Oct 02 2012

“If The Software is So Good, Why Won’t Your People Use It? ” Webinar Highlights

By John Chan, ISM Software Lab Director

Attendee polling questions show most companies feel they need improvement in their CRM user adoption.

On September 18, 2012, Barton Goldenberg, president of ISM, presented a Webinar titled “If The Software is So Good, Why Won’t Your People Use It?”. Highlights follow:

Managing CRM Success requires strategic vision, a structured approach, securing high user adoption and a solid value proposition.

Key CRM risks include: executive team not being on board, little/no commitment to process enhancement, unwillingness to commit to change, failure to be metrics-based, PPT out of whack, (e.g., technology-driven) and lack of user adoption (little/no What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)).

Securing High User Adoption requires WIIFM, data standards & integrity, executive leadership, meaningful change management (e.g., effective communications, continuous training, a champion program, impactful incentives, and a focus on user experience).

Executive Leadership requires following this quote when implementing software: “If management doesn’t embrace the concept, we can’t expect employees to openly accept the concept. The concept is new to everyone and we have to start out slow, fine tune the process and build upon small successes”. Furthermore, executive leadership should set the future direction of CRM in which ISM increasingly sees influenced by the trends of mobile CRM, social CRM and Gamification (the use of applying game-like elements to non-game environments to influence behavior).

In meaningful change management – awareness will lead to understanding, leading to acceptance, then involvement and finally commitment.

CRM has a solid value proposition which will lead to greater productivity, lower costs, stronger employee morale, enhanced customer knowledge, higher customer satisfaction, improved customer loyalty/retention and superior decision making. ISM has found that companies using a CRM application outperform companies not using CRM by 44% in terms of revenue per employee.

During the Webinar, participants answered three polling questions. Results are:

1. Our organization has fully integrated CRM into the way we conduct our day-to-day business and as a result our CRM software usage is very high.

Yes – 14%; Kind Of – 43%; Not at this time: 43%

2. Did/does your organization apply a structured methodology to drive its CRM success?

Yes – 30%; Kind Of – 30%; Not at this time: 40%

3. Does your organization regularly measure CRM user adoption and take steps to bring this metric to its highest level?

Yes – 9%; Kind Of – 45%; Not at this time: 45%

If any readers would like to comment on Barton’s key highlights concerning CRM user adoption and increasing the use of software by company staff, please feel free to post your comments on the ISM Blog.

To access an archived recording of ISM’s, click here and scroll down to the If The Software is So Good, Why Won’t Your People Use It? Webinar listing.

Tags: , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 12:19 pm

Mar 23 2012

Focus on CRM & Social Media at Gartner 360 Customer Summit Draws Crowds

By Jean Young, Vice President, ISM Inc.

“There was a 50 percent increase in attendance from last year,” bragged one of the busy Gartner staff at the recent Customer 360 Summit in Orlando. She and a hard-working analyst and executive staff had every reason to feel good since the topics — CRM, Social CRM and Social Media Communities — were the draw.

I was there with one of the few non-Gartner speakers, ISM’s founder and president, Barton Goldenberg, who helped lead the CRM industry from a software vendor environment to the customer centric focus of today. “This feels a lot like the late 1980’s and 1990’s when every company knew they couldn’t compete without CRM,” he observed.

Goldenberg, one of the first three inductees in the CRM Hall of Fame, also knows there is a new face at the ball that everyone wants to dance with: “Social”. Social CRM, Social Media Networking, Social Media Communities, Social Media Analytics – the list went on and on, one session after the other.

The workshops and small user groups were the place for the doers to express concerns, ask questions, and admit there is a long way to go before CRM and Social CRM are truly integrated and produce predictable and reliable results.

Goldenberg, who led such a workshop, examined the issues challenging many of the attendees: privacy, ROI, analytics, and the pull of a cross-functional team (e.g., customer service, sales, marketing, legal, and PR). But there are also success stories, and Goldenberg discussed several of ISM’s clients, including Kraft, Marriott, Macmillan and AAA. In a well-attended session co-presented with a Macmillan executive, he gave his formula for success. “Get the mix of People-Process-Technology right and go for it. A toe in the water does not work with Social Media.”

