Dears,
A frame can define your potential or would limit your potential; this is exactly what is happening in the CRM arena. You have a great CRM system and process in place for your company and you’re happy with what you are doing today. As I call it CRM is a journey with or without the state of the art Infrastructure. All that is needed is some proactiveness to take the CRM to the next level and not always with some new software upgrades.
Imagine a customer renting a car to move some cargo’s to his new found home. She calls on Rent a Car Service. After sweating in the summer heat, hauling various household items up and down three flights of stairs, and making the same right-hand turns throughout several trips from one apartment to the next, her five-hour rental time has gone by in a flash. Suddenly, she finds herself nearing the rental deadline with not enough time to finish moving and return the car to the parking garage. Panicking, and checking her phone in disbelief at the time of day, she sees an SMS text from the Rent a Car Service, asking if she needs an extra 30 minutes. Elated, she texts back, a one-word affirmation and avoids a -valued late fee and complete loss of her composure.
What the Company offers, an easy way to extend rental time, is nothing revolutionary. However, that simple proactive communication may be the difference between a consumer’s bad experience and a very good one. There are very few companies that are pushing toward building more positive interactions. But Most companies don’t do anything but react, anyway.
Proactive CRM, as we are calling it, is a departure from traditional, reactive behavior and aims to take early action that facilitates a desired result. It could be giving consumers what they want before they have to ask for it. In some cases it involves monitoring products and customers to solve problems before they happen. In more cases, it’s arming customers with the tools and information they need to accomplish their goals. Each of these practices would undoubtedly create more positive customer experiences.
Proactive Service
Southwest Airlines appears to be the poster child for proactive CRM—the airline has a branch of its company appropriately titled “Proactive Customer Service Communications.” Fred Taylor, given the nickname “Mr. Apology” in a New York Times profile, took charge of the team after being plucked from the company’s front lines in 2007. Taylor, who presented at the 2010 Net Promoter conference, says he writes around 240 letters a year to Southwest passengers, often apologizing for unforeseen problems on flights or with travel scheduling.
Chris Carfi, vice president at Edelman Digital and author of the blog, The Social Customer Manifesto, was a lucky recipient of a proactive memorandum from Southwest in June 2007. Carfi’s flight to Oakland was disrupted by an unexpected stop in Omaha. A few weeks following the unpleasant plane ride, Carfi found a note from Southwest in his mailbox, one explaining the reason for the unexpected landing, apologizing for the inconvenience, and offering a SWA voucher for his experience.
One might argue that because the letter arrived after the bad customer experience that it was more reactive than proactive. However, the voucher, when combined with the letter, is a proactive attempt to keep Carfi, and others, from taking their business elsewhere. “The fact that they reached out proactively and communicated information in a timely manner—I thought that was phenomenal,” Carfi remarks.
According to Taylor, 70 percent of Southwest customers who receive proactive communications return to the airline and bring others with them. “We create a wow factor…and a positive storytelling experience,” he said at the conference. “I am fortunate to work for a company that puts forth a lot of support and resources to make sure my team [can] accomplish our mission each and every day.”
But the fact of the matter is that not all companies have the culture that Southwest does. Some struggle with the reactive part of CRM.
Proactive Suggestions
I see advancements in the way organizations will incorporate social media information into their customer engagement strategies. This would yield communications based on a consumer’s stated interests or buying history. Amazon.com has been a pioneer in this area. Businesses like Netflix and Pandora also excel at proactively suggesting new movies or music based on past behaviors.
However, right now, suggestions and recommendations work well for companies with subjective products like music and movies. Despite a company’s knowledge of customers and an engine that can generate what they might want next, customers might not be ready for recommendations in certain sectors. While recommending movies or music is not likely to be perceived as stalker-like behavior, offering healthcare information would raise some eyebrows. Also, there’s always the possibility that companies can go too far.
Proactive Notifications
Proactive CRM can also give consumers the information they need to plan their day. Anyone who has ever waited around for a cable guy understands how frustrating it can be to plan an entire day around a service appointment. The best companies are the ones that now have developed sophisticated systems to carve out an hour time frame for arrival. They give you the information you need so you can make the judgments you need to make.”
Home furnisher Arhaus Furniture has taken that facet to the next level. John Roddy, senior vice president and senior logistics officer for the company, spearheaded an implementation of TOA Technologies a few years back to not only cut down on the time that its customers had to wait for furniture delivery, but to give them the ability to track the delivery trucks and even view a photo of the driver. “One of the biggest things we used to hear was that we didn’t communicate with customers enough [on] the day of the delivery,” Roddy says. With TOA’s ETA solution, Arhaus makes automated phone calls to customers to give them an exact idea of when to expect a delivery.
Changing the system has yielded fantastic customer satisfaction scores and feedback. Roddy reveals that about 90 percent of its furniture delivery recipients are females at home with children. “Making sure the right guy is coming to the house is pretty important so we let them see a picture of who is going to be arriving at the door,” Roddy says. “This is another step to reach the consumer and help them feel more at ease.”
