Abstract
Customer Relationship Management should not be viewed as a technology that is so advanced that companies must take it on faith that it will solve all their customer related problems or opportunities. CRM is a holistic business philosophy that enables people, processes and technologies to focus on building appropriate customer relationships based on value chain propositions that all parties concerned want. If a leap of unjustifiable faith is dangerous to an organisations health what other methods or means are there to help the wary business traveller on their journey to CRM heaven? Many writers and researchers have offered their views and many say start with the end in mind and work backwards is best! This is a rather frightening approach as the journey can be long and costly.
Another approach is to begin aligning your business and IT strategy for a CRM based future whilst getting to grips with where you are today regarding business processes, information flows and your real functional organisation. This methodology also enables you to get small wins very early on as you identify constraints in current work practices and holes where the unwary can get lost never to be found again.
When it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
initiatives most organisations seem to fire, draw and aim,
rather than plan; they listen to those that want real action now
over sensible planning, or so it seems. There are many tales of
so-called CRM failures that can be laid at the door of this kind
of non-thinking! There is a failure to plan adequately or to
take a hard look at their current practices. Does CRM really
have to be a leap of faith to gain that elusive competitive edge?
Are the concepts of CRM and its parent relationship marketing
so innovative and advanced today to be seen as being at the
bleeding edge of management thought and technology? Or
are these concepts so powerful that a company by adopting
them will automatically gain a perpetual competitive
advantage so that they must just do it? I just don’t think so!
The technologies that make up the CRM solutions other than a
few at the cutting edge of data mining and personalisation are
well tried and tested. We even have numerous studies that
demonstrate why projects have gone wrong and some good
advice on what to do to stop them happening again (Gartner,
IDC, Meta, Forrester and so on).Yet there are still a number of
larger than life organisations charging into CRM
implementations based on the belief that a technology based
approach is the answer. The idea is that a better contact/call
centre must lead to improved customer relationships, reduce
costs, and improve profits - it just must! It also must be a fact
that a new and improved sales force automation (SFA) system
will turn a mediocre sales force into an elite business winning
team. It might be that their legacy customer information
systems are not up to scratch but once more money and
technology can put that right- of course it can? So the idea
must be to just get going and hope!
Just get going?
One writer, Michael Gentle1, suggested that you ‘just have to
get going’ and spend some money up-front or you will not
have the impetus to put things right when they go wrong!
That is you must feel some pain first to make you want to
overcome it. Now if that view was put forward in a business
case it would close the company’s cheque book really quickly,
no matter how true the concept is. I would also wonder where
the people and processes come in to this vision of how to get it
right!
It would be a good idea to do some planning up-front like
aligning CRM with the overall business needs as identified in
some form of strategic or tactical plan – just a thought!
Although I agree there is a need to spend some money, I
believe that an organisation can move towards a CRM heaven
by initially undertaking some small, incremental steps that
will deliver small ROI based wins along the way.
Understand where you are today
To achieve this movement forward requires an investment in
trying to understand how your current organisation actually
works. There is a great deal of lip-service paid to the need to
manage your most ‘important assets’, people, and the unique
business information that differentiates you from your
competitor; but lip service alone does not ensure
organisational success. It is in the area of process that the
organisation can start moving that organisational mountain
towards customer centricity.
With the hype and noise we have had over the last few years
for tearing down and rebuilding organisations to better serve
the customer, or obliterate rather than automate, you would
think that companies have never offered services/products
customers wanted. It is as if they never new that they had
customers till CRM came on the scene or that one-to-one
marketing served a real purpose. Organisations may not have
been as effective as they could be given the new wiz-bang
CRM tools available today. But for many early adopters of,
data warehousing technology (a good start on the journey to
CRM), they are already in the forefront of better segmenting
their customers identifying those they want to retain, to gain,
to cross-sell, to up-sell and reactivate or win-back. Some are
even trying to improve the customer experience and
appreciating their customers’ needs. However, even they are
still struggling with internal processes and people issues.
The Green Field Site
If you had a green field site and could start from scratch – no
legacy systems and no legacy CRM type solutions then you
might be able to plan backwards – starting with the end of the
journey in mind. This approach having the end in mind is
powerful but very frightening. It uncovers just how far you
have to go and could easily put you off even taking that first
step on the CRM journey. Plan you must but it should be seen
as an exercise in eating an elephant – by taking small bites.
