When it comes to the creation of a customer relationship management (CRM) vision that truly serves to enhance the customer experience, so many organizational leaders are trapped within their own understanding of what that vision entails. Consider the following statistic: of all CRM programs initiated, roughly 70 percent involve a great solution but a bad implementation plan, resulting in poor return on capital employed (ROCE) and, equally important, a negative CRM experience for all parties involved.
What does this mean?
Companies have a fundamental lack of understanding of what makes for a true CRM vision. The vision that drives the CRM program must embrace the picture of a new, enhanced customer experience—that is, a new relationship.
Therefore, the vision is not about the technology being used or the quantitative measurement of the number of customer transactions occurring. Sure, these elements are important, but they should be viewed as supporting factors or consequences of the vision, not the vision itself.
As a result of these misguided notions and subsequent CRM visions, the “new” customer experience is flat, or even unnoticeable. Further, the value derived by the company becomes mediocre at best, and CRM is given the undeserved bad reputation of not being able to deliver.
Following are four steps to develop an effective and attainable CRM vision.
Step 1: Start with the relationship.
Where does the vision of the CRM-focused organization begin? It starts with an understanding of what the relationship needs to be. That is, the relationship between the organization, its employees, and the customer. This is a triangulated, inter-dynamic relationship, and one that will be tested with every transaction, inquiry, and corporate decision. The vision starts with a picture of the relationship taken from a behavioral standpoint. Consider the following questions:
* What does the future relationship look like—to customers, employees, management, and executives? Can you describe this relationship from each of these stakeholders' point of view?
* What is the desired customer behavior in the new relationship? What would the customer's ideal behavior look like? Is it different for different customer groups?
* What critical behaviors must the company, including executives, managers, and employees, demonstrate in order to promote and sustain the desired customer behaviors? How can current behaviors provide a catalyst for desired customer behaviors? Where is the gap between the two?
Those who are leading the CRM program and who are responsible for the creation of the vision must describe the vision in terms of people and possibilities. Leaders must refrain from focusing the vision on numbers or the type of technology that will be employed, as these are but the results and the tactics that stem from the vision.
To illustrate what I mean, consider the following experience I had working with an executive team from a major technology company.
The team was in the midst of creating a new corporate-wide, customer-centric vision for the transformation of the company's consulting practice. The goal was to create a new vision that would build greater customer reach and ultimately lead to activities that drive more consulting engagements. My job was to facilitate the process and provide coaching as needed.
I was amazed at how quickly the discussion of the vision turned to revenue: “Our vision is to make as much money as we possibly can.” What's startling is that these highly intelligent, skilled, and educated leaders were serious. Even more surprising is that this approach is not an isolated incident. So many organizations fall into the trap of making the vision's accomplishments or results the vision itself.
The situation called for coaching and guidance on how the description of “relationship” would be the foundation of the vision. By the time we were done, the executive team had crafted a vision that included a statement of what the organization's relationship with its clients would look like, including how clients would benefit from this relationship. The vision also included a statement that embraced the relationship between the company and its employees, and how this relationship would serve to support the primary customer relationship. This was a sound vision statement, one that truly defined the company in terms of what it wanted to be in relationship to its customers. Here is that mission statement:
Our industry is about people. As leaders in our industry, we will actively pursue relationships with our clients that allow us to understand and embrace their business needs as our own. We will grow our relationships by providing our clients with world-class technical expertise, solutions, talent, and a passion for execution. We will endeavor to make a positive impact on the lives of people we touch—our leaders, managers, employees, and the people in our community—as we recognize the importance of their relationships with our clients. We will leverage these strengths and capabilities to earn the position as the trusted advisor and supplier of choice to those we serve.
A draft of the new vision was tested with a number of employee groups to determine if there was employee buy-in. Employees responded positively. They were impressed that the new vision included them; they were part of the future.
The new vision had traction, and the results from the initial inquiry suggested that consultants were excited about presenting the new face of the organization to clients. A small group of clients was also tested for its response to the vision. They received the draft vision positively and were impressed that their supplier would make them—the client—the focal point of the vision.
But back in the boardroom, there was little joy. The executive team reconvened to examine this newly crafted vision statement. Upon reflection by some of the executives, it was determined that the vision was too “soft”; business is about hard deliverables and gaining position. It is about establishing market dominance and presenting the company as the leader in its field. The result: the vision was redesigned to exclude any statements about relationships or that “fluffy people stuff.” The statement now included that the company would be number one in its field (along with the other hundreds, if not thousands, of companies saying the same thing). It also included that the company would provide world-class service and technical expertise. Here is that new vision statement:
What does this mean?
