How can a CRM 2.0 strategy look like, what are the requirements and drawbacks?
Considerations:
Today, with services and more service providers crowding the saturated market, consumers are bombarded with choices. Their attention is a rare commodity. How can a service provider stand out? As the competitive landscape becomes more crowded, and as companies and service offerings converge, the boundaries between service providers are becoming blurred and customers’ ability to differentiate one provider from another more difficult. Lower prices or more complete network coverage are no longer enough to sustain competitive differentiation in a marketplace where connectivity has become a commodity. A primary source of differentiation is emerging: the customer experience. Suddenly, the quality of customer management functions—marketing, sales and ordering, customer care, service and repair—are becoming central to a company’s ability to stand out from the growing competition. (Amdocs CM Statement of Direction) A CRM 2.0 strategy has to be a true two way communication. In traditional CRM a company 'manages' customers. With the empowerment of consumers through the web 2.0, this one way (or inside out) view has to change in order to create a unique experience that customers are looking for. It requires a dramatic change of the business model, putting the customer truly in the middle of any actions and the core strategy. It does not mean that companies need to hug and kiss every single customer and it does not mean that the customer dictates products and innovation. But putting the customer in the center means that they are involved in the process from the very beginning (even in the process of strategy definition) and are listened to much more carefully. The Mission and Vision statement should be revised and carefully thought over with this background as well. It should be the basis for a CRM 2.0 strategy which needs to go into more detail and in the end define a technology and/or platform that can deliver the functionality required to execute this strategy efficiently. "CRM IS NO LONGER A MODEL FOR MANAGING CUSTOMERS BUT ONE OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT" (Martin Schneider, SugarCRM presentation) Beacuse of that I prefer to call CRM 2.0 the " Next Generation Customer Relationship Model" because the term Management implies the old command and control structure to me...  Creating a unique Customer Experience is more than delivering superior customer service (although this is a critical part of it). Creating an Experience means that the customer has the feeling that she/he gets a great value from using the products or services. This can happen on all price levels and with almost all kinds of products and services. Customers that are buying because of the experience are willing to pay a premium that in the end can make a product, brand and a company successful by gaining the competitive advantage to stand out from the rest of the market players. The Experience is something that a consumer can identify with - something she/he would recommend and gets an advocate for. It has nothing to do with luxury, but it has something to do with feeling luxury... By creating an Experience, even commodities can be sold at a higher price to loyal customers. Innovation is also a central part of a companies overall strategy and should be included in a CRM 2.0 strategy. A. G. Lafley suggests in his book "The Game Changer" that companies should be centered on innovation. But he admits himself, that innovation that does not bring value to customers is nonsense... In a CRM 2.0 strategy, the process of innovation should be influenced internally AND externally (by engaging customers):  The Web 2.0 will increase the influence of customers on innovation massively. Companies that actively support this development will profit from it and gain competitive advantage while companies ignoring it and staying with the old fashioned 'isolated' innovation process might not be able to create a customer experience that makes customers loyal (and advocates). Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (2007) found three trends initiating a new era:
Sam Lawrence made up a good point about involving customers (as part of a CRM 2.0 strategy) - It is not sufficient to make information public and hope users will talk about it, there is more effort required to initiate a fruitful discussion that the company and consumers will profit from... Chris Brogan has collected a huge checklist that should be kept in mind when introducing social media to an enterprise or a CRM strategy. Platforms CRM 2.0 Implementation steps (phases)
       
What we need is to fix customers, by giving them tools that make them more than slaves that companies “acquire”, “capture”, “retain” and otherwise “own”. And more than “resources” as well. As it says here, our reach needs to exceed their grasp. That’s the challenge. To meet it we need inventions that mother the necessity." |
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