Customer Relationship Management

Customer Complaints and the Role of CRM

2010-02-09T09:51:30Z

by Anshul Tiwari

We are living in an age where there is not only an abundance of information but also a massive flow of this information at an unprecedented rate. In this highly competitive and information rich world, the consumer is more aware than ever before. Steps have been taken both by the governments and NGOs in different countries to ensure that the consumer does not get exploited. A number of consumer awareness programs and campaigns have been taken up in earnest and every effort is made to make people aware of their rights and responsibilities.

]]> On one hand there is growing awareness among the public and on the other hand with an array of products and options available in the market, customers are becoming more choosy and difficult day by day. It thus becomes imperative for companies to adopt a very consumer friendly approach and make that extra effort to retain their customers. There is no longer any scope for negligence in the area of addressing consumer grievances and more and more organizations are taking sincere measures in this regard.

The first step towards effectively handling customer grievances involves empowering the customer and providing accessibility for customers with concerns. The customer should be able to reach the department concerned with ease. Avenues such as a contact email address on the web site, contact information in the owner manual, a dedicated help line, and perhaps even a presence on Twitter or Facebook can prove beneficial. A customer complaint should not be seen as an interruption, nuisance, problem, or necessary evil. The customer is the very reason the business exists in the first place.

When a customer makes a complaint the company should agree that a problem exists; never disagree or argue or deny. The customer needs action, not excuses. Again, this does not mean to admit fault or cast blame either way but is a step towards clarifying the central issue and moving to resolution. It should be viewed as an opportunity to solidify customer relationships and foster brand loyalty. Effective handling of customer complaints requires patience, the ability to listen actively and emphatically, and to sort through the customer's grievance to identify the valid issues that need to be addressed.

In order to manage customer grievances, every company needs to have a policy and system in place for receiving, handling, redressing, and recording customer complaints. This can be vital not only for maintaining good customer relations but also in case of legal issues over warranty, corporate responsibility, or customer treatment.

Having a system (manual or automated) in place means that the entire staff will act upon complaints in the same way and that complaints are followed up. It also leaves a paper/digital trail so that it can be traced later and analyzed to spot ways to improve business and reduce complaints in the future. Even if not referred to very often, the very act of recording the complaint means that the company is more prepared to deal with complaints when they occur. Having a written procedure can also help customers trust you and make them feel it is worthwhile bringing the complaint to you in the first place. What is written down can well be communicated to different stake holders via the electronic media. Once the procedures are set in place, handling of customer grievances gets more streamlined.

What gets measured stand a better chance of being acted upon – and good recording can help the company spot patterns and trends to improve quality of product or service as well as improving customer relations. Analysis of customer complaints, comments and inquiries provides insights into the public perception of a brand, customer mindsets and problem areas or trends. To achieve these goals, many businesses turn to CRM software.

Customer Relationship Management software for complaint tracking can be either integrated into a CRM package, a module in ERP software or standalone ("best of breed") software specifically designed for issue handling. CRM tools can be effectively used to analyze the records of complaints. It is useful for monitoring any patterns and finding areas of improvement in the business. It is also handy as a record of previous complaints if a customer returns to make further complaints.

A regular check of these records will show which complaints still need to be resolved. This way, no complaints are left unresolved for very long and customers won’t be kept waiting. Satisfying a customer who has made a complaint not only improves client relations, but also improves overall business processes. Solving customer problems with emotional intelligence is the professional way to ensure repeat business.

About the Author

Anshul Tiwari is a Consultant with the Enterprise Solutions unit, and works on Clarify based solutions for CRM. She has worked on the functional design for projects in the telecom domain. Anshul will blog on trends in CRM, issues concerning the customer and how technology can be used to enhance customer experience.

How to improve IVR menu options for better service

2010-02-08T11:49:23Z

There is always scope for improving customer service but somehow most companies seem unwilling to change their processes or systems to provide better service to their customers.

For example, whenever you dial a call center, the first thing you would hear is the IVR menu. The options in this IVR menu could change from time to time. This forces the customer to listen to all the menu options each time, making him spend more time and money on the call. This can be resolved by adopting the thumb rule of implementing an IVR menu with not more that 4-5 option. The other option is to permanently fix the IVR menu options. Neither solution is ideally suited to business needs. So, what is the real solution?

]]> One option can be to keep customers updated with the menu options beforehand through SMS or emails so that they can dial all the options in one go instead of listening to the entire menu.

Another way is to use speech technology. With this, businesses will list out or broadcast a list of key words or phrases to use upon dialing the call center. The customer can speak out the menu option after dialing the call center number which will take them directly to the respective service/menu option.

These solutions will definitely make life easier for most customers, but most companies would want customers to wait on the call for some time so that new promotions and offers can be announced during the wait or hold time. So, which is a better approach to service?

Another common issue that occurs is calls getting disconnected when a customer is busy discussing some issue with an agent. In such a situation, the customer cannot speak to the same agent when he dials in again and has to discuss the same issue all over again with new agent. This result in frustration and a good amount of time and money wasted in the call. In my opinion, this problem can be solved in 3 ways: 1) Agent should call back to the customer. But companies would not like to adopt this solution as it would increase cost to the company 2) Through the system, associate the disconnected customer phone number to the agent who serviced the call for some stipulated time, say about 5-10 minutes, so that if same customer dials in again he will get connected to the same agent or at least the system can offer an option to the customer to connect with another agent or to wait 3) agent should be given small ID/number instead of name which can be punched in during the IVR menu to get to the same agent.

