Eliminating the Pain from CRM Implementation

I can't tell you how many articles I've read throughout the years that provide advice on how to make CRM technology implementation less painful. I've posted on this topic a few times myself, right here on this Direct Marketing Blog. It begs the question: why can't some smart firm come up with a solution here?

Regardless, since CRM implementation (and the pain associated with it) remains a 'hot' topic, I thought I would share some tips from this Inside CRM article titled: 10 Ways IT Managers Can Make CRM Implementation Painless.

I've listed each of the tips below, but you can read the full article for more detailed explanations and suggestions.

1. Watch your alignment. In other words, start at the top and make sure your CRM efforts match your business goals.
2. Spread the word. To hook CRM applications into a company's core products and services, IT managers will likely have to beat multiple drums in order to be heard.
3. Sell it to the sales department. While end users across an organization must commit to diligently using and updating CRM systems, success may well depend on the acceptance level of the sales force.
4. Root for the home team. End users are not the only ones who will likely be in need of constant CRM coaxing. To best lead a staff to CRM victory, IT managers must constantly champion attainable corporate goals.
5. Stay ahead of the curve. Along with keeping the team happy, the most effective IT manager will work constantly to keep up with an industry known to change at warp speed.
6. Change from the inside out. External factors are not the only change agents at work. IT leaders will also want to ponder the internal impact of a new CRM system.
7. Raise the bar. Regulatory matters and other factors up the ante. Thus, IT managers must make sure that major decisions surrounding CRM initiatives are not relegated to those toiling in the trenches.
8. Visualize results and use carrots instead of sticks. The most capable CRM managers are high-level leaders, who are hyper-aware of CRM’s ability to shape an organization.
9. Take it on the run. In order for the sales staff or other departments to use CRM to get to know customers better, users will likely need a way to tap CRM applications remotely.
10. Pick your battles. Without question, a CRM initiative is laden with snags that can challenge even the best IT manager. Hence, a significant number of organizations chose to pass the lion's share of the chore to outsourcers.

Mobile CRM Tips

Mobile CRM is becoming a necessity for field sales and companies with service personnel. Companies know that they need to enable their employees who are out in the field servicing customers to access company information in real-time--place orders, ask questions, report results, etc. However, as is usually the case with CRM systems, there is a lot of technology out there... How does a company know which mobile CRM solution will suit their specific needs?

This article, Six tips for mobile CRM success, helps narrow the playing field. It provides some very practical tips on what you should be considering as you shop for mobile CRM technology. I've summarized (with many quotes from the author) each of the six tips.

1. Plan ahead. Consider today's requirements and try to anticipate tomorrow's needs. The author suggests not locking yourself into proprietary software or hardware operating platforms. "As systems such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone and Google Android develop, you can be sure your remote users will be asking you to provide support for their devices."
2. Focus on the real world requirements. "Avoid getting caught up in fancy features and applications that will not be used in a mobile environment. Be realistic and understand what information and transactions your users will actually need to access in their mobile CRM system."
3. Does the mobile CRM application meet your security requirements? "The system should meet the “Ooops - I left my mobile device in the taxi” test."
4. Ease of navigation. "Mobile CRM operates on small devices with small screens and small keyboards. It is crucial to ensure that the system is easy to navigate in order to encourage a high adoption rate"
5. Speed of implementation. This is a big one. Make sure that you know exactly what your vendor has committed to in the way of implementation timelines before you commit to their solution.
6. Is it scalable? Make sure that the system can grow as your business grows. Also make sure that it can handle the amounts of customer data that your firm collects and stores.

Kudos to author Christian Wettre of W-Systems for these practical tips.

Favorite Links This Week

This week, let's start out with a great one! Check out Robert Rosenthal's Freaking Marketing blog post from earlier this week. Let us warn you, however, that the video sports some pretty explicit language, so if you're not into having to hear the F-bomb a lot, don't listen. It is a very funny piece from comic, Bill Hicks, who is on a major rant about why marketers should kill themselves. In the video, Bill outlines how we see opportunity in pretty much everything, then try to build a marketing strategy around it (my words, not his). This one will get you laughing for sure!

