Membangun 4 langkah Hubungan Konsumen Anda

Sebuah artikel menarik untuk membangun 4 langkah hubungan konsumen Anda dari Don Peppers

Building Customer Relationships in Four Steps

January 03, 2014

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In order to set up and manage your relationships with individual customers, you have to accomplish four basic things:

• Identify customers individually. Obviously, you can’t have a relationship with an audience or a population, but only with an individual. So before you can establish a relationship you must be capable of identifying customers, one customer at a time. You don't have to have each customer's name and address, but you need to know that the customer on the phone right now is the same one who was in the store yesterday, or on your Web site the day before that.
• Differentiate customers, one from another. Customers differ from each other, in terms of both their value to your business, and what they need from your business. What a customer needs from you will drive behaviors that you can observe. And behaviors will create (or destroy) value.
• Interact with customers. Almost by definition, a relationship depends on some interaction between two parties. You want those interactions to be cost-efficient, so drive more and more interactions into more efficient channels. But you also want them to be effective -- that is, to tell you something about the customer's needs or value, for instance, that you can't learn simply by observing.
• Customize for customers. The “pay off step” for managing a customer relationship comes when your business behaves differently toward that customer. We call this "customization" even though we're not necessarily talking about it in terms of literally customizing the product or service. But whenever I treat Customer A different from Customer B, based on what I think I know about their differences, I am "customizing" the customer's treatment.

If you’ve ever studied Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) academically, there's a good chance that these four steps – identify, differentiate, interact, and customize – are already familiar to you. Martha Rogers and I wrote and edited the CRM textbook for graduate-level business students, Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework, based on this “I-D-I-C” methodology. And at our consulting firm, Peppers & Rogers Group, a large proportion of the work we do can be understood in terms of dissecting how these tasks function (or don’t function) for a client’s organization.

But a couple of other things are worth pointing out about the I-D-I-C model of relationship management. The first two tasks – identifying customers and differentiating them – are steps that a company can take in the privacy of its own IT department. Your company has a database of individual customer records, you track the transactions of individual customers in order to better understand both their value and their needs, and yet the customer herself never really has to participate in the process. The customer, in fact, may not even be aware of the data you are compiling.

By contrast, the third step – interaction – demands the customer’s personal attention and participation. You can’t interact unless there’s someone else on the other end of the interaction, right? And the fourth step, customizing your behavior in some way to a particular customer, also involves the individual customer directly, as the "recipient" of this behavior.

So you could think of the first two steps of the I-D-I-C model as “analytical” CRM, while the next two steps are “operational” CRM. Analytical CRM is required to develop better customer insight, while operational CRM is how you deliver a specific customer experience.

Think about the process of managing your own customers’ individual relationships with your firm – through your Web site, your loyalty program, your contact center, at the point of purchase, or in after-sale service. In upcoming posts I’m going to show how literallyeverything your company does, with respect to managing individual customer relationships, can be understood in terms of how these four I-D-I-C steps are executed.

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Pentingnya Customer Relationship Management untuk Bisnis Anda

• ■Character Building
• ■Produktif

by Lastriani - Jan 19, 2014

0 475

Customer Relationship Management atau yang lebih sering disebut dengan CRM merupakan sebuah strategi perusahaan untuk menjalin hubungan dengan customer, serta memberikan pelayanan terbaik untuk setiap customer. Mungkin bagi sebagian perusahaan yang baru membangun dan berkembang jarang sekali memiliki perhatian akan hal ini, padahal CRM adalah suatu hal yang dapat membuat ikatan antara customer dengan bisnis Anda.

Sebagian dari Anda mungkin bertanya - tanya, apasih pentingnya CRM?

CRM menurut saya pribadi adalah suatu hal yang sangat penting, dan jika kita dapat menjalankan fungsi CRM dengan tepat maka kita akan dengan mudah mendapatkan customer baru dan dapat mempertahankan customer yang telah ada untuk tetap berlangganan dengan kita.

lalu apakah ada kemungkinan customer 100% akan berlangganan kembali dengan produk kita?

