October News

European CRM Conference: Is Technology The Solution?

Last week I had a great opportunity to accompany my client to a conference which focused on      customer relationship management.   Interestingly I went to a similar conference in 2003 run by the same people and with the same agenda but with a different client!

This was a good test to see what had changed in the business of customer relationships and customer loyalty over the last 6 years.

The short answer is an awful lot; six years ago our car clients were really focussing on using technology to help them understand their customers more.  The focus was on what ratings gave for their brand experience not why.  It was if you like a “black & white”   picture showing statistics without the depth and colour that individual comment and feedback can give.

Last weeks conference agenda was very different, yes there was a lot of talk about technology (Microsoft, Cognos & Cap Gemini were there), but the new focus was on people and how we should be listening to individual customers and  crafting dialogue and loyalty offers around their individual and very specific tastes and needs.

To do this well our clients need more than just a great process and effective technology it’s all about being passionate about what we do and helping our clients and their dealers ensure they must “walk the talk” and not treat customers as numbers on a page.

I am not saying that we do not need the right technology, reliable and intuitive IT systems are a vital pre-requisite and we need to regain our leadership in that arena.   This is a given and we must be up there with our competitors as soon as possible and that is why we are redoubling our New Product Development efforts over the next 6 months.

A presentation at the conference from the CEO of a Russian dealer (who sells 70,000 cars a year) summed all this up with the words “An excellent company for excellent people” on his business card.  He was totally passionate about customer service and it was no surprise to learn that all his employees receive 20% of their salary based on customer satisfaction ratings.

We have just finished editing a video for one of our clients shot at their dealer in Peterborough who has gone from bottom to top in their satisfaction ratings in just 8 months.  How did they do it; no new systems or processes, just strong customer leadership, a real focus on the customer and teamwork. So in other words it was people that made the real difference.

My take from all of this is that we really are on the right-track with the way we deliver solutions to our clients, it is more than just  having the right technology it is about really listening to our client’s customers, understanding their needs and then helping our clients to meet them.  So we really must “Think Customer”–and that is where we need to deliver our “insight and innovation”.