by tz4rgp | Sep 27, 2012 | Blog |
I have spent the last week talking about CRM and SCRM to three retail companies. They cover different, although overlapping ranges and are of very different organizational maturity states. They are also on different positions on both, the CRM and SCRM scales. What they have in common are a desire to have a 360 degree on their customers and the opinion that it is important to excel on the service side. They also are looking for or running tier one enterprise systems with Oracle/Siebel and SAP. None of the three companies is looking at their main software vendors when it comes to “social software”. The first company, a retailer in startup mode with a wide range, will actively pursue Social Media, for listening but also using it as a sales channel as part of their omni-channel strategy. They want to get the proverbial 360 degree view on the customer, who is “owned” in the marketing department, with PR, not marketing, owning their upcoming Social Media platform, an e-commerce group building the web shop, mobile applications, and sales apps to be embedded into several platforms – yes, there is something else beyond Facebook, if you leave the US. IT organizes and owns the ERP and CRM systems and implementations. Overall they are striving to implement a superior experience when interacting with their brand, which includes a branded community and listening/engagement abilities in the social web. The second one, an electronics retailer, wants to become the “best brand in the industry” and looks into a systems implementation from next year on, after some higher priorities are dealt with. These priorities include...
by tz4rgp | Aug 27, 2012 | Blog |
A few days ago @MarkTamis called me with a question: “Where do you think CRM heads to in future?” Uhhm, not that simple a question. It really forced me to think as all those thoughts, observations and discussions of the needed to be brought into a better structure. To lay the foundation I need to start with a definition of CRM; as I like it I start off with the one that Wikipedia provides: Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.[1] Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments This definition shows that the question has at least two layers: A technological one, and a strategic one. Of course, we should not forget about the customer. Let me start with the (for me, being a technology guy) easiest one: The technology. What I consider state-of-the-art right now is the availability of integrated software suites that cover marketing, sales, service, and analytics – this across a variety of channels, including mobile, web, interaction center. Surely, some software packages are stronger in one area or the other but essentially we have seen a tendency towards suites. The other thing that we have seen...
