What makes CRM projects successful?

When we talk about "customer perspective", we primarily address the necessary change in perspective that market-oriented companies should adopt. The perspective shifts from an "inside-out" to an "outside-in" view - we look at ourselves and our market activities as if we were external stakeholders.

We put ourselves in the shoes of our target group from both a product and process perspective and address them accordingly. By doing so, we learn to understand our customers - but also "the customers of our customers" - and align our entire thinking and actions with them.

It is important to note that this customer-centric approach is relevant for every industry - from artisanal businesses to financial service providers, telecommunications providers, and public administration bodies such as energy suppliers or authorities. It is important to remember that this aspect is relevant in B2C and B2B contexts.

Conducting focus group workshops that test new products and processes in real-life situations before their market launch will repeatedly reveal useful feedback that can assess the actual "customer experience" and regularly generate inputs for its optimization. The involvement of relevant customers and customer groups, the early execution of these surveys, and an unbiased approach are prerequisites. The results should not be viewed as a tool for error detection ("Who suggested that again?"), but instead as a source of improvement that should be actively sought and utilized.

Last but not least, valuable insights can also be gained from the accumulation of certain support requests or poor customer ratings. Why not simply ask the customers? Do not hesitate to reach out to them directly, either in a formalized format, such as through regularly used standardized questionnaires, or event-based during actual customer events, such as complaints, performance inquiries, or service cases. Or you can organize this in an informal way through regularly scheduled customer meetings to learn about their satisfaction, needs, and feelings and to use this information company-wide to optimize customer management.

In many CRM projects, internal barriers are considered more serious in terms of competitive impediments than the competition activities encountered in the market. Boundaries between marketing and sales, sales and customer service, or at a higher level between marketing and research and development (R&D) are often identified as the cause of ineffective cross-selling or even prevention of it. The reasons for this are cited as friction losses due to lack of or inadequate communication, and conflicts that occur covertly or openly when it comes to resource allocation or assignment of success in market activities.

The absence of cross-functional and cross-level objectives is equally significant and needs to be eliminated (in many cases even combated). Only by creating an overarching goal structure that ensures common company goals both at the operational and strategic levels, with a particular focus on customer management, can a consistent alignment with customer segment- or market-specific requirements and expectations be achieved.

A shared understanding among employees and decision-makers must be established by a correspondingly structured coordination and definition process. This applies to the relevant content and the actions and behavioral principles derived from them.

Furthermore, the customer functions of acquisition (acquiring new customers), development (expanding customer relationships through cross-selling and upselling, and extending contractual obligations), and retention (customer service, ongoing customer support), create increased customer satisfaction and lead to solid customer loyalty, should also be considered. As they can repeatedly form an important basis for further operational steps in conjunction with the corresponding CRM data, CRM users should have knowledge of the internal availability of relevant ERP data (or data from similar operational applications).

For every company, the prerequisite is to clarify the question of "Who owns the customer?" In whose responsibility within the organization lies the concrete definition of relevant target customer segments, and which organizational unit or role is responsible for providing the required products and services within the company.

At the same time, a uniform understanding of the "key customers" relevant to the entire company must be created across all areas and hierarchy levels. These must be equipped with special conditions (such as price lists, discounts, and warranty services) and specifically designed customer processes (service levels, response times, and goodwill policies). This should apply to sales processes (such as annual talks, account planning, and prioritized access to product innovations), but must also be clearly identifiable in the design of all service and support processes of the company. Thus, the true significance of "Key Account Management" receives the importance it should have in any customer-oriented organization.

Author

Dr. Martin Stadelmann

Dr. Martin Stadelmann is the Head of Business Consulting at Qualysoft GmbH in Switzerland. For over 20 years, he has been accompanying companies from all industries on their way toward a holistic CRM approach. He is a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen and co-founder of the Executive Program "Master of Advanced Studies in CRM" at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).