CRM is a technology/software solution exactly like driving a car is an engine solution.

Yes, you definitely need CRM technology to have a CRM system, just as you need an engine for a car to get anywhere. But in both cases you need somebody, a human being, at the wheel before you actually have something of any value.

Not only that, but that person needs an efficient process to follow. You can’t drive a car effectively without following the road rules, nor is there any value in driving it at all if you don’t know where you’re going.

The same applies to a CRM system. Is the correct information being gathered and distributed to the right people? Is that information going to assist in delivering a better quality of service or product to your customers?

Below is the story of a total CRM failure (from a customer’s perspective at least) at easyJet in Europe, as, with the best technology in the business, easyJet’s processes, people and its inability to align the two for the benefit of its customers drives one frequent flying businessman to quit the airline forever – and even pay more to fly with someone else.

Interestingly, however, easyJet is a sharemarket darling in the UK with a very attractive bottom line. The question is, how much better could it have been, had more attention been paid to its the customer satisfaction being delivered to its passengers?

With more organisations putting a toe in CRM waters and the toolsets moving towards commodity status, then the competitive edge will not come from simply having CRM tools, it will come from having a CRM ‘capability’ – from what you do with the toolsets.

So for those organisations with existing CRM tools, what can you do now to deliver better results, without having to spend more on technology?

1. It’s all about the people
It’s not by chance that ‘people’ is first on our list as people implement strategy – every day in every way. For a CRM solution to deliver the most value, it must be championed from the top – actively & visibly. CRM cannot be implemented effectively by middle-management.

“CRM needs someone at a high level of an organisation to take ownership of it and convince that organisation’s people that he or she is fully behind it,” says one CRM consultant, “and give it the appropriate respect as far as their time is concerned.”

He also recommends CRM ‘leaders’ be freed from their day jobs if at all possible.

“How companies do that differs from organisation to organisation, because some don’t have the capacity to assign people the additional responsibility, so they may need to look at getting in some contract or part time resources in order to address the particular part of a job that a specialist may need fill.”

Another CRM specialist observes a recent trend in successful implementations at client companies.

“We’ve noticed recently that more CRM projects are driven by ‘business’ people as opposed to IT staff. In fact, some of them commented that they took ownership of the project and they really didn’t want IT involved until it comes to the nitty gritty of configuring and customising certain things - helping them with technical installations and so on,” she says.

As far as staff ‘attitudes’ to a CRM solution goes, fostering positive attitudes in your staff is a perfectly valid CRM strategy. Another strategy that can tend to be overlooked by organisations concentrating on the technical aspects of an implementation, as opposed to the aesthetic. Rather than leaving the CRM solution completely ‘as is’ out of the box, she says there are often many easily customised aspects to a CRM system, that can be personalised to the company that it’s being implemented in.

“You really don’t need to keep your CRM solution as an ‘alien’ CRM system,” she says.

“These days people can customise the look and feel. They can rename certain sections of the system with terms that are already familiar to their staff in the way they work. Instead of the standard fields they’re given out of the box they can go in and for example call ‘a sales opportunity’ a ‘development site’ if that’s what their staff are used to calling it. It makes the system a lot easier for users to relate to.”

The CRM specialist says one client didn’t even call their solution a CRM system, instead giving it another name that was more relevant to its staff. “They gave it a name basically that was ‘closer’ to them,” she says.

CRM should also impact your hiring decisions in that new employees need to be proficient, comfortable, and dare we say it – actually excited about using technology in their roles. That is, they can handle doing a presentation to a customer on a tablet PC instead of using printed brochures, or that they are comfortable sitting in their car filling in a post call analysis on a laptop.

For while that great ‘gift of the gab’ salesperson who confesses with a laugh that they ‘hate computers’ may have been perfect for your company 10 years ago, today that’s not enough – they need to have both that ‘roll your sleeves up and get stuck in’ attitude and be comfortable using technology. Companies who integrate ‘people planning’ into change management initiatives like CRM systems will achieve higher system success than those that don’t.

