Firms are continually seeking new ways to forge close relationships with their most valuable customers. With recent advances in networking and database management, firms have both the motivation and the means for improving their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies. This book focuses on the actuality of implementing CRM. It is about the organization's ability to provide a seamless and personalized experience to each customer rather than a transactional or product-focused approach where the future of the relationship is not an over-riding consideration. This book connects CRM systems implementation with organizational change for the first time. It looks into the factors that distinguish firms which connect with their customers and gain customer loyalty with firms that are not as successful. It also describes the micro-processes that occur on a daily basis in a company and all the small decisions managers and employees take during the implementation of change and the creation of knowledge. Finnegan and Willcocks note that CRM implementation is not the straightforward process that many of the trade publications would have us believe. They state the failure rate of large CRM projects may be as high at 70%. Through the lens of two detailed case studies, the authors investigate why CRM is no panacea.
In today's competitive business environment, most companies realize that the better they can manage their customer relationships, the more successful they will become. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software systems are key tools for companies to manage the customer-facing processes of their businesses. However, many companies have resisted implementing this most critical customer-oriented application due in large part to the lack of a single-point resource on implementing a CRM system. This book attempts to fill that gap. Implementing SAP® CRM will help technologists and managers come to grips with the vision, concept, and technology of CRM. It begins by laying out the groundwork for understanding CRM. It explains the concept and context of CRM and the tangible business benefits of CRM adoption. Demonstrating a professional approach to the evaluation and selection of SAP, it details the critical success factors (CSFs), patterns, and anti-patterns of a successful SAP CRM implementation. CRM implementations can add significant benefit to the company’s bottom line only if the company first transforms itself into a customer-centric and customer-responsive enterprise. This book explains what it means to be a customer-centric and responsive enterprise, and provides a framework for business operations based on customer relationships, rather than the traditional four Ps (product, positioning, price, promotion). It further spells out business process reengineering (BPR) strategies to configure internal business processes and operations with SAP CRM to improve customer-facing strategies, services, and relationships.
This book provides clarity and guidance on effective strategy, implementation and management of CRM. It explores both the conceptual and cultural context of CRM initiatives along with the particulars of CRM system implementation and management. In order to provide this clarity, it surveyed the existing academic publications surrounding CRM, sales force automation, and related topics within information systems literature. The book supplements this research with insights from CRM experts to provide a robust picture of the CRM landscape and how to improve it no matter what role you play within your organization. This book is for everyone who wants to achieve CRM success.
CRM first entered the business vocabulary in the early 90’s; initially as a systems driven technical solution. It has since escalated in importance as system providers increased their market penetration of the business market and, in parallel, CRM’s strategic importance gained more traction as it was recognized that CRM was, at its heart, a business model in the pursuit of sustainable profit. This was accentuated by the academic community stepping up their interest in the subject in the early 2000’s. Today, it is a universal business topic which has been re-engineered by the online shopping revolution in which the customer is firmly placed at the center of the business. The current reality, however, is that, for the vast majority of businesses, CRM has not been adopted as a business philosophy and practicing business model. It has not been fully understood and therefore fully embraced and properly implemented. The author addresses this head-on by stripping CRM down into its component parts by delving into and explaining the role and relevance of the C, R, and M in CRM. This is a practical guide but set within a strategic framework. The outage is clear actionable insights and how to convert them into delivery. It is written in an easily digestible, non-jargon style, with case studies to demonstrate how CRM works. This book can be immediately used as the primary practical reference to guide the development and implementation of a CRM strategy.
This handbook provides a detailed description and analysis of the concepts, processes, and technologies used in the development and implementation of an effective customer relationship (CRM) strategy. It takes readers through the evolution of CRM- from its early beginning to today's sophisticated data warehouse-based systems. Illustrations enhance the textual presentation. Case studies provide insight and lessons-to-be-learned and describe the benefits of successful CRM implementations. The chapter on privacy issues covers the processes companies use to ensure the privacy of their customer data, the last chapter explores the benefits of a well-conceived CRM strategy.
CRM Fundamentals is a critical and comprehensive resource for executives and project leaders tasked with managing customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. It provides an introduction to CRM and how it delivers value to organizations, and describes the process to build and execute a CRM roadmap successfully—including identifying goals, lining up the right people, planning projects, choosing software packages and consultants, managing the initial CRM implementation, and maintaining and evolving the program over time. Written by senior CRM consultants, CRM Fundamentals includes plenty of detailed, useful advice to help you get the most value from your CRM investments and to avoid common pitfalls associated with CRM.
