2-Customer Relationship

Management.
CRM-An Enterprise-Wide View.
(Program Vs Project).

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CRM Is An Enterprise-Wide Initiative.
• CRM is difficult because it is an Enterprise-Wide Initiative.
• CRM is not a Technology Initiative. Many have confused CRM as a
Technology Initiative and have assigned the CRM Implementation to their
Information System or IT Group.
• CRM Conferences often equate to Technology Exhibits and
Demonstrations.
• Technology is needed in order to implement CRM, but Technology is not
the driver of CRM or the solution to successful CRM Implementation.
• CRM is not exclusively a Marketing Initiative. Many organizations have
equated CRM with Customer Focused Marketing or Data Driven/Data
Base Marketing. CRM results in more effective Data Driven Marketing
efforts, CRM requires Marketing experience. But CRM is not strictly a
Marketing Initiative.
• CRM is not exclusively a Sales Initiative. Similar to Marketing, CRM is
often lodged within the Sales Department. The Sales Force is extremely
close to their customers, understanding their needs and wants, and
trying to fulfill them.
• Sales however is just one functional area that can benefit from CRM, and
that is necessary for effective CRM.

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CRM Is An Enterprise-Wide Initiative
(Cont’d).
• CRM is not exclusively a Service Initiative. As with Sales and
Marketing, Customer Service is one of the functional aspects of
Successful CRM Implementation. But Customer Service is not
the sole driver of the CRM Process.
• CRM involves Marketing, Sales, Service, Technology as well as
other inner workings of an organization.
• Hence CRM is properly described as the Enterprise-Wide
Initiative.
• It involves all areas of the organization, to be working together
in harmony and also working toward the common goal of
stronger Customer Relationship.

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 CRM: Program Or Project?
• CRM is a Program, and not a Project.
• Unfortunately, over past several years, because of the belief that CRM
is a Technology, it was battered into submission as an IT Project.
• Thus even today, there is a strongly rooted misconception that you
are planning to undertake a CRM “Project”. That is a sure sign of
likely failure.
• Projects are Finite.
• Projects are tactical missions that have a specific beginning and a
specific end with a defined benefit at the end of it.
• The IT World has historically done Projects.
• Anyone who has been in Software/Hardware Business or worked with
or for an enterprise, has been involved in applications/implementation
that have gone on for a period of time, were “ Rolled Out”, and that
was that, except for ongoing maintenance, if you were to succeed at
it.
• However, complex or simple, successful or failed, the Project was
characterized by that finite beginning and eventually that finite end.

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 CRM-Program Or Project? (Cont’d).
• Some cultural change was probably necessary, but nothing
terribly dramatic.
• But CRM is different because it is an all encompassing
Philosophy, Strategy, System and uses Technology as a Tool.
• CRM is a Philosophy, and a Business Strategy, supported by
System and a Technology, designed to improve human
interactions in a Business Environment.
• CRM is an ongoing Program and can be said to be “Eternal”.
• CRM is a Strategic Program of continuous ongoing improvements
to the Customer Experience and Value, and definitely not a
Project.
• CRM means: It is an initiative to change the way a company
operates at all levels. It creates a Culture that can support these
changes and that will continue to change and improve.

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 CRM-Program Or Project?
(Cont’d)
• CRM establishes a Corporate Focus on Relationship Building and
Customer Satisfaction, rather than operations and transactions.
• It provides ongoing commitments and incremental improvements to
maintain and , in better times expand the Customer Base.
• It encourages continued staff education, from the point of view of
initial commitment of the stakeholders to the program through an
unforeseen end point.
• It establishes ongoing relationships with vendors, integrators, and
most importantly the Customers.
• It creates recognition that the fulcrum of Business is the Customer
and not the Company.
• Stakeholders Team And The Board Of Advisors.
Stakeholders Team is accountable for the success or failure of the
CRM initiative. The Stakeholders can come from Senior Management,
the most important departmental leaders, external suppliers, partners
and customers.
• Most of the Stakeholders come from HQ and are often isolated from
the field.