On a semi-kinder-gentler note (well, at least he doesn't mention killing anyone), Ron Shevlin's Marketing Whims blog post this week talks to how we tend to over-use whatever seems to be the word du jour. Ron specifically notes these three words that he sees marketers, and business-people overall, using way too much (in his humble opinion): death, disruption, and innovation. As usual, Ron provides his opinions with honesty, candor and a dry wit. His points are well taken, and the thing is, words do lose their true value when people over-use them. Remember when the concept of CRM was first introduced? Then, how it came to be used in every sentence? Pretty soon it came to mean everything -- not a specific discipline, solution, etc. Well, the reality is that CRM is different things to different people . . . but by making it a buzz-word, the idea of it becomes very blurred and diminished greatly in it's interpretation (i.e., everything is dubbed CRM and the word loses its value). So, as usual, Ron's right!

On a more positive note, Lead From Your Heart's blog-author, Lewis Green, tells us how to deal with the summer doldrums that occur in marketing every single year. In Lewis' post, "Friday Mornings in the Dead Zone," he talks about his strategy to combat the summer doldrums and how he plans on getting more than one email to come in at a time and his phone ringing robustly again. As entrepreneurs, I think we can probably all relate to this post, and it'll be interesting to follow the comments to see what ideas others have on bringing in more business in slower times.

We hope you enjoy these links . . . and Happy Weekends to all!

Grow Your Customer Relationships

You know you're getting old when news doesn't seem like news. You've heard it before. Same old story. Can you relate?

It's certainly how I felt reading this story from DM News: Study says CMOs are failing to use CRM well.

"Marketers worldwide are under-utilizing data and analyt­ics, particularly when it comes to customer retention, according to a recent study released by the Chief Marketing Officer Council.

Only half of marketers have a strategy in place for growing key account relationships, and 45% believe CRM systems are not effective enough. Further, only 15% of companies rated them­selves extremely good or effective at integrating disparate customer data sources, and 6% of marketers reported having “excellent knowl­edge” of customer data such as demographics, psychographics or transactional history."

The article goes on to talk about how so many companies continue to be focused on new customer acquisition and fall short in developing strategies designed to retain the customer.

In today's environment of short-term gratification (we must meet sales goals THIS MONTH; we have to report favorable earnings THIS QUARTER), I tend to understand why a long-term, customer-centric strategy might fall by the wayside. Couple the need for immediate results with an ever-shrinking marketing staff and budget, and I start to wonder how any company can think strategically and look at long-term benefits.

But, here's the kicker--this way of thinking with the customer in mind is a necessity. Customers today are aware of the data and technology that is available to corporations. They see it used to their advantage in their everyday dealings (the classic example is shopping with Amazon). They expect you to know all about them. They want you to anticipate their needs. They need you to serve them the right price plan or the right mix of products. If you won't do it, you're in danger of losing that customer.

It may be time to look at your customer touch-points and make sure that you're doing all you can to keep those customers happy.

Following is a short-list of ideas that might jump-start the evaluation process:

• Have you empowered your call center or customer service folks to really assist customers calling in with issues? Are they able to make real fixes and solve problems?
• Do you have a handle on your customer relationships? Have you done the analysis and database work to understand exactly what products and services each customer is buying from you (or has purchased in the past)?
  
• Do you have a strategy in-place to make sure that you are maximizing the profit potential from each and every customer? Do you make the right up-sell and cross-sell offers, when the customer is most likely to be shopping?
• Conversely, do you have a strategy in place to ensure that you are not over-serving your customer? For example, are they on a price plan that is too big for their needs, hence they're paying too much? Trust me, eventually, your customer will realize that they've been paying too much for your service, and they'll leave you. To retain this customer and maximize their lifetime value, perhaps you should be pro-active and "right-size" their plan, before they do...
  

