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Once that's in position, then start looking for IT to support it -- but not until then. We spoke earlier about putting your customer at the heart of your business. Part of that process involves developing a "relationship" with your customer. How your customers define that relationship will vary. As the CRM marketer, it is up to you to find out what's important to that customer.
At the end of the day, you want to be able to answer the question: As we are in a business of one sort or another, our goal as marketers, is to have CRM help us acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships to create a sustainable competitive advantage. Without a doubt, customer loyalty is a key driver of profitability. Creating customer loyalty must be an integral part of your organization's strategy - particularly in a time of industry consolidation.
Understanding customers' requirements is fundamental to business success. That's especially true today, when the flow of information and capital is incredibly fast. The most important basis for strategy development, however, is a comprehensive understanding of what drives customer loyalty and how strong those drivers are.
The key to understanding what drives your customers' loyalty lies in finding answers to the following questions:. The first step in answering these questions is to measure both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In working toward a thorough understanding of your customer, begin by looking at why your customers leave. Profitable CRM projects start by understanding customer needs.
You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.
Great service and customer recommendations alone are not sufficient for relationships. If you give poor service you won't have a relationship. And if you give great service, you might not have a relationship if you don't take care of that relationship, knowing your customers' preferences. It is essential to have a solid grasp of which factors in your business relationship with your customers are most important to them. Listen to your customers and then begin developing your CRM strategy because if you don't satisfy your customers, they won't come back.
Consider the checklist below. We believe that these strategies will enhance your likelihood of long-term CRM success. Get sponsorship from the top brass.
If management doesn't believe in the new approach, why should the employees? Implementing CRM requires working across organizational boundaries and breaking down long-term siloed behaviors and attitudes. You can't do that by yourself! Many times the difference between a successful CRM strategy and a huge waste of money is backing from the executive suite. Prior to developing your CRM strategy or selecting your CRM software, form a CRM team with representatives from each department to make sure colleagues' needs and concerns are addressed.
Too often companies neglect to include the correct stakeholders, and the initiative fails to meet the needs of those tied to its results. Pick your CRM team wisely - everyone will need to own the customer experience.
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Remember in forming the team, consider people, process, and technology as all will be affected. Define your business objectives?
Your CRM strategy must be designed with your business objectives and customer requirements in mind. Identify who your customer is. Is there agreement on definition of "customer? Have consensus on this and other key definitions. Can you identify your customers across multiple touch points retail, call center, mail, catalog, web and e-mail? According to the U. Census Bureau, there are roughly 75 million baby boomers born between and , more than 49 million gen Xers born between and , more than 72 million gen Yers born between and , and 40 million millennials born between and now.
Identify your customer segments - your high-value and high potential customers. Know who you want to serve. Understand what that customer wants? What is the customer worth and what is their potential worth? Agree on desired customer behaviors - build consensus on how you want customers to behave differently and what the customer experience will be Design a different customer experience for each customer segment. Define customer experience goals.
Articulate the customer experience. How should your experience feel? Identify important business interactions e. Identify interactions that are important to the customer - high involvement and high perceived importance.
How are these interactions currently handled by your company? Are there opportunities for improvement? Focus on hot spots: Identify the areas that require your greatest focus and will provide the greatest potential return. Many companies don't have a good connection with customers. That's why firms should consider developing a systematic approach for incorporating the needs of customers into the design of customer experiences - ideally led by a senior officer who will act as the voice of the customer.
The key to developing a successful new customer experience is to develop a response to a customer need that is unique, compelling, and adoptable. A response so attractive that customers are willing to change long-standing, often deeply ingrained behavior. Have an integrated customer strategy. Today interactive marketing is a fragmented discipline in which marketers work with many different vendors to develop and execute marketing programs.
Recognize that disparate databases of customer information prevent companies from gaining a holistic view of the customer throughout the organization. Break down those silos. Line of business managers are often employing tactics that address products and not customers. That is because they are still looking at accounts on file, rather than at customer relationships e. Define and map data requirements - You'll need to know what customer data is necessary and from what system it will originate.
See your customer through the same lens. A firm understanding of the level of customer data - account or household level - is critical. Do you plan to append external data? If so, what types: Various departments in your organization may see your customer quite differently from another. Using one integrated set of analytical data throughout the company can help executives to make key decisions about how much to invest in a particular customer.
Dialogue with your customers. Have a clear and realistic picture of who you are in the matter of serving your customer. What do you value? What are you really selling them are you reliable? Are you the most creative? It's not just a list of products, you need to focus on what you're trying to be to your customers. Make sure individuals are recognized at all contact points.
Have you truly defined your privacy policy? Understand your company's boundaries for using data about your customers.
And ask customers how they want to interact with your company. Remind customers of promises kept and take responsibility for promises unfulfilled. Respond quickly to customer queries. Whether they send an email or leave a message, or come to the service counter, customers' time is precious. Customers hate to feel like the sales agent is reading to them from a script.
Learn your customers' personal needs and profiles and target your service to each individual. It will make them feel important and that you value the relationship. In order to do this effectively, you need to staff and empower your talent pool appropriately to deliver on the customer experience. To do this effectively, focus on people, process and tools.
Create customer engagement programs acquisition, growth and retention. Customer engagement is a process, not an event. Too often retention is treated as a project, rather than a guiding principle. Move your customers through the lifecycle Collect Data - collect and use information from each customer interaction to make your chosen customers more valuable to your enterprise.
Can you identify behaviors, attitudes, needs, propensities or intentions? Plan to clean your data regularly. Troubleshoot with test customers before making your services generally available. Experiment with your Marketing. Monitor the customer experience. Keep your eye on the prize. Measure the results and soothe the inevitable hiccups.
Walk a mile in your customers' shoes. Don't rely on complaints from customers about how horrific it is to do business with you. Put yourself in their shoes by going through the typical customer experience. It is amazing how many companies institute processes and half heartedly mystery shop themselves. Once you suffer through what you dish out, you'll be shocked into a more customer-centric mindset.
Having customers enter their personal information on a Web site versus providing it to an agent over the phone reduces the potential for human error. Also, customers may feel uncomfortable revealing personal data like medical and financial information to another person. Give front line staff the ability to please the customer. Too often they can't make timely decisions nor can they present relevant offers - effectively facilitating customer dissatisfaction and defection. When buying any new CRM system, keep it simple. Don't buy what you don't need. The fewer bells and whistles, the less time and money you'll need to devote to training.
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