Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a major trend in marketing management. Put simply, Customer Relationship Management means maintaining strong and valued relations with individual customers by meeting their needs and delivering products and services they personally desire. What is not simple is successfully implementing CRM because the principles of individuality and personalization at the customer level are tough to bring about.
The major driver of success with CRM is intelligence about customers, not just information about them. You want to connect with them on levels that are personalized, that competitors cannot match, and the customer appreciates and values. To illustrate:
Circa 1960 – consider the butcher who knew the Smiths enjoyed roast beef because Mrs. Smith would buy a roast on a frequent basis. That is information.
Now, if that same butcher knew the Smiths had roast beef as their Sunday dinner every week, he would always hold out a prime roast for Mrs. Smith every Saturday. That is intelligence. That is Customer Relationship Management.
Circa 2007 — unfortunately, there are many more Mrs. Smiths today for the “butcher” to remember (if you can find a butcher), and the Mrs. Smiths of the world have many more choices as to where they buy their meat. Today, customer relationship management is a much broader and more competitive task than it was 47 years ago.
To address this, the CRM industry developed tools and processes for gathering intelligence about customers. There are numerous hardware and software solutions and consulting companies that can help a business successfully implement a CRM “system.” For many middle-market and smaller businesses, this can be daunting in terms of both time and money.
Fundamental Issues
If you are considering some type of CRM system, start with a few fundamentals. Begin with customer connection points – where they are and the employee(s) who control them. Those employees are your “Customer Relationship Managers.” Ask your people to help you develop the information requirements that will increase your knowledge and intelligence about customers. Your employees are the ones who interact with the customers each day. They are your best source for developing these criteria.
Help employees become advocates. The employees control the fate of the company because they are the face of the company with the customer. Ask them what they need to deliver quality service and individualized products to customers. Involve them in the process and give them ownership of the development of the solutions.
Finally, employ some relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use tools for managing this entire process. Consider a Sales Force Automation or Contacts Database of some type. Examples include Microsoft Outlook, ACT, or Goldmine or a web-based program such as Salesforce.com. These programs have multiple fixed information fields, programmable fields and considerable sorting capabilities.
Do not let the mystique of CRM cloud the underlying principles that drive this effort. Quality relations with customers are not driven by technologies. They are driven by your people and listening to your customers. Invest in and involve your people, understand all of your connection points with customers and employ technologies that help you sort through the data efficiently and effectively. The result will be top notch customer relationship management.
Ken Cook is managing director of Peer to Peer Advisors, an organization that facilitates business leaders helping each other. You can reach him at kcook@peertopeeradvisors.com.
