Full or Part-Time Training

Joanna Dobaczewska
Member

Posted 31-Aug-2004 05:01 AM
Hi
I have worked for power distribution company (www.zep.com.pl). We provide electricity to about 1 million customers. I would like to underline that in Poland we are the first power distribution company which has CRM system. Our CRM system making our customer service better and better. CRM system supports all workers dealing with customers, especially call center. We have given the oportunity to our customers to self-service too.

I am organizational specjalist. I have taken part in producing and implementing this system, including staff training. I get experience in process mapping. Thanks to CRM system we have build the data base of our clients. We concentrate our efforts in improving our system. We still try to strimline all the business processes connecting with customer service, making them more simple and shortening time of doing them.

I look for information connecting with full or part-time training (programmes) in companies which have implemented CRM systems (including call centers, contact centers or other CRM tools). I have interested in CRM for a few years. I know that many companies used very high specialised CRM systems. Maybe some of them are willing to share their experience, best practise.. ..their knowledge.I am interested in some specific programmes which help me understand how company using CRM system operates, deals with customers eg. in reality.

With regards

Joanna Dobaczewska
j.dobaczewska@zep.com.pl
POLAND

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 31-Aug-2004 11:34 PM
Joanna

I am not sure what kind of training you are really interested in.

If you mean training about how to use your CRM systems and all the other things that go with them to best advantage, then you should identify your own training requirements using simple training needs analysis techniques and use that to search for exactly what you are looking for.

For example, I assisted the CRM department of a Polish mobile telco to identify their training requirements after they had implemented a campaign management tool and best-practice processes. A simple training needs analysis was carried out and an outline of the required training defined in a modular structure. This covered CRM basics, CRM strategy, the campaign management process, all using real telco case studies. A number of CRM training providers were invited to bid for the training contract. The costs of their bids were no more than off-the-shelf CRM training.

Although you may be able to find an off-the-shelf course that meets your training needs, you may be suprised at how easy it is to get much better, tailor-made training for your company if you invite CRM training companies to bid.

But you do need to carry out a training needs analysis before you start.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant

Joanna Dobaczewska
Member

Posted 06-Sep-2004 01:58 AM
Dear Mr Hill

I try to explain ... maybe I was not so preciase ...

I know my requirements connecting with CRM ... I try to find the source of extending my knowledge about CRM ... Writing about programmes I think about the way to see how CRM system works in real company. I do not how it called in eglish, but there where companies in Poland which invite workers from other companies (the same or similar profil companies) to show them what kind of CRM system they have, how they service their clients etc. This visits is the way and possiblity to exchange information, experience, knowledge. The problem is that we are the first power distribution company in Poland which has CRM system, so it is very difficult to get experience on polish market in this special area.

Doug Leather
Member

Posted 06-Sep-2004 10:20 AM
Hello Joanna
The challenges of implementing CRM within an organisation can be daunting and extend way beyond technology. Technology, as I'm sure you're aware, is merely (although very importantly) and enabler of CRM. It sounds like you're looking for a session during which companies share their practices and the knowledge gained in the interest of fast tracking the participants.

I'd suggest you attend the Customer Think Executive Summit being held in Monterey in California in October for the latest thinking in CRM.

We work with organisations that want to understand how well they manage their customers and prospects and develop a very practical and relevant set of actions that enable them to do this. We draw on examples of best practice in multiple industries across many continents in the development of recommendations and knowledge sharing. These services are, unfortunately, not free.

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 07-Sep-2004 12:51 AM
Joanna

Now I understand. What you are talking about is a Best Practice Study Tour or Knowledge Exchange Visits. You go to visit similar companies to your own to see how they use CRM for best advantage. But as you say, you are the first Polish power company to install commercial CRM...

You seem to have two options open to you. Firstly, you could visit other Polish companies who work in similar B2B markets and see how they use CRM. Similar markets might be other utilities (water, gas, telecoms). You might also want to look at other B2B industries in Poland to compare and contrast how they use CRM too (automotive, other manufacturing, petrochemicals, chemicals, pharmaceuticals).

The other option is to visit power distribution (and perhaps other utilities) outside of Poland. That should include emerging & local markets like Hungary, Czech Republic, Austria & Germany). The German market has had market-driven competition in power distribution for some years now and might be very interesting in looking at how the evolution of the market and it's heavily inter-related regulation requires different CRM capabilities to be put into place at different stages of market evolution.

One of the easiest ways to find out who is doing what with CRM is to look on the Internet at recent Utilities CRM and B2B CRM conferences. They will provide you with the names of companies who are willing to talk publicly about what they are doing with CRM and the names of responsible managers to contact.

These vists will not cost you anything, other than the time and effort to organise and prepare for them.

Graham Hill
Independent Management Consultant