The black hole of CRM

by Peter Neville, director of business strategy, Interchange Group

CRM has evolved since the early 1970s and today it is embraced as one of the essential components of good business practice. Unfortunately, even now, few companies realise that service is moulded by what the customer wants and not by their own assumptions. As a result, many businesses are still missing out when it comes to the true delivery of CRM.

Since the seventies, when the service industry first incorporated CRM into its business practice, CRM has grown from its original set of underlying principles which have now been adopted across a number of different departments and enterprises. Its roots however remain the same, that knowing and understanding your customer will strengthen loyalty and lead to increased revenue and higher turnover.

However, today's business environment is completely different to that of 25 years ago, not least the increase in the number of communication channels such as e-mail, fax and Internet. Customer expectations are changing along with the way they communicate and in response, customers demand a more interactive, personalised service that is responsive to their immediate needs. CRM is no longer simply about implementing a customer facing system to identify customers by name and recognise whether they have multiple accounts or products.

Companies think that by delivering customer service via a web site they are meeting the demands of the 21st century customer. Internet communications support the modern day CRM strategy, as it adds an online channel to the customer, but few businesses are offering a service that is quick and responsive enough to satisfy a customer of today.

In reality, the black hole of the service centre is merely being reapplied to e-business with a CRM label. In the past, customers that contacted a call centre operator with a query would have to wait hours or days for a response. A similar service is being delivered within an e-business environment except communication is via email and customers are less tolerant of sloppy service than 25 years ago.

New technology means customers expect an instant response to their emails or, even better, an online facility whereby they can answer and solve their own queries.

A central data system where information can be updated and shared across different departments within an organisation will bridge the communication gap between the call centre operator and customer, ensuring that a response is available minutes after the customer calls.

Similarly an e-business system must also be connected to the core business and not seen as a separate entity. Having a system whereby the operator has to input details from email into the central database wastes value staff time and means customer queries are dealt with much more slowly.

That is exactly why, with 25 years experience in CRM, we have developed an e-business solution that takes CRM to another level and delivers a service that meets the expectations of today's 24 hour society.

Our customer portal enables customers to view and track developments on their accounts via the Internet, empowering them with the knowledge to answer their own queries or solve problems. This is not only beneficial for the customer but helps the company free up valuable resources, to concentrate on developing other areas of the business.

Customers who feel in control of what's happening are usually much happier and our portal enables them to access their account 24 hours a day, check the status of any queries and see the latest product news and information.

Based on our knowledge of the CRM industry and monitoring the changes in customer behaviour over the years, strongly influenced by the surge in technology, we have moulded our CRM strategies to meet these demands and we will work with our customers to ensure they do too.