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What Is Customer Relationship Management?

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Crimson

Consultants

What Is

Customer

Relationship

Management?

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CRM as a Philosophy As a philosophy, customer

relationship management positions the customer at the focal point of a College’s strategy and practices. This is based on established marketing theory that only by understanding its customers, existing and potential, both individually and collectively can any organisation position its products and services to ideally serve its chosen marketplace. There are very few Colleges that would disagree with this philosophy today and yet customer relationship management in practice has not lived up to this ideal.

CRM as a Methodology

The name customer relationship management very accurately describes the component parts of the methodology: Customer – in its broadest sense this is any individual or entity with whom a College has a relationship. In the main this is aimed at existing and prospective customers, but could also include suppliers, associates and partner organisations.

Relationship – the relationship is represented by the many interactions that occur between the College and each customer and the process by which these interactions occur.

Management – this aspect is how the above customer records and interactions are organised and analysed in ways which inform management decisions both at the individual and aggregate levels.

In most Colleges the concept of customer relationship management is recognised and to a large extent, practiced. The main problems have come from the fact that there has been no one system devoted to recording and tracking customer interactions and, as a result, management information has been difficult to produce. It is not uncommon for email to be used as the main method of 2-way communication and for any phone conversations to be unrecorded. WORD-based mail-merge is used for more formal communication, but these documents are largely untracked against the customer record. The use of spreadsheets is endemic to support many business processes and many mini-databases holding customer information exist in most Colleges.

All of these methods tend to operate at departmental level, creating silos of un-related and often conflicting data which cannot be reported on. Add to this, customer information held in more formal, but discrete systems such as finance and student record systems and you have a situation where, although most of the customer relationship data is recorded somewhere, it is spread across departments in an uncoordinated way and cannot be used to produce accurate and cohesive information. All the work is being done, but none of the benefits are being enjoyed. The result is low administrative efficiency, poor customer experience and non-existent business benefits.

Executive Summary

Customer Relationship Management has been in most Colleges’ vocabulary for up to 10 years and so it may seem strange to publish a paper entitled What is Customer Relationship Management? The problem is that many Colleges have a mixed experience with CRM, not so much as a concept, but putting it into practice and particularly with CRM systems. The thesis behind this paper is that most Colleges do not understand customer relationship management sufficiently to make it work for them and their customers.

This paper tries to address that lack of understanding by exploring customer relationship management first as a philosophy and a practical methodology. It then translates this conceptual approach into the essential components of a computerised system to address the CRM requirement. This is turn leads to an analysis of data, information and stakeholders involved in any CRM system. Finally, it presents a systematic approach to the design of each essential element of a CRM system which, if followed, will ensure a successful implementation.

Hopefully the whole document helps to explain the essential approach and components of a successful CRM system so that Colleges can begin a deployment with a greater understanding of the potential pitfalls and requirements for success.

Separate departmental systems & databases

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Integrated with & Supportive of Business Processes – user adoption is an essential requirement for the success of any business system and this is covered in some detail in subsequent sections of this paper. For a CRM system it is more important than most and to achieve maximum user adoption it is essential that the system can be truly embedded within staff business processes and there is a perceived benefit in using the functionality provided.

To this end it is vital that the system can be fitted to the required business process rather than the other way around. This is an aspect that is often overlooked when Colleges have deployed a CRM system and has been a major cause of limited user adoption which rapidly leads to the system ceasing to serve any useful purpose.

CRM as a System

A customer relationship management system is designed to address these

shortfalls by having a central, single record of all relevant customer data which is readily accessible by all staff involved in its creation and maintenance and the extraction of information. Before we explore the functional improvements which this systematic approach will deliver, it is worthwhile considering the inherent relationship between data and information in a CRM system.