Luckily, we direct marketers, with our background and experience in data mining and using analytics to understand--and predict--customer behavior, are well-positioned to make a positive impact on customer marketing. Nancy and I have re-focused our direct marketing consulting practice to be centered on analytics and data. It's that important, we believe.

Perhaps it's time to become the customer advocate within your organization!

Case Study: CRM system helps non-profit organization

Today's case study illustrates how technology has saved a non-profit organization a significant amount of money, while improving the customer experience at the same time. A good story to hear in today's tough economy.

We've included the highlights in this post, but here's a link to the entire article, titled: CRM Credited by MS Society of Canada for Savings.

CDC Software, a provider of CRM and other enterprise software and services, has announced that the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada has reported "record-breaking revenues and cost savings" attributed to CDC Software's Pivotal CRM.

Background

The MS Society of Canada receives roughly 85 percent of its funding through donations and special events, but its "customers" extend well beyond the donor. The society also solicits corporations, foundations and government bodies for donations and event sponsorship.

Business Issue:

With more than 120 offices and many different systems and processes to track customer information, ranging from spreadsheets to simple databases to more robust standalone fundraising systems, the society's data was disparate and fragmented, MS officials said. Much of the customer information gathered was not maintained from year-to-year.

Solution:

Centralizing MS Society's customer data into a single system for its 350 users in multiple sectors, Pivotal CRM allowed the organization to achieve a 360-degree view of each customer, which streamlined operations and marketing efforts.

Results:

Society officials say the move has reduced operational costs by more than $200,000 and reduced tax receipting cycles by 50 percent.

"The annual operating savings are easily in the six figures," says David Arbuthnot, vice president of IT, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. "Six years ago, we raised $80,000 online; this year, we'll raise over $6 million."


Well, I'm impressed! We hear a lot of talk about the importance of a 360 degree view of your customers. These numbers show that this customer insight is, indeed, important.

Fabulous Direct Marketing Links!

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Blog Log! We've got another famous line-up of excellent blog posts for your reading pleasure.

Our first post comes from Gordon Whyte's Blog of the Daily Challenges of the Entrepreneur. HA! And, there are many. This is an interesting read because it in, he presents an article from a leading futurist thinker, Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil discusses the evolution on mankind from big bang to now and into the future, and how this evolution will impact the way that both entrepreneurs and big business alike manage and conduct business. The most interesting fact to us is that those who continue to be nimble and proactive will survive. Companies will have to "abandon redundant strategic planning techniques and leadership models designed for the industrial age" in order to compete in the present and future global economy.

Next, is a good post for us all to have on hand as we come up with our big ideas and want to get some press. In the DM News post, "Who You Need to Know at DM News," by author Cara Wood, Cara tells you exactly who at DM News that you need to contact to share your expertise, outstanding results, case studies, hiring needs, etc. Since DM News is read by many in our industry, this is a great resource to have on hand to get yourself published in their many publications.

While laden with lots of ads (blogging purists will most likely revolt!), this next post presents some great ideas on How to Defend your Direct Marketing Budget in these leaner economic times. Author Robert Bergquist provides some great ideas on how not to panic, how to take the right actions, looking to outside expertise for assistance in leaner organizations, and the importance of testing and tracking every campaign for success. These are all great ideas with lots of merit. And thinking about them now can pull you through for the short-term, so that you're positioned well for the long-term as our economy bounces back (it's all cyclical, remember?).

Finally, in a witty post, "Wanna Get Away Southwest," blog author and student, Zack's Business Explained in Layman's Terms Blog discusses how his CRM class pondered the recent Southwest situation where they were fined for cracks in their fuselage. This is really not good! Being an avid Southwest supporter and customer (they're just nicer than the others), I'm hoping that they get these problems fixed -- for obvious reasons, the key one being my well being. Zack provides a story board, complete with his ideas on how Southwest can effectively re-assure their customers in their take-off script.

We hope you enjoy these posts as much as we did.

Have a great weekend!

Great Links

Welcome to this week's edition of the Blog Log! Here are our favorite links of the week. We hope you enjoy them!

