Achieving one view of your customer can be achieved by careful planning of a Customer Resource Management (CRM) strategy and deploying a CRM system. The following checklist will allow you to consider the elements that must be evaluated when considering moving forward with a CRM program. Careful planning will allow you to offer superior customer service, attract profitable business, grow your product line and understand customer churn.
Customer Resource Management (CRM) is a broad phrase that encompasses the management of an organizations customer base and involves the capture, storage and analysis of its customer information.
Customer focused organizations are implementing CRM systems in an effort to transform their businesses into leading edge enterprises by creating a single view of the customer which allows a firm to:
1. Offer superior customer service by treating each customer as if they are their only one2. Attract profitable business by learning who your profitable customers are and deploy strategies to increase business with-in that segment.3. Grow your product line by selling complimentary products and services to your existing customer base.4. Understand customer churn and employ retention strategies to protect your business from competition.
You may now be asking yourself “so, where do I start and how do I ensure that my CRM venture is a success?” The answer is that with any large project undertaking you must ensure that you carefully plan and define exactly what you’re business problems are and lay out a strategy on how they will be best solved. Careful planning will ensure that you maximize your return on investment. In order to evaluate the impact CRM can have on your business I have outlined a checklist of items that you should consider when developing strategies and areas of improvement. The checklist is broken up in four key areas which include Marketing, Sales Management, Call Center and Marketing. After answering all of these questions, you will be in a better position to understand your areas for better improvement.
1. Marketing
Product Development
• How long does it take for your company to introduce a new product?• What other complimentary products could you introduce to the marketplace?• How do you react to changing regulatory requirements?• How do you measure brand effectiveness?• Why do customers buy your product or service?• What other products would your customer buy?• How do you measure customer satisfaction?• What is your customers’ frequency of use? Could they increase usage in your product line?• Do you have the opportunity to up sell or cross sell?
Churn
• What is your churn rate?• What competitors are your customers migrating to?• Why are you customers migrating?
Segmentation
• What type of customers do you want?• What is your fastest growing customer segment?• What is your slowest growing customer segment?• What are the elements or factors of an at risk customer?• What are the elements or factors of a profitable customer?• Who are your most profitable customers?• Who are your most non-profitable customers?
2. Sales Management
Funnel Management:
• How do you identify your valuable most profitable customer?• How do you manage gaining revenue customers?• How do you manage declining revenue customers?• How do you reward your best customers?• How do you manage your retention programs?• How are leads (internal or external) communicated to the sales force and are the leads followed up to immediately?• How do you ensure there is enough sales activity in the sales funnel to sustain your sales targets?• How long is your typical sales cycle?
Contract Compliance:
• How do you ensure your new customers are compliant to their contract?• How do you monitor and manage account profitability?
Territory Management:
• How do you manage commissions and incentive programs with your sales force?• How do you manage declining revenue customers?• How do you manage customer concerns and collaborate with the organization effectively in handling customer questions or concerns?
3. Call Center Operations
Call Management
• How many orders do you receive daily?• What percentages of incoming orders are not in your existing customer data base?• How many of your orders are international?• How many phone calls do you receive on a daily basis?• How many inbound calls are product related?• How many inbound calls are order status related?• How many calls are billing related?• How many calls are placed on generating revenue?• How many internal calls does your call center have to make to provide your customer the status of an order?• How long does it take your CSC department to provide shipment status information?• How do you ensure a customers issue or concern is resolved?
Product Knowledge & Case Management
• How do you make your customer facing staff aware of product changes?• How much client level detail and historical billing data does your call center have on your customer?• How do you communicate customer concerns to field sales or operations?• How do you hold other parties with-in your organization accountable to promised commitments?• How much time do you spend in training your customer service staff?
4. Operations
•Does your field support require access to customer data and information?•How accurate is the data (Product or customer) that that your Field Support has access to?•How much does it cost to ensure your separate data sources are up-to date?•How many orders do you manage daily?•What are the implications for wrong inventory for a job, or sending wrong product to your customers?•How do you manage a change in a customers need?
After considering some of these questions, you should now be in a position to better understand what areas need focus. In my next post I will discuss establishing metrics, objectives. and how to measure your success.