TOA’s technology employs a predictive system that measures everything that happens in the field. Everything is reported and then the system takes a time stamp for every activity, via a real-time motion study. At the end of month, [TOA customers] create a performance profile for its [their] customers. That is then used that to estimate with a high degree of accuracy when a technician will arrive at a customer’s home.
Proactive Communications
For wireless music provider Sonos, being proactive means being pervasive. When Mike Carlino, senior director of customer service, came on board three years ago, about 85 percent of communications with customers occurred over the phone. Since then, the company has set up shop on social media sites, has developed a knowledge base for customer self-service, and has implemented online chat to assist customers.
Now only 40 percent of interactions are phone-based, according to Carlino. For every phone call, there are 15 page views of the online knowledge base. Carlino attributes the effectiveness of the solution to its consistent monitoring of issues that customers search. But still, Sonos puts a lot of emphasis on having a well-trained and friendly support team. “If you view tech support as a jet engine, where you suck ‘em in and spit ‘em out...you’re not going to fare well in the long run,” he says. Instead, Sonos focuses on longevity with customers and employees.
Proactive communication can mean a company reaching out about an issue that a customer might have, but it also could mean giving customers myriad ways to connect, based on her preference.
Proactive Problem Solving
In April 2009, when two former rogue Domino’s Pizza employees posted a vulgar video of their unsanitary acts in the kitchen of a North Carolina franchise on YouTube, they created a public relations firestorm for the company. A few years ago, the typical corporate response might have been to merely pull the videos off the Internet and wait for the public relations storm to pass. However, as social media puts more pressure on companies to communicate and respond in real time, it requires organizations to change the way they conduct damage control. Domino’s promptly responded on YouTube with a message of its own, featuring a video from Patrick Doyle, president (now CEO) of Domino’s USA. While the response may not have fully restored the company’s brand, it’s far better than doing nothing.
Fortunately, thanks to social media monitoring tools and listening platforms, businesses can keep an eye on mentions of them in social networks, blogs, and forums. The problem with being proactive is that there’s a level of “let-go” required to make these things happen. There’s definitely a connection between the proactive conversation and the general conversation around transparency. “Being proactive you have to be transparent.”
Not surprisingly the companies mentioned here for their proactive efforts are cutting edge, less traditional organizations. Why? Shifting from reactive requires a culture change and it’s hard for a company that has deeply engrained processes to turn the ship around.
Proactive Is:
Opt-in SMS chat;
Multi-channel contact;
Social Media Monitoring and Response; and
Random Acts of Kindness.
Reactive Is:
Random offers;
Pitches;
Push Marketing; and
Damage Control.
Although it’s not expected that companies should do such activities or even have the means to on a regular basis, a once-in-a-blue-moon proactive effort can boost employee morale and make a huge difference in the life of that customer.
Imagine a customer renting a car to move some cargo’s to his new found home. She calls on Rent a Car Service. After sweating in the summer heat, hauling various household items up and down three flights of stairs, and making the same right-hand turns throughout several trips from one apartment to the next, her five-hour rental time has gone by in a flash. Suddenly, she finds herself nearing the rental deadline with not enough time to finish moving and return the car to the parking garage. Panicking, and checking her phone in disbelief at the time of day, she sees an SMS text from the Rent a Car Service, asking if she needs an extra 30 minutes. Elated, she texts back, a one-word affirmation and avoids a -valued late fee and complete loss of her composure.
What the Company offers, an easy way to extend rental time, is nothing revolutionary. However, that simple proactive communication may be the difference between a consumer’s bad experience and a very good one. There are very few companies that are pushing toward building more positive interactions. But Most companies don’t do anything but react, anyway.
Proactive CRM, as we are calling it, is a departure from traditional, reactive behavior and aims to take early action that facilitates a desired result. It could be giving consumers what they want before they have to ask for it. In some cases it involves monitoring products and customers to solve problems before they happen. In more cases, it’s arming customers with the tools and information they need to accomplish their goals. Each of these practices would undoubtedly create more positive customer experiences.
Proactive Service
Southwest Airlines appears to be the poster child for proactive CRM—the airline has a branch of its company appropriately titled “Proactive Customer Service Communications.” Fred Taylor, given the nickname “Mr. Apology” in a New York Times profile, took charge of the team after being plucked from the company’s front lines in 2007. Taylor, who presented at the 2010 Net Promoter conference, says he writes around 240 letters a year to Southwest passengers, often apologizing for unforeseen problems on flights or with travel scheduling.
Chris Carfi, vice president at Edelman Digital and author of the blog, The Social Customer Manifesto, was a lucky recipient of a proactive memorandum from Southwest in June 2007. Carfi’s flight to Oakland was disrupted by an unexpected stop in Omaha. A few weeks following the unpleasant plane ride, Carfi found a note from Southwest in his mailbox, one explaining the reason for the unexpected landing, apologizing for the inconvenience, and offering a SWA voucher for his experience.
One might argue that because the letter arrived after the bad customer experience that it was more reactive than proactive. However, the voucher, when combined with the letter, is a proactive attempt to keep Carfi, and others, from taking their business elsewhere. “The fact that they reached out proactively and communicated information in a timely manner—I thought that was phenomenal,” Carfi remarks.
