What Aspect of CRM Is Most Important to You?


360-degree view of the customer
38%

Personalization
21%

One-to-one marketing
15%

Real-time CRM
11%

Automated sales
6%

Electronic CRM
6%

Other
3% Source: Cutter Consortium, Survey of 159 Companies Bringing automation to the sales force
The largest of the CRM applications markets, sales automation software attracted $2.6 billion in worldwide enterprise spending last year, reports IDC.
Technology solutions that can help field sales forces include offerings that focus on configuration to help sales people configure and price products and services, contact management, account and lead management and campaign management. Collaborative tools that allow everyone involved in a transaction to interact also have a role to play in sales force automation, and, long term, should be linked with partner relationship management and supply chain management systems.
"Sales automation capabilities, can be broken into two types: those that increase effectiveness and those that increase efficiency," notes Wendy Close, research director with Gartner's CRM practice.
"The efficiency components allow a salesperson to focus on more value-added activities like fact-based selling, focusing on increasing customer profitability or identifying new opportunities. However, determining the ROI of sales efficiency capabilities is next to impossible. Nevertheless, the addition of effectiveness capabilities translates directly into real ROI in the form of up-sell, cross-sell, close rate and shorter sales cycles," says Close.


Privacy, security & CRM

It may be worth thinking out of the box to prevent a clashing of two key trends¡ªthe intensifying gathering of customer information and building concerns about customer privacy.
Certainly, there are reasons to care about what data is gathered and how it's treated. One issue is that privacy is getting some legal clout: The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires that financial institutions disclose privacy policies regarding sharing of information about individuals.
Another challenge is the customer data itself: How reliable is it, especially when it comes to the more intimate details?
Permission-based, or opt-in marketing is one way to respect individuals' privacy. Individuals express interest in a topic and volunteer information about themselves, which can be more cost-effective than creating prospect lists using traditional mass-marketing methods.
Adsertor marketing¡ªwhich acknowledges that customers own their names as well as the demographic, financial and marketing information associated with their names¡ªoffers yet another way to improve the accuracy and completeness of customer information while respecting their privacy. Because each individual owns his or her name and name-related information, that individual decides what marketing materials to receive. Which means that the marketing they do allow into their lives is much more likely to convert them from prospect to purchaser. Putting the "e" in e-marketing
By injecting information technology into the marketing process, organizations can more effectively place the right mix of product and service offerings in front of each customer at the right time. The effort requires:

Understanding what customers want and what they do so that offerings can be matched to customer interests
Making a well-timed presentation to the customer
Measuring the results and feeding these back into an ever-evolving customer knowledgebase
Successful marketing automation entails coordinated marketing efforts across all customer-facing channels and has many components, most of which must not only use customer data from many sources but also interact effectively with each other:

Content management
Integrated CRM creates opportunity for automatic gathering, versioning, testing and deploying vast amounts of Web content, reducing website costs and shortening management cycles.
The importance of content is hard to underestimate. A September research report by Jupiter Media Metrix notes that 59 percent of those surveyed said they returned to a website because of increased product information. Another 26 percent cited fast-loading pages as a reason to return.
Denmark's largest non-life insurance company, Tryg-Baltica, has 12 million customers who generate some 7 million Internet transactions every month. The firm has implemented a content management system using Siebel software that will reduce its number of customer service centers from 100 to around 30. A one-click button on the Tryg-Baltica website puts a customer in direct contact with a salesperson, which speeds the sales cycle, while offsite salespeople use laptops with broadband links to access customer profiles that enable them to quickly close deals. And automobile claims adjustment processing times have plummeted.
E-mail management
Although the chief channel of communication with customers remains field sales forces, the Web and e-mail are becoming very important, and customer e-mail traffic is exploding, challenging enterprises to keep response times within acceptable limits.

Personalization and profiling
Increasingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that online buyers who can find a product at multiple sites will purchase from the one most effective at personalizing content.
Customers using Marriott's Personal Planning Service¡ªwhich creates itineraries based on requests and preferences created in advance for those who've made hotel reservations¡ªspend an average of $100 more per day on services, show measurably better scores on satisfaction ratings and are more likely to become repeat customers.
Personalization requires (1) a website navigation structure that adapts to different customer preferences, behaviors and browser requirements and (2) delivering real-time information to human agents so they can customize response in all customer contacts.
Self-service management
Self-service via the Web¡ªby means of search engines, interactive chat, conferencing, "call-me"capabilities, e-mail, browser and application sharing and the like¡ªnot only cuts costs for both suppliers and customers, it also creates new kinds of opportunities to engage customers and make relationships more valuable.
Customers can more easily resolve problems and answer questions, access account and service histories, interact with call center agents in real time, and receive assisted service through a personalized portal. With integration, self-service applications can make other customer channels¡ªsuch as the telephone, e-mail and fax¡ªmore efficient, too.
"Consider the number of customers frustrated by long or nonresponsive applications, or those who want an immediate quote, even at 2:30 a.m.," suggests Carlos Galarce, senior vice president, Information Office, APAC Customer Services, Inc. " These customers prefer the advantages of self-service availability but often click to a competitor unless they get additional assistance."
A leading TV shopping network, Shop At Home, concluded that sales could be higher if its ordering process was smoother. The company installed Aspect Communications' Contact Server, which blends all customer contacts into a single view for the rep, along with Aspect's Customer Self Service. Now agents can recognize incoming customers' phone numbers and route them immediately to the self-service system where customers simply plug in the number of the item they want. These days, Shop At Home pulls down $100,000 a day just in self-service sales, and the percentage of customers choosing the self-service option has more than tripled, accounting for 10 percent of Shop At Home's call volume.
Workflow management
Customer-facing activities¡ªlike campaign execution, lead management, contest management, trade show management, marketing collateral management and more¡ªneed to be rigorously coordinated across multiple channels and staff. To personalize service reps' contacts with customers, ensuring that the right offers are presented at the right time while keeping interactions consistent, scripts must be developed in near real-time.