Preface Corporations that achieve high customer retention and high customer profitability aim for: The right product (or service), to the right customer, at the right price, at the right time, through the right channel, to satisfy the customer's need or desire. Information Technology—in the form of sophisticated databases fed by electronic commerce, point-of-sale devices, ATMs, and other customer touch points—is changing the roles of marketing and managing customers. Information and knowledge bases abound and are being leveraged to drive new profitability and manage changing relationships with customers. The creation of knowledge bases, sometimes called data warehouses or Info-Structures, provides profitable opportunities for business managers to define and analyze their customers' behavior to develop and better manage short- and long-term relationships. Relationship Technology will become the new norm for the use of information and customer knowledge bases to forge more meaningful relationships. This will be accomplished through advanced technology, processes centered on the customers and channels, as well as methodologies and software combined to affect the behaviors of organizations (internally) and their customers/channels (externally). We are quickly moving from Information Technology to Relationship Technology. The positive effect will be astounding and highly profitable for those that also foster CRM. At the turn of the century, merchants and bankers knew their customers; they lived in the same neighborhoods and understood the individual shopping and banking needs of each of their customers. They practiced the purest form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With mass merchandising and franchising, customer relationships became distant. As the new millennium begins, companies are beginning to leverage IT to return to the CRM principles of the neighborhood store and bank. The customer should be the primary focus for most organizations. Yet customer information in a form suitable for marketing or management purposes either is not available, or becomes available long after a market opportunity passes, therefore CRM opportunities are lost. Understanding customers today is accomplished by maintaining and acting on historical and very detailed data, obtained from numerous computing and point-of-contact devices. The data is merged, enriched, and transformed into meaningful information in a specialized database. In a world of powerful computers, personal software applications, and easy-to-use analytical end-user software tools, managers have the power to segment and directly address marketing opportunities through well managed processes and marketing strategies. This book is written for business executives and managers interested in gaining advantage by using advanced customer information and marketing process techniques. Managers charged with managing and enhancing relationships with their customers will find this book a profitable guide for many years. Many of today's managers are also charged with cutting the cost of sales to increase profitability. All managers need to identify and focus on those customers who are the most profitable, while, possibly, withdrawing from supporting customers who are unprofitable. The goal of this book is to help you: identify actions to categorize and address your customers much more effectively through the use of information and technology, define the benefits of knowing customers more intimately, and show how you can use information to increase turnover/revenues, satisfaction, and profitability. The level of detailed information that companies can build about a single customer now enables them to market through knowledge-based relationships. By defining processes and providing activities, this book will accelerate your CRM "learning curve," and provide an effective framework that will enable your organization to tap into the best practices and experiences of CRM-driven companies (in Chapter 14). In Chapter 6, you will have the opportunity to learn how to (in less than 100 days) start or advance, your customer database or data warehouse environment. This book also provides a wider managerial perspective on the implications of obtaining better information about the whole business. The customer-centric knowledge-based info-structure changes the way that companies do business, and it is likely to alter the structure of the organization, the way it is staffed, and, even, how its management and employees behave. Organizational changes affect the way the marketing department works and the way that it is perceived within the organization. Effective communications with prospects, customers, alliance partners, competitors, the media, and through individualized feedback mechanisms creates a whole new image for marketing and new opportunities for marketing successes. Chapter 14 provides examples of companies that have transformed their marketing principles into CRM practices and are engaging more and more customers in long-term satisfaction and higher per-customer profitability. In the title of this book and throughout its pages I have used the phrase "Relationship Technologies" to describe the increasingly sophisticated data warehousing and business intelligence technologies that are helping companies create lasting customer relationships, therefore improving business performance. I want to acknowledge that this phrase was created and protected by NCR Corporation and I use this trademark throughout this book with the company's permission. Special thanks and credit for developing the Relationship Technologies concept goes to Dr. Stephen Emmott of NCR's acclaimed Knowledge Lab in London. As time marches on, there is an ever-increasing velocity with which we communicate, interact, position, and involve our selves and our customers in relationships. To increase your Return on Investment (ROI), the right information and relationship technologies are critical for effective Customer Relationship Management. It is now possible to: know who your customers are and who your best customers are stimulate what they buy or know what they won't buy time when and how they buy learn customers' preferences and make them loyal customers define characteristics that make up a great/profitable customer model channels are best to address a customer's needs predict what they may or will buy in the future keep your best customers for many years This book features many companies using CRM, decision-support, marketing databases, and data-warehousing techniques to achieve a positive ROI, using customer-centric knowledge-bases. Success begins with understanding the scope and processes involved in true CRM and then initiating appropriate actions to create and move forward into the future. Walking the talk differentiates the perennial ongoing winners. Reinvestment in success generates growth and opportunity. Success is in our ability to learn from the past, adopt new ideas and actions in the present, and to challenge the future. Respectfully, Ronald S. Swift Dallas, Texas June 2000
This book presents an extensive discussion of the strategic and tactical aspects of customer relationship management as we know it today. It helps readers obtain a comprehensive grasp of CRM strategy, concepts and tools and provides all the necessary steps in managing profitable customer relationships. Throughout, the book stresses a clear understanding of economic customer value as the guiding concept for marketing decisions. Exhaustive case studies, mini cases and real-world illustrations under the title “CRM at Work” all ensure that the material is both highly accessible and applicable, and help to address key managerial issues, stimulate thinking, and encourage problem solving. The book is a comprehensive and up-to-date learning companion for advanced undergraduate students, master's degree students, and executives who want a detailed and conceptually sound insight into the field of CRM. The new edition provides an updated perspective on the latest research results and incorporates the impact of the digital transformation on the CRM domain.
Save time, save money, and grow your business with more effective CRM CRM For Dummies is the small business leader's guide to managing customer interactions. Customer relationship management is a critical part of any business, and it encompasses everything from business strategy and HR to sales, marketing, events, and more. Solutions exist for businesses of any size, but how do you know which one is right for you? What features do you need? Do you have the people and processes in place to get the most out of whichever one you choose? This book is designed to help business leaders better understand effective CRM and identify the right solution for their business—but it's about much more than software; effective CRM requires appropriate team structures, intradepartmental collaboration, and process efficiency. Packed with tactics and strategies that will save your company thousands of dollars and man-hours, these chapters answer the most pressing questions that will make the biggest impact on your sales. Building relationships with current and future customers is the critical point of business. This book helps you bring sales, marketing, and operations together to work toward that common goal, and shows you the tools and techniques that make your efforts more effective. Define your market segments, buyer personas, and voice Build an effective internal structure, and choose the right CRM solution Optimize leads and conduct effective email marketing Streamline processes, automate where possible, and employ analytics Your customers are the lifeblood of your company; you need to reach them, engage them, and retain them—without wasting precious time or money. CRM For Dummies gets you up to speed on the latest, most effective CRM tools and techniques to help your business succeed.