2. Get the process right
Good CRM is a synergistic alignment of people and process. To ensure this alignment is as close to ‘right’ as possible at the outset, implementers will determine any business process re-engineering that may be required to address an organisation’s specific requirements as they pre-plan the implementation.

Things can go off the rails, however, if a business parts company with its implementer too early and decides to take on a lot of the process engineering itself.

“How this typically happens,” says one CRM specialist, “is the implementer will have trained a group of key users and they then take the determination of the business process and the solution upon themselves and disengage from the implementation company from that point on. They do it with all good intentions but without the implementer’s depth of knowledge of the application, they end up putting processes in place that perhaps weren’t the best.”

To address these types of issues, all CRM suppliers recommend regular system reviews. “It’s quite important that, after the initial excitement of having a new system, regular reviews are scheduled,” says another consultant.

“Say three months after the system has gone live, then again in six months and again in 12 months. We get our customers together with our consultant and review what’s changed. Have the business drivers changed, have the processes within the businesses changed? And does the CRM system needs to change and adapt, rather than the users finding a ‘work around’ to make it fit.”

One expert recommends the original internal implementation committee and/or the power users/system owners in the departments where CRM has been implemented, get together and ask:

1. Is the system delivering what it was supposed to deliver?

2. Have all issues been addressed?

3. Is there anything that hasn’t been done for whatever reason and should it be pursued or be scrapped?

4. Does documentation reflect the current processes or have users started to deviate or develop ‘work arounds’? If so does documentation need to be reviewed?

5. Are there processes in place for users to log their issues/concerns and requests for changes?

6. What is the action plan if there are issues and processes to be reviewed?

This review process is also a good time to involve the original implementer again as an implementer’s consultant can talk to various stakeholders within the company getting objective feedback (almost like an external CRM audit) and establish where the system is going off track – making suggestions as to how to realign people and processes again.

“A key to a successful CRM system is communication. The internal stakeholders, the people who are driving or own the system, need to facilitate the internal communication process and make it clear to users how to log their concerns and address any issues that arise.”

Remember also that your CRM implementer has had experience at numerous organisations just like yours, so they can always advise ‘best practise’ solutions that have worked for others.

3. Ensure data quality
A key to getting the most effective use out of any CRM is ensuring the data that’s entered into the system is accurate and appropriate, says Amanda Peake, CRM service line leader at Fusion5.

“Make sure that there are data quality measures put in place and the data quality is regularly reviewed and refined,” is her recommendation.

Peake says organisations also need to have programme of regular training for CRM users. It’s not enough to go through the training process once and then assume the system will take care of itself.

“It’s not just about a one-off training session, you’ve got to be constantly reviewing what they’re entering and ensure there’s a focus on aligning data input with your business processes. The question to keep asking is: Do users understand what they should be entering – when, where, why, and who does it?”

She says it’s important to instil in users a sense that they all own the data.

“Someone else isn’t going to come along and fix it if there are mistakes – they have to take responsibility. Be aware of improvements to the data entry processes to ensure its put in a meaningful manner.

4. Integrate CRM with other solutions
Achieving “one version of the truth” across an organisation’s various systems is an important goal. It is easy for businesses to develop isolated silos when it comes to different sets of data.

Asparona account manager Ken Leece says it is important for businesses to optimise, where they can, the integration of their CRM solution with their other business systems.

“It’s quite possible different parts of your organisation might be dealing with a client and have certain information about credit history or interest in various products,” Leece says.

“If the CRM system isn’t hooked back into that you can find you miss opportunities and you’re not maximising the effectiveness of the people using the CRM tool.

5. Use reporting tools effectively
“People don’t focus enough on reporting from their CRM,” says Fusion5’s Peake.

“They go to a lot of effort to get people to put information in often but don’t do enough with it to help guide their business decisions.”

Most CRM systems now integrate with business intelligence solutions, or have in-built business intelligence functionality, meaning the tools are there to drill down into the data in order gain useful insights.