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 Stakeholders Team & Board Of
Advisors (Cont’d).
• To help the Core Team of CRM Stakeholders, a Board of Advisors from
the following should be formed:
1) Field Personnel. 2) Customers. 3) Vendors/Suppliers. 4) Natural
Leaders.
Politics And Poker And CRM: Depending on its scope, CRM can be a
career builder or a career buster.
• There are many individuals within a company at an executive level
especially, but even among ranks, who have a stake in the CRM
Program- or they do not and want to.
• There are “Reactionary” elements within the company, who have a
fiefdom that they want to preserve, along with their hold on the serfs.
• CRM can dramatically alter the approach to business and that
threatens the existence of their fiefs, which depends on the existing
infrastructure and practices. Do not underestimate the power of this to
bring a CRM initiate to its knees.

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 Politics And Poker And CRM (Cont’d).
• If the politics rise to the level of senior executives, there can be serious
problems. Given below are some of the steps to be taken to help solve such
problems.
1) Always map out the political situation, prior to putting together the
stakeholders team- This understanding can be invaluable to identifying
future bottle-necks.
2) If your opposition lies at the C.E.O. level, neutralize it before you start. One
bad seed C.E.O. can poison the well and destroy the CRM Program before
you even start.
3) Be mindful of the company hierarchies when creating the stakeholders, but
do not let them govern your choices.
4) The C.E.O.’s buy in is indispensable. He must be visionary enough to
understand the long term implications of a CRM Program and enthusiastic
enough to understand that it will mean a dramatic change in his company.
5) If you are a leader of a CRM Program, spend some time evangelizing
(preaching) prior to formal organizing. While you are creating excitement,
set realistic expectations.
6) Whether you are an outside consultant or internal leader, be prepared to get
involved in the politics. Do not shy away from neutralizing the opposition.

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 The CRM Business Cycle.
• There is a Universal underlying Cycle of Activity that should drive all CRM
Initiatives and Infrastructure Development.
• All Infrastructure and Initiatives should somehow be tied to this Core Cycle
of Activity.
• The CRM Business Cycle consists of 4 Major Steps (not necessarily in the
following Sequence) :
• 1) Understand and Differentiate: a )Understand Customer’s Needs. b)
Differentiate based on Customer Needs, Characteristics and Behavior.
• 2) Develop and Customize: a) Develop Products, Services and Channels
to meet Customer’s Needs. b) Customize by Customer Segment.
• 3) Interact and Deliver: Interact with Customers and Prospective
Customers. b) Deliver Increased Value to Customers.
• 4) Acquire and Retain: Acquire Customers and Prospective Customers.
b) Retain Valuable Customers.
• We will discuss each step in more detail in the up coming slides.

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CRM BUSINESS CYCLE.

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 CRM Business Cycle (Cont’d)
• 1) Understand And Differentiate: Organizations cannot have a
Relationship with Customers, unless they understand them, what
they value, what types of service are important to them, how and
when they like to interact, and what they want to buy. Several
activities, as shown below are important:
a) Profiling to understand demographics, purchase patterns, and
channels of preference.
b) Segmentation to identify logical unique groups of Customers that
tend to look alike, and behave in a similar fashion. Identification of
actionable segments is a practical place to start.
c) Primary research to capture needs and attitudes.
d) Customer valuation to understand profitability, as well as life time
value or long term potential. Value may also be based on the
Customer’s ability or inclination to refer other profitable
Customers.
e) Analysis and research alone, however, are insufficient.
f) To create and foster a relationship, organizations have to act on
what they learn about Customers.

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 CRM Business Cycle (Cont’d).
2) Develop And Customize: In the product oriented world of yesterday,
companies developed products and services and expected customers
to buy them.
• In a Customer Focused world, product and channel development has
to follow the Customer lead.
• Organizations are increasingly developing products and services, and
even new channels based on Customer Needs and Service
Expectations.
• Most organizations today are not able to cost effectively Customize
products for individual Customers.
• However, products, services, channels, media can be Customized on
the Needs and Wants of Quantitative Customer Segments.
3) Interact And Deliver: Interaction is also a critical component of a
successful CRM initiative.
• It is important to remember that interaction does not just occur
through Marketing and Sales Channels and Media; Customers interact
in many different ways with many different areas of the organization,
including Distribution and Shipping, Customer Service and Online.

