CRM - Sustaining results in a challenging environment.

Updated: August 29, 2012

Pillars of Adoption

 

Communication - Keep everyone informed of the...

Analysis - Establish measurable goals and communicate progress through all levels of the organization.

Governance - It's ever more important for companies to keep their eye on the prize - once strategic goals are established, steering commities should evaluate performance often. Identify if org changes have impacted results.

 

Financial pressures are facilitating organizational and functional changes in the way companies do business. More companies are adopting web tools to communicate with their customers, as call center staffs are 'optimized'. Multi-million dollar systems are being evaluated for cost effectiveness and either replaced or reduced in scope.

How do you maintain consistently effective CRM practices in this environment? By keeping your head down, and focusing on the customer's needs. When companies loose sight of the fact that a happy customer is a profitable customer, they tend to cut corners that impact the customer experience. Longer wait times, incorrect information, products out of stock, restricted loyalty rewards.

Many companies strategy is to discount in lieu of CRM programs, which may be a viable play in some sectors. For service intensive industries, such as financial services, media, telecom, and manufacturing, that may the best approach. Customers may find the same price somewhere else, but will never get the same experience from a well-informed service or sales rep.