Are You Ready for 2008?
Earlier this week I attended the Gartner CRM Summit. The event kicked off with a keynote from distinguished analyst Scott Nelson, Gartner’s managing vice president, application strategy and governance. Nelson shared some expectations and predictions regarding customer strategy and technology for the coming year.
According to Gartner research, the number one way CEOs expect to see revenue growth for their organizations over the next three years is by building closer relationships with customers. (This is followed by performance improvement initiatives, developing the markets in their home country and internationally, and mergers and acquisitions.)
These CEOs, however, will face some challenges in getting there. Through year end 2008, Nelson said, 25 percent of CRM projects will be postponed or cancelled because of CRM skills shortages in consulting and systems integration. Additionally, over that same time frame more than 80 percent of marketing professionals will fail to capitalize on the next wave of customer interaction for people 25 years old or younger, he predicted.
If you’re online (and who isn’t…), Nelson said, don’t think that other companies in your industry are your only competition. Companies like Amazon are your “competitors” too, he explained, because they’ve set the bar for customer expectations—and your customers will increasingly look to you to deliver an Amazon-like experience.
They’ll also be looking to you for a better mobile experience, he said. Not just in offering mobile services (like flight updates), but also for purchasing and customer service. Companies need to be prepared, for example, for a continued increase in calls from mobile phones to the contact center. Customers don’t want to have to ‘press one’ or type in their account number only to have to repeat it to an agent (which no one likes from any type of phone…) when they call in for service from their mobile phones, especially since they may be driving, Nelson said.
Nelson stressed the value of being what he called an intent-driven organization, and the importance of creating processes to make that happen. In other words, companies need to be proactive and use customer interactions and data to find opportunities to grow the relationship. He gave an example of his bank’s missed opportunity: They failed to offer him a new mortgage when he called in to change his checking account to a branch in another state because he was moving. (They finally got around to it, sending an expensive direct mail piece three months after he was settled into his new house and had a mortgage from another bank.)
Nelson also shared five pieces of advice for CRM success over the next year:
Growth Justify CRM in the short term with cost savings, but also show how it aids growth in the long term.
Innovation Innovation from CRM vendors is important, but when considering a technology purchase, also carefully weigh the company’s long-term viability. After all, Nelson noted, more than 35 CRM applications vendors merged in the past 18 months.
Pain points The most important element of any CRM initiative? The people. Don’t forget the organizational transformation and training necessary for any customer strategy or technology implementation to succeed.
Cost Plan for CRM-related costs to increase in the next year due to the expertise shortage of consultants and systems integrators.
The future Consumer power will continue to increase through social networks, etc. Be prepared.
