Customer Relationship Management

While around the globe, there are newer solutions and integrations coming up for CRM, the thought which needs to be foremost under consideration is simplicity. Is that the truth or is it ok to have a complex CRM presentation?      

·         Look at tons and tons of website information and at the end of the navigation is the
          customer confused or does the customer gets to see the exact details that they were
          looking for?
·         Are the phone numbers on the website working?
·         Is someone monitoring the email id given on the site and responding back?
·         Is my customer care IVR multi layered or single layered?
·         Are the call centre representatives too much focused on getting the feedback or are diligent
          and have the authority to close that single call to the customers ultimate satisfaction?
·         Are we continuously updating even the older information?

A simple message delivered in few words can have a great impact. We see a very good example of this impact in the advertisement domain. Few ads make real impact and the ads which make that impact are the ones which are able to create a relationship with the customers.

What role does data analytics have to play in this area? Are we looking at the customer data to churn out the futuristic market strategy or is it limited to the immediate results of a new marketing campaign?

Is there data analytics of how the customer perceives the CRM: Data around the amount of time spent on the respective page / the respective website vis a vis the orders placed and a careful trend analysis of this across geographies and time bars may show some interesting trends towards this aspect.

Ensuring the right use of data in the form of information would continue to become more and more relevant in the days ahead. How can we use elements like Unique Identity (UID) in the CRM domain ?

Posted by Ravi Agarwal at 01:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A bill sent to a customer from the telecom service provider is a powerful tool of customer communication. Hope you agree to this fact. The 'Power of the Bill' can be unleashed in multiple ways. Mainly, for the operator’s revenue increase by means of cross selling and up selling. Cross selling and up selling can be effectively increased through the bill. The target product segment can vary, and cross selling and up selling strategy would differ based on the product segment- whether it is 3G mobile, Wifi Broadband, WiMax and so on.

Bills can also generate references to the service providers from their customers. A customer can ignore any other communication from the service provider but not the bill. The power of bills can be unleashed very well with planned marketing, sales and service coordination. Is it not?
           
Especially e-billing can create wonders in this area as customers can be directed through embedded links in the e-bill to promotional pages and customers can be given loyalty points if they provide references and for their new service subscription. Hence a bill is like a newsletter from a telecom service provider to educate, spread the awareness, promote, cross sell and up sell service provider’s products and services.

Cross selling where the existing customers are to be sold with value added services for their existing services, bill is an excellent option to give a view of how the service can benefit the customer. Say, a customer predominantly has a long distance calling pattern, in the bill we can suggest to him a long distance pack by comparing his calls and mentioning the savings that he will gain out of the pack. This could be a sure cross sell win for the company and the customer will also benefit from it. It is a clear win-win situation. Many customers would like to go for the value added services and packages but they may not be aware whether the specific service is available with the service provider or not. Cross selling through bills would make them aware of the services and offerings. It will be a good thread of thoughts if you could suggest other ways you think of where a bill can be used as a cross selling weapon.

In up selling where the existing customers are to be offered new services or subscriptions, the bill is again a good option to target the right customer. A customer calling pattern can be analyzed and a cellular customer can be suggested to go for a landline giving the benefits along with his call pattern. A customer who is using GPRS to a great extent can be offered a Wi-Fi connection. A customer who is using a broadband connection can be easily directed to a landline or mobile option and giving a loyalty discount to his existing subscription. All these can be achieved with the bill as a medium and coordinated enterprise effort.

Customer profile will also be a major deciding factor in cross selling and up selling. If a customer is in a border area and facing signal interference at his residence, a landline phone can be cross sold to the customer. The other parameters could be the customer age bracket, location, calling pattern, usage, payment pattern, payment mode and so on. This kind of intelligence should be built in CRM systems and the telecom service providers will get a decent ROI for these enhancements in systems.

What are your thoughts on this, as an end user of telecom bills or as a telecom service provider’s business manager? Any comments?

Posted by Sripathy Srinivasan at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In part I I had looked at why companies implement CRM and had promised to answer the following questions “What factors have the maximum impact on the success of CRM projects and initiatives?” And “CRM initiative will impact which all areas?” in my subsequent posts. Well it has been a long wait to discover answers to these intricate questions  so without much ado I will look at them straight away –

What factors have the maximum impact on the success of CRM projects and initiatives?
Is it the software package that you are planning to implement or will it be the two P’s – a) People who will own the system, b) Redesigning and optimizing business processes affecting customer operations (marketing, sales, service, billing), or, will it be the presence of a strong executive sponsor for this program who has the will, resources and motivation to push the program through? These are just some of the factors and this list is just illustrative and not exhaustive (please excuse the cliché)

All the above have an impact but the extent varies. So in our CRM survey we asked this question and listed 20 factors. The following 3 options found the favor of maximum number of respondents – 1) STRATEGY AND VISION: Aligning CRM projects to corporate business strategy and priorities 2) EXECUTION AND DELIVERY PERFORMANCE: Executing CRM projects and initiatives on-time and within budget 3) STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT: Understanding, aligning, informing and influencing stakeholders to secure project buy in and adoption of new CRM solutions and initiatives.

Another parameter which ranked right up there was CUSTOMER UNDERSTANDING: Understanding customer behaviors and needs to reflect them in appropriate CRM strategies and initiatives.