You do need to know where you are going but it is dangerous
to your health and probably your career if you bite off more
than you can chew. The company gets indigestion and you get
made redundant or fired! Another problem is that many
companies are already on a journey where elements of the
customer centric business approach are being implemented.
To get going in another department in this environment can be
even more difficult. Often the very resources needed to get
you underway are already committed elsewhere and will not
get around to even seeing you for a long time.
What is the Answer?
OK so what’s the answer? There are a number of answers that
will work but one approach we at Active management
Techniques for have been working on for the last two years:
emphasises the need to map processes, functions and
information flows to help understand and incrementally
change the organisation on route or in parallel to investing in
CRM technologies and activities. This approach is about
finding out where you are now so that you can create a
roadmap to get you to where you want to go. It also enables
you to get quick people and process based wins early by
improving process and human linkage problems. You’re right
this is no gung-ho approach to getting CRM underway but a
proven way of getting people buy-in and demonstrate how
improving information flow and or business processes can
support improved customer interaction.
Fair Practice
We advocate the concept of ‘Fair-Process’ as part of our work
ethics as any successful CRM solution involves winning the
hearts and minds of both the customers of the solution and the
implementers. CRM solutions always involve elements of
change in work practices and some organisational change that
must involve the internal customer. The internal customer is
often referred to as the user and rarely gets a voice in some of
the IT solutions delivered (see I-CR – Internal Customer
Relationships). The implementers of these ‘solutions’ rarely
communicate using a common language the internal customer
understands or approach that the internal customer actually
comprehends. Ask this question of the IT team (please ask for
an honest answer): ‘users (internal customers) in this company
are……’ The answers you might get will make you very
quickly aware of the unwritten ground rules the company
works to and the cultural undercurrent that will inhibit fair
process. Fair process can enable those that need to be heard
have their say and be involved so that all can then work
towards supporting a successful CRM programme.
“But as we have seen, there is ample evidence that when the
process is perceived to be fair, most people will accept
outcomes that are not wholly in their favour”. (Kim and
Mauborgne)2
Mapping for Success
There are a number of approaches that use the flow diagrams
as the basis for process mapping, business modelling, ISO-ing,
TQM- ing, knowledge mapping, social networks and any other
types of mapping you can name. Our approach is to create
some new wrinkles by mapping the functional organisation
and overlaying the information flows uncovered. We see this
as a process approach that emphasises the connections
between information movement, transformation, value and
the activities of teams and individuals that may be horizontal
and or vertical. Seemingly related and unrelated tasks – an
incoming report, a formal meeting, an unscheduled telephone
call, a brief conversation at the coffee machine or water cooler
and or an unscheduled meeting - are often part of a
multifaceted business process. This approach is not based on
demonstrating the workflow or information transformation
alone. This approach enables management to clearly see and
understand what is really happening and what people are
actually doing.
Our methodology is far more ‘real world’ than attempting to
look at workflow in isolation in an attempt to improve the
underlying processes. Our rationale is based on supporting
both external and internal customer issues that are better
resolved by understanding how things currently work and
how people actually relate to each other so that behavioural
issues can also be resolved along the way. Through the use
methodologies and tools that create a living online business
model we are able to drill down, up and across so enabling
management to see more clearly where bottlenecks and real or
potential black holes exist.
A mapping exercise, where both functional roles and
information flows are made clear, lead to a number of
important insights for the people involved as well as the senior
managers. It provides an especially useful mechanism that is
easily understood for addressing the common organisational
problems: divisionalisation, vertical and horizontal job
fragmentation and a general lack of cross-functional coordination.
Organisation Charts
Organisation charts exist but can never impart the richness a
function entails. Often the actual titles attached to the
functions and their place hierarchically on the chart can never
impart the functions (individuals) actual importance to the
successful operation of the firm! Many aspects of modern
organisations make a clear appreciation of functions and
information flows very difficult to see and understand: sheer
complexity, highly differentiated teams, individual roles and
levels of knowledge, poor informal/formal relationships, size,
and physical/technical distance and others we find as we
work with more and more organisations. Charting horizontal
and parallel work flows, for example, or following a product
idea from concept, through development and eventual launch
provides a means of demonstrating how individuals
contribute to the successful future of an organisation.
