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Do all Companies Require CRM? How about for Export Trading Company?
Q&A Session Between GCCRM Advisors and Members
Mr. Paul Ward
Vice President, Customer Experience, YourMusicOn
G-CEM International Partner (US)
www.Pkward.com
This article is exclusively written for G-CEM.
Question:
Do all companies require CRM? How about for export trading company?
The company I am now working for is a small-to-medium sized export trading company, the volume of customer data isn't that much, do we still need a CRM Software to manage it? If yes, I would like to know the trend of CRM system for export trading company in the future.
Answer:
Yes, all companies require customer relationship management. There are many reasons this is so.
Before I get to the reasons, here's a short list of how to integrate "CRM software" into your organization.
1. CRM starts with a customer strategy: How do you want to create more value than your competitors? How do you want to receive more value from your customers in return? What information do you need to manage and improve this value?
2. Then you choose a process improvement system, and you commit to it organizationally. These processes -- and your staff's enthusiastic and rewarded actions -- should optimize the measurements you put in place in #1.
3. As a PART of this process, you MAY wish to buy or make some "CRM software" as you put it. This should be far more than contact management software. It should serve as a "best memory" system, so that your customers' preferences and behaviors are both tracked as well as presented to your staff who interact with customers. It should also serve as a tool that informs the analytics you develop in #1 and #2.
4. Your CRM software will probably not be enough to do all of 1 and 2. Know what the gaps are and fill them!
5. Start as small as you can, but never too small. Make sure you support 1 and 2 in every initiative. IBM has shown that CRM adoption is absolutely critical to the success of the CRM initiative. Again, this is NOT adoption only of the software. It is adoption of the entire initiative, with the needs analysis, behaviors, incentives, continuous improvement, and so on.
Here are the reasons your want CRM (which is more than "CRM software").
1. Knowing what your customers want, and how to provide it better than competitors, builds revenues, reduces your risk, improves your competitiveness, and creates customer loyalty, which means that their future value to you is high.
2. CRM is an organizational commitment: It keeps you tuned to what the market wants and what your competitors are providing. In a dynamic market, these shift constantly. You must remain nimble, and a customer-oriented organization is more likely to survive these shifts.
3. Customer data should be sufficient to tell you what drives a prospect's decision to choose you, what drives a customer to keep you, and why customers of other companies have chosen them. It should also be sufficient to tell you about customer behaviors and attitudes at your customer touch points. With this information, you can prepare reports that will align your marketing, capital and operational investments. In short, CRM as an organizational commitment -- supported by the right data -- can make you a stronger, less wasteful company.
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About the author
Paul is a strategist providing customer relationship management (CRM) and customer experience management (CEM) consulting for growth-focused enterprises. Currently VP of Customer Experience at a new high-tech consumer startup. He leads management strategy seminars in Asia, Europe and North America.
Paul is a graduate of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA program (ranked #3 globally by Financial Times) through London School of Economics, NYU-Stern, and Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC). His studies took place in Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Paris, New York, and London. As part of TRIUM he also studied with Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and in Sao Paulo with Funda??o Dom Cabral [FDC]. Currently head of the TRIUM alumni steering committee, Paul is organizing events in Shanghai, Florence, San Francisco and Paris. He lectured at Cornell University on Internet trends, social networks and the impact of the Web on economics and globalization. He also lectured at American University (Washington DC) and Robert H. Smith School of Business (University of Maryland, USA) on customer experience management, competitiveness and brand equity. Paul is also the editorial board member of CRM Today.
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