Customer Relationship Management

Well, I am sure to confuse most of my blog readers, with bringing in two complimentary process driven approaches - Six sigma and Master Data Management (MDM) - together.  Here goes, I was interacting with my manager the other day, and he mentioned evolving a six sigma based risk assessment matrix for delivery of an MDM programme. Yes, Six sigma is a great framework to use when an organization aims to add value to their business process. MDM in itself - my opinion - is an enabling capability for business process harmonization and one of the ways to do this is to invoke six sigma thinking.

Six sigma helps using Voice of customer (end customers) and then having a process focused delivery model in achieving value, through various releases in MDM. Black belt process owners, are associated to the CXO's to understand critical pain points existing in their industry across Customer, Company, Colleagues and Community. I am truly inspired by the Six sigma quality process, through my association with multi clients, Six sigma with its Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) truly helps articulating failure points in a data driven MDM implementation. An MDM implementation helps creating value built around centralization of an organization core asset, the "Information".

During my consulting assignment with a Telco major, the e-ToM process was used extensively to show case value being articulated with customer as the central focus area. This level of customer focus is predominant in telecommunication, retail and banking industry but other industries are trying to catch up.

Any organization trying to create business process should not just map "existing back office operations" an articulate these as "best of breed" business process.  Additionally automation would not help resolve process bottlenecks, if the core customer business process built around MDM, is manual in nature. I.e. unless the process team takes an effort to reduce manual intervention, the MDM solution is not a silver bullet for resolving non value adding sub processes.

Six sigma is a starting point, by understanding Voice of customer metrics. E.g. for a commercial banking, should we allow "power of attorney holders" representing high value customer, to proxy on their behalf and operate a treasury account?  Should it not be ideal to track enterprise level customer data services, as utility services that can be measured and charged back for consumption by business users?  Should existing cloud investment utilize master data management solution, for processing regulatory needs rather than physically sharing customer data outside the organization DMZ? So many question, if yes, a tinge of six sigma for MDM implementation authored by  Anantharam Subramanian would be a go to reference guide for fellow MDM practitioners

Posted by Jairaj Asok Kumar at 4:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Google is at it again. With the launch of Google TV, they are set to do to the TV market what they did to the search engine market a decade ago - revolutionize it. If adWords took online advertising to new heights, the ads that Google is looking at in the TV space is set to take the advertising industry on to a new plane altogether.

Posted by Amrith Rajasekaran at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

CRM, as we see it, is all set to change. The problem is - we just don't know how. The popularity of social websites such as Twitter and Facebook have made many companies jump into the social bandwagon by opening up Twitter or Facebook accounts - for many, it is simply a brand building exercise; for some others, it is a casual attempt at customer relationship management - whether sending updates to followers on marketing events, or responding to sales or service inquiries. Still very few do exceedingly well in the new social sphere; most notable in Twitter are Southwest Airlines, Dell and JetBlue.

Some CRM vendors have already incorporated social networking features into their applications. Oracle, for example, has primarily an "inward" approach, meaning, social networking takes place between team members of an organization and not (externally) with customers/prospects from social networking websites. An interesting feature is called "Sticky Notes", where team members can internally participate in conversations relating to an account that members "follow". Others vendors such as Salesforce.com have taken a bolder "outward" approach; most notable social feature is called "Chatter", that gathers real-time information from conversations in social networks, which can be used for sales or for marketing opportunities.

 Notwithstanding the privacy issues arising out of mining data from social networks, it may also be worthwhile for companies to note that social networks themselves are evolving - Twitter and Facebook are increasingly playing the role of a true CRM platform, where customers and companies converge, and traditional CRM applications could end up being backend processors of data feed. Keeping this trend in mind, let's explore how companies can use social networks into true business value:

 1. Social networks are great places to find out what others are saying about your company and also what others are saying about your competitors. Twitter has an in-built search that can retrieve all relevant tweets about your company and you can directly respond to any questions or inquiries. Even today, there are situations where responding to inquiries in Twitter have led to direct sales for some companies.

 2. Once you have established contact with a prospect or customer, it is OK to take your conversations outside social networks. Many companies provide their sales/service toll free numbers or website information in Twitter or Facebook. However, going by the current trend mentioned above, there is a real possibility that one day customers might use Twitter or Facebook as a one-stop site to lodge a complaint or to create a sales inquiry. Customers may be directed to a third party app. where they can create a complaint, which can then be fed into the company's CRM system. Regular updates on the status of complaint or sales inquiry can be sent as tweets to the customer. Some studies have found that if companies provide relevant information on social networks, contact center traffic gets reduced, resulting in significant operational savings for companies. 

 3. In order to really serve the customer in social networks, it is important to direct customers to the right forum. For example, Dell has about 80 Twitter microsites for the different geographies that it operates. Whether for sales, service or marketing - geographic personalization in social networks is a must.

