The success factors of a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative are not dissimilar from those that apply to any organisational transformation.
From the outset, plan your CRM programme to achieve tangible and measurable results.
Once you have established that becoming customer-centric is vital to the ongoing success of your organisation, paying attention to some of the following points may avoid experiencing unnecessary pain later in the process.
Make sure your top management and executives understand that "this CRM thing" means RADICAL change. Don`t sell it to them as an easy win; this is a long- term programme. Make it clear that it is also a strategic initiative - not an IT initiative.
Ensure that the key players in the organisation understand both the challenges and the benefits of CRM.
Involve your staff. Ask them, train them, and empower them to put the customer first. But also make sure they understand WHY they need to change. Explain the benefits to them, and to the organisation, of new processes, technologies and attitudes.
An employee that doesn`t understand the benefits of a single view of the customer is unlikely to spend that extra time putting valuable information into your customer knowledge-base.
Establishing goals
Start with the end in mind - set clear objectives, and be sure that you can measure them. From the outset, plan your CRM programme to achieve tangible and measurable results.
Ask your customers what they need. An obvious statement - but often overlooked as a vital input into the CRM strategy. An organisation that becomes "customer-centric" by looking only internally will spend a lot of time and money aligning processes to its own, often less than optimally informed perceptions of what its customers want.
Use your data - you have more customer knowledge residing in the company than you think. Find out how you can use this information to build profiles and identify customers` buying trends.
Find some quick wins. CRM is a long-term, sometimes painful process of change. Find a few areas that you can improve in the short-term. This will inspire your project team and reiterate your decision to embark on this journey.
Focus on the solution - not just the technology. Establish best practices and use these to optimise what the technology can deliver.
Choose the right partner. The shortage of skills and the fast pace of technology means that selecting the right partner to implement and support your CRM initiative is vital.
The broadest guideline to keep in mind is to begin with what the customer perceives as value, and then change your entire organisation to deliver that value.
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