I am sure that if companies think on these lines and view the entire interaction from the customer’s perspective, they can come up with many more solutions and ways to provide superior service.

Mantra for Growing Business

2010-02-04T10:02:32Z

Sometimes I really wonder what matters most to the customer; is it cost of a product/service or the actual service element associated with it?

Consider this scenario – you go to a shop; you see that nobody is there to serve you; you wait for a few seconds/minutes and then call for someone. When someone appears, you ask for something and you do not get a proper response. Instead, the person just ignores you and goes to another customer just like that or with a curt response.

Or look at this scenario – you go to a shop and shopkeeper is on phone. The other sales men are busy and don’t make it a priority to serve you as a customer. You ask for something and even after waiting patiently you don’t get any response/service from anyone.

]]> Or consider this – You asked a product manufacturer/vendor to build some unit and he has built it and delivered it to you, you paid your entire amount but you feel that he has not delivered to you as per your need. You have been approaching him repeatedly to get it done and you don’t get a response.

In all of these scenarios, how would you feel? Annoyed ?! Frustrated?! Would you prefer to go to these vendors again? Or recommend these vendors to anyone?!

Is there a cost element associated with this? Would you buy anything from these vendors? Will you not go to these shops because of cost?

Most people would remember all these (bad) instances/experiences and never go to these vendors again. They would also quite likely relate these experiences to their acquaintances, thereby putting off people who have never even visited these stores.

Take another instance –

There is a grocery shop in my locality. In fact there are four more grocery shops around this same shop providing the same products but I always see more crowds to this shop? Why?

- Quick Access to Service:

I get the service from the start of my day, from the time I wake up and till the time I go to bed. If I want to get something and I go to this shop and I get it.

- Value Added Service:

I go to this shop and just call the name of the product (even in the crowd) and I get the product in my hands in next few minutes and also get offers of another related products. For instance, if I ask for bread , the reply I get is – “What else you need? Milk, butter, jam spread, tea powder?” Also a question - “No items in your list that you might have forgotten?” - With a smile on a face.

- Professionalism:

If you don’t have the necessary change to settle a transaction, he would reply “You owe me 5 bucks, pay me the next time”, with a smile (and he really never forgets this when you go to shop next time!)

- Maintaining the relationship:

If you criticize some aspect of service, he would promptly reply with humor and fix the issue immediately, valuing customer input.

- Customer satisfaction:

He makes sure that every customer leaves with a smile and satisfaction with the service.

I have seen many customers talking to him openly and friendly and as a customer I also observed myself that I always open up and discuss /argue freely with the faith that he will not cheat me.

During all these instances as a customer, the following questions come to mind:

- Do I really think of cost when I go to him?

- Why do I feel that I can freely discuss/argue/demand for something on a given service?

- Why people are not going to other shops instead of to him even if they are closer?

- Why there is such a high amount of trust in him?

At the same time, the questions from the perspective of a service provider are:

- What makes the customer happy? Is it the service with promptness, with a smile on your face or cost of a product?

- Will a customer really come back to you even if the quality of your product is not the best but the quality of service is high and guaranteed?

- If the customer is unhappy with the product upon delivery, but you honor the customer’s complaint and provide a great solution (if even if you charge for it), will the customer look to you for repeat business?

Thinking ahead – how much of these principles are we really applying today? As a person first and also as a customer – one always records bad instances in memory more easily than good experiences - it’s human tendency.

So, in my opinion, the mantra for growing a business lies in satisfying customers and building strong relationships, and not the just the cost or even quality of the product.

More power to the call center agent

2010-01-28T03:03:05Z

I recently called customer service of a leading telephone company for updating my billing address. I was surprised to receive response that I will need to go to the nearest office of the telephone company and fill out a change of address form. At another instance, I called the same company to change my call plan. Again, the agent expressed his/her inability to help me out, I was asked to submit another application – and, I was also required to provide my photographs and various other documentation, which I had already submitted when I enrolled with the company.

]]> I have hence observed that it is not the complex issues that cause discomfort to customers like me, but seemingly trivial tasks, for example, a change of customer address. When an issue is perceived to be complex by the customer, customer is generally willing to give more time to the company for resolution and is willing to contribute additional effort from his/her side as well. However, in the event the issue is perceived to be simple, customer tends to become increasingly dissatisfied if time for resolution increases above expected and/or if the resolution involves substantial effort from customer. In many companies, 24-hour customer support has been reduced to at most, the creation of a service ticket number; and the agent does not work towards resolution of issue itself.

While lack of CRM technology, market immaturity, regulatory guidelines etc. may be to blame in many cases, my premise is as follows: 1. Companies have unwittingly transformed simple tasks into complicated business processes, rendering intervention by the call center agent useless. 2. Companies have emphasized call center agents’ interpersonal skills (such as lingual ability - grammar, accent etc. and behavioral ability – politeness etc.) to achieve customer satisfaction, all the while ignoring the fact that satisfied customers value issue resolution more than sweet conversations that go nowhere.

I would like to conclude by emphasizing that companies need to give more power to the call center agent – and this is not merely about technological improvement. First, companies need to look at simple tasks that the agent can resolve and ask – are we bringing unnecessary complication into our business processes? Second, call center agents at first level of call handling should be trained to resolve issues by themselves. This would mean a shift in agent training – from language-oriented to business-oriented.

Let's get it straight - Social Media and Social CRM aren't twins!

2010-01-19T11:38:12Z

Busy day at Azune Solutions in Bangalore...

