How to Use CRM to Make the Customer King

There is a renewed sense of emphasis on customer satisfaction these days. As business owners, we want to keep and grow the customers that currently do business with us. As our businesses become more complex, it becomes more difficult to accomplish this task. However, if you use a little common sense and ingenuity, you can make your customers feel like royalty.

Consider Fairmont Hotels as an example.

According to Canadian Business Online, Fairmont took customer satisfaction into their own hands seven years ago when they split off from Canadian Pacific. In 2005, they decided to create a central repository of information specifically around their customers -- all of the bits of information that they collected about them -- including what they desired when they visited a Fairmont Hotel. This obviously was not an easy task. They tied together all hotel databases and created one view of each guest, no matter where they stayed.

"For us, it was all about capturing information about our guests to service them better, to deliver customized, personalized experiences for them at the hotel," says Sean Taggart, Fairmont's executive director of marketing services. "But it was also about sharing that information with all of the hotels in our portfolio so that when the guest checks into another Fairmont brand hotel that they may not have been to before, our colleagues there would know them, be able to talk to them, and service them based on what their interests and preferences are."

While this is an exemplary example of what can be done with solid database technology, this type of philosophy -- and commitment to customer service excellence -- is unfortunately far from being the norm. Let's look at an opposite example from my own experience.

I checked into a hotel about a month ago. I had booked the room on my rewards points and had requested 2 Double Beds as I was traveling with my business partner. Now, the fact that I had rewards points means that I've had a long relationship with the hotel chain based upon many years of business travel.

Upon check-in, I was told that my King room was ready. When I indicated that I had asked for Double Beds when I made my reservation, I was told that while there were plenty of Double-Bed-rooms available, the system would not allow the customer service rep to put me in one without charging me for the room again. She asked very sweetly, "Would you like me to change your reservation and charge you twice?" I won't put you through the pain of what me and my colleague suffered to finally get the double beds (is it really too much to ask . . . particularly when they told us that there were plenty available?) . . . but suffice it to say it was quite the horrible customer experience.

While Fairmont definitely spent some money to create the ultimate customer-satisfying CRM solution at their hotels, we believe that it was money well spent. Don't get me wrong -- your technology doesn't make the customer king, your people do. However, as evidenced by these two examples, the technology definitely helps. In fact, in our situation, while our horrible experience was actually blamed on the technology, it was the person at the customer service desk who refused to solve our problem. It may have been due to the inflexibility of the technology, but as the customer, I'm not sure how that becomes my issue. See, I'm still pretty miffed about the whole thing. And, I guess that's the point.

The learning here is that the proper technology can assist your people in creating excellent customer service or, on the other hand, it can potentially hinder it. Additionally, whether you have the budget to spend on technology or not, it's important that your employees are empowered to help the customer in any circumstance. Obviously, all this takes is hiring the right people and giving them the ability to make decisions that will create delighted customers . . . as opposed to unhappy campers.

Kudos to Fairmont for having the intelligence to put effective CRM into their marketing strategy, and hire the right customer-focused employees to take care of their customers.

Friday Blog Log

Welcome to another edition of our Friday Blog Log! Here are our Links of the Week for your enjoyment!

1) Charles Green's Trust Matters: In this Trusted Advisors post, Charles discusses how "issues of the commons show up first in government, later in business, because government by default gets the un-economic propositions. But the issues are increasingly not unique to government." He goes on to state just how trust issues impact business. And if you read our post yesterday, you know that this is an area that we are so very passionate, that every now and again, it causes us to rant. This is a great post, and the comments are very thought-provoking as well.

2) Bob Sullivan's InfoGrow: In Bob's post, he reviews The Association of National Advertisers Conference, where attendees were polled on topics around sales and marketing effectiveness. Another area in which we are passionate is using analytical intelligence in your direct marketing strategy. In this study, attendees polled think that utilizing an analytical approach, along with an effective creative strategy, will be the most important difference makers in 2008. Take a look at the other interesting nuggets that came out of this poll.

3) Paul Paetz AKA The Anti-Marketer: In Paul's most recent post, he discusses "a classic example of what Christensen labels "cramming" in his discussion of disruption theory." He goes on to define this concept: "Basically, incumbents often ignore disruptions until it is too late to do anything about it, and then make valiant attempts to "cram" the disruptive innovations into their existing offering to try to forestall or block the disruption." Paul gives some past examples of cramming that definitely resonated with me. The topic is very intriguing -- and it will be interesting to see if the "cram" that he refers to (the Wall Street Journal recently added a Digg widget to the end of their online articles) proves to be successful. Very interesting reading!

