CRM @ Personal Touch
Though CRM is mostly equated with technology and how software applications can be used to increase customer profitability in sales, service and marketing operations, there is no denying the fact that strong personal relationships can far outweigh any competition from super efficient CRM systems and processes.
That is true even more so in today’s world where we expect less and less from corporations which hide behind Interactive Voice Response Systems, Policy Disclaimers and Terms of Agreement and carefully scripted support calls where even the most enthusiastic agent is probably appraised on how quickly he or she can get you off the call (Did you hear the sigh as well when you actually replied ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Is there anything else I can help you with?’).
‘Smart’ organizations know this and they find newer and newer ways to ‘connect’ to their target audience. But pretty soon the ‘new way’ becomes a ‘channel of communication’. Profitability experts land up and start evaluating the returns to the business on every such medium and the pie of marketing communications gets more muddled with every next new thing. And soon enough consumers become numb to the barrage of information thrown at them wherever they look (who was the genius who invented ‘eyeballs’ as a metric?).
Email advertising was the breakthrough in customer connect some time back. Now it has been overshadowed by ‘Spam’. Today, the buzzword is Social Media Marketing. As I write this, people in thousands of conference rooms across the world are probably charting out their ‘Web 2.0 Strategy’ and licking their lips in anticipation of the windfall that is about to be gained by incorporating Facebook and Twitter in their Marketing plans. Differentiation, you know, one of the tenets of great marketing.
All this hoopla to achieve something which probably your neighborhood Mom n’ Pop store achieves without spending a dime. Yes, CRM @ Personal Touch is free! And most of the time, it doesn’t require ‘technology’.
I walked into a hairdressing salon the other day. I was a ‘new customer’ and so they took down my address and other details. I rolled my eyes but I really needed to trim those locks and so acquiesced to the few questions they asked. The ‘experience’ was fine and sure enough there was a letter in the mail in a few weeks from them. Aha! I thought, but here was what caught me completely by surprise.
It was handwritten.
I was flabbergasted. I tried to think of the last time I had received a handwritten marketing communication. All the letters that I could think of, from banks to telecom service providers, from insurance companies to airlines, why, even my own employer had everything including the signature printed and embossed on them. And here was a full letter, wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving and hoping that I was satisfied with the service that I had received written in nice bold strokes that my five grade teacher would have been proud of. I immediately resolved that sometime in the near future I will write about this incident in a blog post titled, ‘CRM @ Personal Touch’. It’s amazing what high levels of customer engagement can achieve.
Maybe they just ran out of printer ink.
When was the last time you were delighted as a customer with CRM @ Personal Touch? Do comment.
Comments
Anand they didn't run out of printer ink. I had the same experience with this Hair Cutting saloon chain. I think it is a marketing strategy and I was also impressed by it.
The question though is: Were you sufficiently impressed by this to become a repeat customer for them
Posted by: Jaideep Vijayakar | December 16, 2009 12:19 AM
I have the same experience at my neighborhood stores, who remember my choices and preferences at their finger tips.
The key consideration is the scale of economy. For a large retail chain or store, to churn out huge number of letters is more costly than churning out Emails and/or following social media blogs (I am not entirely convinced about their effectiveness though. However, they do have the 'Top of Mind Recall' value). For a Mom n' Pop store, using a non-technology option is more cost-effective strategy. This is how they ensure loyalty.
Big mega stores need to have ideas to make the communication more personal in nature. One example could be calling up their customers on their anniversaries/birthdays through their call centers rather than SMSs or IVRs (taking local culture into consideration)
Personal touch strategies do have cost implications and each organisation has to do a balancing act of spend vis-a-vis the ROI reaped. The 'Smart' organisations do make investments in their future to stay ahead of the curve though.
Posted by: Diptesh Singh | December 18, 2009 5:57 AM
Jaideep,
I guess I would have. The fact that I went all the way to write about it shows I was sufficiently impressed!
Posted by: Anand Bharadwaj | December 19, 2009 5:33 AM
Diptesh,
I agree that it's easier to find the elusive 'personal touch' at smaller businesses than large ones. But why should it be so? At the end of the day, the execution of the personal touch comes down to the individual who is facing the customer.
Posted by: Anand Bharadwaj | December 19, 2009 5:37 AM
@Anand:
This is the multi-million dollar question for any organisation - How to ensure that the workforce has high enthusiasm, passion, excellence and customer focus.
There are organisations which strive to meet the objectives through their recruitment strategies, training and corporate policies. The DNA of these organisations are geared towards the elusive goal that you have mentioned in your blog post - 'Customer Delight'. The organisations that succeed in maintaining and positively evolving the corporate DNA are what you term as 'Smart' organisations !!!
Posted by: Diptesh Singh | December 21, 2009 10:38 AM
I think any organisation can learn from this CRM@ Personal Touch and make a hybrid approach for big enterprises. All the HNI and "Category A" Clients at some point of time in a quarter/year can be targetted with hand writeen letters. They will be happy to recieve something handwritten and get a feeling of special attention being given to them. It will be good to scan those letters and have it posted to the customer's file for future reference as audit trail/customer journal. At the same time for other non-HNI customers, they can continue to have the letters sent in print media.
Posted by: Anand Hege | January 7, 2010 8:57 AM
I think that CRM@Personal Touch can help in only those cases where the product/ service offerings by 2 organizations is the same in terms of quality, and the only differentiator that can win a loyal customer would be the personal touch effect. It is human nature to give preferences to those that they feel to be emotionally related to. However there are two things that I think that need to be taken care of, first the medium/approach adopted to establish the bond and second the frequency with which it is repeated.
Also I feel that this approach needs to handled with utmost care as the temperament/disposition differs from person to person.
Personal Touch is a very sensitive area and it should be ensured that any mistake or lapses in this might lead to irrepairable damage.
Posted by: Anshul Tiwari | January 11, 2010 4:55 AM
@Anand Hegde: I think that's a wonderful thought about where something like this could be applicable (HNI). Would that mean that there could now be a backoffice for people with good handwriting skills?! :)
Posted by: Anand Bharadwaj | January 16, 2010 5:29 PM