@impcust: @custsvc_azune: your prior solution did not work and i do not have enuff space to explain will send mail
@custsvc_azune: we value your mail and will respond back

Meanwhile in NY...

"The biggest question on our minds right now, here at the Corp HQ of Azune is the need to arrive at a strategy for our CRM offering with Social media in tow, the 'trend' of the year. We really wonder what we are doing with all the tweets/comments/bookmarks/Q&A aggregations!"

]]> So how and where do you think Social Media and Social CRM are from the same parentage? Cousins, are they? Much as we can be skeptical about this concept, Social Media is here to stay and CRM to benefit from it. The adoption and adaptation of Social media in an organization cannot be based on hype and competitive adoption rates! (This sometimes blurs the vision and the understanding of what these terms mean.) This will yield more heartburns than the soft comfort of your pillow that you may seek. Having a "social framework" to your business neural network is more important than adopting and investing in the various social media channels that are available, just to be Social savvy.

What use is a LinkedIn network with X no. of people in it where you have not helped anyone or received/derived any benefit from the same?

The 'social framework' in the neural network needs to leverage the social media to help the CRM offering to become Social and thus drive and derive revenues and benefits, from the same.

In the opening sequence of this blog on Twitter-world, if the customer is to use multiple channels to find a resolution, the investment in that social channel is already kaput! What is the time and effort from the customer’s side that is spent in such an exercise? Will this social channel help drive loyalty? My guess is as good as yours.

Social CRM, on the other hand is about how effectively the tools are used to benefit the existing CRM strategy in place. The tools enable and Social CRM needs to help the business by taking in the right amount of conversations (a social media tool can help) to benefit the process. In the Twitterworld example, Azune had the tool but it was not weaved into the business neural network to help drive the strategy.

What Azune could have done is to use the tweet conversation feed (along with prior ones) to analyze and arrive at a customer score (this calls for constant social monitoring) and compare that with the reputation management results that a Social Media tool can provide. Such customer profiling could have helped address the situation and also made use of the tools more effectively. This could have added benefit to the existing CRM in place The Customer experience could have been improved. For all you know the customer might have decided not to proceed further with their service, after that, for the simple reason that the “social-savvy” company is not savoury enough.

Here is a small illustration of what I believe would make sense to adopt and adapt the “Social” in a business. The scale as you see can tip, if either of the tool or the management push is heavy. To balance these, what is needed is “The Social Strategy” which will help businesses in the long run.

What is Social Strategy then? Well, more on that later. But, mere governance policies and social tools introduction only do not make up this Strategy. I thought of a matrix for the Social framework would be relevant in this context to further understand and make it relevant for investment in this space for a business, since we have already touched upon Social Strategy. This also helps us distinguish the tools clearly from the CRM side.

Social Media is technology and Social CRM is strategy – let’s make no mistake Social Media and Social CRM aren't twins.

What do you feel that differentiates Social Media from Social CRM? Have you been toying with the idea or have been questioned on the same many a time? Any comments and POV’s are more than welcome and are much appreciated.

Doesn't Cloud movement make your MDM investment a must?

2010-01-18T05:28:47Z

Cloud Computing is no longer an innovative idea to be hyped about and then shelved! It’s a big a reality and next generation industry giants are likely be guided by who wins in the cloud. Couple of years back when it was a privilege to be in the cloud has turned out to be a necessity now. Driven by reduced TCO for application conceptualization to build to maintenance, improved agility and QoS is aligning the industry to move into Cloud. On top it transforms your company into Opex based IT spend from Capex model. Recession hit almost at the right time to give it the push it needed for this shift.

]]> Initially we moved from on premise to on demand in SaaS based model. SOA enabled further growth and from SaaS, we saw IaaS – server, storage as a service, then PaaS – even runtime environment is sold as service. Now we call it cloud as whole. Although most of the organizations are still not in the public cloud, especially due to initial hurdles and lack of formalized structure for SLA based payment, security aspect and yet to prove criticality requirement of apps, but the race for public cloud is already ON. It will catch fire once these road blocks are moved aside. Bottom line is cloud movement has started and will not stop until we see some other disruptive innovation coming our way.

MDM programs should be business driven and address business pain points to gain business competitiveness. I would completely agree with this, however I would also see a tremendous impetus to go into MDM program due to next bigger goal of moving into cloud. Moving into cloud, even if private cloud, means:

-You need to ensure that your cloud services are providing the necessary information to its accuracy and without cluttering your cloud space. All cloud based applications need a good quality data and with no ambiguity. Especially talking about the key information asset like Customer data, product data, location data, supplier, employee data etc highly needs to be as close to unique, and as perfect as possible.

-Almost all critical systems, processes need these data and without a cleaner and single truth of data it would be too difficult to move into cloud for most of the apps.

-More over it would not only delay the current apps to move into cloud, but would also hinder new apps to move into cloud. Without MDM, enterprises need to find out a reliable source of data for these key data types, and might need to forge way out with two three different sources. This delay still may be acceptable and may allow enterprise to move the dependent applications into cloud, however on the way it is taking another pain which if not addressed would make a mess out of it in sooner than later.

-Every time a new application development and deployment is needed it would add up to complexity to choose the right service or app. How long should you continue and live with this dilemma/confused source of data?

Instead having a right MDM solution can put this speculation to rest. I mentioned right MDM solution because MDM is not only buying a product and installing it, it has to be well defined and well thought process. It must and should enforce data governance, continuous data quality improvement and business process enablement for better data. Now with such kind of MDM implementation you are one step ahead in the game for cloud movement. Isn’t this a compelling reason

-to go with the MDM program?

