Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Page 2 of 2

Aside from a good knowledge of the profiles of existing and prospective customers, the types of transactions that they conduct with your company as well as the contact points for these transactions must be mapped out. Doing so will allow the company to know which aspects of customer support or service they need to give more attention to and strengthen.

A good selection of which customer information to collect and store is a 'must' - useless data must not be collected, since they will use up the same valuable resources as useful data. Lastly, all the collected and stored data for the CRM program must be harnessed to the fullest in meeting the objectives of the initiative.

One effective CRM implementation approach, according to Boise Office Solutions CEO Christopher Milliken, is to 'turn the focus outside-in', which simply means putting oneself in the customers' shoes when developing business and technology strategies. What kind of support or service the customers need, the customers' preferred methods or channels for transacting with the company, which people within the company are most often contacted by customers, and which information technologies the customers use are examples of what a company needs to know 'from the eyes of the customer.' Building business and technology strategies around customer needs and wants will ensure that they'll be happy to use your systems and technologies once these have been set up.

Another CRM lesson imparted by Boise from their experience is to make your CRM implementation easy on your customers, even if it means making it more difficult for you. Disrupting your customers' business during your implementation will leave them with a lasting negative impression about your company. Making the transition smooth and pleasant, however, will only make them remember the 'improvements' brought about by your new CRM system to their business.

The chances of success in implementing a CRM program may be increased by: 1) breaking down the CRM project into smaller but more manageable pieces; 2) using a pilot project that involves the key departments to introduce the program and learn about it; 3) ensuring that the CRM infrastructure used is fully scalable, and would be easy to expand or improve for future needs; 4) ensuring that the CRM infrastructure used is flexible enough to accommodate the full range of customer diversity that the company might encounter; 5) creating a customer-focused culture.

"Is CRM implementation expensive?" is a common question asked by people who are planning to set up their CRM systems. According to The Data Warehousing Institute, almost 50% of the companies they surveyed had a CRM budget of less than $500K. Some, however, spend more than $10M for their CRM projects. The cost of CRM implementation therefore varies from one company to another.

Reasons why a CRM project may fail include: 1) lack of communication among the people involved in the project; 2) lack of cooperation, whether consciously or not, from key players and people who keep the vital information; 3) internal mass resistance to change; 4) poor decision-making on the part of management; 5) underestimation of the time, money, and resources required to get a CRM program that really works.

Primary References:

1. www.cio.com

2. Deck, Stewart, "What is CRM?"

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