1. Dana Blankenhorn: What Starbucks Can Learn from Barack Obama. This post resonated with me because for years, I could travel nowhere without knowing where the closest Starbucks was. Actually, that is still true. I am a true addict. As Dana points out, Starbucks has lost their customer focus, and I think it's because they have grown to be such a giant. Dana thinks that it's because they don't really focus on the customer relationship. And, he actually provides them pointers on how they could do a better job. In addition, he feels that they could learn a lot about CRM from watching Barack Obama and his flawless campaign of bringing people into the campaign and creating loyalists. This is a great and humorous read -- we think you'll enjoy it, too!

2. Bob Sullivan: Does it take a Recession to Shape Up Marketing Efforts? Hear, hear . . . is this recession a self-fulfilling prophecy? That's what I want to know. I was talking to a colleague this week and we were wondering this very thing. Everyone's talking about a slow down in marketing efforts and spend -- are we actually causing it to happen??? Let's all take a pledge to just stop it now -- just in case it's true! Bob makes a great point . . . he's seen some great tips out there on how to effectively plan your marketing strategy in case of an economic-slowdown. And they are all great tips. However, he asks a great question: "Shouldn’t marketers be performing all of these activities regardless of economics? Isn’t that just good marketing?" Once again, you're right, Bob!

3. Ted Grigg: How Do Consultants Establish their Daily or Hourly Rate? As usual, Ted figures out the equation for us. As consultants, we've been in the pickle of charging by the day/hour or by the project. I'm not sure about the rest of you but our clients normally want a per project charge simply because they don't want any surprises. Ted brings up so many good points in this article that I wanted to feature it today. It's great education for both consultants and their clients. Ted's approach to the equation is eye-opening for all parties. This is a great post.

We hope you enjoy all of our great links for this week. TGIF!

CRM Delivered Via Software-as-a-Service Solutions

HA! We've come across yet another direct marketing term and acronym -- SaaS (AKA Software-as-a-Service). What this term describes is the increased ability for companies to deliver CRM to their global workforce via flexible software that can be utilized by large numbers of users in different places. As companies expand and their product/service offerings are extended, this becomes increasingly important for both sales, marketing and -- most importantly -- customer satisfaction.

A recent press release reports on a survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group (a Harte-Hanks company). It reports that "the top pressure causing all organizations to focus resources on SaaS as a CRM delivery method is the need to provide access to account information anywhere to an increasingly mobile and global workforce." The survey reported that "Best-in-Class companies indicated that they currently blend organizational capabilities, such as the ability to provide remote access to employees (95%) and CRM security processes (57%), with technology deployment to positively affect the productivity of sales reps, while reducing the IT constraints that would accompany an on-premise solution.

There have been some excellent results reported when SaaS is utilized in these "Best-In-Class" companies. The press release reports that these companies "have reduced Time-to-Close 30% more than Laggards" (those not currently using this approach). An additional benefit is also reported: "71% of Best-in-Class companies integrate lead management technology with a CRM solution to provide increased visibility into the sales pipeline."

From our perspective, SaaS is enabling real Customer Relationship Management. This occurs when the firm's stakeholders (Leadership, IT, Marketing, and Sales) are all able to successfully manage the customer relationship from wherever they happen to be. This is an efficient way for sales to input all of the intelligence that they glean from their customer interactions -- and a great way for Leadership to manage to corporate revenue objectives.

You can obtain a full copy of this report from the Aberdeen Group. And, congratulations to them for putting this research together. Over time, it seems as though when companies invested in CRM systems, many have been stymied as to how to actually get the various divisions to accurately utilize the technology. We have seen situations where -- after a huge investment -- it is extremely difficult to learn how to use CRM tools, and that there is sometimes very little trust in the data that comes out of them. Furthermore, it takes a further investment of both time and money to get everyone on the same page.

Have any of you had any success stories at your companies using SaaS? We'd love to hear them!

Just How Important is Real-Time?