-to rethink current MDM solution, and make appropriate adjustment?

-to give MDM a top priority?

I am sure enterprises are over hearing this benefit for some time, however I think it should go as a direct imperative than an overheard or less prominent need! Any thoughts?

Relationship in the context of CRM

2010-01-15T10:37:04Z

The most important element of CRM is “Relationship”, and surprisingly, it takes the backseat too often. Is it not important that we invest time in our customers, we partner with them in times of need and we lend a helping hand to them in changing dynamics ?

]]> If we look around in the customer relationship space, the way you make the first connect with a potential customer is through building a relationship through a medium, getting them to relate to the product in one way or another. But sufficient importance is not given to maintaining that relationship with an existing customer, the result being that that over time the relationship is strained. Consequently, when someone else offers a better relationship, the switch is natural.

What could be some of those elements in building strong customer relationships?

- How would you feel if in your bill you suddenly get a discount for a specific month for being the privileged customer, probably a small cost to the company keeping in mind the costs associated with churn.
- What if the customer gets a Thank You card delivered after they raised a specific glitch in the system – the solution of which could save you significant amounts?
- Events like customer meet could give a much needed boost to relationship building with your customers and knowing from them what clicks.
- Even automated birthday or anniversary wishes makes your customers feel special and makes the relationship feel less transactional.

How do you benefit in the bargain?

- From a business perspective, an increase in business revenue is a good benefit to begin with. What is also equally beneficial is that each customer relationship is so strong that it results into a word of mouth referral for your business. However, with rising competition, simply retaining the customer with the same business (at lower internal costs) could be a big positive in itself.
- Using the relationship paradigm you slowly help customers move to newer avenues of revenue, something which also adds value for them. If done consistently, this can go a long way in successful retention.

Like every other “relationship”, customer relationship needs to be nurtured – one step at a time. If the relationship is strong, there is every possibility that a customer will accept the occasional misstep on your part. And that could be the true test of the deep strength of your customer relationships.

Social Media ... an eventful year for Digital Consumers

2010-01-14T11:21:44Z

The year 2009 has been quite an eventful one, and would be remembered for a long time for the action packed days..we’ve seen it all the … Government bailouts, companies being bought or dissolved, CEOs getting sacked etc etc..inthe middle of it this there has been something that has seen a tremendous growth - A beast called Social Media, digital consumer today has fuelled the engines of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other similar portals so much so that if you were to look at the following stats you would agree there is that there is something that is happening around us that neither the end customer nor the companies around can afford to ignore.

]]> ( Data compilation courtesy- econsultancy)

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size
• Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.
• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
• Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.
• Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.
• It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
• The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.*
• Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.

Who can forget the famous YouTube video, “United Breaks Guitars.” , with 7 Million views Dave Carroll did more damage than United airlines could have thought. It would not have costed United anything around $ 1800 to fix or replace the Taylor guitar , however what they suffered was a lot of negative mention on blogosphere, news coverage and much more for first breaking Dave’s guitar and then not agreeing to accept the claim. Times UK went on to report that this ‘Bad PR caused United Airlines’ stock price to suffer a mid-flight stall, and it plunged by 10 per cent, costing shareholders $180 million.’

On the other hand we saw the much awaited Zappos sale to Amazon, a small shoe maker shot to fame by brilliantly using the power of Facebook and Twitter to market themselves. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has nearly 1.48 million followers on Twitter, and the company's official Facebook page has almost 21,000 fans. On their webpage, they have 500+ employees tweeting regularly ( total employee strength of 1500 ) they tweet regularly about what they're doing at work etc etc…. their valuation at the time of Acquisition 1.2 billion. My earlier blog covers this in detail

My favorite however is Ford and their Fiesta Movement. Ford as we know apart from Starbucks, Wells fargo, Dell ( my other favourites) has a very focused Social Media strategy and they are betting big, no wonder their online figures talk about their popularity – more than 1.8 million YouTube views, more than 270,000 Flickr views and more than 1.8 million Twitter impressions, resulting in more than 13.2 million interactions. It is interesting to see their last Qtr results ( a big positive shift ) and I would be keen to know how much they attribute to the future positive figures to the good work Scott Monty and his team are putting up.

The gone year has seen a huge shift in the Digital consumer’s behavior and the figures above and the stories are just a small reflection of how customers today are changing the face of Company- Consumer conversations. We are already seeing a lot of companies take a serious note of this subtle change and starting to reach out to their customer on their ground, 2009 has seen most of the Fortune 500s investing more aggressively on blogs, forums, videos etc than ever before and am sure going forward this would only bring about a dynamic shift in broadly three areas: greater honesty about products or services offered, transparency in style of working and finally more Company Customer Conversations as opposed to static marketing /advertising push based approach.

Smartphones: The Need for ‘Smarter’ CRM

2010-01-08T12:07:46Z

Customizability and Simplicity would be the distinguishing characteristics of smart-phone CRM applications.

“Hi, I’ll take the iPhone”
“ Sir, Why don’t you try our other smart-phones models like…”
“ I’ll take the iPhone”
“..we have a special offers with monthly bill discounts, for these other models…”
“I’ll take the iPhone”
“ …Sir, we have received numerous service complaints with the iPhone and ..”
“I’ll take the iPhone”

]]> The above exchange was of an anguished, but extremely loyal Apple customer with a New York AT&T store representative last week, after AT&T reportedly ‘halted’ iPhone sales on 28th Dec ‘09. After an ambiguous statement released by AT&T explaining the changes in strategy, iPhone sales were resumed, the very next day.. (source: ABC news)

This was just to underscore the importance, customer loyalty and wide spread adoption of smart-phones. Smart-phones like Blackberries and iPhones are revolutionizing the cell phone market. The smart-phone market is even expected to surpass normal cell phones in sales, in a matter of years, experts predict. Iphones are not even the biggest player in the smart-phone industry, albeit their enviable growth and seemingly recession proof demand. They are the third largest player (17%) in the smart-phone market behind Nokia (39%) and Research in Motion (RIM)/blackberry(20%) [source: BBC news] and Google has just launched their new Nexus One smart-phone , which some believe could be a category killer.