Peake says it is often just a matter of organisations focusing on the reporting functionality they have available within their solutions and making an investment to get the most out of it.

“It often takes particular skills to create those reports you need at a management decision-making level because they are usually quite complex. It is often a resource that seems to be something that gets overlooked.”

She says effective report extraction goes hand-in-hand with ensuring data quality (see ‘Ensure Data Quality’ above).

“If you don’t have clean, complete data you’re not going to get meaningful reports.”

6. Research your customers
CRM is Customer Relationship Management so it stands to reason no CRM overhaul could be complete without researching your customers.

With all the CRM tools available – your marketing tools to communicate, your campaign tools, your channel management tools – the need to ‘understand’ pops up again and again.

The old adage that you cannot manage what you cannot measure is never truer than in the CRM world.

“There are two aspects to that,” says one consultant. “One is the intangible side, the ‘customer satisfaction’ side which is always difficult to measure. What matrixes do you use to measure customer satisfaction? Because it has different facets to it, but you can look at the transactional side of that.”

A couple of examples: An ecommerce website is a easily measured ‘transactional’ customer interaction. Statistics should be easily available on how many customers visited your site, then how many began a purchase but abandoned their shopping carts before completing the process. So is the percentage of visits culminating in a purchase on par with other sites in your industry? If not, you may have a web site usability problem and a reduction in the number of mouse clicks to make a sale might be all it takes to boost your business.

Similarly, if your call centre staff record the same customer request coming up repeatedly in customer help calls (for example a technical setting or a weight limitation) would it be possible to include that information in the recorded greeting.

This type of information is already right at your fingertips, costs very little to collect, and could significantly improve your customer service rating. Like other aspects of a CRM solution, researching customer satisfaction must also be an ongoing process.

“You invest in a CRM solution to improve your customer satisfaction so you need to justify how it’s actually going. It’s all about understanding what you do well, and understanding what you may not be doing well, and then moving to address the gaps between the two. CRM implementation should be an evolution. Things change and you don’t want to stagnate with one system that you built five years ago and expect it to be efficient and effective five years later.”

So consider engaging a research company or perhaps encouraging customer feedback via a website or email campaign. People are usually keen to let you know when they’ve been disappointed by your service – especially if they think you’ll actually do something about it.

7. Consider an ‘On-Demand’ CRM solution
Increasingly CRM is being offered as software-as-a-service (SaaS), or an “on-demand” or hosted service.

“SaaS can give you tremendous flexibility in terms of responding to the market and demand, and it also allows you to keep the software up-to-date with the latest functionality,” says Asparona’s Leece.

“With SaaS you don’t have the overhead of managing the system, your return on investment is quicker because you’re up and running more quickly, and you can take immediate advantage of technical enhancements to the software,” he says.

CRM vendors such as Oracle offer a “blended” installation option for those organisations with existing CRM but who might be interested in taking advantage of the SaaS model. A blended solution involves a combination of an in-house system with a SaaS solution.

Summary
CRM is not ‘set and forget’ technology and perhaps more than any other business system it requires ongoing executive enthusiasm and regular reviews for effective operation.

While initial acceptance might be high, it’s almost inevitable that CRM effectiveness will start fading over time if it doesn’t adapt as the business changes. Keeping a close eye on People, Processes and Customer satisfaction will ensure you get the most out of the CRM solution you already have.

For more information visit the CRM Research Pavilion for exhibits, case studies, white papers and downloads from a range of New Zealand’s leading CRM vendors.

easyJet: a CRM disaster

Mike McCready runs a high tech software company in New York called Platinum Blue. With offices in the US and Barcelona he travels extensively in Europe and the US on business. He’s the kind of frequent flying customer easyJet does all it can to secure, but he’s decided to pay more to fly with someone else. Here’s why.

The following letter was written by Mike McCready as a consumer ‘blog’ under a travel & transport heading. So how did easyJet fail to deliver for McCready? We’ll analyse the letter and compare it to easyJet’s online mission statement.