4) Jim Berkowitz's CRM Mastery E-Journal: Here Jim discusses the first of 7 Deadly Claims: Superior Customer Service. Yep, another area of our passion. His comments are dead on. He talks about how making this claim without backing it up by actually having superior customer service can, yes, in fact, be quite deadly. He also discusses how you create excellent customer service by actually wowing your customers, as opposed to stating it all over the place. OK -- I promise not to get started on another rant. We think you'll really enjoy this post, too. It is filled with insightful ideas on the topic, and he's got six more deadly claims to go (actually, 2 and 3 are already waiting for us)!

5) Jaren Angerbauer's post on the Digital Marketing Blog: In this post, Jaren discusses how to effectively manage old or inactive e-mail accounts. With the increasing importance of e-mail marketing in our multi-channel marketing strategy, this post provides some great insight for our consideration.

We hope you enjoy all of these posts as much as we did! And, TGIF, by the way -- don't drink too much eggnog on this Holiday weekend!

Happy Holidays!

More on CRM Success

This post could possibly be called a "no-brainer" post. By that, I mean that these CRM metrics seem so obvious to me that they should not even have to be articulated. However, we've all seen CRM systems fail, so perhaps it can't hurt to have another discussion on ways to make your CRM system a success. From yesterday's "DM News":

A CRM value system: Five metrics of success

The article fleshes out "five key values that define the critical path to success in any implementation." Here's a brief overview:

1. Strategic alignment: "A company must implement a CRM solution that is strategic and aligned with its goals."
2. User Involvement: "Solutions should be implemented so that they are accepted and embraced by all system users."
3. Improved Process Effectiveness: "CRM must automate business processes and formalize best practices that will improve the overall effectiveness of the company’s sales, marketing and customer support efforts in a way that aligns with the business’ goals."
4. Information Sharing: "Walls that exist between departments must be broken down. An effective flow of information between departments will improve relationships and a company’s ability to execute its strategies and achieve corporate goals."
5. Visibility: "Finally, provide visibility into key performance metrics through reports and dashboards."

I do agree with the above five key elements of a successful CRM implementation. And, I believe that companies are now considering these types of things prior to investing in CRM technology. We've come a long way from just a few years ago when it was more normal for companies to spend lots of money to implement systems that were never used.

I continue to believe in the premise of using technology to help us understand and develop deeper customer relationships. And, I look forward to seeing more and more success stories.

TGIF! Have a great weekend.

A Home Run for CRM

It seems like we're always harping on CRM failures. That's why it was so refreshing to read about how the Seattle Mariners are capitalizing on CRM methods and technology to improve each visit to Safeco Field.

This article from Destination CRM, "CRM Hits One Out of the Ballpark", talks about how Hilary Harding, the database marketing manager for the Mariners, has implemented a CRM system, with excellent success.

"According to Harding, the Mariners demonstrate perhaps the most comprehensive use of a CRM system of any team in Major League Baseball. "Every sports venue has to manage ticket sales, seat relocation, site maintenance, event planning, marketing, and concessions," she says. "We did all those things well before...but the difference is that, today, we do them better and much more efficiently."

Tracking customer transactions is enhancing the fan experience and it is also positively impacting the Mariners' bottom line. Their CRM system has allowed the Mariners to enhance and improve their direct marketing programs, through superior data mining and matching the right offer to the right fan. The article cites examples of such programs including the launch of their "All-Star Club" (an elite club where businesses can take advantage of great seats, food/drinks without committing to an entire season purchase).

From the article: "It's really amazing how the data can build up over time," says Harding, who helped spearhead the Mariners' three-month CRM implementation in 2000. "All of a sudden, seven years later, we have a goldmine of information about our fans, and it has really opened up the floodgates for cross-selling opportunities as well as putting together special programs and events tailored to our fans' interests."

But the main reason (in my opinion) why the Mariners are doing CRM right is because they have the right philosophy. CRM can never solely be about realizing efficiencies and making money. For it to work right, it simply has to be about improving the customer experience. And, for the Mariners, it's doing exactly that.

"Despite the obvious benefits of mining accurate customer data, Harding cautioned that CRM is much more than data collection. "CRM is truly about creating the desired customer experience," she said."

My final take on this success--if a ballpark can realize the benefits of CRM, businesses that collect customer information as a natural part of doing business (telecom, financial services, etc) have no excuses for not getting this done correctly.

Enjoy your Labor Day. Go watch a ballgame. Eat a hotdog. Have fun!