So if smart-phones are proving to be a major Customer trend, how can the CRM practitioner be far behind? – They aren’t!

The smart-phone revolution hasn’t gone unnoticed by marketers and CRM practitioners. They have been creating products to cater to smart-phones. CRM vendors are fast entering in partnerships with mobile service providers or smart-phone manufacturers to develop and distribute CRM products. SAP has joined hands with RIM to run SAP CRM on Blackberrys. Oracle has released Social CRM products for the iPhone. Salesforce.com has their mobile version available. Even many Apple's AppStore and BlackBerry AppWorld products work like simple CRM applications.
Arguably, even the emergence of CRM trends like SaaS and Social CRM are fuelled by the proliferation of smart-phones. Cloud computing/SaaS allows powerful web servers to handle storage and processing requirements, making smart-phones sufficient for most day to day computing needs.

The CRM applications for smart-phones can be broadly categorized into two, based on the target users: applications for end users and for the mobile workers.

The evolution of Social CRM will be closely tied to how end users/the general public will adopt CRM through their smart-phones and I would reserve discussion on this area for a different blog post.

Mobile workers like field salesmen and field service representatives, expect their CRM vendor to provide products that enable seamless transfer of CRM information between different channels and work modes. They demand CRM that works with their smart-phone-class devices, rather than just the laptops. CRM functionalities like creating leads, verifying customer information, entering contact information, creation of tasks, task debriefing and communication with other mobile workers are prime targets for smart-phone CRM applications.

However, adapting an existing CRM application designed for a notebook/desktop to a fit a smart-phone screen, alone won’t help. CRM for smart-phones needs to be smarter! There is a fundamental difference in the objective and method of use of CRM through smart-phones. It closely mirrors the differences between smart-phone and laptops/desktop computers, in terms of functionalities and business applications. The development and design of these applications would be very customer driven too, compared to the management driven traditional CRM/ERP systems. Like many companies have found out, the employees first buy their personal iPhones and then force the IT department to support it.

Customizability and Simplicity would be the distinguishing characteristics of smart-phone CRM applications. Applications heavy on functionality and that are miniature replicas of traditional CRM applications will be rejected by users. They would expect brand new applications that integrate enterprise data from CRM, SCM, ERP, business intelligence and the internet…and they would expect it fast, frill-less and hassle-free like the other ‘cool’ applications they find at the online Appstores / Appworlds.

Customers would expect CRM to be smarter.

Assessing the Value of your CRM Initiatives

2010-01-07T08:18:19Z

Most CRM initiatives are started with much expectations and enthusiasm and perhaps with much funds allotted as well. But the key success factor is having a systematic approach to identify and assess levers for business value and impact for these implementations.

]]> The objective in almost all cases is that of an increased revenue and competitive positioning that the CRM strategy would provide. This ambitious goal is definitely not misplaced but what is often overlooked is the need for a clear Value assessment focus from the beginning of the CRM Implementation. Most RoI exercises are done mid-way or post CRM implementation and result in a blame game on who is the cause behind a poor RoI. Although having the End to End Implementation plan is a core component of a successful CRM Initiative , equal if not more emphasis needs to be laid on Value Assessment and Change Management.

This post aims to outline a systematic approach to assessing the impact and value from a CRM initiative within an Organisation. Different phases that would need attention include Goal setting, Measurement, Evaluation and Monitoring of business value and impact. Involvement of all key stakeholder communities is crucial while doing this exercise.

Goal Setting: This phase would involve identifying key areas of impact expected by varied stakeholder communities from the CRM Implementation. Brainstorming and having a matrix of expectations with Priority and Probability assigned would be the intended output of this exercise.

Measurement: Methods and means to measure the areas of business and technical impact would need to be captured during this phase. This would act as a reference-able framework that the team can use all through the implementation cycle and post implementation for RoI assessment. Formulae and the mechanisms to measure the metrics would also be discussed and finalized in this phase.

Evaluation: A robust evaluation mechanism for the metrics and value levers is important to ensure successful and accurate Value Assessment. This phase aims in evaluating the metrics identified in the earlier phase and gauging the inclusion of these metrics at the right stages of the implementation cycle. Apart from the IT project , a major role is played by Processes and People oriented changes that needs to be effective to deliver the identified value and impact. Change Management Challenges and revision in probability and priority of set goals and inclusion of any revised goals can be included during this phase.

Monitoring: Assessing the value delivered and business impact at various key milestones from Process, People and Technology perspective of the CRM Initiative is key to take corrective measures at the right juncture with minimal loss. Monitoring the Value levers and Impact Drivers at milestones performs a Value Health Check of the CRM initiative. Triggering levers and drivers can control the Value and Impact parameters to deliver goals identified.

Active involvement of all key stakeholder communities is essential to convert the approach above to a successful Value Assessment and Change Management initiative.

I intend to write more on this in days to come but would love to hear your thoughts before proceeding.