Companies have a fundamental lack of understanding of what makes for a true CRM vision. The vision that drives the CRM program must embrace the picture of a new, enhanced customer experience—that is, a new relationship.
Therefore, the vision is not about the technology being used or the quantitative measurement of the number of customer transactions occurring. Sure, these elements are important, but they should be viewed as supporting factors or consequences of the vision, not the vision itself.
As a result of these misguided notions and subsequent CRM visions, the “new” customer experience is flat, or even unnoticeable. Further, the value derived by the company becomes mediocre at best, and CRM is given the undeserved bad reputation of not being able to deliver.
Following are four steps to develop an effective and attainable CRM vision.
Step 1: Start with the relationship.
Where does the vision of the CRM-focused organization begin? It starts with an understanding of what the relationship needs to be. That is, the relationship between the organization, its employees, and the customer. This is a triangulated, inter-dynamic relationship, and one that will be tested with every transaction, inquiry, and corporate decision. The vision starts with a picture of the relationship taken from a behavioral standpoint. Consider the following questions:
* What does the future relationship look like—to customers, employees, management, and executives? Can you describe this relationship from each of these stakeholders' point of view?
* What is the desired customer behavior in the new relationship? What would the customer's ideal behavior look like? Is it different for different customer groups?
* What critical behaviors must the company, including executives, managers, and employees, demonstrate in order to promote and sustain the desired customer behaviors? How can current behaviors provide a catalyst for desired customer behaviors? Where is the gap between the two?
Those who are leading the CRM program and who are responsible for the creation of the vision must describe the vision in terms of people and possibilities. Leaders must refrain from focusing the vision on numbers or the type of technology that will be employed, as these are but the results and the tactics that stem from the vision.
To illustrate what I mean, consider the following experience I had working with an executive team from a major technology company.
The team was in the midst of creating a new corporate-wide, customer-centric vision for the transformation of the company's consulting practice. The goal was to create a new vision that would build greater customer reach and ultimately lead to activities that drive more consulting engagements. My job was to facilitate the process and provide coaching as needed.
I was amazed at how quickly the discussion of the vision turned to revenue: “Our vision is to make as much money as we possibly can.” What's startling is that these highly intelligent, skilled, and educated leaders were serious. Even more surprising is that this approach is not an isolated incident. So many organizations fall into the trap of making the vision's accomplishments or results the vision itself.
The situation called for coaching and guidance on how the description of “relationship” would be the foundation of the vision. By the time we were done, the executive team had crafted a vision that included a statement of what the organization's relationship with its clients would look like, including how clients would benefit from this relationship. The vision also included a statement that embraced the relationship between the company and its employees, and how this relationship would serve to support the primary customer relationship. This was a sound vision statement, one that truly defined the company in terms of what it wanted to be in relationship to its customers. Here is that mission statement:
Our industry is about people. As leaders in our industry, we will actively pursue relationships with our clients that allow us to understand and embrace their business needs as our own. We will grow our relationships by providing our clients with world-class technical expertise, solutions, talent, and a passion for execution. We will endeavor to make a positive impact on the lives of people we touch—our leaders, managers, employees, and the people in our community—as we recognize the importance of their relationships with our clients. We will leverage these strengths and capabilities to earn the position as the trusted advisor and supplier of choice to those we serve.
A draft of the new vision was tested with a number of employee groups to determine if there was employee buy-in. Employees responded positively. They were impressed that the new vision included them; they were part of the future.
The new vision had traction, and the results from the initial inquiry suggested that consultants were excited about presenting the new face of the organization to clients. A small group of clients was also tested for its response to the vision. They received the draft vision positively and were impressed that their supplier would make them—the client—the focal point of the vision.
But back in the boardroom, there was little joy. The executive team reconvened to examine this newly crafted vision statement. Upon reflection by some of the executives, it was determined that the vision was too “soft”; business is about hard deliverables and gaining position. It is about establishing market dominance and presenting the company as the leader in its field. The result: the vision was redesigned to exclude any statements about relationships or that “fluffy people stuff.” The statement now included that the company would be number one in its field (along with the other hundreds, if not thousands, of companies saying the same thing). It also included that the company would provide world-class service and technical expertise. Here is that new vision statement:
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