Michael Hammer
Michael Hammer, the arch proponent of ‘don’t automate
obliterate’ (Michael Hammer and James Champy -
Reengineering the Corporation) is now onto a new, he hopes,
vein of gold called the Process Enterprise (The Agenda and
Beyond Engineering). I quote “Process management is the key
to success for the 21st-century organization. Only by focusing
on its processes can an organization achieve the levels of
performance that the global economy demands. Processes also
provide the umbrella for business improvement efforts
ranging from ERP implementation to six sigma…”3 Once more
revolution is preached rather than an approach that delivers
small wins through a step by step incremental success based
approach. I agree that businesses are process driven but if we
have a replay of the Business Process Reengineering days we
will once more see process as a euphemism for whole scale
downsizing programmes rather than getting closer to the
customer and making CRM really happen! However Mr
Hammer has embraced the idea that it is the customer who
calls the shots, not the suppliers of services and products so
there’s a start.
A Beacon of Hope
The emphasis on functional/information flow mapping
enables organisations to see where there is a need for action,
planning and positive change with clarity. Our business and
process led approach adds dimensionality to their perspective
that paper based solutions fail to deliver. The process of
making the living map a reality enables an individual’s actual
importance to the organisation become, in some cases, a
painful reality. One of our colleagues carrying out similar
work to our own told us of a situation where a CRM support
specialist was relied upon for providing information, advice,
inspiration and specific supportive actions to twenty two
people. On the organisation chart her title and hierarchical
position did not reflect her importance to the organisation.
Neither did her job description, incentive scheme or her
original functional job specification really identify her real
roles! When she went on holiday that year there were a
number of critical activities that got put on hold till her return.
These did not become overtly apparent to management until
the mapping exercise was conducted. Her immediate team
and those needing support regularly put things (covered for
her) on hold and even built slack into their projects and put off
making decisions to accommodate this critical individual’s
need for holidays and or illness! Vague awareness of a serious
problem was through mapping brought to the attention of
senior management and rectified.
Sales Teams and their Processes
Another example of where our methodology has been applied
focuses on the sales-team. In a number of industries
traditional sale-force training and the introduction of a new
SFA has not revived sales nor invigorated the sale force to
achieve higher call rates or improved pipelines. A question
we often ask companies about to spend money on a new wiz
bang SFA or a new sales training programme regards their
understanding of the existing work practices. Few actually are
aware of how their current sales-teams actually work. Selling
after all is an arcane art form carried out by the sales team – is
that not so? Current marketing philosophy has that all
members of a company in their own way are in sales and
represent their company to the customer in many guises. This
acceptance itself may be the first step towards enterprise-wide
CRM.
Measure or be…..
It may be that for some companies the only measure that
matters after sales training or the implementation of some
multi-million dollar SFA is an improvement in sales revenue.
For those more astute there are a number of other measures
that are important as well: Improving customer qualification,
building a more trusted and bigger pipeline, better product
knowledge, industry awareness, improved sales processes,
greater collaboration, greater customer feedback, increased
effectiveness and a range of other efficiency measures.
By mapping what the sales team actually do today you
establish a baseline for measuring any improvements you
want to undertake. So if you want to identify that elusive ROI
on your training on new SFA this approach can help. Because
we are map the sales processes of a range of sales-people: the
best, the middling and the borderline we can identify
constraints on performance, motivation issues, managerial and
leadership problems as well as creating a basis for fair practice
in the sales team. This approach is part of winning the hearts
and minds of the sales teams so that they will support change
initiatives of which the sales training efforts are likely to be
just the start.
Our work has led us to believe that there are early and quick
wins to be had through applying CRM focused functional and
information mapping techniques to a business at the start,
during and after any CRM initiatives are undertaken. Failure
to understand the organisational processes and their
implications for successful CRM undertakings is just another
way of ensuring another failed CRM initiative.
Bibliography:
1 The CRM Project Management Handbook by Michael Gentle Published
by Kogan Page – be careful I get the feeling he believes that CRM is SFA
see Page 141on – not a happy thought!
2 Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy by Chan Kim and
Renee Mauborgne appeared in the Harvard Business Review motivation
Collection in January 2003: In studying 19 companies, the authors found
that managers who believed the company’s processes were fair displayed a
high level of trust and commitment, which, in turn, engendered active
cooperation. Conversely, when managers felt an absence of fair process,
they hoarded ideas and dragged their feet.
3 Beyond Reengineering : How the Process-Centered Organization Is
Changing Our Work and Our Lives and The Agenda: What Every
Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade by Michael Hammer Published
by Harper Business – one reader of Beyond Engineering wrote: “I'm NOT
convinced after reading this that Hammer has (ever) rolled up his sleeves
and gotten dirty”.
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