The 2005 iStart IT Investment Intentions Survey indicates that 48% of New Zealand organisations have some sort of specialised CRM system, whilst 64% have an ERP/Financials system.

However, 14% of those surveyed that did not have a CRM system said they intended to invest in CRM in 2005. That’s a 29% rate of CRM growth, whereas ERP usage is growing at a rate of a mere 6%. At this rate, in two years time CRM technology will be as widely used as ERP/Financials systems.

It’s a strong trend in New Zealand but we’re not unique. IDC says 2004 was a good year for the CRM market in general, which grew 8.8. percent. So what’s driving the trend and where’s it all heading?

Looking back at history shows how CRM has evolved. In the 1970s if you sent your staff for training the focus was more often than not on sales. Companies were pushing product. In the 1980s the American influence around the world began to be felt and service was the catch-cry. Tougher times in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s heralded a period of focus on adding value or providing value for money, and in the current decade attention has turned well and truly to enhancing the ‘experience’ a customer has when dealing with an organisation.

Nowadays CRM solutions have evolved to meet all of these different goals. In fact this decade may well be remembered for ‘automating the value-added sales and service experience’.

Automation in action
FrontRange Solutions’ senior director of CRM Paul Petersen says the enquiry-to-sale process provides a good example of the benefits of automation.

“Sales people tend to focus on the ‘hot prospects’ at any given time. The initial enquiry from the ‘warm’ future customer can often slip away to a competitor by the time the sales person gets time to target them.”

However, if the sales rep flicks a ‘future customer’ flag on the CRM system and records the nature of the product or service enquiry, ‘warm’ prospect’ can be automatically emailed product updates, pricing changes, case studies and media coverage relating to that product or service, along with an invitation to get in touch when they are ready to buy.

“This can ensure an automatic flow of ‘hot prospects’, he explains.

Web usage guru Debbie Mayo-Smith of Successful Internet Strategies tells a good story of a relationship building system in action.

The story begins five years ago when Wayne McCarthy, one of the top real estate agents at Barfoot and Thompson, met a house-hunting couple from England. He helped them look for a property in Auckland over two successive summers, but they eventually bought a home online from another agent.

However for a further three years McCarthy continued to stay in touch, with an email every three to four months asking how they were and telling them to let him know if they needed a tradesman or anything. All this even though they weren't clients.

Fast-forward to last December and McCarthy gets a call. "Come over for drinks Wayne.” It was the English couple. "We're not coming to Auckland as much as we thought so would you sell the house for us?"

"Of course," McCarthy replied, "but what about the agent you bought the house from?"

"Well, we never heard from him again after he sold us the house. You've been loyal so we've called you".

Avoid email Siberia
But that’s not to say you should get a CRM system and email every prospect every week, because there’s a big risk of turning them off. With the massive amounts of email people get these days, only those who can deliver relevant compelling and timely personalised correspondence every time are going to have their emails read.

And, as FrontRange’s Petersen points out, to do this requires a CRM system that can segment prospects by fields, groups and SQL queries.

“General broadcast emails just won’t cut it in future,” he says. “People will either unsubscribe from them, delete them without reading, or automatically banish them to cold dark obscure and rarely visited email folders only to be read when time permits, which never happens these days.”

See our article ‘You’re Got Email…Overload’ article of this issue for more on that subject.

If collecting the necessary segmenting information on customers seems like a challenge, Petersen points to CRM systems which allow integration to electronic or web forms that customers fill out themselves when they order online, complete surveys or register for events.

Workflow rules is another important CRM tool that Petersen is quick to highlight, which is especially effective when integrated with IP telephony.

“Response time is becoming a competitive advantage” he explains. “With workflow rules to automatically refer enquiries to the appropriate person with a full history of the caller’s experience to date with the company, you’ll be able to provide faster service, quickly capitalise on sales opportunities and further enhance the customer’s ‘experience’ with your organisation.”

According to Lynne Roussell from SalesLogix CRM implementers Adexio, organisations have become so specialised, and therefore inter-dependent on their trading partners, customers and suppliers, that CRM should logically be termed ‘total relationship management’ (see CRM software installation or business solution? ).

“These systems have gone beyond customer-only management, they are now used to manage and track every interaction a company has – externally and internally,” she says.

September 2005

By Marty Verry