I’m done with easyJet! I’m writing this on a British Airways flight from Barcelona to Heathrow - the first time I’ve flown BA in years.

I’ve always done this route with easyJet but I’ve finally had enough and vow never to fly that sorry-excuse-of-an-airline again, as their policies and general treatment of passengers has become so obnoxious the meagre savings are no longer worth it. It starts when you book the ticket online. The prices change frequently and as you get closer to flight time I’ve been able to find better prices on full service airlines such as British Airways and Iberia, let alone Ryan Air or other discount lines. Furthermore, easyJet prices are deceiving as the price they quote you is not the price you actually end up paying.

There is a charge if you pay with a credit card. If you want to pay slightly less you can pay with a debit card. Next, they charge you for every bag you check beyond one. Then they charge you again if you want to be in the first boarding group. So why not check in online? Well, because even though by doing so you save easyJet time and effort checking you in at the airport, if you use easyJet’s check-in online option they automatically relegate you to boarding group C.

If you want to board in the first group they charge you separately, again. Finally, the airport tariffs and taxes are not part of the price you’re quoted. By the time you’ve purchased your ticket online you feel you’ve been ‘nickeled and dimed’ to death and have ended up paying the price any other airline charges you for the same ticket.

Analysis
easyJet’s mission statement is; “To provide our customers with safe, good value, point-to-point air services. To effect and to offer a consistent and reliable product and fares appealing to leisure and business markets on a range of European routes. To achieve this we will develop our people and establish lasting relationships with our suppliers.” It’s interesting that easyJet does not specifically mention its customers in this statement other to say they will provide a safe and value driven service to them. Also interesting is easyJet’s interest in building a lasting relationship with its suppliers, with no mention of a building a lasting relationship with its customers.

McCready continues...
At the airport easyJet’s check-in agents are some of the rudest people I’ve ever come across (and I live in New York!). They’re inflexible, unkind, bound strictly to rules, make no exceptions and are frankly unreasonable.

Analysis
Despite easyJet’s mission statement to develop its people, word isn’t obviously isn’t getting through. It’s also interesting to note that oftentimes when a customer applauds a company for excellent service, they do so because a staff member stepped outside of a preordained process to treat that person as an individual and their problem as unique. It’s clear in McCready’s statement that staff are “bound strictly to rules” that the airline’s processes are not flexible.

And there’s more...
And now to the planes. I’ve noticed a couple of things have changed recently.

The space between the seat rows is getting smaller and on many of the planes the seats no longer recline.

They don’t even have recliner buttons on the arm rests! EasyJet has become most uncomfortable. Then, the flight attendants are rude, speaking to you as if they expect your responses to be belligerent before they even come out of your mouth.

If I want to eat anything on the plane I have to pay for that too. More nickel and diming. So, what was the final straw for me?

I was in London last week and needed to change my easyJet flight and their online booking system was down, requiring me to call their customer service line, which they charge you per minute to use, even while you’re on hold and even when the online system is down, leaving you with no choice.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that my phone charges for that call were more than my hotel cost for the night. So who do you complain to? When I asked at the airport would you believe they suggested I call customer service! So I’ve decided never to fly with them again. Nothing about easyJet is easy. Today, British Airways has been a breeze. The staff have been great. I didn’t get nickeled and dimed and I ended up paying less than the easyJet ticket would have cost me had I purchased it at the same time I bought this ticket. Oh, and I got some food - included in the fare apparently. So what’s the moral of this story? Pretty simple really, people want to be treated with respect – and we’ll even pay more for it!

Analysis
Again easyJet’s mission statement to develop its people isn’t getting through to its cabin crew, and the airline has a very ineffective process for dealing with customers with a problem – namely, making them pay to call the airline to attempt to sort the problem out. The bottom line here is that easyJet has all the right technology for delivery excellent CRM, but its people and its processes are failing and it isn’t listening to its customers.