I remember about 5 years ago when I worked at Experian. The hot topic when we'd get together for sales meetings and to discuss what our clients (large financial services and telecom firms) needed was real-time customer interaction. We felt that if we could develop technologies and data integration techniques to enable access to up-to-the-minute customer data, our clients would be able to now fulfill their CRM dreams.

They'd be able to offer the customer the exact right product that they'd be interested in, at that specific point in time. Think of how happy the customers would be; think of the extra profits to be made.

Now, 5 years later, I see that the real-time dream hasn't really made it to reality.

Most firms still struggle to pull data from IT. If the data is only a week old, that's a good thing. Analysis is one-off and project-based. Rarely (except for web analytics) do senior managers have the ability to access up-to-the minute transaction and customer data.

I found an article that supported my opinion (that we're still pretty far away from realizing real-time) in ComputerWeekly.com. From the article:

"A few years ago, everyone was talking about the real-time enterprise and how it was destined to be the future. The idea was that companies would be instantaneously aware of any important business events taking place so that they could respond appropriately and immediately.

But that has not happened because of both the cost and complexity of such a proposition."

The article goes on to state that the cost of implementing true real-time technology rarely justifies the new-found benefits. It outlines three areas where companies are starting to consider real-time applications:

1. Real-time Reporting Systems--where executives will have access to timely reports so that they can make best-informed business decisions.
2. Business Activity Monitoring--where transaction and customer behavior is monitored in real-time. A certain activity may 'trigger' an action from the firm. A classic example is in the area of risk management--when a firm sees that a customer has started paying other bills more slowly, they change the way their own collections department treats this customer. Typically, they move to a more aggressive collections strategy.
3. Real-time Data Mining--where an agent (typically at a call center) has access to up-to-the-minute customer data so that they can offer the consumer the most appropriate product/service at the point in time that the customer calls them, or comes to them with service issues.

The article concludes with a couple of case studies of companies that implemented true real-time applications.

Lessons learned:

• As much as we direct marketers talk the CRM story, we're still pretty far away from real-time, in most cases.
  
• Where real-time technology has been proven a success, it's only because the firms that tackled the issue faced it logically and found small areas where they could reap immediate and measurable benefits, hence justifying the expense.

We'd love to hear your experiences. Do you have a story where real-time data access worked? Or, where a significant investment was made, only to have it fail?

CRM Alert: New CRM Blog Added to Keep us Up-to-Date

There's a new blog that is devoted specifically to all of the happenings around Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It's brought to us by the folks at CRMIndustry.com, which is a fabulous website that gives direct marketers the ability to research different CRM applications, and review the different research that is being conducted in the CRM landscape. Their blog is published on a regular basis and it consists of highlights and newsworthy items specific to CRM. For those of us who keep track of these things, this is a nice resource tool to utilize as we assist our clients in building more profitable customer relationships. And, as blog aficionados, we're always happy to see well-written, information-packed blogs available for our reading pleasure.

Carolyn Healey is the creator of the company, the website and the blog, and she has some excellent experience. She is actually a microcosm of what has transpired in CRM over the last 10 years. She started out with a website dedicated to helping service and support centers effectively manage customer relationships. This was before CRM became our favorite acronym. In 2001, she launched CRMIndustry.com and a year later, RecognizeServiceExcellence.com. All of these websites focus on different areas of creating satisfied and loyal customers. This is a subject that we, too, are passionate about, and we applaud Carolyn's efforts.

Take a look at her new blog (actually, she has blogs related to all three of her websites). We think you'll enjoy her posts and insight on the goings-on within CRM.

Direct Marketing Success: Integrating Your Customer Touchpoints

DM News has recently reported on the DMA's study of the catalog industry. The results of the study are that this industry, too, has embraced the thought of integrating customer relationships across all channels of marketing. It seems like an old thought -- I know we've been talking about this for years. However, talking and acting are two different things.

The whole premise behind Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to understand and know your customer, how much business that they do with you, how they prefer to do business with you and how to treat those who spend a lot with you the right way. Most companies haven't done a great job at this -- irrespective of the dollars that they've spent on CRM technology.

