CRM Unplugged Releasing CRM’s Strategic Value pot

[...]... marketplace CRM must be implemented in this tailored manner to truly help improve value for customers, strengthen competitive 14 A New, More Strategic Approach to CRM position, and boost business performance The new approach first determines the distinctive activities within the firm’s value chain before creating agendas and committing investments to CRM To illustrate the strategic approach to CRM, consider... trends should drive CRM agendas Initial CRM implementations or enhancements to existing CRM infrastructure should be based on adequate information and perspective about customers and the firm’s demand environment Once implemented, CRM should allow organizations to see beyond the boundaries of the internal enterprise, and collect, analyze, and leverage such insight 5 CRM Unplugged 3 CRM must be implemented... how CRM could strengthen their specific competitive advantages, and instead embarked on expensive efforts to adopt Best Practices embedded within CRM software applications or automate their existing processes regardless of their strategic value Therefore, 3 CRM Unplugged most ended up with implementations poorly tailored to their specific competitive needs As a result, few of those who pursued CRM. .. More Strategic Approach to CRM A commonly accepted business-oriented definition of CRM from research firm Gartner is as follows: Gartner defines CRM as a business strategy that maximizes profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing around customer segments, fostering behavior that satisfies customers and implementing customer-centric processes To achieve the long-term value of CRM, ... strategy and help generate enduring returns We hope to show how CRM should be defined, approached, and profitably applied to your business We describe what went wrong and what lessons can be learned from the first phase of investment in CRM The title of the book CRM Unplugged captures a vital lesson that most early adopters had to learn the hard way: CRM really isn’t about technology, it is about attracting... tools provided by CRM are important to efficient operations and—as we will see— powerful tools that help create competitive advantage At its core, CRM is about pursuing more profitable relationships with customers and any company wishing to succeed must adopt this strategic direction The key lies in understanding CRM better and the specific way it should be applied to individual businesses CRM is a business... activities that improve quality and profitability of customer relationships Examples of these are included within our third category, Strategic Ideas 11 CRM Unplugged Strategic Ideas • Customer-centric organizational approaches • Segmentation Approaches for segmenting customers by value and needs and using such distinctions to prioritize and tailor marketing, sales, and service activities throughout the firm... strategy This section outlines these approaches and Chapters 3 through 6 cover them in more detail CRM Must Be Approached Strategically and Linked to Clear Business Gains A major element of past failures has been the tendency to implement CRM ideas and technologies without first identifying the firm’s key 13 CRM Unplugged levers of competitive advantage Higher prices, improved market share, or cost advantages... success with CRM However, none pursued it in conventional ways.What emerged from our study were clear patterns in how CRM should be approached to achieve lasting returns.We introduce three key approaches in this chapter and cover each in more detail in subsequent chapters: 1 CRM is not just a technology initiative; it must be approached strategically When initiated with this perspective, CRM can produce... important to understand that CRM is both a business approach to improved management of customer operations and a collection of technologies to assist in automating those operations This is a critical distinction that many early adopters failed to realize By treating CRM primarily as a technology, they focused only on a secondary aspect and unknowingly reduced the significant strategic value it can deliver .