Data & Information Every system, whether

manual or computerised, has an inextricable, complementary relationship between the data it captures and the information it produces. Representative, complete and accurate data is essential if the information produced from it is to be useful and dependable. Whilst sound data is the basis of any system, if the system is unable to transform that data into information which is useful to stakeholders, those stakeholders soon begin to ignore or circumvent the system. This, in turn, tends to undermine the consistency of data collection and maintenance and this has a further detrimental effect on the accuracy of any information produced. The result is a vicious, downward spiral of disuse which renders the system ineffective. By contrast, where the system has its information outputs clearly defined at the start, with processes and data captured informing the information produced, the result is a virtuous, upward spiral of user adoption and benefit.

This underlines how vital both data and information are to the effectiveness of any system. In a customer relationship management system it is the customer record and the history of interactions, be they past, present or future that constitutes the data. The information produced is the result of managing this data effectively in a variety of ways and producing meaningful aggregations and analyses. Consistency & Ease of Communication – in order for all

interactions to be recorded within the single customer record, the communication methods used must be consistent and easy to use otherwise stakeholders will rapidly circumvent them and the single, central record soon ceases to exist. By consistency it means that all communication must be channelled through the methods provided so they must be comprehensive (email, phone conversations, direct mail, appointments, tasks, event attendance, etc.) and relevant to all circumstances. They must also be easy to use so that users will readily embrace the methods provided and not look for alternatives. For staff users the communication methods must work equally well for interactions with individual and selected groups of customers and cover reactive (incoming communications) and proactive (outgoing communications) interactions. Ease of Communication is also relevant for customers as they should be able to interact directly with the College and this must be part of the single customer record. The most appropriate interface for this will depend on customer type, but as a general point the interface should be familiar, relevant and easily accessed if the customer is to use it effectively. This is where portal access and interaction via social media becomes appropriate both for business and student customer types.

A CRM system will streamline administrative efficiency, improve the customer experience and generate business benefits. as a result of the following main functional improvements:-

Single Customer Record – the fundamental requirement for a successful CRM system is the existence of a single repository for each customer record and associated interactions. This is the “glue” that pulls all the disassociated records together to provide a single, central reference point which is the “single version of the truth”. Despite the necessity of this single record it is still important for different staff to see only the customer data that is relevant to them and their work processes. Too much information can be as bad as not enough.

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Works for All – this is arguably

the most

important point of all and is expanded upon

in the

subsequent section on Stakeholders. The CRM system must work for all users including managers, operational staff

and even

customers. Without this level of user adoption it will cease to be effective. A large part of this is providing accurate and relevant information back to users in an appropriate way as referred to in the above point.

Whilst a CRM system can have some benefit for an individual department or functional area of a College, it is most effective when used across the whole organisation. This is because customers interact with more than one department of a College and if the single customer record is to be just that and provide an holistic view of the customer, it must capture and present customer data from and for various parts of the College.

To this end it is useful to consider a CRM system deployment at 3 levels:-

Level 1 – the system is deployed within a single department or functional area of the College to address a specific set of business objectives, e.g. event management. This can be beneficial for the specific department, staff and customers involved and can act as a pilot exercise to prove the worth of a CRM system implemented effectively. However, the single customer record created will have limited or no value to other parts of the College.

Level 2 – the system is deployed across numerous or all facets of the College to support the many processes that comprise the complete relationship between College and customer. This level of deployment may take some time and several implementation phases to achieve, but will fully satisfy the Single Customer Record and Works for All objectives.

Level 3 – the system is integrated to other College systems which hold data which may be useful to be viewed within the single customer record, e.g. financial transactions from the finance system and, for education institutions, student admission and achievement details.

These 3 levels of deployment need not be considered as a linear progression, because it may well be sensible to achieve Level 3 integration for a Level 1 departmental deployment. Similarly, some Colleges may feel that a Level 2 deployment for several inter-related departments makes a more sensible starting point. Ultimately however, and certainly for an education institution, all 3 levels are desirable.

Turns Data into Information – all management information systems do this, but most do an element of data processing as well. Student systems generate statutory returns, finance systems produce management and financial accounts and payroll systems pay people. A CRM system does not process data, it just records it and if this data is not turned into information which is of use to all participants, it quickly falls into disuse.

