Creating an effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategy is different for each company. Yet, there are three key steps which we would suggest to take into account and which can be applied to building any CRM strategy. These three steps to a successful CRM strategy are:
- setting the direction
- reviewing the current situation
- creating a plan
A CRM strategy which is developed in isolation is ineffective. It should function in linkage with the overall corporate strategy, and should base on existing sales or marketing strategies. Following the below three steps will ensure that your CRM strategy will succeed.
1. Set the direction: The goals derived from the vision of the company are the future direction of the company’s CRM strategy. The company’s leadership and the selected CRM strategy will be something the vision will be dependent on.
When building the strategy, ensure that the CRM vision coordinates the company’s future environment in terms of customer experience and profitability. During the initial stages of developing the CRM vision and strategy (CRM initiative), it is important to have the leadership and governance structure agreed upon and the roles allocated before it is influenced by change management upon employees.
2. Review the existing situation: In evaluating the starting point, such factors as skills, resources, competitors, partners and customers need to be reviewed. Identifying the maturity of the current approach to CRM is important before starting the CRM initiative. Existing or past attempts to create a CRM strategy are common for most organizations. Either these were successful or failed, there are usually serve as a foundation for a new CRM strategy.
Using audit is an excellent means to assess the company against similar entities in the same or related industry. A perfect way to measure the company’s being far behind or ahead is a competitive advantage.
There are many other types of audit besides these two approaches. Anyway, using as many of these evaluation approaches as possible is great to prepare for building the CRM strategy.
3. Make a plan: Developing a CRM strategy may take a lot of time and require multiple changes applied to it. This is why it is important to properly plan everything before starting.
A good CRM strategy shows how a company is going to achieve the CRM vision. It is the integrated plan for achieving sales, marketing and customer service goals. Therefore, it must reveal the following aspects:
- the ideal customer base
- products or services to be sold, to whom, at what price and through which channels.
Besides, it must also be able to address much more company-wide topics such as:
- the best way to build customer loyalty
- the way the company will connect with a customer to create a positive experience
- the drivers for the customers to recommend the company, brand and products to others more often to the point when they are willing to pay a premium price.
Setting the direction, reviewing the current situation and making a plan is a recurrent process. It may require multiple revisions before a final CRM strategy is successfully created. The main challenge is to avoid speeding up the strategy creation process, as this will lead to many years of change for the company.
And when the strategy si defined, the next logical step is choosing between CRM software development or purchase. We will come back to this topic on our next postings.
See also: CRM Software History