Mengenai kemungkinan 100% ini, saya tidak bisa menjamin. Karena sepengetahuan saya selama ini, jumlah % terbesar customer akan memperpanjang atau membeli produk kita lagi adalah sebesar 90%.  Alasannya sangat beragam, mulai dari selera setiap orang berbeda, karena ada produk yang sama dan harganya lebih terjangkau hingga karena pertama membeli product customer tersebut hanya coba –coba saja.

Ya semua itu memang informasi yang didapatkan dari customer, terus apakah yang harus kitalakukan agar customer lama kita kembali membeli produk kita?

Saran saya, manfaatkan fungsi CRM dengan tepat. CRM tidak hanya dengan memberikan diskon, tapi bisa juga dimulai dari hal yang kecil misalnya adalah mengucapkan selamat ulang tahun, selamat hari raya dan lain sebagainya. Hal yang menurut kita kecil, namun bagi customer memiliki arti yang besar  karena merasa diperhatikan.

Kegiatan CRM apakah yang membuat customer remind?

Setiap kegiatan CRM yang kita lakukan pasti akan diremind oleh customer. Namun remind yang paling kuat adalah kegiatan yang berhubungan dengan sosial atau hobi. Namun hal tersebut juga tidak bisa menjadi tolak ukur yang pasti jika Anda hanya menyelenggarakan kegiatan tersebut asal – asalan. Jadi Anda harus mempersiapkan semuanya sematang mungkin, sehingga pada waktu pelaksanaan acara customer merasa ini adalah penyelenggaraan professional dengan kemasan yang istimewa khas perusahaan Anda. Dan jangan lupa untuk selalu menyelipkan sedikit info mengenai product unggulan atau product baru Anda, namun sampaikan dengan cara tersirat dan tepat sasaran.

Jika fungsi CRM dapat dijalankan dengan benar apakah hal - hal yang akan berakibat padaperusahaan saya?

Manfaatnya sangat beragam, misalnya saja Anda bisa menggunakan customer Anda sebagai sarana promosi gratis. Tanpa Anda sadari customer Anda selalu mereferensikan produk Anda, jika mereka merasakan manfaatnya dan mendapat pelayanan prima. Kemudian bisa juga membuat customer Anda melakukan order ulang ataupun memperpanjang layanan. Dimana hal tersebut secara tersirat akan meningkatkan penjualan dan kesejahteraan karyawan perusahaan Anda. Hingga perusahaan Anda akan memiliki masa dalam melakukan suatu gerakan dan senangnya Anda tidak perlu terjun sendiri lagi karena customer Anda nantinya akan dapat dengan sukarela menyelenggarakan dan membantu, luar biasa bukan?

Apa yang harus Anda katakana pada customer Agar mereka tetap dan terus percaya?

1. Anda harus selalu berkata jujur atas semua pertanyaan atau pernyataan Anda.
2. Berikan apa yang menjadi hak customer
3. Buat customer merasa nyaman
4. Hindari kesalahan dan jika terjadi kesalahan maka segeralah meminta maaf
5. Jangan biarkan pegawai Anda menggunjing customer Anda, bagaimanapun mereka
6. Berikan layanan terbaik.

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CRM itu berkaitan dengan Customer Service lhoo

Salah satu materi Customer Service yang saya sukai ada disini

Managing customer service from Uj Gumilar

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Istilah dalam CRM

• Lead: A lead is a prospective customer. In a CRM system, prospective customers are first entered into the system as leads. You may collect leads from your marketing events such as conference, advertisement, trade show etc. The goal is to convert a lead into a customer. Not all leads will result in a sale and be converted into a customer. This lead will contain all the information about the contact or the account available at this sales stage.