E-CRM
E-CRM¡ªwhich Accenture describes as using electronic channels to market, sell and serve customers, either directly or via channel partners¡ªcan boost profits by enabling enterprises to:

Share information with customers and business partners; this is especially valuable for companies selling complex and customized products and services
Configure products/services online, thus reducing invalid orders and returns
Take orders over the Internet
Complete transactions through electronic bill payment
Perhaps the two greatest challenges posed by e-CRM are (1) integrating various electronic customer channels with more traditional ones (so that, for instance, the sales force knows when a customer orders something online) and (2) gathering, massaging and sharing customer data so such integration is effective and customer interactions are more profitable.
As companies get closer to achieving their early CRM goals, it becomes clear that real-time collection, analysis and distribution of customer data is crucial. As face-to-face interactions with customers decline, it's essential to analyze customer e-interactions in real-time to spot key success factors and ensure that marketing strategies and messages are appropriate.

From call center to customer portal
Customer demand for 24/7 availability and response is forcing enterprises to develop CRM strategies that include integrated contact centers, Internet chat sessions with customers and collaborative co-browsing.
Multichannel contact centers can cut customer rep staffing requirements, since customers can use the Web to find answers to their questions and reps can handle more Web-originated inquiries because they're not required to interact in real-time.
Or they can keep staffing needs from exploding as customer service operations expand rather than shrink and as customer reps' jobs become more demanding than ever: In addition to telephone skills, reps now need to be computer-literate and good at letter-writing. The International Customer Service Association (ICSA) reports that in 2000, handling an average e-mail or Web inquiry was less costly, at $4.32, than handling a customer phone call, at $5.13.
For large enterprises and government agencies, specialized contact center applications can ease the complexity for customers and citizens alike. The City of Chicago uses SunTRACK from Suncoast Scientific, a Motorola company, to track and manage service requests received by mail, phone or fax.
"Making sure that your people who respond to service requests have the capability to adapt their business processes to evolving customer requirements is where technology comes into play," notes Motorola's Carter.
Contact center savings are starting to show up where it counts¡ªon the bottom line. Saks Inc., which runs more than 350 stores under 10 different brand names, is banking over $1 million annually in payroll reductions since implementing Aspect Communications' Customer Relationship Portal to handle customer inquiries. The portal's more precise routing of phone calls, faxes, e-mails and Web inquiries has reduced the average "speed of answer" from 45 seconds to under eight seconds.
Well-run contact centers can help the top line too.
"One of the most important things companies can do is look at the contact center as a profit center," says Aspect's Infante. "By reducing customer churn by as little as 5 percent, businesses can see an uptick in revenue upwards of 25 percent."
Canadian Tire Acceptance Ltd. not only serves the needs of four million credit card customers, it also acts as the primary call center for parent company Canadian Tire, the largest retailer of hardgoods in Canada. After turning to Chordiant Software for help in handling the 15 million calls that come in every year, the company has increased the number of calls handled by 10 percent, improved customer retention rates and customer satisfaction, and boosted revenues. Moreover, customer rep training time has been cut, fewer calls need to be escalated and the need to build additional databases has been eliminated.
"A company's first contact with its customers is defined through its customer service organization," Infante points out. "Therefore, it is essential that all customer contact¡ªwhether telephone, fax, e-mail, Web chat or wireless¡ªis consolidated in a single location. By providing agents with a single view of a customer, their history and their likes and dislikes, businesses can prove that the customer matters."