The output of relevant information is thus a key component for continued user adoption. Having all customer data in one place makes CRM the ideal system for producing customer-centric information to staff at all levels. Operational users typically require the detail at individual customer level and this improves the service they are able to provide, whilst managers can aggregate data in definable ways to provide top-down analyses.

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Process Matrix

This section brings together the 3 fundamental

components of a CRM system – Customer, Relationship,

Management – with the final ingredient – the Stakeholders – to create a Process matrix. This Process Matrix is a useful tool for a number of reasons:-

 It provides a single page, graphical representation of the relevant aspects of a

CRM system and how they relate to each other;

 It acts as a planning tool as each quadrant within the matrix represents a constituent operating area of the CRM system. Each quadrant can thus be completed with the essential actions which are required to make the system work;

3. The process matrix shown is a general one for the CRM system as a whole and versions would ideally be completed for each functional area of the College for which CRM is being deployed, e.g. business engagement, student engagement, marketing, event management, service provision, etc. Relevant specifications, processes and data requirements can thus be produced as part of the implementation analysis and design phases (see paper on Why CRM Systems Fail).

NB It may seem strange to present this matrix with the Customer element at the bottom and Management at the top. However, this works best for at least 2 reasons:-

 The Customer records are the foundation of the system and everything else builds from this;

 The Management element should be at the top as this is where system analysis and design should start and where the all-important information outputs should emerge.

Finally, the role of Stakeholders in the system needs to be considered. Traditionally most stakeholders are on the College side of the system, i.e. the staff who use the system either for data collection or information access. Typically, operational level users are involved in data collection and maintenance and access information at an individual customer level. Managers tend not to interact with data and have an information management requirement at the macro level using aggregations and analyses of data in the system. Without all these staff using CRM rigorously the data doesn’t support the information and the information doesn’t substantiate the effort to collect and maintain the data. The result is that the system falls into disrepute and becomes under-utilised. On the other hand, where the data is accurate and complete, CRM becomes the “go-to” system for all staff involved in customer interactions or management because it is an easily accessible source of valuable information not readily available anywhere else.

More recently there is an additional category of user/stakeholder and these are the customers themselves. There has been a growing trend of self-service in most management information systems and there is good reason why it makes sense to allow customers to interact with the system themselves. Firstly, with a system designed exclusively to manage customer relationships, it makes total sense for customers to interact with the system. This includes the ability to post data into the system and the ability to receive information back automatically. Secondly, this improves the customer experience, the accuracy and currency of the data and, as a result, the corresponding information produced. All important objectives for a CRM system.

Stakeholders

We have already identified there are 3 elements to a CRM system: Customer – organisations & individuals with whom we interact = “data” Relationship – interactions between us and our customers = “data”

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Notes on General Process Matrix

It makes sense to start the description of the general process matrix in the top left hand quadrant and work downwards. This is because it is senior management who should ideally specify the high level requirements of the system, which should in turn be based upon the business benefits desired and the success factors on which the implementation will be judged. This is best thought of as a “top-down” process.

In contrast, the operational aspects of the system are best considered as a “bottom-up” process because it is more appropriate and easier for these staff to think about the customer records they will need to work with first and then think about the processes they will be required to perform in relation to these records to achieve the desired outcome. Finally, they need to consider how they will maintain and manage these records and processes on an on-going basis.

When considering the customer interactions with the system it is less important at which point to start. Some customers will be more interested in positive metrics about aspects of the College’s performance which affects them, whilst others will just want to interact with an enquiry or update of their existing biographic data. Both aspects of CRM will be important for customers in different circumstances, so both are equally important.

PROCESS MATRIX – General CRM Functionality

STAKEHOLDERS

STAFF CUSTOMERS

Managers Operational Existing & Prospective

Top Down Top Down

START- M1 O1 C1

MANAGEMENT Specify the information, analyses & metrics re-quired to inform business monitoring & decision making.