Facing Re-Implementation vs. Upgrade dilemma for your CRM systems? - Part 2

2009-12-30T10:36:33Z

In Facing Re-Implementation vs. Upgrade dilemma for your CRM systems?, I tried to set the context on the typical dilemma an enterprise is confronted with when it has to choose between Upgrading vs. Re-Implementing it’s CRM Application and I have taken Siebel as the CRM package for elucidating my thoughts on the same.

]]> Some of the key criterions, to be considered by an enterprise, which can help and influence the decision on whether to upgrade or re-implement the existing Siebel CRM applications include:

• Technical Upgrade Path:
In order to assess the complexity involved in upgrading to the latest product version, it is important to understand the version of the Siebel Application that is currently in use as that would determine the technical upgrade path to be taken.

Siebel 2000/6.x to 8.x:
Upgrading Siebel Application from an older version like 6.x to 8.x is a two step process i.e. upgrade from 6.x to 7.7 and then from 7.7 to 8.x. This can be a tedious process with significant changes to the User Interface, navigation, application configuration mechanisms, enriched functional capabilities, improved & flexible integration mechanisms, modified data model (party model in 7.x) etc. Re-Implementation can offer the flexibility to leverage the out-of-the-box User Interface layout, application configuration capabilities and out-of-the-box functional processes right from the start of the implementation. However, a significant data migration activity will have to be considered in order to design and migrate the data from the older version to the latest version. In most of these cases, the corresponding databases might also need to be upgraded to meet the system specifications and compatibility requirements with the latest version of the Siebel Application.

Siebel 7.x to 8.x:
Upgrading the Siebel Application from version 7.x to 8.x is a straight forward and single step process unlike upgrading from Siebel 6.x. Similarities to a considerable extent, in the application navigation, configuration mechanisms, and party data model philosophy help the upgrade and post upgrade processes easy to manage and execute. Siebel Upgrade can be a good choice in such a scenario. However, extent of existing customization and the additional functional capabilities to be built can swing the decision between upgrade and re-implementation approaches.

• Extent of Existing Customization:
As mentioned in the previous criteria, extent of customization in the existing version of the Siebel Application is very critical to assess the scope and effort required to leverage the out-of-the-box configuration capabilities from the latest version to be upgraded. Upgrade will result in migration of the existing configuration and customization to the newly upgraded instance. However, diligent feasibility analysis will have to be performed to understand the various options available to leverage the out-of-the-box configuration mechanisms and reduce the migrated customization to the extent possible. This can be a tedious process to accomplish if the existing instance is heavily customized. Lack of adequate documentation (which is the case usually ) can turn the entire de-customization process into a nightmare as the impact of this exercise on the existing functionality might not be assessed precisely. If the extent of customization is simple-to-medium, then an upgrade option can be considered suitable. However, a heavily customized instance is not a very good candidate for upgrade and a Re-Implementation approach can be a better option.

• Cost of Upgrade / Re-Implementation & ROI:
The cost of upgrade versus the cost of re-implementation depends on various factors such as the version of the existing Siebel instance, complexity of existing customization, data volumes involved, extent of new capability that needs to be built, timelines involved etc. Though a technical upgrade can migrate the configuration and customization changes, it might need an additional diligent effort to modify the user interface layout, leverage out-of-the-box configuration capabilities to reduce customization and handle deprecated scripting methods etc. to make the upgraded instance functional and user ready. Upgrade offers great benefit in migrating the data, the configuration and the customization changes easily as compared to a re-implementation exercise where in the data needs to be migrated as a separate task and the configuration and customization changes built from the scratch. This will have impact on the timelines and the corresponding costs. Cost of upgrade can be less than the cost of re-implementation in cases where the complexity of customization is low and the version from which the upgrade is done is smooth such as Siebel 7.x and above.

• Risks Involved:
Each approach has related risks associated with them. An upgrade approach resulting in substantial de-customization effort might result in some functionality missing through the cracks, if the impact of the changes on the existing functionality is not assessed well. While in the re-implementation approach, non-availability of well documented business processes and requirements for the existing (old) functionality might result in some functionality missing through the design and build phases only to be caught during the validation phase of the program or sometimes even later !!!

There could be some more aspects to take into consideration to decide upon this dilemma, but I tried to share the ones that I felt are primary. Pls feel free to add in your thoughts as well to this.

In conclusion, there is no single pill solution to this dilemma and has to be considered holistically taking the above described criteria into consideration and fitting the same to each enterprise in conjunction with the enterprise’ risk appetite, future roadmap etc.

Stakeholder Expectations from a CRM Application

2009-12-29T11:00:13Z

The success of a CRM implementation lies in its acceptance for use by the various stakeholders. The stakeholders vary depending on the industry and application in question. Some of the stakeholders commonly involved in CRM are top management, marketing managers, retail sales agents / call center agents / field sales agents, customers using self care applications, dealers and product managers. Each stakeholder has their own set of expectations from the CRM system. Based on my experience in working with some of these stakeholders, I have listed below some of their expectations:

]]> Top Management:
1.   Enhanced customer experience leading to improved top-line.
2.   Reduced Total Cost of Operations resulting in improved bottom-line.
3.   Improved business reporting leading to better governance.
4.   Company branding through Improved Customer Service and diverse innovative product portfolio.

Marketing Managers:
1.   Correct customer segmentation based on various parameters.
2.   Effective tracking of marketing budgets.
3.   Effective Campaign Management.
4.   Effective closed loop marketing.
5.   Use of appropriate treatment for marketing campaigns based on customer segments, to reduce marketing expenses.
6.   Event planning.
7.   Remote application usage (synchronization between laptop and PDA’s).
8.   Performance monitoring for dealers.