• Potential: (also known as Opportunity):A potential is an opportunity to make a sale, i.e. a potential sale. When you determine a lead could generate a potential sale, the Lead will be converted to a Potential. In addition, an Account and Contact entries for this lead will be automatically created in the CRM system. Each businesses will determine when a lead should be converted to a potential. For example, a business may decide a lead that requests a quote can be converted to a Potential. The Lead entry will be deleted to avoid confusion and duplicate entries. All the information collected for the Lead is still available in the CRM system, but will now be presented in records for Contact, Account or Potential.

• Account: An Account is a customer account record for a customer or prospective customer. When a Lead is converted to a Potential, an Account for the prospective customer is automatically created in the CRM system.

• Contact: A Contact is the contact information for a given customer or prospective customer. When a Lead is converted to a Potential, a Contact for the prospective customer is automatically created in the CRM system.

• Quotes: A Quote is a records information for a sales quotation, i.e. price, quantities, and other terms, for a potential sale to prospects. The CRM system supports you in the creation of quotes for potential customers. A quotation can be created for a Potential, for easy and automatic transfer of the customer data to the quote.

• Purchase Order: A purchase order (PO) is a commercial document issued by a buyer to a seller, indicating types, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller will provide to the buyer. The Purchase Order is a formal notification and approval for a customer order, and kicks off the next stage in the sales process when the PO is received.

• Sales Order: A Sales Order is a document used internally by businesses to track and complete a customer order. A sales order may be for products and/or services. A CRM system allows you to record and manage Sales Orders and related information as part of your sales process. Once a quotation is approved, a Sales Order can be created directly from a Quote detail view. All the relevant data from existing records will be automatically populated in the Sales Order.

• Invoice: An invoice is a commercial document issued by a seller to the buyer, indicating the products, quantities, and agreed prices for products or services the seller has provided the buyer. Once a quotation is approved, an Invoice can be created directly from a Quote detail view. All the required data will be automatically added to the Invoice.

• Campaign: A Campaign (or Marketing Campaign) is a marketing effort to increase sales through a set of marketing activities. The goal of this effort is often to generate new leads and help convert them to new sales. A campaign can have other goals, e.g. improve the awareness or brand of the company. A CRM system can help manage, execute and monitor marketing campaigns.

• Product: A Product is a business offering from a business to it's customers. A CRM system allows a business to record it's Products and related information so that sales staff and other CRM users can use product information fully and correctly in their business activities.

• Vendor: A Vendor is a supplier of a product. The Inventory Management portion of a CRM system allows tracking of inventory being supplied by multiple Vendors.

• Price Books: A Price Book is a named collection of products and pricing created to serve a specific purpose, e.g. a segment of the market. For example, a business may have a Price Book for government sales, where prices are discounted, or include additional charges. Price Books in a CRM system allow sales staff to more easily quote prices when serving different types of customers that need differentiated pricing strategies.

• Trouble Ticket (sometimes called Service Request): A Trouble Ticket is a record of information related to a customer issue or service request. A CRM System, as well as many other Help Desk and Issue Tracking systems, use Trouble Tickets to capture, track, and manage, customer issues or service requests.

• Security Administration: The user security administration functions are the core of CRM security management, and are used to control the access to the CRM system for each user. vtiger CRM provides a privilege system that allows you to control who can view, edit, delete or create each type of CRM data. Roles, Profiles, and Groups, are used to make it easier to manage privileges for multiple users and managers, and eliminates the need to setup each privilege individually for each user. Instead, you can setup privileges for a Profile, and use the Profile for multiple users and Roles. Roles are organized hierarchically and a user can have multiple Roles, which provides an efficient way to assign privileges to users and managers performing multiple functions.

• Profiles: Profiles are a set of security privileges for executing CRM operations, and can be assigned to users. Profiles make it easier to control detailed security privileges without having to specify them individually for each user. Specific security privileges can be granted once in a Profile, and then assigned to users as needed.