The DMA's study entitled: "Multichannel Marketing in the Catalog Industry," is based on surveys completed online by 474 catalog marketers. The study also "indicates that nearly 70 percent of respondents saw an increase in multichannel sales over the prior year and 59 percent increased their catalog circulation in 2005." These are some great trends for catalogers!

Not surprisingly, the DMA study found that "multichannel marketers have learned that consumers expect to interact with one company with integrated systems that are consistent across all channels." As consumers, this seems like simple logic. If the message isn't consistent, we get confused about the offer and the value of the offering.

Here are some of the study’s other key findings:

• Of the respondents with mail-order catalogs, 44 percent of total sales were consummated via the Web, up from 39 percent in 2005.
• 33 percent of respondents believe that their online sales were “incremental.”
• Respondents whose online sales are increasing reported an overall 20 percent growth rate.
• The Web site/e-catalog was the primary marketing channel for 45 percent of respondents, followed by the paper catalog with 33 percent of responses and retailer stores with 22 percent.
• In 2007, 82 percent of respondents plan to employ e-mail promotions, which was followed by discounts/special sales with 67 percent of responses, coupons with 38 percent and prize/sweepstakes promotions with 33 percent.

Although the study focused on catalogers, there is a lot that can be taken out of it by everyone. It is incumbent upon all of us who are responsible for direct marketing to understand that as we engage our customers through the different channels available to us (and more are being added all the time), we must first understand that our customer relationships fully -- then market to them appropriately across the channels. And, we need to focus on the message and the offer to ensure that it is consistent across channels. For more on our ideas on effective multi-channel marketing, take a look at our white paper.

MySpace for Geeks. CRM Geeks, that is...

Just in from today's "CRM Buyer": Web 2.0 Portal to Link CRM Job Seekers

Apparently, a group of CRM consultants (BPT Partners) has developed a site (myCRMcareer.com) that promises to help CRM professionals with career development and advancement.

"Besides employment opportunities, it will offer career management and placement services, general industry resources, exclusive content -- Greenberg is the author of "CRM At the Speed of Light" -- and Web 2.0 tools for users."

"MyCRMcareer.com's goal is to increase industry competency for the CRM professional. The integrated platform will allow CRM professionals to network with peers, much as people do on Facebook or MySpace.com, to develop their own content through such tools on the site as podcasts, audio files, blogs and videos and to showcase their own skills and accomplishments."

I personally applaud the effort, and I just might participate on the site. As a business professional (and I don't think I'm alone here), I've been struggling with how to use social sites like Facebook and MySpace to help build my business. I'm even having a hard time understanding how to maximize LinkedIn. Yes, I diligently grow my network. And, yes, it's fun to find people that I worked with eons ago, but other than that, I haven't figured out how these sites can impact my marketing consulting work. (As a side-note, if anyone has any suggestions on this, please do share.)

But this new site promises something extra, I think. First of all, it is targeted to a fairly narrow group of professionals. Some could argue that CRM could mean all things to all people, but it is much more focused than most social networking sites. If it is widely adopted and people start to use it to share successes, discuss technology, etc, I will definitely be participating.

And, of course, it's always great to see what jobs are out there, too :)

The site will be launched next week. I'll be one of the beta members!

4 Keys to CRM Success

I thought that this keynote from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, contained some interesting ideas--ideas that direct marketers can embrace and bring to our senior management as we bring CRM technologies to our organizations. Gladwell outlined four key areas to address in order to realize a successful CRM implementation. I agree with him that these four elements are key.

From the article that recaps the keynote: "In his morning keynote speech at the opening of the destinationCRM2007 Conference here today, Malcolm Gladwell described four core elements innovative leaders need to understand in order to win over the public: time, framing, connectivity and simplicity."