 4. Companies should consider social networks as a new marketing channel in their CRM tool. Social networks may be used for surveys/market research, marketing campaigns and so on. Responses received may be analyzed and used for generating leads for follow-up marketing efforts or for sales. Some suggest the use of social networks as an "early warning system" after, say, new product launches. Possibly, tweets can be fed into CRM inbox based on pre-defined search criteria or keywords for account managers or agents to see and to analyze. 

 One word of caution - social networks can help you spread good news fast, and it can also spread bad news just as quickly. If customers want to vent their anger on your product or service, they can use your social network account. Managers need to understand how to handle those situations quickly and effectively.

Posted by Arun George at 3:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Nishith Gupta

In continuation with the theme of my earlier blog post, CRM embracing Social Media: Opportunities & Challenges, I start with exploring the social media platform on which you are probably reading this content. Yes, you get it right, its blogs!

As I write this blog post, many companies would be taking inputs from different blog feeds to identify both positive and negative points being said about them. Why have blogs that were essentially just meant to be a personal diary in a digital form become such a powerful medium today?

Given the fact that blogs were probably one of the early entrants that started a social conversation over the net, it was evident that people harnessed its capabilities before exploring other social networking tools. Blogs provided a platform where a person can simply pen down his/her own thoughts on any topic of their interest. As different blog platforms started emerging and more internet users got hooked on it, a new wave emerged into the blogging arena where experts on various fields started to write blogs on specific topics. Another reason that attracted lot of attention of internet users to blogging is the monetization potential of it. 

As blogging matured in terms of capabilities provided by different platforms, organizations started to realize the opportunities and challenges of this platform. Hence, the next obvious step was to use this platform as one of the connectors to the existing CRM systems.

Before I start on how blogs could be leveraged by traditional systems, I would like to point out certain blog characteristics that can be used as a filtration criteria by an organization to identify which external blogs source should be added to feed list:

1. Number of followers: Most of the blog platforms provide with a follower feature where one can identify how many people are visiting it more frequently.
2. Search Engine Page Rank: On what position on average a blog comes up while searching.
3. Comments: Having number of followers is one parameter but a more active blog is one that invites lot of comments for each blog.
4. The blog owner's profile: This could play a vital link in identify customer advocates for your brand. If the owner is well renowned then it is highly probable that many more external forums, web sites, magazines would have link to the blog.
5. Tags: This is the feature through which one can identify how many related tags are mostly on an average that can be used by the organization.

Now, from the capabilities provided by most CRM systems, some of them could leverage blogs in one or more of the following ways:

1. Contacts: Identifying important blog owners and adding them into the contact list and taking it further based on the blog content.
2. Product Catalog: The blogs data could be used as a possible addition to the product catalog in terms of the review/feedback
3. Activity/Service Request:  The blog could be used also as a source for taking pro-active action in the form of activity/service request in case it is an existing customer who is not satisfied.

Having talked about various aspects of blogs, if I compare blogs with other networking tools, the blog platform can be put into a more formalized kind of social networking category. Given the fact that many end users are now more attracted towards micro-blogging and forums as these have more active conversations, it is highly likely to generate more data and thus more junk.

Whereas, I think blogs could be used in a more intelligent manner to provide fruitful outcomes as the source feeds and active users would be less compared to others. Moreover, on the collaboration front with customers, blogs will be a better platform as certain customers could be identified to create user generated content to write in detail on what they would like to share about the brand/products/services in public. Would love to hear some real examples of using blogs in the CRM context!

About the Author

Nishith Gupta is an Associate Consultant with Enterprise Solutions. His experience includes working on developing custom built CRM applications for a leading telecommunications provider, with focus on customer retention & campaign management. Nishith will blog on Customer Retention, Social CRM and Campaign Management.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As the current generation is moving towards maturity and newer generation is slowly taking over, its time to reconsider the changing face of CRM.
The future needs will be dramatically different than today, there is an impact of media, social networking and word of mouth advertising much much more than the ad media alone.
Also the ageing pattern will play a very important role in the CRM domain.

While there are multiple data needs sources and information available, the need is but imperative to convert the information into the right knowledge and be able to take immediate decisions to modify your planning and strategy centering around the customized needs of the individual.

As emerging economies come closer together, new business models need to invariably emerge. A consumer needs more pampering than ever before and there is no limit to the imagination. iPhones have shown that its not always cost that drives the consumer behavior but its value and social status that can still yield enormous profits.
More and more focus is shifting towards and end to end post sales service and that makes inroads into the consumer pattern.

We know that there are many consumers who use multiple credit cards to avail the benefits that each of the cards provide. What if a single card can provide the multi-card features?
What if some of these cards can converge their billing cycle yet still provide the same benefits to the consumer. Collaboration, cooperation?

Can a consumer be closely involved in customizing their  own needs. Moving forward from blogs, glogs (graphical blogs or an online rich media poster) could yet be taking over soon.
Simplified websites, easy to search and order capabilities and the fulfillment of the customized needs could be the path forward. At the other extreme end for the ageing population, CRM could mean more easier access to the human element.
The summary would be a robust combination of technology centering around customized needs as well as the involvement of the human element that shall probably drive the future CRM.
This shall take care of the requirements of both netizens and citizens. The cyclic loop continues....much more than ever before....The future calling - What is your readiness?