Tags: , , , Posted by - jennifermq @ 10:07 am

Jul 21 2011

Trend: Customer Assistance Options Meets Social CRM

Today, companies are relying on Social Media to assist their CRM users and as budgets get tighter, many companies using CRM solutions are embracing Social Media as a cost-effective method to improve their customer assistance options with their clients rather than increasing sales resources.

According to Salesforce.com’s VP of product marketing for its Service Cloud Unit Fergus Griffin, the CRM space has evolved from support focused on traditional contact centers to support concentrated in the cloud, where agents can interact with their customers in real-time on social networks. The tide is shifting from the days when a customer picks up the phone to call a help line to address or solve a problem. More and more, customers share their frustrations or seek resolution on Twitter or Facebook, hoping to illicit a response from friends and/or the company.

Today, savvy businesses are using social media channels to reduce costs (for example, through call deflection and customer-generated contributions to their knowledge bases), increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhance their brand image, acquire new customers, perform market research, identify insights and innovation, and validate marketing messages and product concepts.  We see more organizations building online communities for customer assistance, which will come with tight integration into other CRM processes.  Through an online forum or Social Media networks, customers can gain immediate access to experts ready to provide assistance on a variety of topics.

Many CRM vendors are pushing hard into social media and customer assistance solutions including NetSuite, Oracle, and SugarCRM. CRM and Social Media is evolving and so naturally customer assistance options will increase in the future CRM marketplace.

Tags: , , , Posted by - John Chan @ 4:51 pm

Jun 15 2011

Social CRM Begins to Penetrate the CRM Marketplace

CRM’s integration with social media is creating a new social element in traditional CRM processes: Social CRM.  Social CRM enables a business to connect customer conversations and relationships from social networks to the CRM process.

Social CRM will augment traditional CRM, but it will not replace it.  ISM sees Social CRM becoming integrated in CRM platforms and systems for a 360-degree view of customers. Organizations can now communicate with customers based on their preferred social media site. The ultimate goal of engaging the customer through Facebook, Twitter and other sites will be to build trust and brand loyalty.  Social media has given the ability to create a one-to-one relationship regardless of the geographical location.  This type of close relationship based on mutual trust is not possible through traditional CRM channels such as telephone or email communication.

In addition, many deployments of Social CRM are taking place in corporate marketing departments as part of their brand management, whether it is maintaining a presence on Facebook or Twitter or monitoring activity related to the brand.  Traffic to various sites, blogs and social communities represent the fastest growing areas of the Internet and have recently surpassed the amount of Internet traffic associated with emails.

As part of the social network marketplace phenomena, consumers are now sharing their experiences and opinions online on a massive scale.  Nielsen reports that 34% of Americans online have used social networks to comment about a product, company or brand and 80% of Americans are using social networks to make decisions related to what they buy.  Social networks are powerful for discovering what potential customers are saying about products/services, along with their competitors.  Consequently, social media monitoring is a huge investment area for companies because it can provide them with a quick, unbiased view of the customer voice.

Many organizations are actively using Social CRM to engage customers, fortify relationships and increase revenue.

And, here is the proof:

  • A recent Nielsen study found that social communities reach more Internet users (67%) vs. Email (65%).
  • eMarketer cites the percentage of Fortune 500 companies using social media has increased from 57% in 2008 to 91% during the year 2010.
  • Research firm Eloqua projects that Social Media ad spending will increase at a 6% annual rate from $1.4 billion in 2009 through 2011.
  • And finally, Gartner predicts that by 2015, social marketing processes will influence at least 80% of consumer discretionary spending.

Tags: , , , Posted by - John Chan @ 1:58 pm

Mar 16 2011

Social CRM – People, Process, Technology – What’s Your Opinion?

In the first quarter, ISM hosted a three-part webinar series – “Best Practices in Social CRM – People, Process and Technology.”  The turnout and stay-through rate was tremendous for each webinar, so we know we are onto effective learning.  The top three takeaways from the series include:

-People: (1) Legislate – have a well-stated social media policy, (2) Communicate – set clear expectations and goals for the community, and (3) Motivate – use your community to energize employees.