• Roles: Role based security allows security setup using hierarchical roles that capture user and manager responsibilities in an organization. Each Role is primarily one or more Profiles, i.e. a set of security privileges. These Roles are then assigned to users. Security administration with role based security consists of determining the operations that must be executed by persons in particular jobs, and assigning Roles to users as needed.

• Groups: In addition to restricting security privileges for each type of data, vtiger CRM provides some security control to permit access to specific subsets of data. For example, you may need to setup access to data for a specific customer account so that specific people can see the data. For better manageability, the CRM allows to collect users and Roles in Groups. Specific data, e.g. a specific Account, can be assigned to the group so that everyone in the group has accesses to that data.

• Sharing Access: Sharing Access controls are used to determine what level of data sharing is enabled between users, e.g. can one salesperson see another's leads. By default the sharing access settings may allow all users to see all CRM records, even if the record is not assigned to them. Sharing Access allows you to restrict or allow such access for each type of CRM data.

• Field Access: Field Access is used to control visibility of specific fields in each module to users of the module. You can use this function to either show or hide particular fields to the entire organization. Default field access settings include custom fields you may have created before. By default it is configured to display all data provided in the CRM system.

• Tag Cloud: Tag Clouds are a convenience for CRM data access that has been tagged with labels. They are designed to improve the usability of the CRM by making it easier to access. They help to categorize the records based on a user's requirement from categories set by the CRM system. Tag Clouds are used to pool objects based on subjective or other values.

• Calendar Reminder: Each user can activate an activity reminder function by setting a reminder interval in My Preferences. If activated a popup browser window will be displayed every time an activity is due. The popup window displays the time, status, and subject of an activity. It offers you the options to postpone or to close a reminder message. If postponed the message will popup again after the next reminder interval until it is closed.

• Chat Functionality: The chat functions offered by the CRM provides instant messaging capabilities in a form of real-time communication between two or more CRM users. The CRM offers public as well as a private chat capabilities in so-called chat rooms. The public chat allows all CRM users to share a common chat room where each user can read all messages and can contribute if desired. The private chat room serves as a platform for the communications between two users.

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Hati-hati, proyek CRM anda bisa gagal !!

WARNING: CRM project pitfalls ahead!

Given the scope and complexity of a typical CRM project, there are plenty of opportunities for things to go awry. And go awry they often do.

Here are some of the mistakes that most commonly undermine your CRM initiative, as nominated by a panel of experts.

For those of you that are about to undertake a CRM project, take note! And for those of you that have recently deployed CRM – are there any pitfalls that we’ve missed?

Trying to do too much, too soon

“When implementing change in any aspect of a business it’s all too easy to see the end goal and want to achieve it as quickly as possible,” says Julie Hessselgrove, group president of Xerox CMS. “Instead, invest in an evolutionary manner, rather than going for it all at once. To be successful, you should consider creating a transformation roadmap based on your overall strategy and implement it incrementally.”

Webalytix CRM strategist Kate Amos adds: “Trying to do too much too soon and investing in advance CRM software before the business is ready. It is much better to start with a very basic approach and achieve success with this approach before developing a more complex CRM strategy which is support by advance CRM software.”

Failing to secure buy-in from top to bottom of the organisation

“It needs complete buy-in from the team that cascades from senior managers down,” explains Andrew Brittain, MD of digital agency Advantec. “If teams understand a system and the objectives that the whole business is working towards, then they are more far likely to buy-in to it, to use systems correctly and to start seeing results!”

Creating a CRM system without collaboration with those who will be using it

“Creating a CRM strategy and system in isolation from the people who will actually be using it is a common mistake,” notes Matthew Walko, head of strategy at Omobono. “It’s vital to understand the needs and requirements of end users and to include them in the process so that the end product is gratefully adopted, as opposed to forced upon them. The CRM system should be selected based on CRM objectives, customer needs and end user requirements.”

Failing to properly plan CRM’s integration into existing systems

“Failing to think about and plan how a CRM system will be integrated within a business’ existing operational systems can lead to problems, such as doubling up on entries or missing data,” says Brittain. “Check all the dots will be joined together. If the process is not logical and easy, it can lead to negativity and time wasting. Can all team members get what they need from the system?  Can it easily be updated? Can reports and analysis be produced quickly?”