What about wireless?
After an excess of hype, it's easy to wonder about who's going to use wireless e-CRM. The near-term answer: employees, notably sales and field service people.
"The ability to deploy CRM applications via wireless devices is key to 'completing the loop' of customer service," says Carter. "It enables the field workforce to access key customer information on demand and, where possible, be proactive in reporting problems. Wireless devices available today and in the near future can deliver CRM data to field workforces at significant cost savings using one- and two-way pagers, low-cost handhelds and the soon-to-be-released Java appliances targeted at single-application mobile devices."
Consider FedEx Corp., which has been using wireless e-CRM applications for close to 20 years. FedEx drivers scan pick-ups using a handheld scanner, then put the scanner into a docking station in their trucks, which sends package data to the company's Memphis headquarters and, virtually instantaneously, publishes the information to all customer touchpoints¡ªincluding the Web, call centers and WAP-enabled applications. Mobile customers can track shipments using Microsoft CE devices or Palm computers equipped with AvantGo's software and Mobile Internet Service.
Where can wireless e-CRM work in your company? Wherever there's a problem because critical real-time information needs to get to those who are beyond the reach of wired systems.
"Mobile applications should be heavily oriented toward personalization with mechanisms that permit the main Web application to extend to mobile-based on-event monitoring and other alerting mechanisms," advises Beth Eisenfeld, research director with Gartner's CRM practice.
"Good mobile applications must also stand above all other choices for conducting any transactions," she adds. "They must be selected based upon whether time-criticality of information or convenient access to information are at the core. Otherwise, users will forego the inconvenience of using a mobile device and wait until they return home or to the office to use their PCs. Another item often forgotten is the latency of the network. Developers and business executives think that wireless means fast¡ªbut if network latency issues are not addressed, latency can kill use. A general thought is that while PCs tolerate 30-second turnaround, mobile can only tolerate three seconds."


When is it time to outsource?

For many CIOs faced with serious budget constraints and cautious ROI strategies, implementing even pieces of an enterprise application like CRM can be nearly impossible to do well. If the complexity of CRM technologies and processes are not adequately addressed¡ªwith sufficient CRM expertise as well as an ability to commit to interdepartmental coordination and integration with the existing and legacy IT infrastructure¡ªpotential benefits are forsaken.
These kinds of problems have led many firms to turn to outside service providers for help implementing CRM initiatives. According to recent Gartner research, 58 percent of companies surveyed used external services, and Gartner expects that number to climb dramatically.
It's not hard to see why. A global auction house that hired customer service specialist APAC Customer Services, Inc., saw a 60 percent drop in the average handling time for escalated calls and a 70 percent drop in turnaround time. APAC estimates that, compared with internally developed solutions, implementing its e.PAC hosted solution in a 50-seat center saves each of its clients about $1.5 million in direct CRM costs over a five-year period.
"Companies should consider outsourcing technology development," observes Carlos Galarce, senior vice president of APAC's Information Office, "when they have no proven success in enterprisewide CRM integration, limited capital resources, high customer demands for quality services, or a need to increase revenue and/or realize greater revenue."
Galarce believes companies should look at full customer contact outsourcing "when they're unable to designate the management resources to a CRM incubation process or when they have limited capacity and data scalability." Linking CRM, ERP, SCM and partner relationship management
Companies that integrate partners and suppliers into sales, marketing and service processes can close deals faster, capitalize on more marketing opportunities and provide more seamless customer service. The entire partner lifecycle¡ªrecruitment, registration, profiling, certification, execution, measurement and analysis¡ªcan be leveraged by technologies. But should it be?
"The answer," says Ed Thompson, Gartner vice president, "depends on the enterprise deploying the technology and the industry in which it operates. A pharmaceutical company implementing sales force automation has very little need of back-office integration since the sales person is often the primary point of contact, call center functionality is rarely used, orders are not taken and there's no need to look at inventory levels. Contrast this with a chemicals salesperson who wants to promise delivery of products based on supply chain information rather than what are only post-production inventory levels. The salesperson in this case does take orders and accesses back-office functionality on a daily basis. So CIOs contemplating this kind of linkage have to consider: Are there any benefits from process-level integration from the front- to the back-office and back again?"
For those organizations with a competitive need to respond to these pressures but which lack the technical depth to do it in-house, service providers will be picking up the slack. By 2005, predicts IDC, companies worldwide will be spending more than $40 billion a year on supply chain management services alone, up from $12 billion last year.
That's because inter-enterprise integration triggers big changes in how business is done. For instance, business goals and many corporate processes will have to be redesigned. Risk management techniques will need to replace zero-breach access and security strategies, since collaborative commerce requires trust and a willingness to share information among all members of a supply chain to enable faster and more effective response to customer demands.

Customer-centricity is key
"That happens when you put customers at the center of your business and employees understand how their functions interact with all the other functions in order to achieve revenue," believes Aspect's Infante. "In our company, we're directly linking sales and service to product marketing and product management so customer issues can be resolved quickly, sales cycles shortened and customer satisfaction heightened.
"The one key product companies will need to pull this off is a contact server which provides a solid business communications platform. The contact server should have visual workflow development capabilities because businesses will need to rapidly and constantly change rules for handling interactions and transaction within the company and with the outside as well," says Infante.
Case Studies