This determines which Rela-tionship processes the system must support. Use information produced

on a regular basis. GO TO M2

Establish & operate routines which will maintain the accu-racy & completeness of cus-tomer & relationship data, e.g. duplicate record detec-tion & merging, changes in customer personnel & roles.

Access system to view key College metrics which in-form existing & attract new customers, e.g. training numbers, conversion rates, service resolution statistics. Access must be via a user

in-terface that is appropriate to the customer group, e.g. portal, social media.

M2 O2 C2

RELATIONSHIP Specify the detailed business processes the system will support.

This determines the data to be collected.

Processes & data will vary for each functional area for which the system is used, e.g. business engagement, event management.

GO TO M3

Record & create interactions as part of core job function in support of defined business processes. These should include reactive & pro-active customer engagement.

GO TO O1

Process request for infor-mation.

Receive information.

Maintain aspects of own record. Access must be via a user

inter-face that is appropriate to the customer group, e.g. portal, social media.

M3 O3 C3

CUSTOMER Specify which customer rec-ords are required to sup-port each business process and the precise nature of data to be captured.

GO TO O3

Create & use customer records as part of core operational processes.

GO TO O2

Create/access own record to process a query.

Access must be via a user inter-face that is appropriate to the customer group, e.g. portal, social media.

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The Importance of Implementation

A separate paper entitled Why CRM Systems Fail highlights the criticality of the implementation process. Because CRM systems are not pre-configured “out of the box” to address a College’s specific processes and required business benefits, the system implementation needs to configure system functionality to achieve these ends. This separate paper also concludes its analysis of CRM by outlining the essential parts of a successful CRM implementation:-

Analysis – of the desired business processes the system is being deployed to support and the associated success factors;

Design – is where the business requirements defined in Analysis are mapped onto the available system functionality;

Development – involves the configuration of standard system functionality selected in the Design phase plus the addition of specific system customisations and even software development to fully deliver on the business requirement;

Deployment – is where a test system is built incorporating all aspects of the Development phase. It is on this environment that initial data migration, user training and acceptance testing is performed. Following successful completion of the above, a live environment is created to which final data migration is performed prior to live roll-out.

Operation – by all stakeholders in a live operating environment and the achievement of the desired business benefits;

Optimisation – this involves a post go-live review of system operation to ensure that the solution is achieving the desired objectives, to identify any slight changes required including the possible introduction of the solution to other parts of the College.

The process

matrix shown is

hopefully a

useful tool to

inform the

Analysis and

Design phases

of the

implementation process. These in

turn should

inform the

Development and Deployment

phases which

will lead to a

successful live

Operation to

achieve the

stated business objectives.

What does Crimson deliver

Crimson is a consultancy and development company which specialises in the implementation of software which requires some “out-of-the-box” configuration before it can support specific business processes and deliver organisational benefits. Crimson is a Microsoft Gold Partner and implements Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics GP into small, medium and large sized organisations worldwide.

High on the list of systems in which it specialises is Microsoft Dynamics CRM. This is a world leading, highly functional and cost-efficient CRM system which integrates with the full portfolio of Microsoft software products used extensively within the business community. These include infrastructure products such as Windows operating systems and SQL Server database, organisational-wide productivity tools such as SharePoint and SQL Reporting Services as well as established office automation products such as Outlook, Word and Excel.

However, each customer is different and whilst the core CRM solution comes “out of the box” with a tremendous range of relevant functionality it nevertheless requires additional configuration and possibly customisation to truly fit each customer’s specific business processes. Without this close fit, user adoption is poor and the system will fail to deliver the potential business benefits available. Crimson’s owners have almost 60 years collective experience in the education sector in various aspects of software development, implementation and support. The highly specialist staff are experts in the key deliverables of system design and configuration which is so fundamental to the achievement of business benefits. Crimson has already achieved a number of successful CRM implementation within the FE and HE sectors and all its customers are happy to provide references.

Crimson Consultants 6 Prospect Place Maritime Quarter Swansea SA1 1QP Tel: 0845 094 2259 sales@crimsonconsultants.co.uk

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