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 CRM Business Cycle (Cont’d).
• 3) Interact And Deliver (Cont’d): To foster Relationships,
organizations need to ensure the following:
• a) All areas of the organization have easy access to relevant,
actionable customer information.
• b) All areas are trained to use customer information to tailor
interactions based on both customer needs and potential
customer value.
• c) With access to information and appropriate training,
organizations will be prepared to steadily increase the value
they deliver to customers.
• d) Customer perception of value is not just based on the price
of the product or discounts offered.
• It is based on a number of factors including the quality of
products and services, conveniences, speed, ease of use,
responsiveness and service excellence.

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 CRM Business Cycle (Cont’d).
4) Acquire And Retain: The more you know about your customers, the
easier it is to pinpoint those that are producing the greatest value
for the organization.
• Those are the customers and customer segments a company will
want to clone in its prospecting and acquisition efforts.
• And because they will continue to learn about what is valuable to
each segment, they will be more likely to score a “win” with the
right channel, right media, right product, right offer, right timing
and the most relevant message.
• Successful customer retention is basically getting it “right” on an
ongoing basis.
• Successful Customer Retention is based very simply on the firm’s
ability to constantly deliver on three principles:
• a) Maintain interaction, never stop listening.
• b) Continue to deliver on the Customer’s definition of value.
• c) Remember that Customers change as they move through
differing life stages, be alert for the changes and be prepared to
modify the service and value proposition as they change.

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Prioritizing The Changes & Creating
An Action Plan.
• Prioritizing The Changes: Because there may be many
gaps, and therefore many changes that an organization will
need to make, prioritization is critical.
• The evaluation of each of the strategies has to be identified
to resolve the gaps, based on the following:
1) Cost to implement- including initial one-time costs, as well as
anticipated ongoing expenses.
2) Overall benefit-Some changes may have larger impacts on
the organization’s ability to increase customer value and
loyalty.
3) Feasibility based on organization readiness, data, and
systems support, resource skill-sets and a number of other
factors.
4) Time required-including the time required for training and
addressing “Cultural” change management issues related a
specific strategy.

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 Prioritizing The Change & Creating
An Action Plan (Cont’d).
• Creating An Action Plan: The next step in the planning
process is the development of a detailed action plan.
• While the complete plan may span about 2 to 3 years, it can be
based on three month phases with clear deliverables that will
demonstrate both progress and quick hits or measures of
success.
• The plan should identify interdependent activities and should
comprehensively detail time and resources required for each
activity.
• Another key factor for planning is the leadership action plan.
• Advancing on the CRM transformation map may require
significant organization change.
• This part of the action plan helps assess the drivers and restraints
of this change and organization’s readiness to embrace the
change.
• It creates additional strategies by identifying specific leadership
actions necessary to lead the organizational change.

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 Selecting And Implementing A
Technology Based Solution.
• Some of the key issues regarding Technology are:
• a) Make or Buy: The criteria for decision are:
• Functionality.
• Flexibility in incorporating changes.
• Scalability-with growth.
• Fit with existing architecture (Legacy System).
• Upgradeability-which basically means that if the technology
that enables CRM advances tomorrow, the installed system
should be able to take into its fold the increased functionalities.
• Commercial Impact- Evaluated in terms of Life Time of the
solution.

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 Selecting And Implementing A
Technology Based Solution (Cont’d).
• From Whom To Buy?: The following criteria may be
considered for taking this decision:
• CRM expertise of Seller.
• Company Focus on CRM.
• Implementation.
• Credentials including financials, client list, life history etc.
• CRM solution implementation process.
• Clientele, scope, and scale of implementation.
• Suggested solution including implementation time line.
• Technical hand holding expected.
• Training and Maintenance.

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