CRM is not a software package that can be installed and turn your staff into great sales people.
There is no turnkey solution that will fit a particular industry or segment within.
CRM is a culture or a philosophy and as such each organisation will have its own individual concept of what CRM means to them.
CRM is a strategy to attract and retain customers. It costs 5 times to acquire new customers as it does to keep hose you already have
For a CRM strategy to succeed there must be a commitment from the entire organisation, from the top C levels down to the front line staff to move from a process driven work flow to customer centric sales driven culture.
Of the CRM implementations that succeed over 40% had direct involvement from the CEO.
75% of successful CRM strategies were implemented across the entire company not compartmentalised into Call Centres etc …
If you have invested in a technology platform for CRM the next step is to invest in the steps to ensure your CRM strategy continues to grow and mature and your organisation develops and refines its new sales culture
CRM is not an install, train and done implementation it needs to grow and adapt and change as your organisation finds what works and what doesn’t.
It is worth repeating that no two CRM strategies will be the same, more importantly no CRM strategy will remain stagnant.
Senior management responsible for the customer facing /interacting departments must drive the CRM initiative with IT playing the advisory and supportive role.
Why are you implementing CRM
No one would go and spend considerable money on a new car and not have expectations. People buy a particular vehicle to satisfy particular goals whether those goals are fuel economy or a comfortable ride or great handling.
After a given period of time they are ether satisfied those goals have been met and/or exceeded or the purchaser maybe suffering buyer’s remorse.
This same standard must be applied to implementing a CRM culture
Firstly you must have specific outcomes that you wish to achieve. This outcomes need to be concrete and specific
“To have a holistic 360 degree view of the customer…”
“To maximise the marketing opportunities…”
These can’t be measured and will not help in determining if the CRM initiative is successful or determine what needs to be done to further mature the CRM philosophy. Moreover they mean little to the frontline staff who will be instrumental in success of CRM
Goals must be specific and able to be measured because you cannot monitor what you can’t measure.
In the initial stages the goals can be simple as
- All interactions to be logged in a single place available to all staff
- If it is not recorded in CRM it didn’t happen
- All correspondence to be generated from a single source in a similar style available to all staff
- All contacts recorded in a way to identify which customers are in contact with us the most and why.
- All Frontline staff must achieved 10 referrals per week
Once these goals have been achieved the next more sophisticated level of the CRM strategy can be applied.
Buy In
Management Buy In
In over 35% of companies implementing a CRM culture C Levels are hindering the success of the change due to their belief that CRM is useful but not critical to success of the organisation.
It is imperative that senior management take an active role in the culture change from a service orientated business to a sales focused company.
There will always be reluctance for staff to change the way they do their day to day activities. In this case from a process based work flow to a customer centric based philosophy. Management must constantly monitor this to ensure that all staff are following the new methodology and accept no excuses for returning to the old ways.
The changes required in the operations for a move from a service culture to a sales culture are far too great to be delegated to a single department such as IT or a Call Centre. Roles within the company will change as will the way success is measured.
When in the past a fast moving teller line may indicate success as would a balanced cash drawer. Now a KPI maybe the number or referrals made or successful Cross Sells achieved.
The directives for these changes must come from senior management
Staff Buy In
“What’s in it for me?”
Once you have decided on a CRM strategy and put the technology in place.
The hardest task now is to change the skills and attitudes of the entire team to support that goal. Some people will be opposed from Day 1 stating I am not a sales person it is not my job to sell.
A program need to put established to coach and monitor these people.
“Selling” is so often aligned with Insurance and Car salespeople when in fact the selling associated with CRM is all about ensuring that the customer is getting all the attention they need.
What CRM aims to do is to identify the needs of the customers and ensure those needs are meet.
It is imperative that you hire, train, compensate and retain the employees you have in key areas to work in alignment with the CRM strategy you are implementing
There needs to be an easily recognizable incentive for staff to undertake the use of another system which in not mandatory in the completion of their duties. This means that in the case of a teller in order to process a deposit or withdrawal the financial services platform must be used. But when the customer indicates their interest in a loan in the future there is nothing to force the teller to enter this into CRM.
Having mentioned previously that it is incumbent of senior management to ensure all staff are active in the use of any CRM technology. A far less arduous path is to ensure that any CRM technology offers distinct advantages to the front line staff. It is a well-known fact that a carrot is far more effective than a stick.
