Comments CRM through the looking glass
My daughter and I are currently reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and I have fallen in love with the book all over again.
I particularly love the way it plays on language and incorporates nonsense rhymes and riddles that delight children and (in my case) adults alike. As we were reading the chapter ‘A Mad Tea Party’ something registered with me when Alice said (and I paraphrase here), “I say what I mean – at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.’ She is immediately rebuffed by the Hatter who says, `Not the same thing a bit! You might just as well say that “I see what I eat” is the same thing as “I eat what I see”!‘
It reminded me of a conversation I had some time ago with with Paul Greenberg on Twitter regarding CRM; where it is going, and its relationship to Social. My point was that I felt that Social and the concept of Social CRM is helping re-dress the balance from ‘system-centric’ Customer Relationship Management to ’people-centric’ Customer-Managed Relationships, again two very different topics when you begin to explore them. Glad to say that Paul agreed.
Now, I’m not about to become all Queen of Hearts and declare, “off with her CRM Head!” as unlike some commentators, I do not believe that CRM is dead. I do see however that its role has shifted from a point of differentiation for business to more of a commodity purchase, every year attempting to re-invent itself with a plug-in for something outside of its core, system-centric functionality that is generally regarded as being innovative (‘Twitter/Facebook’ feeds anyone! *sigh*).
The Customer-Managed Relationship is in fact the way that 21st century organisations need to view the world when they design User Experiences, whether for their customers or the customer-facing agents themselves. More time needs to be spent looking at their business and their processes from the customer-in perspective and asking ‘does this improve the customer experience?’ This reflection alone is the first step through which organisations will uncover their points of competitive differentiation, how they will discover their brand values and, in particular, those values that drive loyalty, retention, and customer advocacy.
This is where Customer Experience Management comes in as it deals with the actual process of engaging and servicing the customer and doing this whilst ensuring that the experience is consistent across all of the customer-facing channels. Any CEM architecture works from the perpsective of customer-in, not system-out, and ultimately creates a layer where the need to deliver content and process to the plethora of customer-interaction channels (and devices) has to be managed consistently across the enterprise. It also provides a layer of process orchestration, and with that the ability to build optimised experiences for the customer from a defined library of existing modules, services, and applications.
Where traditional CRM applications are concerned we are through the looking glass and in a world where the old laws of engagement no longer work. Think about it, Gartner predicts that by 2015 online usage through mobile devices will outstrip that of desktop machines, largely fuelled by ’the social customer’ who demands an instantaneous response to requests for information and service. Imagine placing some of these customers in front of organisations who consistently ask them to identify themselves (many times) to each channel as part of the same CRM-driven ‘customer’ process during a single-end-to-end interaction like applying for a Mortgage Loan. Doesn’t bear thinking about does it?
So when traditional CRM vendors begin speaking about Customer Experience Management then beware because in essence, although related, CEM and CRM start from diametrically opposed positions. Beware of chasing the White Rabbit down a system-centric CRM rabbit hole, you might just find yourself in Alice’s Wonderland too, a confusing place filled with riddles and strange characters who are not what they seem. I’d look out for the Mock Customer if you get there. They’re not really a customer at all just more of a database entry who used to think they were a customer but after being marketed, cross-sold, and up-sold to at every interaction point they retreated to a melancholy, dis-engaged place. You have been warned!
I’m signing off now, my eldest is reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Not sure there’s a blog in there but if there is I’ll let you know.
Interesting article, I think the need/ability to be able to quickly identify a customer across a range new/existing channels presents a huge technological challenge – the next steps on secure identity management with banks introducing contactless payement cards where identity confirmation is not required will certainly be interesting.
How do you identify the same customer if they chose to communicate via mobile phone browser, via a phonecall from a landline or via Twitter? as Media diversifies and becomes faster and simpler, the challenge for customer identification grows wider and more diverse.
I agree that CRM systems do feel postively ‘clunky’ now as you give your particulars as part of the user experience, but the service and treatment you get while you confirm who you are is a massive signpost to me about many organisations and their attitude towards helping you.
A certain highstreet bank relentlessly persues me for a customer service review and asks predictable scripted questions everytime I enter the branch. This is CRM at its worst – it’s just an opportunity for ‘upsell’ as you say and it does feel tiresome. Perhaps they could ask me how often I would like a review and programme their system to respond in that way – it feels far too much like revenue generation for them than finding new ways to help the customer or avenues to add value.
Incidentally, I’m expecting our first child in the next few weeks, so now I’ll be thinking about CRM while reading ‘Very hungry caterpillar’ – so much media being consumed by
one customer…how do you recongnise them still when they contact you as a butterfly?!?
Great comments Mike and thanks for reading. I have 3 children but all I can say is that the first one ages you the most – sorry – good luck!
My view on CRM (now as a veteran) is a bit like how I felt about The Matrix, it all started so promisingly and then…you know where I’m going right. In its days CRM was revolutionary (at least as a business philosophy) and I do believe that as we embraced telephone banking and call centres in general there was a benefit back to the customer. But that was the late 90s/early Noughties.
What we’ve had since then masquearding as Customer Relationship Management has been a pitiful attempt to streamline organisational processes and cut costs at the expense of really understanding the needs of the customer. Who actually appreciates being cross-sold/up-sold too?
Anyway I’m glad the post stimulated such a great response. Good luck with your impending arrival and get as much sleep as you can now. I’m liking the Very Hungry Caterpillar idea and look forward to reading you blog on the concept – something to do with feeding your customers and giving them what you have now then watching them disappear as the butterfly lifestage beckons..you’ve got me thinking now!
Thanks Jamie, advice on all those fronts appreciated, really nice conversing with you.
Best wishes,
Mike