I'll summarize his thoughts on these 4 elements (and add my 2 cents):

1. Time: It's very important that technology is brought to market as speedily as possible. We all expect things to happen quickly. It's no longer good enough to promise a multi-month/year implementation. We need to be able to solve problems quickly and show results of the technology quickly. If we miss the boat on speed, there will be a whole new set of business issues that the original technology will not be able to address. Hence, yet another example of CRM technology failure, simply because we couldn't implement quickly enough to solve the problems that the technology was originally purchased for. Learning here: make sure that your technology investment comes with a timeframe that works within your organization. Make sure that the vendors deliver on-time (through rigorous project management). And, finally, make sure that you communicate early successes to management to prove that their investment is starting to pay off, and paying off sooner rather than later.

2. Framing: Gladwell used an example from early radio to illustrate this point. He described the first live sporting event ever broadcast (a 10-minute boxing match). Prior to this live event, radio had been used only for newscasts (which you could read in newspapers) and to broadcast music. Broadcasting a live event to the public for the first time "drove the widespread adoption of the radio."

This is an example of framing, or "putting the product or service in the best frame of mind to serve them, not you. In other words, when assessing a business endeavor, Gladwell encouraged leaders to answer the question "Why am I doing this?" with "Because it makes the customer's life easier," instead of "Because it saves me money." He explained that consumers "need to frame their experience to make sense of it," and that the most compelling viewpoint when encountering a new product is usually self-serving."

Serving up live sports on the radio served consumers at large, but ultimately benefitted radio as a new medium.

3. Connectivity: Gladwell emphasized the importance of social connections. "Unfortunately, "we don't respond to people unless we have a connection to them," Gladwell said--emphasizing precisely the importance of managing, maintaining, and nurturing relationships. People, institutions, and technologies that allow consumers to connect with their world are in "high demand," he said; in fact, that connection "fulfills a psychological need." Consequently, companies need to ask, "Am I feeding into social isolation, or combating it? Am I seen by my customers as linking and connecting them in a real way?"

If your CRM technology can facilitate connections (building, maintaining and nurturing relationships), then it's much more likely to succeed.

4. Simplicity: This one is almost a no-brainer. If the technology is too complex, it will not be used. "Gladwell appealed to the crowd that it was encumbent upon them "to create a mechanism to simplify the complexity" of their technologies, and that society as a whole needed to tackle "task persistence" in overcoming past missteps in deployments of CRM and other technologies."

If we take these four elements to heart and really think about how our CRM or other marketing technology investments are touching on all/some of these parts, success will be closer.

Making CRM Work

We comment a lot about why CRM systems fail so very often. A common reason is because the people behind the implementation did not consider the entire organization, especially the front-line users.

Prior to RRW, I was a salesperson for a large database/data provider. Some muckety-muck made the decision to install Siebel as a salesforce automation tool. (By the way, I have nothing against Siebel--this is simply an example of a super poor implementation.) As a sales rep, it seemed that the company's goal was at a minimum to keep tabs on their reps, and further to enable a seamless transition to a new salesperson if they wanted to fire you. Encouraging for the sales rep, right?...

To make things worse, old, inaccurate and duplicate customer data was imported to the system (the number one CRM sin, especially as it was commited by a provider of marketing databases). Bad data ensured that none of us would trust that the contact name or phone number coming out of the system would be correct. Then, The firm imposed mandates on us sales reps as to frequency of usage. They actually gave us minimal weekly limits of things we had to input (such as call reports, pipeline activity).

In a nutshell, this implementation was not successful. A wasted multi-million dollar investment that brought zero value to that organization.

Based on this experience, I was pleased to see this article in "Destination CRM" today that gives some practical tips on how to get the sales reps to not only use the CRM system, but to love the system. It talks about building value for reps by including tools that they will find useful, not just tools that management can use to evaluate sales effectiveness.

From the article: "Trying to convince a salesperson to use a CRM system is not unlike trying to convince a child to eat vegetables. As a child is told that vegetables are good for him, a salesperson is told a CRM system will improve the financial health of the company. Most of the time, neither one finds what's served to them appetizing.

This can't be ignored. Companies can try the forceful do-as-you're-told parental tactic, but this will likely breed resentment, and, unlike children, salespeople can choose to leave the table. So what's the solution? It's simple: Approach your salespeople as if they are your best customers and focus on providing them and the company value."

