As the going gets tough, the tough gets going.In the today’s open and highly competitive
market which has been stifled even further by the constant global economical
tidal waves and local political instabilities, businesses are looking for ways
to survive, let alone edge out the next competitor.As costs continue to rise, cost-cutting can
only take these businesses so far, hence, managements are turning their
attention to the next re-buzz in the market, CRM or Customer
Relationship Management.This is not a
new buzz in the market place, in fact, the CRM buzz has been around overseas
for many years but today, there is a new CRM buzz.
CRM in many ways has transformed itself to be much more
feasible for the SME’s of the world.Service
providers and IT consultancy houses have had to adapt their implementation
approaches to become much more pragmatic and to realize benefits much quicker
for their clients.Traditionally, CRM
was targeted only for large enterprises with large volumes of customer transactions
that could justify the large investments in CRM platform which could take over
12 months to implement.In the end,
alarming statistics can be cited for rate of failures of these CRM
implementations.
‘The Butler Group, for example, cited a 70 percent failure rate
for CRM, while other reports from the Gartner Group and the Meta Group have
suggested failure rates of 55 to 70 percent.In yet another example, a Merrill Lynch survey of chief information
officers at large companies reported that 45 percent of those surveyed were not
satisfied with CRM installations.’
These failures are
simply due to the fact that the market is a dynamic ecosystem that will not
allow for such long implementation cycle and traditionally, relatively rigid
CRM platforms.
Today, technological advancement in software designs
together with a much thorough understanding of business requirements have allowed
CRM platforms to be much more practical, quicker to implement and flexible
enough to adapt to changing needs quicker with less efforts.It is found that an implementation of a CRM
platform longer than 4 to 6 months would diminish the potential of the expected
value significantly especially in an SME environment where the market and competitors
are much more dynamic.In this ecosystem,
relatively small changes have a much more significant and magnified effects on
the businesses.Therefore, it is more
important than ever for SME’s looking to get into the CRM game, to learn to adopt
and to adapt CRM quickly in order to most effectively maintain and grow its
highest valued customers while efficiently acquiring new strategic ones, just
to survive.
The problem most often seen with SMEs’ today is that
managers and staff at these organizations have only high level and often time
incomplete concepts of CRM and most cases limited to only certain areas of the
business e.g. marketing, or sales or just customer service.This is a crucial point in CRM as customers
need to be managed over the entire customer life cycle consistently and effectively.Therefore, CRM needs to be understood as an
integrated platform that can be leveraged across the entire organization from
front office all the way to the back office where all the stages of the
customer life cycle are managed.
Just as one would not take a trip without a plan, a map
and/or a guide, CRM is a journey not to be taken without good planning and
preparation.
How should an SME’s with limited resources and business
issues that are just as complex as large multinationals go about taking on CRM?Are there right steps in approaching CRM?
When considering CRM, the following check list should be use
as a guide for CRM managers and project sponsors:
1.Ensure that your organization has a good
understanding of the capabilities and scope of CRM, how it can help your
organization in all areas from PR/Marketing to Sales to Service to back office.
2.Ensure that your business processes are well
defined and understood within your organization in order to be able to
elaborate where customer interactions can have the most impact on your costs
and revenue opportunities.
3.Assess and define a well planned CRM strategy
which could include implementation road map and process improvement plans to
ensure that you achieve maximum benefits as quickly as possible in areas that
have most impacts to your business first.This will ensure optimization of your investments through value driven
approach.
4.Work your plan and implement your strategy as
quickly as possible but more importantly, in smaller steps.
5.Select the right CRM technology for your
organization, one that will easily change and adapt with your organization as
you grow.And do NOT take on a CRM
initiative that is more than 4-6 months at a time, optimally 3-4 months.Remember, CRM is a journey that thrives on
momentums of successes, not a one shot, “Big Bang” and your CRM universe is
created.
6.Hire outside experts or “a guide” for your CRM
journey if you do not have or cannot afford to have anyone on your line
functions to dedicate sufficient time to this initiative.As in all strategic initiatives, CRM requires
your full attention and careful management in order to reap its full benefits.
In conclusion, CRM can be for everyone especially SMEs’ of
the world but CRM is a journey not to be taken lightly or without a solid
strategy and plan of execution that is right for your organization and market
situations.Where you are in your
organizational and ICT maturity plays a major role in how you should plan for
your CRM journey.The few steps above
will help guide a fruitful journey but as top management of your organization,
you must be able to take an accurate count of your internal capabilities and
level of readiness before undertaking any strategic initiative.
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