to many (if not all) other
operational systems, which are serving non customer facing processes (e.g. order
fulfillment or billing processes).
Moreover, it
has to be linked to an analytical infrastructure (a Data Warehouse or a CRM
Datamart), in order to retrieve derived facts like Customer value rankings or
lists of Customers to be contacted.
However, the information system is only a tool supporting the
CRM strategy,
value proposition & relevant process. If this strategy is not designed or implemented
efficiently, the information system can’t help much.
