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Are you
preparing to waste more money on CRM technology?
Why spend money on
systems that seldom deliver. Why do most CRM systems
(around 70%) fail to deliver. Why do companies believe
that the use of cold, impersonal technology will build
better warm-blooded relationships?
Just think for a
moment ... who are you most loyal to and why? Is it Your bank,
your hairdresser? Your local grocery store? Your doctor?,
Your mechanic? Your local paper man.
Customer Loyalty comes
from the depth of the relationship. Not any relationship, a special one
where you can see the colour of their eyes, the breadth of
their smile, and hear their tone of caring and interest.
You feel something! Something very powerful a computer
system cannot provide.
The business relationship
has altered over the last 30 to 40 years, from - "Take it or
leave it, I'm the only supplier", to one where the customer
has a tremendous range of choice and possibilities. The
power balance has shifted from Supplier to Buyer.
Unless you are customer
centric, starting right from your people, it a waste of time
and money to install "systems" to improve customer
information and service
levels. Systems are important as a foundation.
But without the Customer Service Attitude of Can-Do-
Like-to- Love-to, systems become worthless.
Having fair
systems and low customer service attitudes is possibly the
current norm, but this needs to be addressed form the Human
Element as well as the system Customer
centricity is about all aspects of your business becoming
involved, focussed and committed to excellence in Customer
Engagement and service.
What's the use
of a sales/service person from heaven and a service/
support/ accounts person from hell? One builds the
customer service relationship whilst the other destroys the
customer experience and relationship.
Extensive
research (Anderson consulting) reveals that the human
element is still the best and most rewarding aspect to
address when driving customer-centric initiatives. the
key findings indicate that a significant improvement in
financial performance can be gained by improving performance
in specific capabilities:
The Top Five
Customer Service Capabilities that have the greatest impact
on Financial results are:
-
Enhanced
Customer Service;
-
Motivating and
rewarding people;
-
Turning customer
information into insight;
-
Attracting and
retaining people;
-
Building selling
and service skills;
Looking Through
the Customer's Lens the move is now moving towards
Customer-Managed Relationships. The move is away from the
old way of inside-out to a more receptive and customer
caring outside-in perspective.
The core
business strategy of success today is in identifying,
attracting, engaging and retaining a company's most valuable
customers through a consistently individualised,
differentiated, and wherever possible, personalized service
and experience.
The most
profitable and effective customer centric organisations will
be the companies that balance and leverage both its
technology and its people.
The real challenge is to build authentic customer
relationships, even though they are supported/guided by
technology. It is well documented that the direct costs of
gaining a new customer are much greater (X5) than the costs
of retaining a current profitable one. Engaging
Customer service is often the single most important factor
in customer retention.
As business
becomes more commoditised, every organisation will be
challenged to create valuable differentiation and customer
experiences to ensure customer engagement and lifetime
retention.
A large part of
success is dependent primarily upon the human element. Staff
states, attitudes and competencies in the following areas go
a long way to ensuring positive results:
Many of these are
"soft" areas that so many companies shy away from. No longer can
companies afford to put square pegs in round holes with bad
attitudes and no social skills. A bad people fit can wreck
havoc with customer engagement levels and loyalty factors.
To date, I have
not come across many organisations who are fully maximising
their Human Element. The long-term winners will be the
leaders who invest as much money on their people as they do
for their cars, PABX's, Computer networks, computers and all
technology.
You service
your vehicles and technology...It's time to service and
upgrade your people. People is where the power is.
Engage your staff.
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