Interesting that it always comes back to value!

Fear of Commitment

No, I'm not talking today about some of the men I've dated in the past...

Today's topic is (drumbeat, please) CRM technology. Specifically, I want to explore reasons why so many times a huge technology investment for CRM tools never pays off. Why do so many CRM deployments end up dead, never used correctly and abandoned by the company that had such high hopes when they initially deployed the technology?

Case in point--Albertsons Grocery stores. They just announced that they're abandoning their loyalty program. Apparently, grocery managers weren't taking advantage of the rich data collected every time shoppers swiped their card to get grocery discounts. Wow, think of the money wasted by this significant investment in building and deploying such a large loyalty program.

It's stories like Albertsons that give CRM a bad name--horror stories about firms that spent a bundle on CRM systems that users never use. I think it comes down to a simple fear of commitment. Firms need to embrace, shall I say, COMMIT to an environment that is focussed on the customer well before they even think about spending money on any technology. They need to understand that buying technology for the sake of technology or because they believe that they need to keep up with their competitors (which may be the case with Albertsons) is just dumb.

Prior to any CRM investment, at the very minimum, these three simple questions should be answered thoughtfully and completely:

1. How will our customers benefit from this new program? In the case of grocery loyalty programs, in my opinion, the benefit was never clear. As a shopper, I know that I need to participate in order to get the discounts, but I'm never happy about having my buying habits open to scrutiny. Why can't I just get the discounts? Now, if they would take the program to another level (and some chains may, just not the ones I shop in), that would be different. If they sent me a coupon for a free box of laundry detergent just when they knew that I'd be needing it, that would be great. If they celebrated my birthday by giving me a nice bottle of wine that they knew I enjoyed, that would be super. As a consumer, I never see these types of personalized benefits, although the stores have all the data they need to extend them, if they choose to.

2. What will be our return on this signficant technology investment? CRM was such the buzzword several years ago that many firms simply just jumped on the bandwagon without the due diligence that they would have given any other similar-sized investment. Any CRM investment needs to ultimately pay for itself. Whether it's increased lifetime value, new customers acquired, more customers retained, cross-sell, up-sell, whatever, goals need to be articulated up-front and tracked over-time.

3. Do I have commitment from all levels of the company? There's that pesky word again, commitment... But this is so true. Not only does the CEO need to be a customer advocate, but any users of the system need to understand the customer-focussed vision. If ultimate users of a CRM tool understand the vision behind it (and not just see it as another new technology step that they need to deal with to finish their job for the day), they may surprise you by devising new ways to use the tool to create customer satisfaction. At the minimum, they'll use the tool in the way it was designed.

If you have any other core questions that should be explored before investing in technology, please share.

TGIF. Enjoy your weekend!

Poor Data Quality = CRM Failure

This article from BtoB Magazine, How marketers can make the most of CRM data, hits home with RRW. I think the technical term is called "preaching to the choir".

It emphasizes how a CRM implementation can never be a success if the underlying data is of poor quality. If names are old and addresses are bad, CRM system users will NEVER trust that system. And, they won't use it. What a waste of (a ton) of money.

From the article: "Cleaning existing bad data can require a great deal of time and effort, so company leaders who have invested time and money into a new system can be prone to ignore the importance of fixing the bad before bringing in the new. If these data are not taken care of in advance, they will be transferred to the new system and can completely defeat the purpose of upgrading. CRM often involves a significant investment and a substantial amount of employee training, so if you're not using a new system to its full advantage, you'll only end up hindering your business."

The great news is that traditional direct marketers have developed tools to address data quality. Heck, we had to--who wants to pay postage on mail that can't be delivered? So, we are positioned to be key players in CRM installations--we have the expertise, the vendor contacts and the knowledge of appropriate data hygiene and customer data integration technology.

RRW has written a white paper that speaks to the importance of data quality and also provides an overview of the various tools available. Let us know if you'd like a copy.