Creating Job Description

Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member

Posted 25-Nov-2003 05:43 AM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Nicole Langille of Fraser & Hoyt [nlangille@fraserhoyt.com]

I am trying to put together a job description for a new CRM Coordinator position. We have the technology in place but need someone to maintain the CRM strategy and push it forward. What are the top five tasks I should include?

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com

Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member

Posted 25-Nov-2003 05:50 AM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Jill Dyche [jilldyche@baseline-consulting.com]

Hello, Nicole.

You didn't say what area of CRM you had deployed or what business issues your in-place technology addresses, so I'd have to make several assumptions. Your wording "CRM Co-coordinator" suggests that this is a program involving more than one business department and an enterprise CRM solution—both laudable accomplishments if they're true.

Anyway, going on these premises, I'd throw out the following five tasks for such a person:

Of course, there are other, more tactical things to do too, like establishing a CRM steering committee, formalizing a business requirements gathering method, and building a skills matrix for ongoing development, but we'll leave those for another posting!

In the meantime, best of luck with your CRM effort!

Jill Dyche

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com

nmournian
Member

Posted 27-Nov-2003 02:44 PM
While Carole is correct in listing the items in her response, I think a more pragmatic approach will help in the choosing of a successful candidate...
1. Carole menitions tracking of progress and incremental successes to executive management on a regular basis.—It takes exactly ONE untracked 'bug' in a system to bring it 'to it's knees'—'to it's knees' can mean anything from a system crash (bad but fixable) to a complete flushing of all confidence in the system by your users (really really bad and in most cases NOT fixable despite what 'teachers' not 'doers' will tell you. So I would include familiarity with some bug tracking system—preferably one which keeps the metrics for you, allows for both auto and manual assignment of bug fixing responsibilities and also is user friendly (not too much to ask!) So if you want any successes to report you first gotta make sure the system is reponsive—both in terms of functionality and usability, as well as responsive in terms of 'this unexpected thing happened to me on 11/25/2003—was it a bug (truth helps here but is usually clouded by the vendor of the system), and when will it be fixed?
2. Full and intimate experience in real-world change management. You ain't got this—well you ain't got users/clients/profits/job/career.
3. I skip the added issues past step 5 in Carole's list and look for a focus on actually getting the system up and operational in a meaningful way.

Edwin Setzpfand
Member Council
Member

Posted 08-Dec-2003 02:45 AM
Nicole,

I agree with Jill/Carol, but I want to comment on something within your posting that struck me: "We have the technology in place but need someone to maintain the CRM strategy .."

Isn't that the other way around? I mean that exec mgmt should define and maintain the (CRM) strategy and let the technology follow from there ..

NMournian is right in the sense that "a pragmatic approach" is required, expecially towards the end-users.

Edwin Setzpfand

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 10-Dec-2003 12:52 AM
An interesting series of posts.

I think that all have something to say, but that Jill's list of job tasks really hits the nail on the head.

Experience implementing the organisational change associated with CRM systems (and of designing the same CRM Coordinator's role) suggests that the Coordinator's critical task is to proactively manage the bits of the organisation that support CRM's future success. These include both the formal structured organisation AND the informal organisation of social networks.

There is plenty of research that shows quite clearly that maintaining the organisational and business changes associated with the implementation of CRM is driven by three factors: whether those using CRM perceive benefits to themselves, whether they see their peers experiencing the same benefits and long-term management support (most probably over at least 2-3 years).

The five tasks in Jill's outline job description are just the things you will have to do to ensure that the organisation as a whole sees that CRM is a success, that the formal organisation knows what it must do to push CRM forward, and just as important, that the informal organisation does not push back through the grapevine to stop it.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant