2010 CRM Reflections, The ways and means for better CRM now & in Future.

Dears,

The year 2010 possibly be a better year than 2009 with its own achievements and let downs, This could be best summarized by Charles Dickens words..

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

2010, shall we say, is looking a little less schizophrenic. It may look little early to write a concluding note on CRM for the year 2010 and this not a concluding note of the CRM success in the year 2010. This article is to reinforce some of the winning edge points to ensure CRM success in the long run seen and heard from our customers in our journey this year.

Consider the checklist below.

1: Get sponsorship from the top brass. If management doesn't believe in the new approach, why should the employees? Implementing CRM requires working across organizational boundaries and breaking down long-term siloed behaviors and attitudes. You can't do that by yourself! Many times the difference between a successful CRM strategy and a huge waste of money is backing from the executive suite.

2: Build a team. Prior to developing your CRM strategy or selecting your CRM software, form a CRM team with representatives from each department to make sure colleagues' needs and concerns are addressed. Too often companies neglect to include the correct stakeholders, and the initiative fails to meet the needs of those tied to its results. Pick your CRM team wisely - everyone will need to own the customer experience. Remember in forming the team, consider people, process, and technology as all will be affected.

3: Define your business objectives? Your CRM strategy must be designed with your business objectives and customer requirements in mind.

4: Identify who your customer is. Is there agreement on definition of "customer?" - The marketing department of an automobile company might consider a "customer" to be a dealer, but the call center might consider it to be a driver. Have consensus on this and other key definitions. Can you identify your customers across multiple touch points (retail, call center, mail, catalog, web and e-mail)?

5: Differentiate. Identify your customer segments - your high-value and high potential customers. Know who you want to serve. Understand what that customer wants? Prioritize. What is the customer worth and what is their potential worth?
6: Understand your Customers - what they want, and how they want it from you.

7: Agree on desired customer behaviors - build consensus on how you want customers to behave differently and what the customer experience will be... from the customer's perspective. Design a different customer experience for each customer segment.

8: Define customer experience goals. Articulate the customer experience. How should your experience feel? Identify important business interactions e.g. high volume or high cost. Identify interactions that are important to the customer - high involvement and high perceived importance. Evaluate performance: How are these interactions currently handled by your company? Are there opportunities for improvement? Focus on hot spots: Identify the areas that require your greatest focus and will provide the greatest potential return.

Many companies don't have a good connection with customers. That's why firms should consider developing a systematic approach for incorporating the needs of customers into the design of customer experiences - ideally led by a senior officer who will act as the voice of the customer. The key to developing a successful new customer experience is to develop a response to a customer need that is unique, compelling, and adoptable. A response so attractive that customers are willing to change long-standing, often deeply ingrained behavior.

9: Have an integrated customer strategy. Today interactive marketing is a fragmented discipline in which marketers work with many different vendors to develop and execute marketing programs. Recognize that disparate databases of customer information prevent companies from gaining a holistic view of the customer throughout the organization. Break down those silos. Line of business managers are often employing tactics that address products and not customers. That is because they are still looking at accounts on file, rather than at customer relationships e.g. banks that send two offers within a short time span - one that recommends consolidating their debt into a home equity loan and the other that offers a balance transfer for their credit card.

10: Define and map data requirements - You'll need to know what customer data is necessary and from what system it will originate. See your customer through the same lens. A firm understanding of the level of customer data - account or household level - is critical. Do you plan to append external data? If so, what types: household size, income, psychographics, ZIP, real estate information etc.

11: Standardize data. Various departments in your organization may see your customer quite differently from another. Using one integrated set of analytical data throughout the company can help executives to make key decisions about how much to invest in a particular customer.

12: Dialogue with your customers. Have a clear (and realistic) picture of who you are in the matter of serving your customer. What do you value? What are you really selling them (are you reliable? Are you the most creative?)? It's not just a list of products, you need to focus on what you're trying to be to your customers. Make sure individuals are recognized at all contact points. Have you truly defined your privacy policy? Understand your company's boundaries for using data about your customers. And ask customers how they want to interact with your company.

Keep your promises. Remind customers of promises kept and take responsibility for promises unfulfilled. Respond quickly to customer queries. Whether they send an email or leave a message, or come to the service counter, customers' time is precious.

13: Get personal. Customers hate to feel like the sales agent is reading to them from a script. Learn your customers' personal needs and profiles and target your service to each individual. It will make them feel important and that you value the relationship. In order to do this effectively, you need to staff and empower your talent pool appropriately to deliver on the customer experience. To do this effectively, focus on people, process and tools.

14: Develop success metrics - How will you know if your CRM program has been a success?

15: Create customer engagement programs (acquisition, growth and retention). Customer engagement is a process, not an event. Too often retention is treated as a project, rather than a guiding principle.
Move your customers through the lifecycle... to maximize their value. Utilize business rules:

16: Collect Data - collect and use information from each customer interaction to make your chosen customers more valuable to your enterprise. Can you identify behaviors, attitudes, needs, propensities or intentions? Plan to clean your data regularly.

17: Test, test, test. Troubleshoot with test customers before making your services generally available. Focus on ROI. Experiment with your Marketing.

18: Monitor the customer experience. Keep your eye on the prize. Measure the results and soothe the inevitable hiccups. Walk a mile in your customers' shoes. Don't rely on complaints from customers about how horrific it is to do business with you. Put yourself in their shoes by going through the typical customer experience. It is amazing how many companies institute processes and half heartedly mystery shop themselves. Once you suffer through what you dish out, you'll be shocked into a more customer-centric mindset. Guaranteed.

19: Automate processes. Having customers enter their personal information on a Web site versus providing it to an agent over the phone reduces the potential for human error. Also, customers may feel uncomfortable revealing personal data like medical and financial information to another person.

20: Empower staff. Give front line staff the ability to please the customer. Too often they can't make timely decisions nor can they present relevant offers - effectively facilitating customer dissatisfaction and defection.

21: When buying any new CRM system, keep it simple. Don't buy what you don't need. The fewer bells and whistles, the less time and money you'll need to devote to training. People don't like change as it is; keeping things simple only makes the switchover that much easier. And train early and train often.

22: Communicate your successes to the rest of the organization. Identify quick wins. Tackle the smallest, easiest task straight away and save the hard stuff for later. Success early on gets the ball rolling and motivates employees. Success can be contagious.

Too often, relationship programs are set up with the arrogant assumption that consumers should be happy in a relationship where they just sit around and receive marketing messages. This is a mistake. There needs to be a feeling of reciprocity by both parties (not to be confused with economic parity). At the end of the day, you will want both the customer and the business to perceive that they are getting more from the relationship than they are contributing. While the company is most likely defining its benefits and costs in purely monetary terms. The customer is more likely to be weighing more intangible aspects of the interaction. I

In any event, there is satisfaction in both camps and the relationship is likely to go on. A win-win situation.

Your P&C

DC*

Breaking the Silver Bullet Stigma: CRM driven Call Centers

Dears,
Today’s multi-channel call centers are assuming a pivotal role not only in customer service, but also in marketing and sales strategies. This transformation from cost to profit center is knocking management for a loop. In this context, CRM systems are useful only if the entire company believes that using the systems will actually increase customer loyalty.
Call center—oh sorry, no doubt you prefer “contact center,” or “customer interaction center?” Maybe something more high-tech like “tele-center” or “communication center?” Pick one, any name will do—call center managers know that their domains are far more complex and challenging than an outsider might imagine. Sure they know the guy sitting next to them in the social gathering thinking “what’s so hard about picking up the phone and talking some @#$%?”
What’s so hard? IVR scripting, CTI implementation, Skills-based routing and queue management, Multi-channel contact tracking, workflow support and knowledge management. , Workforce management and reporting .

What’s hair-pulling frustrating is that companies are pouring millions of dollars into CRM systems, and ending up with:
· Supporting systems so poorly designed, integrated and maintained that agents refuse to use them; Supporting materials so cryptic, irrelevant or outdated that that they prevent agents from giving correct, timely answers;
· Augmentative technologies, such as Interactive Voice Response, implemented in a way more detrimental than helpful to customers;
· Web-based personalization perceived by customers as intrusive and downright offensive;
· E-mails remaining unopened as dual-tasking agents are reassigned to handle massive inbound call queues; and
· Customer care environments unable to gather, analyze, respond and react to useful business intelligence data.


Silver Bullet Stigma

Typically new, expensive technologies such as integrated E-business, CRM and ERP solutions are fobbed off as silver bullets to get companies to the cutting edge. This promise always fails. A company profits when systems are used as enablers, rather than replacements, for people and processes. When a company decides to use them to augment customer relationships, not avoid them. Regardless of how sophisticated these tools become, the measure of their success is always their contribution to the strategic goals of the organization. The proliferation of CRM systems on the market today just makes it harder for management to find the tools to help their organizations accomplish this. Evaluating vendors is a more arduous task since a proper evaluation considers not only cost, but integration, workflow, multi-channel contact support, commitment tracking, scalability, remote access capabilities, contact management, business intelligence tools, CTI, time tracking and so on.

But this isn’t your father’s call center we’re talking about anymore. Twenty years ago nobody dreamed of the ways the Internet now allows you to turn a necessary-evil “cost center” into a commercial vehicle. Customer interaction centers are moving from sweatshops to company flagships, handling everything from pre-sales inquiries to order processing to post-sale support. The support function is nothing new, but call centers’ status as points of contact for the Internet sales process gives the much-maligned customer service function new importance. It used to be that call center staff were hired to handle those nasty customer complaints about products and services, now they’re necessary for virtually every step of the supply chain.

THE CALL CENTER OF THE FUTURE
As we build the bright future then, what can we expect for customer service? The successful call-center-of-the-future organization won’t be treated as a poor second-cousin cost-center, it’ll be a strategic service offering that will include:
• Multi-channel access such as e-mail, Web chat, Web callback, voice-over net, voice-over IP, Web collaboration;
• Integrated knowledge management and contact management tools;
• Personalization of every customer interaction;
• More powerful off-the-shelf telephony integration;
• Genuine customer knowledge through superior business analytics and market intelligence;
• Front line employees who can deliver perfect service… but that’s another story.

Thirty years ago, when AT&T created the first centralized telemarketing facility, nobody dreamed it would become the first line of contact for so many global corporations—not just for customer support, but for Internet order processing and other multi-channel communications. Sure technology helped, but a company’s attitude towards the customer, not the technology it used, determined the project’s ultimate success or failure.
The call center is a microcosm of business practice, and when you add the New Economy challenges of end-to-end support, VoIP, e-mail, universal business applications, collaboration, chat, call through, call back and so on, well, you have a new animal. No longer is the call center just for pre- and post-sale support, but now it’s an integral link in the supply chain. Yet it’s easy to become obsessed with metrics which affect bottom line costs—average speed of answer, talk time, and abandonment rate. And yes, the tendency is to use quantitative, not qualitative metrics as yardsticks of call centers’ operational success.
Innovative companies are giving their call center agents the information and authority to make every profitable customer feel that the company cares about them personally, which helps establish all-important trust. This involves a multitude of processes and, depending on the size of the customer base, significant technological support. While it may never duplicate the personal service of the village store, done properly it gives you that crucial competitive edge.

Your P&C

DC*

CRM Conscience: Keeping Face with Change, Complexity and Change

Dears,

We're facing a period of significant change — and measuring the impact of change is what CRM does best.
Choice, Complexity, Change.
These concepts mandate the use of CRM systems — now more than ever — to help provide solutions to the recent paradigm shift in buyer attitudes and behavior. However, first it is imperative to understand what has changed.

Choice

To put it bluntly, we're drowning in a sea of choice.

Have you shopped for toothpaste lately? Finding the basic "regular" toothpaste or your personal brand preference can be very frustrating. You'll have to sort through more than 30 variations; and those are just the adult choices!

In 1990’s there were 500,000 different consumer goods for sale in the United States. Today, there are more than 24 million. What to do when faced with such an abundance of options?

Sensing a critical need to fill, technologists have developed and implemented recommendation engines for people drowning in choices. The recommendation engines are based on a technique called collaborative filtering, which "works on the principle that the behavior of a lot of people can be used to make educated guesses about the behavior of a single individual."

But these algorithms still may not solve the problems presented by having too many choices. "The weak link in a recommendation engine isn't the software, it’s us. Collaborative filtering only works as well as the data it has available, and humans produce noisy, low-quality data. Recommendation engines aren't designed to give us what we want. They're designed to give us what they think we want, based on what we and other people like us have wanted in the past.

The problem with so many choices is not limited to variety and price. Another factor is the immense growth in the number of businesses that market and distribute the choices available. According to Entrepreneur, the number of businesses increased 31 percent between 2003 and 2009, from 22.6 million to more than 29.6 million.

Obviously there is a need for better solutions to the availability of so much choice.

Complexity

As a direct result of the issues raised by choice, relationships with customers have grown more complex. Pervasive use and improvements in technology have further exacerbated the complexity of relationships. As a byproduct, many new purchase-channel options have become available, including the increased usage of the Internet.
Take video rentals as one example. Just a few years ago, consumers had only one choice: Drive to the local video-rental store. Today, consumers have five or more unique options. Serious marketers have "upped their game" using CRM to remain competitive and better manage increased channels so customers can shop and purchase via the channels they prefer.

Change
The picture of change is a bit more abstract, but not by much. One only has to consider the overwhelming amount of crisis and instability during the previous decade, the change we've lived through between 2000 and 2010:
9/11 Attack
the war in Iraq;
the recession;
the banking crisis;
the mortgage-industry collapse;
the rise in unemployment;
an energy-policy crisis;
a generational attitude crisis in the workplace — across four competing generations;
a technology explosion (including the use of the Internet); and
the advent and rise of social media.

After considering all of this, is it any wonder that a person, family, business, organization, or other social institution would be impacted in some way?

Ask yourself the following:
Am I the same person I was before?
If not, then how have I changed — and how have others changed?
How has my organization changed, to keep current?

What got you where you are today won't take you where you want to be in the future.

CRM metrics can be invaluable in measuring the impact of change. When used effectively, CRM can consume, organize, and help make sense of data. The companies who use CRM are going to be better informed and more conscientious about making decisions concerning choice. Having this information further enables organizations to improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies that guide channel selection.

It appears that the most effective organizations will benefit from their use of CRM by embracing all of this change. The most successful will be those who use the technology to help create "outside-the-box strategies" and "forward re-thinking." These efforts will assist in shaping an organization's future, by helping to negotiate this challenging era of choice, complexity, and change.

Best Wishes, Sweet November

Your P&C
DC*

Oracle Fusion CRM: Are you game for it ( My Century Blog Article)

Dears,

OOW 2010 played a perfect host to unveil the latest Oracle Fusion Applications. There was an excitement around to see the new born kid some expect them to hit the ground day one and some want to see them fly without hitting the ground. What so ever it be we welcome the efforts put in by Oracle Corporation in making Fusion applications. The fusion application may become a giant of all apps or it could be another Frankenstein but what is more interesting either way is the technology advancements that were incorporated in this Fusion Apps. It’s more appropriate for me to talk about Fusion CRM than any other apps just for the simple reason I don’t know much about others but Fusion CRM is something we partnered with Oracle Corporation in business process validation program a year back and we really feel good and proud about it. Let’s see Whats in store for us in the Fusion CRM V1 Release.

Part of Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a 100 percent open, standards-based set of integrated CRM modules that improves the way sales Professionals work. Unlike traditional CRM systems that focus only on transaction processing, with
collaboration, reporting, analysis, and exception management as an afterthought, Oracle Fusion CRM is designed to deliver unprecedented business insight into sales performance management.

Sales professionals must focus on three critical areas to succeed in today’s rough selling environment: sales planning, sales prospecting, and sales rep productivity. The new Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management specifically targets each of these areas to help sales reps post better numbers and enable sales executives to reach their revenue goals.

Maximize revenue with better sales planning

Precious time is often wasted while sales strategy from the top trickles down to the field in the form of territory assignments, quotas, and compensation plans. For large enterprises, the sales planning process can be incredibly complex, with countless hours spent on hundreds of spreadsheets that need to be reconciled across multiple groups. The process is error prone and difficult to adjust to accommodate ongoing changes in resource staffing and new product introductions. In the meantime, sales reps are left in a state of limbo in which they don’t know what accounts to pursue, what products to sell, or how they will be compensated. Frequently, opportunities are unevenly distributed across territories, leaving some sales reps to frantically chase after leads while others are burdened with more opportunities than they can handle. The end result? Lost revenue.

Oracle Fusion CRM’s sales planning solution addresses this revenue leakage with an integrated territory management, quota management, and incentive compensation solution too quickly and easily design, execute, and modify sales plans and monitor performance to plan.

Because Oracle Fusion Applications are modular, organizations can install single components or an entire product family to work with their existing enterprise applications. For example, Oracle’s Siebel CRM and Oracle CRM On Demand users can leverage Oracle Fusion CRM’s sales recommendations and territory assignments to optimize sales coverage.
Generate Higher-Quality Leads with Smarter Prospecting
The greatest challenge facing salespeople is not getting leads—it’s getting high-quality leads. Sales reps waste time chasing dead-end leads and pursuing prospects that are not quite ready to purchase because the leads have not been adequately nurtured. As a result, sales reps are often forced to prospect for and nurture leads on their own while lacking the proper tools to do so effectively. Oracle Fusion CRM mines and analyzes information from past customer purchases to give Sales people the insight on what to sell to whom, based on revenue potential, close probability, and estimated time to close. With Oracle Fusion CRM, sales reps can also take campaign management into their own hands, creating professional campaigns that leverage best practices from within the organization yet are personalized for each prospect.

Increase Productivity with Less Reporting, More Selling

Studies show that only 22 percent of a typical salesperson’s time is spent selling. Salespeople spend
too much time searching for information and entering data in multiple applications, limiting their
ability to respond quickly to customer requests. What they need are applications that work the way
they do, to increase user adoption and minimize time spent on reporting and administrative activities. Social collaboration, competitive insights, and contextual analytics are embedded throughout Oracle Fusion CRM. Sales reps have the information they need at their fingertips, whether they are asking for help from fellow team members, leveraging competitive information gleaned from past deals, or retrieving insight about a particular account. Integration with mobile devices and everyday applications such as Microsoft Outlook ensures that sales reps can access and capture valuable customer information as they go about their daily tasks.

See the Pics enclosed of Fusion CRM Application. I will discuss in details about the key features of Fusion CRM apps in my future blogs.

Happy Diwali to all my fellow Indian bros and sisters.

Your P&C
DC*

Apps Cousins : ERP & CRM

Dears,

I believe ERP and CRM are Corporate Cousins. If you strive to run a customer-centric business CRM along is not going to get you there. At least, not all the way. Here's why. Being customer-centric means delivering what customers value. Customers value all sorts of things, but generally you can put it into three buckets: products/services (what they buy; functional value), experiences (how product/services are delivered and supported; emotional value) and price (what it costs to get the other two things).
A successful customer-centric business strategy is a plan to deliver customer value more effectively than competitors, to drive profitable growth and other value to stakeholders. So what does this have to do with CRM, which some say is synonymous with customer-centricity?
Let's leave aside for the moment that CRM as commonly practiced is mainly about extracting value from customers, not delivering value. OK, let's not. Seriously, do you want to argue that SFA is why your customers are doing business with you? Or that your call center is the only thing your customers care about? Or that those targeted marketing messages are your customers' main loyalty drivers?
Sorry, while these are important, there's more to loyal customer relationships than CRM. If you don't believe me, just ask your customers.
The core limitation is simply that CRM (and its new "hot" cousin Social CRM) are still mainly about the front-office. And much of the value that customers, um, value comes not from the front-office and certainly not from the new trendy social front office such as Twitter, Facebook or online communities either. No, much of what customers value comes from the so-called "back office" where ERP reigns.
That's where products are built, services are provisioned, quality is managed and cost is reduced. Sure CRM (however you define it) can add value, but it's not the sole driver. In my benchmark studies the past 10 years, over and over again I found that core products/services are worth about 40% of the value, experiences another 40% and price 20%. Your mileage may vary.
Where does ERP fit in? I'm not an ERP expert, but I think Wikipedia provides a pretty good definition: "Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources, including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources."
I find it interesting that ERP is not defined as a "strategy" but rather a system-based approach to manage resources. Somewhere along the line CRM became a strategy but still at its core CRM is also a system-based approach... focused on customer information rather than internal resources.
If you think CRM is a concept, strategy or whatever, that's fine. No harm done and you're entitled to your opinion. But ask around and you'll find that most think of CRM like ERP -- systems that can be used to support a business strategy, but not a business strategy in and of itself.
You'll need ERP+CRM (and a customer-centric strategy driving them) to deliver the full value package that will earn your customers' business and loyalty. CRM is not enough. If you are truly interested in becoming a customer-centric business, you need to factor ERP into your thinking. Are you?

Your P&C
DC*

CRM Maturity Levels, Ensuring CRM Quality

Dears,

One third of CRM projects generate great results, one third create minor improvements, and the final third produce no improvements at all. You’re probably wondering: “How can I tell where I’ll end up?

To get a good feel for how ambitious your CRM plans should be, first take a serious look at your existing CRM processes—the way in which you market to, sell to, and service customers. The better defined your processes are, the greater your chances of success in leveraging CRM technology.
Over the past ten years, I have seen a trend emerge regarding the relationship between the maturity level of a company’s CRM processes and the types of CRM systems that company is able to implement. I now classify companies into one of five levels of CRM process development. A company’s maturity level often dictates the level of CRM technology it can successfully absorb.

CRM Maturity Level 1: Adhoc CRM Processes

Anarchy prevails in an organization at the level one stage of CRM process development. Account managers tend to view themselves as CEOs of their own territory, unbound by a structured methodology for working with customers. There may be a suggested sell cycle, but it is used haphazardly at best, based on the whims of the individual salesperson.
Being a level one organization does not mean you are a failure, it simply means that results are unpredictable. In this type of company, leads get generated, sales get made and accounts are serviced. However, sometimes lead conversion rates are 20 percent, sometimes they are 1 percent. Sometimes deals close in three days, sometimes in one year. Sometimes customer satisfaction ratings are near 100 percent, sometimes they are in the pits. The problem is nobody can explain why these things happen.
The success of a level one firm is not dependent on CRM processes—because there aren’t any! Instead, it is based solely on the skill levels of individual marketing, sales, and support personnel. If there are no CRM processes in place it is impossible to implement a sophisticated CRM system, as there is nothing to automate. A firm at this level of maturity would be best served by providing its people with CRM tools that focus on increasing individual efficiency (contact managers, word processors, presentation systems and e-mail) versus organizational effectiveness. Such companies need to do a lot of work on process definition before they try to expand their CRM technology plans.


CRM Maturity Level 2 : Replicable CRM Processes

A level two organization has things pretty much under control. Salespeople hit their numbers regularly, future business is forecasted with a fair degree of confidence, customer satisfaction is within an acceptable range. The key attribute of a level two organization is that it achieves its success not through sophisticated CRM process methodologies, but rather through solid management. Level two companies are driven by “tribal folklore”—the belief that, “If we keep doing the best practices of the past, we will keep hitting our numbers in the future.” These types of companies tend to be successful, but only as long as there are no major changes in the way business is done in their marketplace. This type of company can successfully implement a more advanced CRM system than a level one firm. Since there is a recognized way of doing business, such tools as opportunity managers, forecasting systems, configurators and help desk systems can be implemented to help improve operations.

CRM Maturity Level 3: Focused

A level three organization is one where CRM processes have become a way of life for the company. Every employee in marketing, sales and support has the “bible” for how things need to be done—not just the accepted way of doing things, but the only way to do them. Because these processes are so ingrained into daily operations, they can be analyzed and improved. This type of company is rarely caught off guard by changes in its marketplace. It can detect very early when product requirements begin to shift, when competitive strategies are becoming more effective, or when customer satisfaction is just starting to decline.

This type of company is an optimal candidate for a more sophisticated CRM system. Processes are so well disseminated throughout the enterprise that these companies can successfully absorb technological innovations such as marketing automation systems, sales coaching systems, interactive selling systems and systems for marketing, sales and support performance analysis. These companies will probably also have no trouble implementing e-business extensions to their CRM systems to allow channel partners access to the tools.


CRM Maturity Level 4: Dominant

Level four is where we all want to be. A firm at this level has solid CRM processes that are optimized by the most sophisticated CRM systems. These companies also are strong believers in gathering and continually analyzing metrics about their performance. They have a solid understanding of how they sell, how their customers buy and how they need to service clients to create long-term loyalty.
Level four firms are constantly questioning the status quo. They ask themselves such things as: Why do 30 percent of the people who visit our Web site abandon their shopping carts? Why do 15 percent of our “A” leads never get followed up? Why do 23 percent of the orders we process have errors? For these types of companies, CRM systems are not an option—they are a necessity. Implementing CRM is the only way level four companies can get the information they need to analyze and improve their performance. A level four company is in a position to implement, not just great CRM systems, but great Analytics/BI System as well. These companies’ knowledge of how they, their channel partners and their customers do business gives them the insights they need to determine how to best leverage technology to optimize their operations going forward.

CRM Maturity Level 5: Visionary

Level 5 is a state of predicting the future for your business and a state CRM completely stays in Nirvana and often this is pulled to Level 4 and companies put forth stupendous efforts to get back to Level 5. We hardly find very few companies in this state and this requires customer experience optimization as a daily affair.

WHAT’S YOUR LEVEL?

To get a feeling for how successful your CRM systems will be, first do a realistic “gut-check” on what type of organization you have. If you find yours is a level one firm, and you are currently planning to implement a very sophisticated eCRM system, chances are you will fall flat on your face. You are talking about running a four-minute mile when you can barely walk around the block. Pick the level of CRM technology your organization can successfully absorb today. If you don’t like the level of maturity of your CRM processes, then work to improve it. Once the changes have occurred, then upgrade your CRM systems to match your new level of process performance.

Thanks for your patience reading and appreciate if you could experience and share with me your views.

You’re P& C
DC*

Proactive CRM & the Way CRM Champions do it

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.

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What Drives MDM Trends @ 2010?

Dears,

The answer to our Title Question is
Market pressures and organizational maturity drives new master data management (MDM) trends

My observation with some of the leading edge organizations seeking business transformation highlight shifts in the MDM trends of the past. Organizations flooded in data need to move beyond the clutter and get to the information. More data does not equate to more information. In order to make sense, MDM initiatives now move to align with a new set of focus – business transformation and optimization.

Seven key trends now drive the new world of MDM as we enter a new decade.

1. Master data management must go vertical to succeed in business. Customers no longer want horizontal solutions. MDM must tailor to industry specific requirements. Results must be relevant to how an industry works.
2. Structured and unstructured content will evolve into the MDM ecosystem. Customers seek tools to tie hierarchies and relationships back to unstructured data in the effort to achieve value in information.
3. Data in the cloud and SaaS will force hybrid approaches. Cloud based and SaaS models change where and how data becomes augmented. MDM systems must support hybrid models in real-time. Proven data integration must be a given not an afterthought. Data integration must be event driven.
4. Master data management styles no longer matter, just the results. Issue of styles get relegated to the IT owner. Business users seek results and actionable insights.
5. Data governance and stewardship more important than ever. Processes must align with use cases. Data hygiene needs to be omnipresent but not cumbersome
6. Social CRM creates demand for trusted profiles. Organizations now need to understand their advocates and detractors Today’s social and connected world requires more targeted marketing, sales, and service/support programs.
7. Business optimization and transformation will require MDM to cover more data types. MDM moves beyond customer, product, accounts, and employees. New forms of content such as location, images, video, and tweet streams will enter the equation.
Expect to see more details on each one of these trends in the coming year.
Question to you ?
Where are you with your MDM strategy? Have you deployed? Are you redeploying? Do these trends resonate with you? Let me know ..

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Art of CRM: Sun Tzu Way

Dears,

The Art of War, written by Chinese General Sun Tzu about 2500 years ago, has been flaunted as an excellent and timeless read for generals, statesmen, CEOs, market traders, athletes, salespeople, and even married couples. And now [queue-in the marching drum roll, please], I'll try to draw some parallels to CRM and Leadership.
One of my Favorite quotes “A losing general enters battle and then seeks victory. A wise general achieves victory and then enters battle.”--- Sun Tzu

The lesson of Sun Tzu applies not only to war, but to business. Often, an executive launches a product or service and then hopes that with enough time, sweat, money and luck, success will follow. A wiser approach is to develop a coherent plan to ensure success that can be understood and implemented by the team. A CRM system translates those seeds of an idea into assignments and tasks that guide a motivated team and bring in eager, happy customers.

Art of Leadership

Successful business people are--more often than not--great leaders, leading thinkers, and leading doers. Much like the attributes of a great general, it is smarter and nimbler leadership that prevails in the marketplace, that most complex of all battlefields.
The Art of War describes several criteria of leadership; let’s examine a few of them briefly:
First I want to tie in the purpose and strategic significance of the enterprise. Without creating the bonds and trust necessary between the leader and subordinates, it is all but impossible to consistently meet the strategic and tactical objectives of CRM.
Second, let's tie in the boldness and strategy of taking actions. This is three-pronged: First, great leaders time their moves with great care. This includes press releases, earnings forecasts, and product launches. Second, it is important not to display indecisiveness, which can lead to an erosion of trust and confidence. And third, a smaller force can beat a larger one by causing its rival to respond before thinking. Many forms of deception are perfectly ethical in warfare and business. So don't be afraid to provocate and agitate your competition when necessary.
Third, I'd like to reflect on disciple in the ranks, an important tenet in Art of War. Instilling proper discipline into an CRM organization is complex: It consists of setting and implementing rules, regulations, and the treatment of employees. Are the employees which made things happen getting the proper rewards? Or are they getting demoralized and leaving for greener pastures?
As I mentioned the marketplace is the most complex of all battlefields. And just like there is confusion on the battlefield, there rarely are "usual patterns" in the market. However, chaos offers continual openings to someone who can perceive the forming of a future order of things. By understanding all possibilities, one can respond without confusion to whatever emerges.

Art of preempting Competition

Would Sun Tzu advocate head-on competition? I think he'd instead agree with some of the innovative sales strategies that attempt to outsmart the competition before it figures out what's going on.
Sun Tzu puts much emphasis on preempting conflict, he says:
“And so one skilled at employing the military Subdues the other's military but does not do battle,Uproots the other's walled city but does not attack”
The company which wants to avoid head-on competition needs a powerful market strategy, just as a nation-state which wants to avoid conflict needs to maintain a powerful army. However, many modern-day companies ignore the "avoid strength, attack weakness" principle to the industry's detriment. By directly attacking the competition with means such as a head-on price war, they commoditize their own products. And as we know, commoditization is the killer of profit margins. Instead, a healthier approach may be to differentiate existing offerings, create new ones, or develop new markets or branding.
Later on, the General also says, "one advances without seeking glory, retreats without avoiding blame." So take a step back, and consider whether the machismo approach of going head-on is a better option then beating your competition to the customer's door in the first place. When a product launch [battle] is planned, for example, speed to market [battlefield], all the various cycle times, and logistics are essential.

Genghis Khan once said, "It is not sufficient that I succeed -- all others must fail."
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CRM Project: Enabling Agility beyond Challenges

Dears,
I have often witnessed tension in CRM projects between scope management and innovation. Organizations start out thinking of CRM as a project with a budget, a deadline, and a set of high-level requirements.

These requirements include the demands of the business heads who decided to pay for the project so they are generally not flexible. While there may be vague discussions of future phases to encompass a broader wish list, nobody gives that much thought. The focus is exclusively on the project at hand that will bring CRM to the organization.
Upon kick-off, the project manager (or in some cases business analyst, IT manager, or CRM consultant) must flesh out the detailed requirements as quickly as possible and then prevent those requirements from changing. Project managers know that requirements churn poses the greatest risk to the schedule and budget. With deadlines and budget usually tight and the high-level scope aggressive, the only hope for project success is a determined effort to avoid requirements churn.
The problem is that CRM projects are great learning experiences. As participants think through how they do their work, as they verbalize and visualize their processes, as they understand how their processes affect others across the organization, as they collaborate on how a new system could empower them to reach objectives, they start to rethink what they expected of CRM. People wonder whether they might just innovate.
Oh, no. Sounds like requirements churn. No, let’s not go there. That is a later phase for which there is no budget and no timeframe. So just forget it. Let’s squash that innovation right now lest expectations get out of control. Project managers must meet expectations and so they must control expectations.
Since I’m a PMI certified project management professional (PMP), I do know the PMI answer to this dilemma. It is scope management with a documented process for handling change requests. The problem here is twofold. First, few organizations put such change control boards in place. Second, such a rigid process is unlikely to foster innovation. Just tell somebody with a new idea that they must fill out a change request form and submit it to a committee of superiors and you can be sure they will not have any new idea.
Because CRM projects lead to learning and new ideas, agility is essential to respond to innovation as it happens rather than squash new ideas as a threat to the project schedule. To consider what agile means, let’s take a look at a few of the guiding principles from the Agile Manifesto.
· Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
· Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
· Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
· Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
· The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Applied to CRM, I would translate these principles into the following bullet points.
· Break from the notion that CRM is just one big project with a defined beginning and end. The challenge of satisfying customers and meeting market threats never ends so why restrict the opportunity for employees to innovate.
· Launch CRM with an expansive vision rather than a rigid scope. The vision should include making the organization outwardly focused toward its customers and markets and promoting continuous improvements in processes that add value to customers. And the vision should tie in closely with the organization’s mission statement and strategy. Obviously, the CEO would be a great person to deliver that initial vision at a kick-off meeting.
· Include the widest range of stakeholders in the kick-off meeting even if initial phases will not directly affect them. Collaboration across the organization is a great catalyst for innovation.
· Keep each phase, especially the initial phases, short so that the team does not have to push off new ideas far into the future. Do not insist that the first phase include every high-level requirement requested by the executive stakeholders. Some of these requirements may be replaced as new ideas emerge. And once people start using a system, they will have a better understanding of their requirement priorities.
· Follow proven project management practices within each phase to reliably implement new features on time and within budget.
· Encourage brainstorming and idea generation on an on-going basis. When new ideas emerge, create ad-hoc teams to pursue them even if the actual implementation is not in scope for the current phase. Do not just say “not now” and leave it at that.
· Make sure initial phases focus on usability rather than maximizing features. If people hate using CRM, it is unlikely to become a platform for innovation.
· Select a CRM platform that not only satisfies initial requirements but can adapt to meet evolving requirements.
· If you hire consultants to start you on your way with CRM, make sure team members learn as much as possible from the consultants both about how to perform business analysis and how to customize the CRM platform. In that way, the journey of continuous innovation through can continue after the budget for consultants runs out.

In other words, start out with a big vision but get there through small steps.

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Let the Cloud Debate not Cloud your CRM Vision

Dears,

The term "cloud computing" has inspired a lot of thought, energy, ideas and enthusiasm. It's also sparked a lot of head-scratching, brow-furrowing and definition-debating. You might think that after several years of the concept being in the forefront of thought around business computing, this might have resolved itself and there would be a single, holistic view of what "the cloud" means. If you thought that, you'd be wrong.
Attendees at Oracle Open World have been treated this week to the embodiment of the debate over what the cloud is, courtesy of two rather prominent figures in the world of software: Oracle's Larry Ellison and Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff. The positions they took on the cloud were totally predictable, since their views catered to product images each is trying to project. However, they were also an indication of why users find it hard to fully grasp what "the cloud" means: No one at the vendor level is willing to provide a complete definition.

It's in a Box
Ellison kicked off Open World 2010 with a keynote that included the introduction of an integrated middleware machine called the "Exalogic Elastic Cloud," a big gray box tuned to run Java very rapidly, to provide a complete cloud computing infrastructure, according to Oracle.
"It's a cloud in a box," Ellison said as he introduced it Sunday night.
It was the sort of thing you'd expect from a company that spent a lot of money to acquire Sun last year, and that was very cool to the idea of SaaS until the market forced its hand. That announcement came with a round-about definition of what Oracle thinks "the cloud" is.
Ellison took time to say that Salesforce.com was not a cloud company -- it was a 10-year-old software company, and that was not what the cloud was about. Ellison stuck to the idea that the cloud was the underlying infrastructure, the kind of thing that could be created and nurtured with the Exalogic Elastic Cloud product. That pointed toward a view of the cloud as infrastructure, and Oracle's eye firmly on the private cloud part of that infrastructure.
What It's Not
On Wednesday, Benioff , CEO of Salesforce took the stage for his Twitter inducing talk, and, in mock distress, parried Ellison's jabs.
"The cloud is not in a box!" he said, before asserting that there should be a cloud computing test: If it requires you to buy more hardware and software (presumably, on-premise software), it's not cloud. If it can't scale, or it lacks automatic upgrades, or it has no applications marketplace, or it isn't energy-efficient, it isn't the cloud.
If that definition sounds a lot like what Salesforce.com already sells, there's a good reason for it -- the same reason that Ellison's definition was a good match for the big gray boy he shared the stage with Sunday night. Both vendors want to appropriate the term and make it their own. The problem is that the cloud is bigger and more complicated than either end of this debate is willing to acknowledge.
It's Elementary, My Dear
Here's my view of "cloud computing": It's computing. You need an underlying infrastructure (the boxes Ellison was talking about), the software to run on it (hello, Salesforce.com, I'm looking at you), and a transport layer to make it all work together.
At a very, very basic level, it's the same as what we've done since the first time two computers were networked. Back then, though, we didn't hear scientists at IBM arguing about whether the hardware or the software WAS the computer, or which was really the network. That was a silly idea that would have earned derision comparable to not wearing a shirt and tie to the office.
Nowadays, users are more sophisticated than back then, and yet we still figure out ways to baffle them around computing concepts. Thus, if you're a CRM user, here's my suggestion: Forget the cloud.
Hit the Mute Button
You heard me right. Pay no attention to it. Step away from the fray and let the CEOs have their fun. Focus on your business needs. Odds are good that a cloud-based solution -- one that uses software optimized for the cloud, running on a distributed infrastructure -- will do the job for you. It'll cut your administrative costs, provide backup and disaster recovery, limit your upfront costs and enable you to be more flexible than you've been in the past. The point is to let your business objectives lead you to it -- that's really the way you should be reaching these decisions, anyway.
It's possible, though, that your business requirements may lead you to an on-premise solution. You may have regulatory issues that preclude the cloud model, or you may have management that's still leery of it, or you may simply prefer to use your capital and in-house talent to tend to your business computing environment yourself, thus allowing you to skip the cloud sideshow entirely.
The question you need to ask is whether a cloud solution -- regardless of how it's defined or who's defining it -- works to address your CRM issues and help you forge better relationships with customers, and whether it does so in the optimal way for your company.

Ignore the debates among vendors (amusing as they may be), and focus on your own company. If you do that, the question of whether or not to deploy CRM via the cloud will decided itself, regardless of the definition of "cloud computing.

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Why “CRM “Must Die ?

Dears,

When Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez landed his ships on the eastern shore of Mexico in 1519, it was to fulfill his dreams. But his sailors grew tired of the hardships and talked of returning home to an easier life. To ensure they were totally committed with no option of turning back, he ordered his men to burn the ships.

In fact, "fighting" is precisely the right word. Consultants and vendors are in warring camps, each with vested interests in defining CRM their way. CRM has become a convenient label to sell stuff.

Consultants say CRM is an approach to business or process improvement. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that their "solutions" are packaged as consulting services.
Vendors define CRM as something you can implement via their technology. Sure, some give lip service to "CRM is a strategy," but do vendors propose non-technology solutions to solve a CRM problem? Right. About the same percentage as consultants who propose technology without any of their services.
Industry analysts are hardly independent bystanders. Most use "CRM" to define sets of "front office" applications (marketing, sales and service software). But CRM-as-a-business-strategy could, of course, be enabled with many other technologies classified in other analysis buckets, such as call center, performance management, feedback management or even ERP.
It's no wonder that people are confused. Like the famous Indian legend of six blind men trying to "see" an elephant by touch, and each forming a very different impression, "CRM" can mean just about anything to anybody.
And now, Customer Experience Management proponents arrive fully armed and ready to escalate the war of words in a new direction. Is it part of CRM? An extension to CRM? An alternative to CRM? The answer depends on what you think CRM is.

And what of the collateral damage done in this war of words? You know, the companies that are supposed to "implement" CRM. Or the customers of those companies that are supposed to be more satisfied and loyal.
Customers say "customer-centric" means things like "high-quality goods and services," interactions with "empowered employees" and "open and honest communications Despite billions of dollars spent each year on customer-oriented technologies, there's been little or no improvement in customer-centricity over the past decade, at the industry level. Sometimes industry loyalty leaders use technology extensively and sometimes they don't But technology investments alone are not enough, or we'd all be a lot happier with the service we're getting.

Let's Burn the Great Ship "CRM"

I've come to the conclusion that, for true success with CRM (the customer-centric business kind of CRM, in case you're wondering), the "ship" that must burn is the term "CRM." It's the only way to get everyone on board with a concept that's obvious: Without customers, there is no business, so let's take care of them. But this ship has sailed with far too few people on board.
My advice is to call CRM whatever makes sense to your organization. Call it customer management, customer experience management, customer managed relationships—or, if you insist, customer relationship management. But spell it out and define what you mean, because CRM doesn't have a commonly accepted meaning, and I'm now convinced it never will.
My definition of Customer Relationship Management, for what it's worth, is quite simple: the development and implementation of a customer-centric business strategy. "Customer-centric" means giving your customers what they want. "Business strategy" means accomplishing the goals of your organization. Accomplish both at the same time, and you've got the win-win that CRM is supposed to be about.
Instead of more debates of what CRM is or isn't, focus on developing and implementing a successful customer-centric business strategy.

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The MDM Building Blocks

Dears,

Today most organizations understand the concept of master data management (MDM). After all, vendors like Oracle, IBM, Siperian and others have been pushing the MDM message for years. What most organizations don't understand, however, is how exactly to get the initiative under way

They sort of get the idea of MDM in terms of the need to get more consistency in the data … but then they struggle with two things. The first is building a sustainable business case for MDM, and the second is laying a sustainable foundation for the initiative.

Without both elements, most MDM initiatives are bound to fail. If the business doesn't recognize the benefit of MDM -- and without comprehensive data governance and an accurate and transparent way to measure MDM effectiveness -- support and funding will inevitably dwindle.

For organizations to get this puzzle right, a framework of MDM building blocks is necessary . This article would provide the brief insight about these building blocks and you know whom to contact for more information J

Develop an MDM vision. Every organization has a business vision, but they also need to develop a related MDM vision that clearly articulates its business benefits. At a bank that strives to offer the lowest prices, for example, the MDM visions should explain how consistent master data will help achieve that goal. It's not some esoteric IT infrastructure plumbing thing,It's really hardwired into achieving your business goals.
Document the MDM strategy. If the MDM vision explains the "what" and "why" of MDM, the next building block – an MDM strategy – answers the question of "how” An MDM strategy should explain which master data domains and use cases will be addressed, when and how.
Determine business-related MDM metrics. Linking MDM to business value is key to success and so is developing a set of metrics to measure and illustrate MDM's impact on the organization. Such metrics should be business focused, not IT focused, he said. For example, metrics which show that MDM helped increase the accuracy of customer data by 10% aren't likely to impress management, but metrics which show that customer retention or cross-selling rates increased as a result of MDM will. Those are the things that keep [executives] attention .
Create MDM and data ownership-related rules. Most MDM initiatives that fail do so for data governance and organization-related reasons. That's because, at its heart, MDM is about people sharing data. At the early stages of the MDM processes, then, establishing rules among stakeholders as to who makes what decisions, who is responsible for what data, and who will consume the data is a must. "If you don't have something like that, you might get some pitched battles internally,. Or worse, certain people or departments might refuse to share their data, defeating the whole purpose of MDM.
Prioritize MDM-related processes. Once governance and organizational rules are established, the processes to create and actually consume master data should be articulated. "There must be a step-wise, prioritized focus on different data domain areas, source systems and consuming communities. "Prioritization is vital to determining which processes are 'nice to have' and which are 'must have.'"
Determine the MDM technology strategy. Finally -- after the MDM vision, metrics, governance and processes have been determined -- comes the technology. Organizations have the option to buy MDM-enabling technology, build their own, or do some combination of both. The important thing is not necessarily which approach an organization takes but that it supports the other building blocks of the MDM initiative. "[Because, in the end,] if [MDM] was just IT led and concentrated purely on technology, it would never get off the ground
organizations should keep their eye on the MDM big picture and not to artificially overemphasize one element of the initiative over the other. Each MDM building block identified has an important role to play..

"Striking the right balance between technology and governance," ,"as well as ensuring that the MDM strategy aligns with the business vision and can be measured via a set of metrics, is key to success."

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Walk the Talk CRM: Keep Jargons aside

Dears,
CRM advocates to potential CRM buyers a disservice when they use industry-insiders' jargon to explain its benefits. Instead of speaking about features and functionality in software-application terms, they should talk about benefits in business terms. Most businesses are engaged in CRM -- they just don't use that acronym, and they don't yet know how a unified CRM system can work for them.

Those of us immersed in CRM take it for granted that people understand what the acronym stands for and what it really means -- the technology, people and processes that go into building stronger relationships with customers, or customer relationship management. Quite naturally, the people who sell, support and comment on CRM understand all of that. But do the intended users?

I tend to talk about CRM a lot outside my professional circle, and it astounds me that so many people haven't the slightest notion what "CRM" means. In many cases, I'm talking to Small & Medium Business owners who could benefit directly from a CRM system, and who have been the targets of many a big-budget marketing campaign over the last several years. For whatever reason, the message has yet to penetrate the consciousness of a vast percentage of decision makers.

Yet almost to a person, these Small & Medium Business owners are confronting the issues at the core of CRM -- lead generation, customer service, customer loyalty and sales information management, among others -- and handling them through home-grown and usually totally unconnected systems. In many cases, it never occurs to them that they are practicing CRM. These are simply the activities they need to do to run their businesses.

Tuning Out
As a result, these companies create ad hoc on-line and off-line solutions, or they implement simplified technologies -- like low-end SFA -- that are expedient but create silos. Information is never shared or fully exploited, and the issue tends to fester until a company grows too large to ignore what is by then an extremely thorny problem.These are the conditions that led to the creation of CRM in the first place -- why are they still afflicting businesses today?
Part of this is due to the de-evolution of the concept of "CRM" from a business-wide philosophy into a software sale. It makes sense, to a degree; the organizations at the forefront of the CRM movement, out of economic necessity, have been the vendors who stood to profit from that activity. Unfortunately, the result is that the CRM argument fades into the din of other enterprise software sales pitches.
Small & Medium Business owners get a lot of these, and the natural tendency is to tune all of them out -- including those for concepts like CRM, which could transform their businesses.
How can vendors and service providers stand out in this environment? By reframing the CRM story in ways that Small & Medium Business owners can understand. The jargon needs to take a rest, while the results of an integrated approach to managing customer relationship information come to the fore.
Talk Business
The argument should not initially be about software delivery models or IT considerations, but about the impact on business. That means the impact of a well-tracked marketing campaign on sales, the impact of arming salespersons with customer data at the start of the selling cycle, the impact of data collected by sales staff on the service and product development processes, and the translation of all the results into marketing.
Small businesses understand segments of that cycle, but they can miss the forest for the trees. It's crucial to explain the power of a unified solution in the context of the business, not in the context of the technology.
Reaching this coveted untapped segment of the CRM market is tough for vendors, who are expert at selling software and services, not at helping potential customers re-imagine the role of data in their businesses.
It's also tough for the CRM media, which often defaults to the language of the vendor instead of the language of the user. In both cases, the answer is to employ one of the basic tenets of CRM: Work with the customer the way the customer wants to work.

By taking a step back and understanding how Small & Medium Business users view their sales, marketing and service issues, and then talking about solutions in terms they understand, the CRM community can reach small businesses with messages that resonate about a solution they need -- even if they don't call it "CRM" yet.

Good Luck

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Social CRM: What’s so Unsocial about it.

Dears,

Today, everything is social — social commerce, social business, social CRM. The list goes on and on.

Social CRM is one of the most abused title I've heard in the last 2 years. What's disappointing is that it obscures a completely valid concept for helping businesses better understand their customers. Sure, it's a way for software vendors to attempt to explain or differentiate themselves using the latest buzzword, "social." Let's set aside the fluff and define what this really means, because there is some real value here that shouldn't be overlooked.
To a business owner, customer relationships are core to just about everything. CRM technologies are tools to help facilitate interactions with our customers. We need these tools so we, as an organization, can be better equipped to sell to and support our customers.
Today there are new ways to interact and engage with customers and prospects — online communities and social networking sites. But it's important we make a distinction here: There are social networks and there are communities. The two are not mutually exclusive, nor are they identical.
Social Networks — Facebook, Twitter, and other similar online properties are designed to facilitate social interactions between people. For example, on Facebook you connect with friends, people you knew in school, and possibly even some coworkers. You may connect with some customers you know, too, but only as a nonwork-related relationship.
Online Communities — Many of the concepts found in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter apply here, but for the express purpose of solving specific business goals and objectives. For example, when Dell uses community software to provide support for its customers, the goals are to sell more hardware, reduce costs, and raise awareness of new products. There is some social aspect, but that is not the purpose of that community.
So how do you apply these concepts to managing relationships with your customers?
1. Monitor Social Networks Social networks are important as you manage your customers. You should monitor and watch them for trends and feedback. They are a channel through which your products and services may be discussed. Use social media monitoring tools to keep track of any mentions of your brand, product, or services so that you can properly react or respond to those mentions. In fact, a great strategy here is to respond with a link back to how you are addressing or echoing the feedback in your own community.
2. Offer a Community There are different types of communities that you can run for your customers. In some cases you may run a business community on a social networking site such as Facebook — though one challenge this represents is data management. Data, as you'll quickly learn, is paramount to understanding your customers and their behaviors.
3. Own the Data The data created for and by your customers is critical to understanding them. It is only through the data that you can derive value from your investment in this new customer channel. For example, Cadence integrated its online community with its CRM software, intending not only to use the community as a resource to help learn more about its customers but also to populate its CRM with that customer knowledge.
4. Customer Intelligence If you own the data from your community, there is a new level of depth you can gain from your customer interactions. Customers will populate data about themselves, the products they use, and their successes and frustrations. Once customer analytics become integrated with a CRM system, you can gain substantial intelligence about your customers: what products they own, what questions they've asked, where they've contributed, and which customers are influential — that's another list that goes on and on.
The answer for CRM vendors isn't reflexively adding "social" in front of their offerings. Instead, these vendors — whose solutions already manage rich customer data — should integrate with community platform vendors that provide intelligence and analytics to complement that data.
Then we'll have more than social CRM. We'll have integrated customer intelligence.

Good Luck
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Your Company is Unique & So is your CRM application: Custom Development in CRM Application

Dears,
Is your company just like your competitor’s? Of course not. If it were, you wouldn’t stay in business very long. Entrepreneurs and big business alike strive to set themselves apart with unique characteristics, and since your company is unique, you need applications that are customizable to meet your unique needs.
The New age Customer relationship management (CRM) systems allow customers to access applications from any device with Internet access. The tools streamline business processes, increase sales, improve marketing strategies and improve customer relations. Additionally, data can be stored, processes can be automated, costs are reduced and sales and marketing coordinated. Each application can be customized to meet your business’s particular needs.
Through CRM utilities, companies are able to customize applications to employees’ work styles. When employees enjoy the software they are working with, it reflects in their work. Employees are more apt to capture the data and utilize the tool. When customer problems are handled efficiently, it improves the company’s brand image. Satisfied customers bring more business. A satisfied customer will not only continue to provide business, but also spread the word to other friends.
Its recommended you implement a robust CRM application but When trying to decide whether or not to look into custom application development to enhance the features of the Standard CRM Application, here are some areas to consider:
•Your business is different from all the rest, even from direct competitors offering similar products and services. You need to provide your company with the tools that enable it to stand out from the crowd. Customization adds a personal approach to business applications. It also encourages professionalism of your business.
•Your employees still need access to a standard framework. Using standard frameworks with applications keeps workflow consistent. It eliminates the need for additional training that would otherwise be required if you switch to entirely new applications. Instead, employees are engaged with applications they are familiar with.
•Using the same applications, day after day that look exactly like all the others is repetitious. Newly customized applications help motivate salespeople by providing creative resources to work from when tasks become mundane.
•Do you have certain applications available to your employees that first need debugging in order to be used? Customizing your applications saves time by increasing document flow from department to department.
•Sophisticated programs often make collaborating a messy task. By customizing your company’s applications, programs are modified to meet to the specifications of your company with an added personal touch.
•Customizing as opposed to rebuilding gives your businesses a sense of professionalism. Taking the time needed to customize applications so that they are usable and unique gives your company a sense of identity and unity.
•Does your company need an increase in sales productivity? Custom application development is a smart customer relationship management approach. First, your company can eliminate the use of multiple systems to perform the same tasks. By sharing a single application for a specific assignment, employees are freeing up time once wasted transferring data. With the rapid advance of sales force automation technology, businesses are better equipped to serve their customers. A strong business uses technology to its advantage to offer exceptional customer care. By customizing applications, you are allowing sales representatives to focus on the customer, not on the software. Ultimately, customers determine sales.
•Custom applications gives smaller businesses access to the same tools that larger ones use. The uses of technology are skyrocketing. By continuously using old applications, you put your company at risk of falling behind in an age where technology dominates. Customizing applications through web-based services allows even the smallest companies access to the most powerful technology.
•Are you interested in expanding your applications to world of mobile technology? Mobilizing provides your company with many advantages. Sales reps are always available, from any location. If your goal is to create better relationships with customers, salespeople need to be available to offer responses, even when off the job site. Not only does going wireless increase productivity, but it’s engaging to salespeople. Mobile technology is everywhere, and it is logical for businesses to acknowledge the benefits that they provide.
If your company falls into any one of these areas, you have reason enough to take steps toward custom application development and enhance your CRM application. Not only is technology more accessible than ever before, but more companies are learning about the many ways in which to implement it into everyday business practices.

Then word of caution is your customization should be within the permissible limits without affecting the standard CRM application functionalities and data model extension need to done with utmost care. There is merit in customization when you have explored all possibilities of Standard CRM functionality and the wait is really long for the Vendor to release the functionalites you are looking for.

All the Best
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Customer Analytics, the 3rd Eye View

Dears,
This is my second article on the Customer Intelligence or Analytics. There is lot of fascination and enthusiasm around customer analytics. Our clients speak about analytics post implementation of Operational CRM efforts and its very natural to see this as next logical step for many CRM implementations .

It’s important to understand some basic definitions before we explore little more on this topic

· Business Intelligence is the use of information to monitor the business, identify issues, and create opportunities that can be leveraged for competitive advantage.
· Customer Intelligence/Analytics utilizes Business Intelligence strategies, processes, and technologies in order to provide the following capabilities ( as given in the picture ) regarding a CRM initiative: ( Look at the Picture)

Demographic data is only the base of a customer segmentation system. Demographic data is less effective in differencing interests and purchase patterns than customer analytics. Customer Analytics is different. It makes sense of data got from daily customer interactions and provides a single view of the customer. This is done by collating and analyzing customer information in order to gain better customer insight. It also enables an organization to make better decisions and thus improves future customer interactions.
Analytical techniques are two -Predictive models used to predict future events, and Segmentation techniques used to place customers with similar behaviors into groups.
Customer analytics includes:
Campaign analytics
Consumer analytics
Marketing analytics
Technical analytics
Transaction analytics

Uses of Customer Analytics
Customer analytic solutions are designed to cater to the specific business needs. Customer analytics identifies critical areas; root causes of problems and develops a plan to implement in risk areas. It also increases revenue and surpasses customer expectations. It provides high quality customer service and operations. Customer analytics increases customer satisfaction rates. It provides the organization with expertise. It also provides the organization with customer knowledge. Customer analytics involves looking at customer events and actions and using this to determine behavior. It tries to identify segments of the customer base in order to enable effective and efficient customer relationship management. Customer interactions are browsing, purchasing, paying, communicating etc. This is used to develop customer profiles, predict future actions, understand interactions, understand the impact of marketing etc. This increases marketing efficiency. It enhances customer interactions and increases marketing effectiveness tracking and customer analytic applications. This helps marketers to optimize campaign management and helps targeting as well.

Guidelines for Effective Customer Analytics

• Business processes kick start the objectives of the analytic projects. Personnel who develop the analytics should have knowledge of the business process and work with departmental heads. They should have an understanding of the business process. They should then set the objectives in accordance with all departmental objectives.
• The various departments like sales, marketing, IT etc must understand the infrastructure and database configuration. This should be done before choosing the analytical techniques and data that will be used. All parties should be brought together and the time frame looked at.
• Once data sources are identified it is important that the data is stored. Now, models can be built and deployed after which it is important to understand the data and correctly use it.
  Once all the actions are listed, identifying the attributes that are needed to develop the final transformation and selecting the most favorable combination of attributes should be done.
• The goal in developing a segmentation scheme is to place customers in groups that are as similar as possible.
• Data timing basically refers to how recent the data must be in order to be able to deliver the required power. In this respect it is important to work with customer interactions that are taking place also at the time of the proposed marketing, even if it requires additional resources. There should be the implementation of additional analyses.
• Additional enhancement data may be used when comparing clustering systems. But it must first be determined that the demographic data does not provide additional segmentation.
• The first step in segmentation is to define the objectives with all departments and collect the data about the customers' various interactions with the company.
• Similar to data transformation, model application and scoring is best completed using a tool outside the database environment. The process includes extracting data, transforming the attributes, updating the clusters, scoring the models, placing the scores and clusters in the database etc.
• The age of the data must be considered. The time to apply the model and time to complete the campaign process must also be considered.
• Data warehouses may not contain the complete view of the customer thus it is essential that relevant information be incorporated from other sources; including CRM, order management etc.
• Organizations can use customer analytic applications for long-term planning and to help employees make better decisions.
• To get the best out of customer information, analytic insight should extend to the employees and partners.

This weekend is festival Weekend in India and I wish all my Indian Friends Happy Dushhera

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