Retail Store Agents / Call Center Agents / Field Sales Agents:
1.   Ease of navigation.
2.   High speed.
3.   Availability of 360 degree view of the customer.
4.   Easy context sensitive help features.
5.   Mistake proofing.
6.   Validations to prevent duplication of data (e.g. customers, products etc).
7.   Pop-up messages for warnings, disclaimers etc.
8.   Profiling as per area of work (display only “need to know” information).
9.   Display prioritized list of activities.
10. Pre-intimation / training of new features / messages from time to time.
11. Pre-intimation of scheduled maintenance activities.
12. Faster, accurate calculation and disbursement of incentives.
13. Reduced work with other applications / manual paperwork activities / SSO.
14. Increased level of integration with other systems to offer seamless customer service.

Customers using the Self Care channel:
1.   Ease of navigation.
2.   Facility to search products and services easily.
3.   Facility to chat with an agent in case of any product/service related queries.
4.   Facility to see all the charges (fixed, recurring, usage related) associated with the product / service.
5.   Display of “Hot Offers”.
6.   Ease in bundling products and services.
7.   Up-sell and cross-sell of products and services.
8.   Minimal screen refreshes.
9.   High speed.
10. Guided user help.
11. Mistake proofing.
12. Order / fault acknowledgement.
13. Frequent status updates (on site / through SMS / through email etc).
14. Facility to update/cancel already raised orders/faults.
15. Facility to make online payments, view bills, view usage pattern etc.
16. Automatic accrual and quick redemption of loyalty points.

Product Managers:
1. Reduced time to market.
2. Facility to bundle / un-bundle products and services easily.
3. Introduction of ‘availability / compatibility’ and other rules for the products quickly without help from technical support.
4. Facility to provide comparison of products (with in-house products / competitors’ products).
5. Facility to attach user manuals, collaterals etc to products that will help in increasing the sale of the product.
6. Facility to quickly introduce / modify / withdraw products without technical involvement.

Dealers / Partners:
1. Self care functionality.
2. Sharing of opportunities to and from the company.
3. Joint marketing with the company.
4. Accurate calculation and speedy disbursement of incentives and compensations.
5. Automatic accrual and quick redemption of loyalty points.

Neglecting these expectations while selecting / designing the CRM system may cause several implicit or explicit change management issues. Explicit issues could be in the form of resistance to adopt the new CRM system by agents, dealers etc. Implicit issues could be customers preferring email, call center as the communication channels instead of the self service channel, leading to increased cost of operations. Thus, management of these stakeholder expectations is one of the most important factors deciding go/no-go decisions for the CRM Application.

Oracle PIPs: Redefining Real Time Integration

2009-12-24T09:40:18Z

I am sure a lot of us are already aware; few months ago Oracle released Process Integration Packs (PIP) based on Oracle Fusion Application Integration Architecture (AIA) framework. These PIPs establish pre-built integration between applications via AIA layer and are modeled on the SOA best practices. Through this article I have attempted to analyze the key features of the PIPs as well as the challenges that might surface while implementing.

]]> At Infosys, we recently co-partnered with Oracle to develop new PIPs. These PIPs were based on two existing PIPs:
• OCH (Customer Hub) PIP - Establishes SOA based integration between Oracle Siebel UCM, Oracle eBusiness Suite and Siebel CRM
• O2C (Order to Cash) PIP - Establishes SOA based integration between Oracle eBusiness Suite and Siebel CRM
The gist was to reuse the components from the existing PIP and develop new PIPs to establish integration between:
1. Oracle Siebel CRM and SAP: For Order to Cash Flow sync
2. Oracle Siebel UCM and SAP: For Customer Master Data sync

The PIPs indeed offer rapid integration between packaged applications. It almost completely takes away the complexity and rigor involved in establishing real time sync via middleware (Oracle Fusion / AIA is prerequisite). Sculpted on SOA best practices, there is minimal change needed at the applications (eBS, Siebel, SAP..), the middleware platform establishes the data mapping, cross references and any other transformation needed to ensure diverse applications integrate for the said functionality. The whole PIP concept is still in its nascent stages, but for sure there is a lot of promise and value in the overall integration benefits realized by the clients as well as the system integration vendors.

Having mentioned this, I would also like to iterate few challenges that must be confronted to establish PIP like integration. At client environments where any AIA PIP is being licensed, I have seen general curiosity among client IT to know the grey areas in order to establish PIP like integration of packaged apps like Oracle Siebel UCM, Siebel CRM with other enterprise applications. Would like the mention the following points that must be kept in mind while conceiving such integration – off course, coming from packaged applications background, I have written this from application consultant’s point of view :
Contrary to the general belief, development of a custom PIP – entirely or partly based on any existing PIP, requires a lot more from application teams then merely testing the functional flows after the technical work is done at the AIA layer. There is a lot of collaboration involved between all the teams (application teams, AIA team) to develop packaged integration.

Applications teams must be adequately staffed to tend to the following:
• Functional Leadership - This is unique flavor of the PIP development programs. Although the majority of technical development is done on AIA, the functional leadership is to be provided by the application teams so as to map the functional flows across applications.
• Data Mapping – Due to the differences in Data Model between applications, data mapping is one of the most complex tasks during PIP design. It is important to have experienced data migration experts on both application teams to help facilitate data mapping.
• Out of the box message structure / Web services may not work – Despite the best interests from all the parties, the OOB message structure of the base PIP may not work. This may mean changes to the standard canonical data model and also to the underlying integration architecture – Web Services, Integration objects etc.
• Setting up Cross references, Domain Value maps
• Integration Testing – Seamless integration between apps is the primary objective of the PIP, utmost importance is to be given to the entire testing mechanism. Integration test cases should be carefully drafted so as to mention the steps to be executed at each layer (participating applications, AIA) for each scenario. During test case execution, a lot of collaboration is needed to check the hand-shake across layers and the appropriate flow of information.