Failing to take adoption and change management into account

“Businesses often forget to ensure CRM will be adopted by end users, they seem to neglect to introduce mechanisms for convincing users to utilise the new solution, which can cause failure of CRM implementation,” suggests Marcin Malinowski, Head of International Services at Outbox. “This should be planned in the early stages of strategy development.”

Using fragmented solutions instead of a single centralised on

“The most common mistake is to allow different business units to run their processes in different ways, with different platforms and with different suppliers,” says Hesselgrove. “This makes innovation expensive and slow. A centralised communications solution, shared throughout a company is far better practice.”

Prioritising the technology ahead of the customer

“Another common mistake is that they don’t put the customer at the centre of their strategy; they invest in a CRM software solution before creating a CRM strategy and find they are bound to the strictures that software applies to their policies and procedures,” suggests John Everhard, technical director at Pegasystems.

Focusing on quick wins rather than taking a holistic view

“Some companies choose not to look holistically at customer relationship management and instead look for ‘quick win’ solutions that on the surface may appear to have near term benefits, but in reality do not solve the bigger challenges with customer relationship management,” highlights Yossi Zohar, head of product and partner marketing, customer management division at Amdocs.

“For example, a company may want to increase online sales by installing a shiny new eommerce platform in their website, but neglect to integrate this platform into their ordering system and product catalogue. On the surface, customers may be able to order more easily, but the lack of integration may cause undetected errors in order entry that lead to order fallout, delays and customer frustration. Such mistakes also cause inconsistencies between channels. A customer that sees an offer online and then calls the contact centre to order may find that the offer is no longer available, which may cause frustration and abandonment. Other companies may choose to focus on deploying a business intelligence and analytics platform that predicts customers likelihood to switch to the competition, but do not complement these predictions with guidance to the customer-facing agents on how to handle the customer in real time.”

Underestimating the ongoing resources required to maintain CRM

“The most common mistake is to underestimate the time it takes to maintain an up to date CRM system, keeping contacts / notes up to date and ensure all staff are involved and working smartly with the same system,” says Sylvain Reiter, Development Director atCyber-Duck. “The biggest failing of any CRM is neglect, this comes through lack of/poor procedures or incentives for maintaining and updating contacts.”

Underestimating the importance of social media to modern CRM

“When developing a CRM strategy, businesses often make the mistake of overlooking social media and failing to see it as an integral component of their overall strategy,” says Zohar. “Companies need to embrace the social media revolution and meet customers on their terms. For the most part they are not leveraging the power of social media even though, according to recent research of the telecoms industry, half of smartphone customers looking for support have complained on social media. What’s more, three out of four of these complaints are not addressed or resolved, resulting in almost 80 percent calling the contact centre. This means that operators are missing the opportunity to reduce the operating costs by deflecting calls to a low cost channel. Furthermore, they are missing an even greater opportunity to learn more about their customers, as a whopping 64 percent would share their social media identity if their problems could be resolved over social media.”

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Bagaimana memilih konsultan CRM?

How to successfully select a CRM consultant

 

Do you need a third party consultant to ensure your CRM project successfully crosses the finishing line?

The complexities surrounding a CRM deployment are sometimes only compounded by the number of third parties that are involved in such an endeavour.

Richard Boardman, founder of Mareeba Consulting, summarises the activity that typically characterises a large CRM project.  

“While a business can buy something like Salesforce.com, subscribe to it and customise it themselves so that there is only the one party involved, if there is any kind of complexity, you are going to have at least an implementation partner and a technology provider. The technology provider is what sells the likes of Salesforce.com, which develops the technology, while the implementation partners are smaller organisations focused on product-specific implementation services – so their job might be to configure the system to sort processes, do some data migration from your existing CRM system and integrate your system to the financial system, for example.”