Typical advantages that should be conveyed to the staff are
- Empowerment
- Instead of not knowing who sent a letter to a member or who they spoke to last week, all that information is available
- Conversations can be picked up where they left off instead of having to ask the same questions again
- Productivity
- Data can be passed between applications without the need to rekey
- Activities are presented so proactive servicing can be done
With all that said no matter how big and juicy the carrot is management will still need to know where the stick is.
To be successful all staff must embrace CRM or they are not the staff you want to move forward with
During the initial stage of the CRM project the early successes must be celebrated. Consider incentives for the staff with the most contacts etc …
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time
CRM technology based solutions are in essence a large set of tools to help users accomplish tasks around customer needs. These tools can range from note taking to letter generation to sales tracking to proactive servicing.
The key point is that there will be a lot of tools and to deliver them all to the staff on day 1 would be so daunting that the chance of a successful CRM strategy would be remote.
The staff would be so overwhelmed and instead of seeing the benefits would only see the increase in workload
The best practice is to work with a CRM consultant and determine what your short, medium and long terms goals are.
At regular periods review the CRM strategy and the goals, work with the CRM consultant to re align the strategy to match the goals.
Day 1 Does not need to be 100% correct
With any other computer based system in a financial institution dealing with people’s money, all the controls need to be setup completely and correctly before any live operation can be considered. One mistake can cost thousands and create heartache for all.
CRM is unique. CRM is an evolving system that will change and grow with the level of sophistication of the CRM culture being implemented.
What is configured and installed on Day 1 maybe totally remodelled on Day 30, 60 or 120.
When you set the goals for the CRM strategy the controls of the CRM are set to help you reach those goals.
When the CRM is reviewed, controls are changed to either help attain other goals or if the current goals have not been met, altered to be more conducive to the targets at hand.
Best practices can be looked at to see how other organisations are using technology to implement their CRM strategy. But each company will have its own ideal on what a successful CRM strategy is.
Regular Servicing
We all get our vehicles serviced on a regular basis. If something isn’t running right or conditions have changed we instruct the garage to change the tyres or tune the engine to maximize performance.
CRM is exactly the same it can’t be left stagnant. At regular intervals the project group of senior management together with the CRM consultant need to analyse how the CRM strategy is working.
Has anything changed with the customer base?
Are Sales being lost at a particular stage in the cycle?
Branch Analysis Is the level of CRM participation the same through different branches?
CRM Guru/Champion
Effective change to a company’s culture must come from the top down.
To this effect it is essential that you have a CRM champion whose role it is to promote and monitor the change to the company’s culture.
This person will communicate with the CRM consultant to fully understand the capabilities of the software and how the goals can be achieved with the tools at hand.
This is the person who will act as the coach/mentor at the institution. They will constantly monitor the uptake of CRM and liaise with senior management to ensure the strategic goals are always in focus.
Closing the loops
If over 80 % of companies believe they are providing great customer service? Why do only 8% of customers believe they are getting good service?
CRM needs to be configured in such a way that all feedback is recorded, all Sales successful and unsuccessful and all interactions no matter from what channel and no matter how insignificant.
This is the only way that a complete picture of the customer base can be realized.
The organisation can ascertain what customers are interacting and where and when they are interacting.
The institution can delve into the conservations and see which staff are merely serving and which are proactively helping to fulfil the customer needs.
Consultancy vs Training
All the other systems that are in place in the organisation, Training consists of going through all the functions and showing staff how to use them
It is case of Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 and the process is complete
CRM is a totally different proposition which is why using a consultant who is an expert in not only the software component but also the CRM philosophy is the better option.
With CRM, the organisation has a set of goals and what needs to be established is how to achieve these goals with the tools available.
The CRM consultant can provide different options using different configurations of the software to accomplish this aims.
Processes need to change to fit CRM Strategy
Part of the consultancy will be to develop with the organisation exactly how each department/group will be committed to the CRM goals.
It cannot be a case of
“This is how we do it now Make CRM fit that process …”
The best practice will be
To be a success in our Teller Line
“We need to engage with our customers and offer proactive servicing”
To achieve this we change the process and the CRM
- Teller must greet each customer will a personal greeting
- CRM next product/service must be offered
- Notes recorded re the offer
- Notes recorded on the integration
- Ask the customer if they will like a call back in two weeks to discuss banking needs
This involves changing the process and customising the CRM to align with the goal