According to Taylor, 70 percent of Southwest customers who receive proactive communications return to the airline and bring others with them. “We create a wow factor…and a positive storytelling experience,” he said at the conference. “I am fortunate to work for a company that puts forth a lot of support and resources to make sure my team [can] accomplish our mission each and every day.”
But the fact of the matter is that not all companies have the culture that Southwest does. Some struggle with the reactive part of CRM.
Proactive Suggestions
I see advancements in the way organizations will incorporate social media information into their customer engagement strategies. This would yield communications based on a consumer’s stated interests or buying history. Amazon.com has been a pioneer in this area. Businesses like Netflix and Pandora also excel at proactively suggesting new movies or music based on past behaviors.
However, right now, suggestions and recommendations work well for companies with subjective products like music and movies. Despite a company’s knowledge of customers and an engine that can generate what they might want next, customers might not be ready for recommendations in certain sectors. While recommending movies or music is not likely to be perceived as stalker-like behavior, offering healthcare information would raise some eyebrows. Also, there’s always the possibility that companies can go too far.
Proactive Notifications
Proactive CRM can also give consumers the information they need to plan their day. Anyone who has ever waited around for a cable guy understands how frustrating it can be to plan an entire day around a service appointment. The best companies are the ones that now have developed sophisticated systems to carve out an hour time frame for arrival. They give you the information you need so you can make the judgments you need to make.”
Home furnisher Arhaus Furniture has taken that facet to the next level. John Roddy, senior vice president and senior logistics officer for the company, spearheaded an implementation of TOA Technologies a few years back to not only cut down on the time that its customers had to wait for furniture delivery, but to give them the ability to track the delivery trucks and even view a photo of the driver. “One of the biggest things we used to hear was that we didn’t communicate with customers enough [on] the day of the delivery,” Roddy says. With TOA’s ETA solution, Arhaus makes automated phone calls to customers to give them an exact idea of when to expect a delivery.
Changing the system has yielded fantastic customer satisfaction scores and feedback. Roddy reveals that about 90 percent of its furniture delivery recipients are females at home with children. “Making sure the right guy is coming to the house is pretty important so we let them see a picture of who is going to be arriving at the door,” Roddy says. “This is another step to reach the consumer and help them feel more at ease.”
TOA’s technology employs a predictive system that measures everything that happens in the field. Everything is reported and then the system takes a time stamp for every activity, via a real-time motion study. At the end of month, [TOA customers] create a performance profile for its [their] customers. That is then used that to estimate with a high degree of accuracy when a technician will arrive at a customer’s home.
Proactive Communications
For wireless music provider Sonos, being proactive means being pervasive. When Mike Carlino, senior director of customer service, came on board three years ago, about 85 percent of communications with customers occurred over the phone. Since then, the company has set up shop on social media sites, has developed a knowledge base for customer self-service, and has implemented online chat to assist customers.
Now only 40 percent of interactions are phone-based, according to Carlino. For every phone call, there are 15 page views of the online knowledge base. Carlino attributes the effectiveness of the solution to its consistent monitoring of issues that customers search. But still, Sonos puts a lot of emphasis on having a well-trained and friendly support team. “If you view tech support as a jet engine, where you suck ‘em in and spit ‘em out...you’re not going to fare well in the long run,” he says. Instead, Sonos focuses on longevity with customers and employees.
Proactive communication can mean a company reaching out about an issue that a customer might have, but it also could mean giving customers myriad ways to connect, based on her preference.
Proactive Problem Solving
In April 2009, when two former rogue Domino’s Pizza employees posted a vulgar video of their unsanitary acts in the kitchen of a North Carolina franchise on YouTube, they created a public relations firestorm for the company. A few years ago, the typical corporate response might have been to merely pull the videos off the Internet and wait for the public relations storm to pass. However, as social media puts more pressure on companies to communicate and respond in real time, it requires organizations to change the way they conduct damage control. Domino’s promptly responded on YouTube with a message of its own, featuring a video from Patrick Doyle, president (now CEO) of Domino’s USA. While the response may not have fully restored the company’s brand, it’s far better than doing nothing.
Fortunately, thanks to social media monitoring tools and listening platforms, businesses can keep an eye on mentions of them in social networks, blogs, and forums. The problem with being proactive is that there’s a level of “let-go” required to make these things happen. There’s definitely a connection between the proactive conversation and the general conversation around transparency. “Being proactive you have to be transparent.”
Not surprisingly the companies mentioned here for their proactive efforts are cutting edge, less traditional organizations. Why? Shifting from reactive requires a culture change and it’s hard for a company that has deeply engrained processes to turn the ship around.
Proactive Is:
Opt-in SMS chat;
Multi-channel contact;
Social Media Monitoring and Response; and
Random Acts of Kindness.
Reactive Is:
Random offers;
Pitches;
Push Marketing; and
Damage Control.
Although it’s not expected that companies should do such activities or even have the means to on a regular basis, a once-in-a-blue-moon proactive effort can boost employee morale and make a huge difference in the life of that customer.
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