Simple CRM   part 2

Turning CRM theory into practical customer service and retention programs 
by Skip Liebman

Go to Part 1 of Simple CRM

Simple System

Simple CRM helps organizations to think about customer focus and customer value in terms of the four critical success factors, those important service components involved in any service contact: 

• the customers (those people that use their hard-earned money to purchase your organization's goods and services)
•  the plan to serve the customers - without plans to succeed you most likely are planning to fail
• the process and procedures needed to make the plan a reality for customers - for plans to work they must be action-oriented
• the people - the system and its plans as well as process and procedure must be delivered by someone and the someone is your people 

By putting customers in the center of a service system an organization can coordinate its service efforts (plans, process and procedure, and people) and direct those efforts towards superior service, providing the organization with growth and a competitive edge.

The Plans:

Simple CRM incorporates three plans: 

• The first plan develops and retains best customers - the ones you definitely want to keep as customers.  This is done using a simple customer scoring system that ranks customers for Loyalty and Profitability.
• The second plan outlines a result-oriented service recovery and complaint management program for working with service breakdowns (which by the way is the real "acid test" for service excellence)
•  Finally, the third plan is for turning ordinary service providers - the people who work with your customers - into extraordinary service champions. 

Each of the three plans depends heavily on process and procedure.  These plans, when carefully integrated, drive and enlighten your organization's entire approach to business.  They create a service system that initiates change in service culture from the top to the bottom of the organizational chart.  

The plans set into motion the standards for service quality - what it is and what it looks like - from both the customer's and organizations viewpoint.  Most importantly, all three plans manage the delivery of service and the accountability for all service efforts - the discipline to stay on track in Simple CRM.

Also providing structure are alarms set up in the system using simple customer behavior analysis and good business sense.  These alarms or Trip Wire reports alert you to successes and failures in the system - both opportunities to make more money.  These Trip Wire reports are "action-oriented" and report on things like best customers who have stopped buying and new customers with high potential value - both situations where money can be made if an action is taken.  Trip Wires make it possible for you to continually optimize the service system, improving customer retention and profitability.  You can update and continuously improve the system when necessary - while keeping the entire organization accountable for improving service today and in the future.

The Process & Procedures:

The design of process and procedures must also reflect the system and the three plans.  How should the organization create and deliver the kind of value customer's desire? 

The organization must offer process and procedures that are workable, doable, repeatable, and most importantly reflect the type of service customers want, need, desire and deserve in all areas of the business. 

Customer service is in its purest form is a marketing activity.  Like all marketing activities it must give the organization a good return on investment.  Tracking marketing efforts to insure they are enhancing profits also plays a vital role when developing process and procedure as part of a strategic service system.

The People:

You can't build a service system with plans to retain and recover customers without process and procedure that discovers, develops, and retains good people while creating accountability for organizational service performance.

The type of people who are ready, willing, and able to do the job today, ready to keep learning so they can do the job tomorrow.  Obviously the people need to fully understand the plans, as well the process and procedure, because ultimately they are the ones that must exhibit correct behavior and activities (doing right-things-right and correct-things-correctly while paying close attention to service details) that make the system a reality.  It's people who manage the system and deliver the system that provides exceptional service and value to customers daily, monthly and yearly.

Beginning with the next article we will take each of the three plans and begin to implement them into your organization.  Until then, remember: service excellence is not a destination, rather it is a continuous journey toward improvement. 

Jim here: Hey you number crunching geeks, stay tuned for the rest of this monthly series on "the soft side" of customer retention.  Sign up for the newsletter and you won't miss a single part of this great series from Skip.

Skip Liebman is a customer service expert with over 25 years experience specializing in the implementation of results-oriented Strategic Service Systems and service training.  During the past seven years he has delivered over 600 customer service training seminars and performance workshops to 25,000 business people nationwide in a broad range of industries.