Posted by Ravi Agarwal at 1:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the past I had the opportunity to work as an intern with a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company in India and I wanted to share some of the experiences that we had in implementing the Pilot Program of a handheld for the sales reps. To understand the objectives and the implementation approach of the Sales Force Automation (SFA) Program, it is important to provide a brief context of the CPG market in India:

• High volumes: Regular consumption by a vast number of consumers leads to high volume of sales.
• Low value: Consumer Products inexpensive thereby Carrying Costs are low. However the costs of stock-outs are high as large sums of money are spent in Advertising and Promotions to generate sufficient interest amongst the potential consumers.
• Plethora of Stock Keeping Units (SKU). Each product comes in different sizes, shapes and flavors hence leading to a large number of SKUs.
• Market dominated by Traditional retail formats. Traditional retail formats rely on the instincts of the owner-manager rather than elaborate business strategies. Hence the number of SKUs and the quantity that is purchased is based on their quick assessment of what it will cost, how much they can sell, how much they can profit in the shortest time. Therefore the relationship that the sales rep enjoys with the retailer supported by current promotions can swing the assessment of the retailers in their favor.

Given the above characteristics, the sales reps need to ensure that the retailers buy and stock enough to prevent a stock out situation. Secondly, the sales rep has about 40 different SKUs to sell, but those that actually get sold are the ones that are being heavily promoted or vastly popular. The ones that belong to neither category have very little sales to show because they get the attention of neither party.

Therefore at a very basic level, the SFA program's objectives were:

• Ensuring more than adequate stocking to prevent stock outs. The handheld based on previously entered information, would prompt ideal stocking level given the retailer's size for the SKU. This data would help the sales rep in making an extra effort to try and sell more.
• Focus on lagging SKUs. The handheld would throw up a list of SKUs that were not purchased by the particular retailer in the last few weeks. However to protect the sales of the high volume SKUs, the sales reps were to casually bring up "oh by the way, would you like to buy this, this and this SKU....we have a special promotion going on".

At an operational level, the tool had to be easy to use, requiring minimal punching, long battery life, minimal maintenance and rugged enough to withstand the heat and dust.

As expected, it was not the Technology but the sales reps that posed the biggest challenge in implementing the program. The sales reps had built a good relationship with their retailers and their sale depended on it (relationship). They felt that they would be jeopardizing the relationship if they were seen using Technology rather than their established rapport in their sales.

Some of the reactions from the sales reps were:

"How can the handheld tell me anymore about my customers than what I already know?"

"This tool was designed in the confines of the head quarters and has no practical relevance in the field. The attention span of the retailer is very short and we have no time to punch figures into it and let the retailer get distracted with other things".

"In our attempt to sell the lagging SKUs, we are jeopardizing the bread and butter business of the company".

All their concerns were valid, but so were the intentions of the Program. Before the program there was very little scientific data on the retailers and their buying patterns. Without this data, it was impossible to measure the effectiveness of the Trade Promotions at a granular level. Secondly, innovations in technology had opened up the possibility of having devices that could communicate order information to the Supply Chain on a near real time basis, thereby offering huge cost savings. Such enhanced versions could only be introduced when the basic handheld program stabilized. Lastly, the sales reps themselves stood to benefit through increased sales leading to increased bonuses for them.

Therefore, despite the initial resistance, the company decided to go ahead with the program. About 10-20 sales reps working in Bangalore were chosen for a Pilot Program for a duration of 3 months. They were invited to a Training Program that focused on the Program objectives, tangible benefits to the Company and the sales reps and hands on training sessions. A team comprising of Marketing and IT resources continuously monitored the usage, frequently occurring issues and the sales.

During the Pilot phase, the sales of lagging SKUs showed marginal improvements and hence fears of decreased sales were alleviated. Also with usage, the sales reps began to feel more comfortable with the handheld. These were positive indicators for the company to proceed with the sales force automation program.

Following were the key takeaways from my stint:

1. Pilot Programs offer invaluable field experience
   It is where the rubber meets the road that the hypotheses which went into the design of the program are tested in the actual marketplace.
   
2. Change needs to be staggered. Bigger the change, more the staggering.
   Big changes need more hand holding, more attention and hence need to be rolled out in phases. Phased rollouts allow the company to rewire the program based on past experience before rolling out to the subsequent phases.
   
3. There has to be benefits for all the stakeholders
   Had we promoted the benefits to the Sales Reps better rather than just the company's objectives, the change process would have been easier. 
   
4. Adoption of technology could be deferred but not avoided.
   Rapid changes in technology have provided companies to provide products and services faster, better and cheaper. However adoption of technology is no longer a differentiating strategy but a survival strategy.
   

Posted by Vikas Kasturi at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)