South African companies looking to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy are focusing too much initially on the technology behind it rather than paying attention to people and processes.
So says Francois Coetzee, CRM Product Research Manager at Rubico, the South African developer of components-based enterprise business applications, which are now being marketed globally.
"You can`t decide the best tool for the job before you`ve understood precisely what CRM is all about and how and where your company can benefit from it. In implementing CRM the focus has to be on people and process first and then on technology otherwise it is easy to be overwhelmed by the wealth and diversity of solutions out there," he says.
Only once managers understand the CRM concept can a suitable approach to be taken. Different organisations cater for different market niches and target segments, so it is evident that the same relationship paradigm cannot be used across the board.
"The focus needs to be on what will be valuable to your customer, the service they expect and what will bring them back for their lifetime involvement in your products and services," adds Coetzee.
On the people side, he urges companies to get buy-in from the top executives right through to the coalface employee. It is a pre-requisite that once the specific customer relationship paradigm is defined it has to be agreed upon across all levels of the organisation. In order to make consistent decisions across the organisation extensive education into CRM principles and practices will be necessary.
It might be necessary to recruit CRM specialists or involve third party specialists and change agents to facilitate spreading the message, throughout the organisation. This will include identifying key resources inside the company who can become the CRM champions and change agents, to which critical skills and knowledge can be transferred.
The CRM goals should include the streamlining of organisational processes to be aligned with a true customer centric vision. This introspective and critical review needs to focus beyond slogans of "The Customer is King", or "Our Customers are Number One!" In some companies this may involve large scale process re-engineering to refocus the organisation.
Once the people and process issues have been resolved, a key technology consideration is the platform on which to base the CRM solution.
"Flexibility, such as that delivered by components-based solutions, is a must so that changes can be accommodated easily and inexpensively. CRM is a business philosophy and needs to be started like an unknown journey. Learn first, understand it well and only then create your solution in the knowledge that the customer relationship needs it addresses today will inevitably change tomorrow. That `s the nature of business today.
"Prepare well and your investment in software tools and technology might just be your organisation`s lifesaver keeping it at the competitive edge while others are bogged down with inflexible solutions that cannot adapt easily to changing needs," he concludes.
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