But then there is also the option to bring in independent CRM consultancy.

“Traditionally, the CRM consultant has been heavily involved in the technology selection process because choosing the right CRM software has never been the easiest of tasks,” notes Boardman. “There’s a lot of technology options, and then throw into the mix the marketing hype, the claims and counterclaims of competing salespeople, and the knowledge that the wrong selection can doom a project; it’s no surprise that organisations turn to the independent consultant for help in making the right choice.”

However, this is only part of the consultant’s role. And Boardman suggests there are five other key areas where CRM consultants can earn their crust:

• Feasibility and planning – consultants are helping businesses determine whether a CRM project makes sense in the first place and in what form. This involves helping define the business case, estimate cost and resource requirements, evaluate different options and identify key implementation considerations so that organisations can make a dispassionate assessment whether to proceed, and can structure a project in a way that the potential return on investment is maximised.
• Requirements definition – defining and documenting business and functional requirements for a CRM system, and helping organisations re-engineer or introduce new business processes in order to benefit from the technology, can be a demanding process. It is also essential to being able to make the right technology choice, and has a big impact on the speed of the downstream implementation. However, it’s not easy to do unless you have a good working knowledge of CRM technology, which means it’s often an area best performed by an outside specialist.
• Negotiating pricing and terms – while many organisations would feel they are strong negotiators, CRM consultants have very specific knowledge as to what’s achievable through negotiation with each vendor, and perhaps more importantly can review implementation estimates to spot any excess fat. It’s not uncommon for a consultant to reduce the initially quoted price very significantly, and clients can get a very big return from a very brief engagement.
• Implementation - the implementation phase is also an area that consultants are increasingly playing a role, either as project managers, or more commonly mentoring the client’s project manager, who may not have extensive experience of managing CRM projects. While the instances of outright project failure are rarer these days; budget overruns, and missed live dates are common place, which means that companies look to get specialist advice to keep things on track.
• Working with existing systems - the big growth area in CRM consultant involvement has been for businesses wrestling with the decision as to whether to replace an existing system. Systems often under perform as a result of a poor implementation or user adoption issues, rather than a fault with the underlying technology. Re-implementing existing software can be considerably cheaper than buying a new system, but organisations often need outside guidance as to whether they are ‘salvageable’. For those that choose the re-implementation option, getting help ensuring ‘it’s done properly this time around’, is also common theme.

Whether you would best off hiring in the skills of a CRM consultant is dependent on your company’s particular circumstances. But in all likelihood some consultancy usually proves valuable. This is borne out by the popularity of this kind of third party assistance, with statistics demonstrating just how big a part consultancy plays in most CRM projects.

According to Ed Thompson, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner Research, while there are examples at either extreme, on average 55% of work on a CRM project is done internally, and 45% is done by external third parties – meaning either by the software vendor or a business consultant or an IT technical system integration consultant.

Software vendors often provide assistance beyond mere provision of the tools, including the likes of training, so there is a temptation to rely solely on the provider for external consultancy, if only to keep costs down. However, as noted by Bill Band, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, vendors can have their limitations in this capacity.

“Most software companies traditionally have good technical skills, but they don’t have the strong strategic of business process skills,” he warns. “For this reason we generally always recommend you should work with a systems integrator to implement CRM solutions, whether they are Cloud or not.”

Thompson also highlights that of the four types of head count that typically characterise a CRM project – which is internal business people, external business people, internal IT people and external IT people – there is a tendency to under-estimate the value of external business consulting advice.

“A lot of businesses don’t think they need any help, and then they suddenly realise that they need someone to perhaps redesign their sales process, or they would like some expertise in incentive compensation plan design or some assistance with how to do pricing configuration on an ecommerce platform or maybe some analytics expertise,” he says. “So a lot of organisations think they can do it themselves – but then further along the process they realise they don’t know what they’re doing and start getting some help in at that point.”