I invite all comments/messages to this blog. PIPs is definitely a new and evolving concept, let us all gain from each others experiences while we implement this new integration mechanism with clients.

Is Predictive Analytics the key to better outcomes and improved customer experience in the stock market?

2009-12-16T08:51:00Z

by Vinod Nag

Stock market investment is always a challenge for anyone, regardless of whether a person is an expert in finance or wants to make an entry into the stock market but does not have any clue about how it works. It is not easy to play a blind game with the market and win. However, to play a wise game, it is important to understand how a company is performing, how are its scrip placed, is it over valued, what is the current market trend, how is this industry sector doing, are there any external influence like change in government rules, market corrections so on and so forth.

]]> There are many ways that health of a stock is calculated before a decision is made to sell or buy. Some of the well known methods are Quality-Price matrix, Management and investor rewards, Economic analysis, Competitive conditions analysis, International trends, Ratio Analysis, Technical signals etc. Apart from these, it becomes primary obligation to check the safety of investment, stable returns, marketability, liquidity and value of capital. Similarly, other instruments like securities, bonds; Equity/Mutual Funds, Insurance, etc. should also be dealt carefully before making any investment or disinvestment.

Further, it is indispensable to think of portfolio management to cautiously monitor and act in time to stay on the profit side and take calculated risks. In a nut shell, one should have ample time, in depth experience and skill to predict the future to be a winner.

Imagine that you have a trading account and have just logged onto to execute a transaction. There you find an advice customized specially for you that meets your interests and requirements, telling you what to do… Wouldn’t that delight you when the advice indicates where to invest, when to buy, when to sell and what quantities? Consider that it always works for you then, there will be no limit for your happiness.

Voila!!! Virtually, people will have profits and lot of profits…

On the enterprise side, many businesses now a days are drifting towards customer experience to improve their business, make more profits and make their brand renowned. Customer experience is another big topic that is discussed much in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) world. It is a proven fact that it is much expensive to on-board a new customer than retaining an existing one. It is also seen that loyal, pleased and customers with long lasting relationship will become brand carriers and influence in getting more business. With the revolution in the software and technology facade, there are many products and solutions available off the shelf that provides enterprises a vehicle to interact with their customers and fulfill their needs. These CRM products mainly focus on sales, service and marketing. There are many channels that an individual uses to interact with their service providers. It could be telephonic, internet, electronic texting, direct mails etc.

Let us think of the business we are discussing here, a business that is engaged in wealth management and stock broking. It would have a portal where its customers execute various types of transactions. This portal can be one of the touch points for companies through which it can delight their customers by providing value added services like “Stock Advices” customized to the need of an individual. With such kind of facility available on a portal, it is for sure people will like to leverage this and be happy to exploit the significance to their advantage. There would be a very good chance for businesses to improve customer experience and attract more business.

Having said all these, a challenge that remains is the reliability of the advice and how confident is a customer of this advice? Has it considered all the future requirements of the customer? Is there a history of the advice which proves itself?

The answer to these questions lies with customer decisioning combined with predictive analytics.

Customer Decisioning is a technique of identifying suitability of a proposition to an individual/customer in focus. Customer Decisioning is widely used for automating business decisions like new account opening for customers, Credit Card issuance approval, Credit limit increase requests, loan requests approval etc. Customer decisioning also includes identifying suitable products/offers for cross-sell and up-sell based on the interest of the customer’s call reason.

Predictive analytics is a statistical method for classifying behavioral patterns found from collections of data. This analytics includes a variety of statistical methods, game theory and data mining techniques that analyze existing and historical data and provide forecast about future.

In business, predictive models leverage behaviors found from historical data to identify opportunities and risks. Models capture relationships amongst factors, commonly called as predictors to allow risk assessment and/or potential risks associated with a particular set of conditions. This in turn will influence decision making for a given customer request. It is also possible to fine tune the prediction or results of these models if external influencing factors are well defined. Predictive model considers many factors like income, age, savings, liabilities, movable and immovable assets, status, future plans and interests from KYC (Know Your Customer) data etc. Output of decisioning models will predict behaviors of a customer and suggests suitable products/services that can be offered.

Similarly, if predictive models are built with appropriate input to present the behavior of various financial instruments (like stocks) or companies will help in identifying next action. Predictive models output can support fund managers to take wise decisions for their bulk investments too.

To satisfy individual customer needs, combining the prediction of customer behavior and best action that can be performed on given scrip or financial instrument, a suitable decision can be framed. Such decisions can further be made available to individuals customized as to facilitate them take suitable action.

So, can we say that a Predictive Analytics solution is one of the discreet methods of improving customer experience and the prudent means to understand the stock market investment?

About the Author

Vinod anchors the Chordiant Centre of Excellence within the Enterprise Solutions unit, besides being involved in presales. He has managed offshore delivery of projects for major North American banks, achieving high customer satisfaction in these engagements. He has also been active in initiatives for competency development. Vinod will blog on marketing, campaign management, and various aspects of CRM.

CRM @ Personal Touch

2009-12-15T05:30:13Z

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.