Step 1 – Conduct a business needs analysis
A major part of determining where to begin with a CRM implementation is having a clear understanding of the business needs, and where CRM would most benefit the organisation. CRM touches on sales, marketing, customer service and support both online and offline. It’s important to review the needs of each business area so that you can determine your strategy for CRM.
Ideally you should have individual goals for each department – and all members within the organisation should buy in to the strategy in order to drive it successfully, from the highest rank to the lowest. Implementing successful CRM across the organisation is a process, with stakeholders making decisions collectively and sharing their views and needs. Decisions should be based on realistic budgets and resources and full calculations carried out before any kind of loyalty currency is
decided upon.
Step 2 – Understand customer needs
CRM is about the customer. You might have identified a range of business needs, but what about the needs of the customer?
Two elements of CRM in particular – service delivery and customer support– are actually all about meeting the needs of the customer. And what’s the best way of determining customer needs? By asking them, of course. There are various ways to find out what customers want, but in all of them, it is important to listen. Use online monitoring tools and insights from social mediato gather a more rounded view of what your customers think, feel and want. Look at past behaviour, churn rates, successes – a detailed data mining exercise could also be on the cards, as you will need to understand which of your customers is the most valuable and why.
Step 3 – Set objectives and measurements of success
CRM is a long-term commitment and you need to consider a long-term approach.
Depending on the business needs, your objectives and success measures could include:
• Increasing customer numbers
• Increasing profitability per customer
• Increasing market share
• Improving responses to campaigns
• Raising customer satisfaction
• Improving end-to-end integration of the sales process cycle
The metrics you select for measurement will depend on these objectives.
There are numerous metrics that you can choose from when measuring your performance, and the actual metrics you choose are generally referred to as your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Step 4 – Determine how you will implement CRM
Once you’ve identified all of the objectives of your CRM implementation, you will need to determine how you are actually going to roll it out. What channels will you use? What touchpoints will you leverage? What data will you need for this? And what tools will you need to gather this data and implement your initiatives across these channels? How will you address the shift and communicate with your internal stakeholders before you launch the initiative to your external ones?
You will need to make choices based on what is available to you, or what you intend on embracing. The digital space offers a range of innovative spaces for CRM delivery; you simply need to get creative in your execution.
Step 5 – Choose the right tools
There are lots of excellent CRM tools available, but these are useless without a clear CRM strategy in place. You can only select your tools once you know what your objectives are, what touchpoints and channels you are going to utilise and what data you need to collect and analyse.
CRM systems that gather information on customer preferences and needs, as well as information on competitors and in the industry in general, let organisations focus on providing customer solutions instead of simply pushing products.
A major part of determining where to begin with a CRM implementation is having a clear understanding of the business needs, and where CRM would most benefit the organisation. CRM touches on sales, marketing, customer service and support both online and offline. It’s important to review the needs of each business area so that you can determine your strategy for CRM.
Ideally you should have individual goals for each department – and all members within the organisation should buy in to the strategy in order to drive it successfully, from the highest rank to the lowest. Implementing successful CRM across the organisation is a process, with stakeholders making decisions collectively and sharing their views and needs. Decisions should be based on realistic budgets and resources and full calculations carried out before any kind of loyalty currency is
decided upon.
Step 2 – Understand customer needs
CRM is about the customer. You might have identified a range of business needs, but what about the needs of the customer?
Two elements of CRM in particular – service delivery and customer support– are actually all about meeting the needs of the customer. And what’s the best way of determining customer needs? By asking them, of course. There are various ways to find out what customers want, but in all of them, it is important to listen. Use online monitoring tools and insights from social mediato gather a more rounded view of what your customers think, feel and want. Look at past behaviour, churn rates, successes – a detailed data mining exercise could also be on the cards, as you will need to understand which of your customers is the most valuable and why.
Step 3 – Set objectives and measurements of success
CRM is a long-term commitment and you need to consider a long-term approach.
Depending on the business needs, your objectives and success measures could include:
• Increasing customer numbers
• Increasing profitability per customer
• Increasing market share
• Improving responses to campaigns
• Raising customer satisfaction
• Improving end-to-end integration of the sales process cycle
The metrics you select for measurement will depend on these objectives.
There are numerous metrics that you can choose from when measuring your performance, and the actual metrics you choose are generally referred to as your key performance indicators (KPIs).
Step 4 – Determine how you will implement CRM
Once you’ve identified all of the objectives of your CRM implementation, you will need to determine how you are actually going to roll it out. What channels will you use? What touchpoints will you leverage? What data will you need for this? And what tools will you need to gather this data and implement your initiatives across these channels? How will you address the shift and communicate with your internal stakeholders before you launch the initiative to your external ones?
You will need to make choices based on what is available to you, or what you intend on embracing. The digital space offers a range of innovative spaces for CRM delivery; you simply need to get creative in your execution.
Step 5 – Choose the right tools
There are lots of excellent CRM tools available, but these are useless without a clear CRM strategy in place. You can only select your tools once you know what your objectives are, what touchpoints and channels you are going to utilise and what data you need to collect and analyse.
CRM systems that gather information on customer preferences and needs, as well as information on competitors and in the industry in general, let organisations focus on providing customer solutions instead of simply pushing products.