So if the hiring of a consultant is appealing, how can you ensure that you maximise the chances of it being a fruitful relationship? Here are some valuable tips.

Do your research

When you’re evaluating CRM consultants, do your due diligence. Chris Bucholtz, director of content marketing at Relayware, advises that you seek out consultants that have case study libraries that demonstrate their success.

He writes: “Ask prospective consultants if they have case studies for you to peruse, and then read them with a critical eye… Case studies offer a chance for consultants to show they know what they're doing and what their roles should be; if a consultant can't do that, you may want to think twice before sealing a deal.”

Marcin Malinowski, head of international services at Outbox, also suggests digging into other vital details about potential candidates. “Look at the sustainability of their business - will they exist in a few years? Losing a valuable service and finding a replacement can be an arduous process. And also consider value for money - sniff around for the best deal. After all, it is a competitive market.”

Look for experience in the same vertical as your organisation

“One thing that system integrators can bring that software vendors don’t have is an understanding of specific industries,” says Band. “We always encourage the clients to make sure they look for the consultant to bring insight and information about their industry to the project. You don’t want general consultants, you want people that know your industry, and that's where SIs can add value.”

Bucholtz recommends that when you ask for customer references when speaking with consultants, that you specifically request feedback from those in the same industry as you, and also ask to speak with them. “This will not only give you a feel for the effectiveness of the consultant in areas that are important to you, but also help you gauge the consultant's ability to think creatively about your vertical market,” he notes.

Be clear about exactly what you need/expect from the relationship

Malinowski says: “An important thing to remember is to communicate exactly what your expectations from your consultant are, and confirm those requirements in writing. This will avoid any embarrassing and difficult conversations further down the line.”

This, of course, demands that you yourselves are crystal clear about what it is that you want from your implementation.

“If you as a customer can't describe where your company wants to go, a consultant will face an impossible task,” highlights Bucholtz. “The consultant can attempt to guess and put a system in place that requires extensive retrofitting; or beg you to provide a clearer view of things; or - if you've chosen someone with a nefarious streak - view your company as a spigot from which unlimited cash may flow. All three of these less-than-optimal scenarios can be avoided if you do your homework ahead of time.”

Ensure you know who is involved

“You have to really understand what team you’re actually going to get to work on your project,” emphasises Band. “All of the big guys have thousands of people that work in their CRM practices and it really comes down to who’s going to work with you. It doesn’t really matter if Accenture has done 5,000 projects, it only matters about the ten guys that you’re going to have working on your project. And that can be a challenge to find out.”

David Taber, CEO of SalesLogistix, agrees and provides the following advice: “Don’t let the integrator play the ‘our finest staff’ game. Make them name names, show specific resumes and provide guaranteed levels of effort for the key individuals across the life of the project. Look at the CVs of the team, as much for their prior industry experience as for their consulting gigs. Titles matter. Look for span-of-control and specific process verbiage in the CV.”

Malinowski also recommends that businesses get references for the team members that are assigned to their project. “Ask for customer experiences and references – like purchasing any product or service, see what people have got to say.”

So do you need a consultant?

As highlighted earlier, whether you decide to use a consultant or not will depend on your own specific circumstances. Even then, certainly there are pros and cons.

“It is a given that there will be politics, natural born cynicism and resistance, and good old reluctance to change that will surround the implementation regardless of whether it is a consultant or in-house. There are pluses and minuses to each,” warns Mike Muhney, CEO of vipOrbit.

“The vendor presumably is exclusively focused on the challenges and requirements necessary to implement a successful CRM system, whereas internally it may be nothing more than another project. Conversely in-house would have a higher level of accountability with the greater expected understanding of the overall needs of the organisation and its culture.”

Malinowski adds: “Some of the pros of using an independent consultant are gaining experience and expertise hard to find internally. But the flip side is the strain on management that can occur when taking on a consultant. Ultimately, the quest to find your ideal CRM consultant is always the hardest part.”

However, hopefully the advice above will make your quest a successful one.

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