Today I met with a company who cannot understand why their CRM program is not working. They have spent several million rands in buying, building and installing their new CRM technology platform and nothing has happened. No relationship building, no sales, no profits and shareholders are anxious.

In an article that John Calhoun wrote he said: "In order for CRM to reach its true potential, organisations need to establish a strategic direction that can have a significant impact on their organisation. A road map must be established that ensures CRM investments support this direction and are integrated into something that fundamentally improves the total customer experience."

"The real impact," he says, "of these technologies will be realised only when CRM technology is used to support a strategic direction rather than become the strategic direction." So CRM is a Strategic Initiative.

The relationship between Customer and Seller is under threat
CRM technology is there to assist you in understanding your customer better. It is recognised that 80% of the strategic value of customer information is in 20% of the data - the difficulty is in knowing which 20%. If you don't use customer data effectively, you will reduce loyalty.

The Internet, and the globalisation phenomenon that has trailed it into the retail environment, has had a profound influence on South African businesses. The biggest change brought about by the Internet is in the area of the relationship between customer and seller.

Glenn Lottering, business development manager (E-Leader) at Oracle South Africa, says that much has been said about the abilities of CRM applications to leverage the Internet to cement this important - although fragile - bond.

Companies have not incurred the return on investment (ROI) they expected from CRM implementations because of their emphasis on sales force automation. "However, sales force automation is but one aspect of a comprehensive CRM solution," Lottering says.

"Under-utilisation of the full benefits of CRM technology has resulted in low returns on CRM investments and subsequent disillusionment with CRM technology for many companies."

It is estimated that over 50% of CRM programs world-wide have failed because of lack of creative and strategic thinking, lack of business integration and a lack of understanding of the concept of the Total Customer Experience.

"CRM is a much broader solution. It is essentially about 'customer retention' and therefore sales force automation needs to be linked to the service and marketing components of the CRM implementation in order for CRM solutions to show their real value," he says.

Remember that the primary drivers of your CRM program should be to: Attract new customers, Increase sales per customer (RFM Formula), Reduce costs through optimisation of business processes and Improve customer relationship and increase loyalty.

Take care and take note - Enough is Enough - stop CRM Technology Pollution and let us work towards a Total Customer Experience.

Winnifred Knight, email win@cubesquare.co.za or phone 082 575 9922

Back to www.bizland.co.za