The Hindu Business Line : Customers insist on their human prerogatives

IN CRM, what does C stand for: Current, capital, customer or cash? Just the right question, that one, for a `fast-finger' test even as a cash-hungry audience hangs on through a TV game show. Unfortunately, organisations too can be clueless and wonder if CRM is all about technology, and so see C as chip! No, CRM (customer relationship management) is first and foremost about people, then technology, notes the preface of Capitalising on Customers by Patricia B. Seybold, Mitchell I. Kramer, and Dr Muhamed Muneer, from Vikas (helpline@vikaspublishing.com).

Seybold speaks of `five waves' in Chapter 1. The first was in the mid-'90s when "many firms purchased and implemented inward-focussed, single-function client/server CRM solutions-systems" to support specific areas such as sales, call centre, and marketing. To integrate and achieve `360-degree' effect came the second wave, when companies aimed at showing `a single face to the customer.'

In the third wave, customers began serving themselves via the Web, chronicles Seybold. Two integrations were missing — with `companies' back-end operational systems' and across `customer-facing interaction touchpoints.' We are now in the fourth wave, leveraging Internet architectures, spanning touchpoints and integrating with ERP, even as we move towards the fifth, informs Seybold.

Objectives of CRM are straightforward, writes Kramer: "Acquire new customers. Retain the right existing customers. Grow the relationships with existing customers." He analyses CRM applications as customer-facing, customer-touching, and customer-centric intelligence. Contact centre, sales force automation and field service are what `face' customers, involving direct interactions. In the second `touching' category are "campaign management, e-commerce, and self-service customer support;" these "must have excellent performance and provide a great customer experience," insists Kramer. The `intelligence' applications are data warehousing, reporting and analytics.

With special reference to Indian customers, Muneer asks if CRM is just another buzzword here. Companies claiming to have `good CRM software' provide pathetic service, he writes, citing examples such as inscrutable offers from airlines, `costly and useless add-ons' suggested by car dealers, and insensitive credit card firms. In a chapter on `retention marketing,' Muneer extols customer clubs that are exclusive. "What makes a customer loyal is never a discount," he says. Instead, aim at giving `low-cost benefits with high value,' such as Porsche Visa's airport park-and-wash service.

What is often ignored is `marketing to internal customers' — the employees. "The number one reason financials are not disclosed is that management is afraid that the employees will feel that the owners are profiting too much," writes Muneer, on the ubiquitous caginess in many organisations. "On the contrary, your employees will probably be surprised as to how little you profit and will be overwhelmed by how much taxes, benefits, travel expenses, shipping expenses and utilities cost."

SALES is Muneer's mantra for energising your `enquiry management system.' The acronym stands for screen, assemble, literature, evaluate, and sell. "Remember that your customers aren't targets, aren't crops, aren't there to be invested, divested, plundered, or raped," he dins in. "They're flesh-and-blood human beings, and the rules of technological action/ reaction suggest that the more technological you become, the more your customers will stubbornly insist on their human prerogatives." Three case studies are discussed in the book: Tata Teleservices, Bharti Tele-Ventures and Shoppers' Stop. To add value, there is an accompanying CD with Seybold's `seminar on customer revolution.'

CRM isn't the silver bullet that will ensure effective sales, grater wallet share, and faster profitability, cautions Seybold. "There's only one thing that will really do that. You're going to have to let your customers drive your business - all the way through."

Critical inputs that must be capitalised on!

BookMark@TheHindu.co.in

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