So in a nut shell what the CRM practitioners are saying is – 1) Ensure that your CRM strategy is built around your customer and closely ties in with your company’s long term strategy and priorities 2) Get key stakeholders to support your program and to do this please ensure that you are meeting their stated and unstated needs and removing any misgivings that they may have and 3) Once you are on your way ensure that there are adequate checks to ensure that the program is running on schedule and finishes on time and within budget and meets all the key objectives defined in point 1 thereby ensuring a successful CRM program.

In Part III  I will look at identifying which all aspects of a business will be impacted positively by a successful CRM Initiative. So do you agree with our survey respondents? Also let me know what according to you will be the impact of CRM on a company's business.

Posted by Shreedeep Panicker at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have a theory. In the English language, 'Customer Experience' is possibly the term with the most variety of definitions. I wish to add to this record and hence this blog.

There are two dimensions of Customer Experience that I need to lay emphasis on while defining CEM– firstly, it is measurable and secondly, it isn’t an engine that runs in isolation to generate success. I’ll elaborate on both these dimensions…

Let me start with the way I think Customer Experience needs to be measured. The diagram below shows sample takeaways for the company and the customer from key interactions. Every one of these takeaways have a measurable input and a measurable outcome.

To illustrate this with an example, let us take the aspect of increased knowledge from interaction.

The new age organization will need to approach the knowledge measure in the following way.

1.       Knowledge tapped by way of customer interactions and feedback needs to focus on continuous improvement. Efficient customer operations processes and tools will enable reduction of ‘per unit’ knowledge captured. Some of the levers used to achieve this improvement can range from traditional CRM tools all the way to the newer Social media platforms.

2.       As the quantum of knowledge increases, it should feed process improvements and predict outcomes better. The outcome is measured as value (increased cross/up-sell revenue, increased profit, increased customer satisfaction scores etc.)

In this example, let’s introduce a measurable parameter called CEM^K. CEM^K is measured as a function of value generated for the company at the cost of customer interactions. For an outstanding organization, CEM^K should keep increasing continuously.

Similarly, there may be other measures like CEM^P(product), CEM^S(service), CEM^C (customer interaction etc). CEM will then be measured as a weighted function of these.

CEM = (x1*CEM^K)+(x2* CEM^P)+(x3*CEM^S)+(x4* CEM^C). x1, x2, x3 and x4 should be baselined for the industry of operation.

So, now, to cut the long story short, CEM should be defined as the method which gathers customer experience (through product, service or brand interfaces) and converts them to value for your organization at optimized cost. The important thing to note is that the CEM measure should not end with customer satisfaction scores.

Coming to the second part, should the customer experience strategy be seen as a lone ranger? Or is it something that spans the entire product and service approach of your organization? I think the question is already answered by looking it how Customer Experience needs to be measured. The fundamental takeaway from this point is that a Customer Experience Strategy is a colossal change that impacts the very DNA of your organization. Will your company be ready to accept this transformation?

Posted by Badrinath Srinivasan at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

With the evolution of Social media on a rapid scale, what with Salesforce now coming out with Service Cloud 2; is it already time to think how much of this can be measured?

In the good old days of CRM and other evolving concepts/strategies the innovation, acceptance, implementation, integration, feedback, service quality etc. took time, effort and a lot of money. Over the years all of these have been dealt with and there are many a ready-made solutions and excellent products made available. We have seen CRM mature over the years. The TCO, ROI, scalability, flexibility and high-performance were critical factors to success and these were taken care of. The measurement per se, of CRM has been lost in this mêlée somewhere though not completely and it came in late. Measuring the CRM success via the Balanced Scorecard model is one way.

My interpretation with some benefits is as below –

With Social CRM, the need to measure is even greater to maintain a good return on investment and customer satisfaction. To maximize benefits, let us look at the Balanced Scorecard for Social CRM. My interpretation with some benefits is as below -

By listening to conversations (twitter app integration), companies can reduce the time taken to convert a prospect to a lead by “better understanding” the prospect via the social media they tap into. As in the previous case with CRM, this from a scorecard perspective shows how the financial benefit can accrue via the reduced time to conversion, leading to improved lead management. The improved brand image/equity can be derived from this the above mentioned and is a natural by-product in SCRM or CRM. Please note that this has to be effectively supplemented by other parameters/tasks for a higher brand recall and this is just one aspect of the same.

We already have vendors like Lithium, Radian6, Crimson Hexagon offer Social CRM products with a good deal of measurement built in! Lithium offers avenues for reputation management complete with workflows and integration to social networks. Now, whether to go in for these products or create a custom app is like a Blast from the Past! Vis-à-vis CRM. Crimson Hexagon’s website for example says and I quote – “Understand what the online conversation really means for your brand. Our VoxTrot Listening Platform distills meaning — with mathematical precision — from the cloudy torrent of opinion, information and data available online.” Radian6, for example, comes in at 600$/month for 10K posts (Jason Falls mentions this in his blog here). Whether these will become as popular as some CRM products, look here for more.  All said and done, continuous measurement is the key to benefit from this wave.

From an overall perspective, it is imperative to start measuring the benefits of Social CRM from the beginning; and one way to look at measuring the derived benefit can be from the above balanced scorecard interpretation. With all the data available via monitoring and internal processes, the balanced scorecard interpretation allows you to look at 4 different dimensions necessary and important for an organization.

What is your POV on this? Thoughts, if any, are more than welcome.

Posted by Venkataraman Ramanathan at 06:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)