Forgotten Focuses
Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member
Posted 22-Jul-2003 12:29 PM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Burt Bolton [boltonbg@nova.edu]
What are some of the themes to look out for in implementing CRM that may cause problems if they are not addressed?
Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com
Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member
Posted 22-Jul-2003 12:37 PM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Graham Hill [graham.hill@sophron.co.uk]
Burt,
Thanks for your question.
There seem to be a range of different perspectives about what CRM is and how to make it work. Some suggest that CRM is primarily a software project. I think that amongst independent thinkers (those who don't have something to sell that influences their recommendations) this view is falling out of favour.
Others have a more balanced view that it is a mix of software, processes, culture, etc. But I do not believe that that goes far enough.
CRM is a business strategy that requires an enterprise wide approach to make it work. It follows that we should approach its implementation as if we were implementing a new business strategy. Here are some key themes.
- The CRM Implementation should support the CRM Strategy/Vision. Best practice is step-wise implementation, each tranche providing cash-flow, reducing risk and providing options for future development. Without a suitable Strategy/Vision, it is difficult to stay focussed on the business` goals.
- It should have the long-term commitment of senior and middle management. Without their support over 18-36 months, most implementations fail to deliver long-term benefits, in spite of showing early promise.
- It should deliver financial benefits quickly, and also in the longer-term. Quick financial wins have been shown to be critical to success. They also provide funding for subsequent tranches of the Implementation. Shareholder value growth is the longer-term goal. The new discipline of Customer Value Management provides today's state-of-the-art approach to understanding the trade-offs that must be made to extract the optimum value from a CRM implementation over time, both for the company and its customers.
- It should involve the whole organisation, not just the Marketing & IT departments. Until at least 40% of the organisation adopts the business strategy, the big benefits just won`t flow. At best there will be some departmental benefits, at worst, cash will just be burned.
- It should pull all the organisational levers—systems, processes, organisation, people, information, etc—required to deliver the strategy. Research into TQM showed that its 75% failure rate was due to not pulling all the organisational levers. Ditto for CRM.
- Alast but not least. It must deliver tangible benefits to customers. Most Implementations have been about cost-cutting or revenue growth. Few develop real customer relationships—those based upon emotional commitment and trust—that are very hard to break. The future challenge is in operating CRM so that it develops relationships with customers across the entire customer experience.
Implementing CRM is a large-scale organisational change programme. And the programme must include staff at al levels, customers and partners. Until organisations start treating CRM as such, they will either continue to fail, or only to deliver small-change benefits.
Take a look at the CRMGuru CRM Blueprint too, to get more an alternative view of the themes. It tells many of the same stories.
Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me for more information, or for references to the academic studies that underlie much of this thinking.
Graham Hill
Sophron Partners Limited
www.sophron.co.uk
graham.hill@sophron.co.uk
Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com
Jay Curry
Guru
Member
Posted 23-Jul-2003 04:39 AM
For a complete answer, you should read the BLueprint for CRM Success published by CRMGuru.com/CustomerThink.
In a recent study we did with SME's, the major problems were lack of customer data and resistance to change.
Jay Curry
www.crm4sme.com
Jill Dyche
Guru
Member
Picture of Jill Dyche
Posted 23-Jul-2003 05:32 AM
Baseline recently conducted a survey of our CRM clients. We received 177 responses from across 86 firms. The question, "What have been the main challenges to successfully deploying CRM at your company?" garnered some interesting responses. The Top 5 answers were:
- Difficulty quantifying ROI.
- Lack of, or unavailability of, key customer data.
- Lack of clear business requirements. (Variation: No structured way to establish and gain consensus on CRM business needs.)
- Lack of management education. (Additional feedback: Management believed CRM was a 1-time-only project; Management didn't understand the cost magnitude; Management thought CRM was an IT initiative; the role of Business Sponsor was poorly understood.)
- Customer benefits weren't well understood. (Variation: Didn't understand impact to customer experience; Didn't leverage customer feedback to target improvements.)
The good news is that the first CRM project is often the most difficult one! The key is for your company to institutionalize CRM as a portfolio of customer-focused capabilities deployed incrementally over time.
Good luck!
Jill Dyche
Partner, Baseline Consulting Group
www.baseline-consulting.com
Jill Dyche, Partner, Baseline Consulting Group, Author of The CRM Handbook
Jim Dickie
Guru
Member
Posted 23-Jul-2003 05:54 AM
CSO Insights just completed a Sales Excellence survey of 1525 firms. One of the questions we asked was "What are the top three challenges you encountered in your CRM implementation?" The number one issue this year was populating the system with accurate data.
For years we have talked about CRM success as being a three legged stool: People, Process, and Technology. This last benchmarking study has shown that we need to add a fourth leg—Information.
If companies don't budget funds to cover the cost of initial data rationalization (cleaning up all the inconsistencies in the various customer data bases we have today that will be used to populate a CRM system) and then keep that data current and accurate, user adoption will fall off over time.
Graham Hill
Guru
Member
Posted 24-Jul-2003 09:18 AM
Reading the responses from Jill, Jim and indeed, other US-based commentators, and having worked in the US on major CRM projects a number of times, I wonder if there are different views in the US and Europe of what CRM implies.
More to the point, whether US companies view CRM largely as an IT-driven thing with human consequences that can be used to maximise shareholder value growth, versus a European view which views CRM more as a business strategy with difficult organisational and people issues that need careful management.
There has long been two different views of these softer issues in Human Resources Management in the USA and Europe: US companies sometimes viewing human resources as just another resource to be used as the company saw fit, whereas European ones viewing them more as stakeholders to be considered alongside shareholders, customers and partners.
What do you think? Is there a trans-atlantic split in how we look at the human issues associated with CRM?
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Print
EmailMarketPlace
Drive customer loyalty, empower support teams, and reduce costs. Get social.
[Feb 22] Guest speakers from Forrester Research, Allscripts, and CustomerThink will discuss market trends and research on social customer service strategies, as well as proven tactics from the trenches. Join the live webcast on Feb 22 at 10am Pacific (1pm EST).
Global Customer Experience Management (CEM) Certification Program
[March 13-14, Paris] An internationally recognized program with proven track record of success - being run for 33 times in 13 cities with attendees from 50 countries, the program is developed based on the U.S. patent-pending Branded CEM Method which aims to drive customer loyalty and brand differentiation with quantifiable business results. Limited offer: USD300 early bird discount.
10 Steps to a Single Customer View
Linking customer data across department databases and business units improves business intelligence, customer profiling, and customer management. This paper outlines 10 steps to improve the quality of customer contact data, including physical mail, email, and telephone information.
Featured Links
|
The leader in customer relationship management and cloud computing. |
Strategic Roadmap for Digital Marketing Free e-book (no reg required). 15 articles by digital marketing thought leaders. |
CEM Training and Certification Patent-pending methodologies combine the art and science of Customer Experience Management. |
Get your event or resource listed in the MarketPlace, reaching 200,000 business leaders monthly.
For more information, contact
CustomerThink advertising sales.
Follow CustomerThink
Featured Resources
New Syndicated Blogs
Top 10 Authors of 2011
- Stan Phelps, Synergy Events
- Dave Brock, Partners In EXCELLENCE
- Nick Stamoulis, Brick Marketing
- Cheryl Hanna, Service Untitled
- Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing Inc
- Bob Thompson, CustomerThink Corp.
- Maz Iqbal, Dynamica Consulting Group
- Bob Apollo, Inflexion-Point
- Jacob Morgan, Chess Media Group
- Jesse Noyes, Eloqua
Post new comment