CRM: The art of staying one step ahead of customers

I write this not as the person I am, but rather as the packets of information I represent and have been treated as over the past 24 hours.

While we`re on the topic of banking, another CRM initiative I`d like to see is predictive product offerings.

Basheera Khan, Journalist, ITWeb

A packet headed as "Basheera Khan" indexed and cross-referenced with other packets headed "journalist", "vegetarian", and "non-smoker", among others. A packet that originated out of Johannesburg, was routed through Heathrow and reached its final destination of Berlin without any of the cross-references going amiss.

This is the kind of treatment anyone might expect from the airline with which they choose to travel. Granted, some airlines have elevated the art of customer relationship management (CRM) beyond the levels of their competitors, but recognising several basic pieces of information key to the individuality of each passenger is an industry standard.

And yes, the airline industry has had decades in which to get it right through trial and error. One wonders then, why other industries aiming at improved levels of CRM, such as the e-tailing crowd, don`t take a leaf from the airlines` collective book.

One aspect of CRM that lacks a great deal of finesse in this sphere is most certainly personalisation of the product, to provide the customer with a sense of being treated as an individual - regardless of the fact that they may represent one of a database of thousands.

While most local e-tailers have no problem remembering a return shopper and presenting them with products or offerings customised by season or preference, some are stumbling along in the grey twilight of customer satisfaction, and still others are bumbling along in pitch black darkness, seemingly unaware of how ineffective their CRM initiatives are - especially when it comes to that key communication channel, the opt-in newsletter.

Examples of all of the above spring readily to mind. NetFlorist is one of the least awry. Its only problem is that newsletters address customers by their surname. It is reminiscent of military life, or worse, one`s school days.

On the opposite end of the scale, one finds the Sony PlayStation newsletter, which is slightly more painful. It is graphics-heavy and an abomination on the eyes... and that`s just for starters. Attempts at unsubscribing from this newsletter have thus far been impossible. The unsub instruction is almost ridiculously complicated; one has to visit the Web site, log in, find one`s personal settings and then manually opt out of the newsletter subscription.

I haven`t managed that yet; each time I try, I`m taken to the original (blank) registration page, at which point I lose both temper and patience and vow to do it another day.

In the middle, we find my banking institution, Standard Bank. I normally don`t have a problem with these newsletters, but recently, I received notification via e-mail of a new look Internet banking site. The mailshot must have missed a crucial step, because the subject header, which normally addresses each recipient by first name, merely had a blank space instead. Quite disconcerting to see a mail subject: ", do we have a surprise for you!"

While we`re on the topic of banking, another CRM initiative I`d like to see is predictive product offerings. Considering the fastidiousness with which each transaction is logged, and considering I`ve purchased forex fairly regularly over the past 12 months, I`d love to have my bank keep me updated with its forex rates, for starters. But it doesn`t, and since it`s easier to go through a third-party, that`s what I do.

And that is just the type of consumer behaviour that CRM initiatives are meant to deter. CRM is about knowing what your customers want in time to provide it - before they decide to take your potential revenue to someone else.