-Process: (1) Contemplate – ensure that your social media/social CRM plan is in place with excellence, (2) Navigate – map your strategy regarding how you intend to drive your customers to the optimal point-of-sale, and (3) Calibrate – utilize metrics from the outset and be ready to test all kinds of new ideas on the community to keep it vibrant.

-Technology: (1) Automate – monitor, listen, engage and respond, (2) Integrate customers view with your CRM application, and (3) Educate – use social media to learn all about your customers’ preferences.

As we look ahead, we want your opinion on the following ISM premises and questions:

  • Social communities need to be tightly tied to business metrics in order to be profitable ventures with meaningful ROI.  How are you measuring?
  • Social media/social CRM is as relevant for B2B as it is to B2C applications, yet the majority of applications focus on building B2C communities. What can be done to level this uneven playing field?
  • The most effective social media/social CRM efforts tightly integrate community feedback to customer profiles in CRM applications.  Yet, few companies have mastered this integration? Why?
  • Organizations need to own the social community (and thus the data). Yet, owning social community is the exception not the rule, today.  What is your organization doing to take ownership?

For those that missed any of the vibrant webinars, you can still view the series in its entirely on our website. We look forward to hearing from you as we move the needle forward in the area of best practices in Social CRM.

Tags: , , , , , Posted by - Barton Goldenberg @ 2:28 pm

Feb 04 2011

CRM Growth Forecasted in the Current Economic Downturn

In today’s current economic downturn, companies currently using or considering implementing a CRM solution have an excellent opportunity to utilize the benefits of CRM as a means of growing their business and maximizing strong relationships with their clients and prospects.

According to research conducted by business professors at Penn State and the University of Texas, well-run companies should not, cut back on their marketing efforts during a period of an economic recession, but instead increase their marketing spending to achieve superior business performance both in the short and long term. An effective CRM approach will give businesses a significant competitive advantage during recessionary conditions.

A CRM system can be a valuable tool for segmenting existing customers, scheduling the appropriate follow-up actions (e.g., phone calls, site visits, emails or a combination of these actions). Other benefits include providing the company with a deeper understanding of its customer/prospect base, filtering strong and weak leads, keeping clients informed of the company’s products/services, increasing customer satisfaction and mostly importantly increasing the “close” rates in its percentage of business orders.  The saying “It is cheaper to keep a customer than acquire a new one” is valid during difficult economic times. AMI Research has found that companies that employ CRM have higher revenues per employee than those that do not, around $306,618 as compared to $229,025.

Noted CRM blogger Chris Bucholtz believes that during the current recession, the CRM sector will not be hit as hard as other sectors.  A Gartner survey shows that CRM is among the top three concerns of more than two-thirds of the 250 major technology-savvy corporations surveyed.  Bucholtz additionally forecasts that CRM spending will hold its own at small companies simply because many have not yet implemented a CRM solution.  Bucholtz agrees that an economic downturn is a great time for companies to focus on service, marketing and improved processes.

Add-ons and plug-ins also are likely to increase as companies seek to enhance their CRM system, but CRM vendors will face increased pressure to boost their functionality and support to aid their customers in surviving the current economic downturn.  As competition increases within numerous markets, a need to contend against competitors’ products/services will become very important, thereby leading to continued growth for the CRM industry.

Tags: , , , , , Posted by - John Chan @ 2:28 pm

Jan 28 2011

Take Stock of CRM Optimization Opportunities for Big Impact

With a new year upon us and an economy that is slowly improving, it is time to review your customer centric strategies to ensure that marketing+sales basics and the technology to leverage those basics are in place. While target marketing and sales follow up are key, the CRM optimization advances over the past few years have made it possible to better cultivate your top tier customers and grow their numbers as well as to increase dollar spent per customer.

Recently, for a global fashion and apparel client, we brought together demographic, lifestyle, wealth and other buyer profile data for the top 20 percent of the company’s customers. We noted two clusters within this group – ‘A’ & ‘B’ with ‘A’ customers buying almost twice as much as ‘B’ customers. We also identified several characteristics that helped predict buyer behavior of ‘A’ customers. Using this information, we sent targeted promotions to the top 20 percent ‘B’ customers with a goal to induce purchase behavior closer to ‘A’ customers.  We also reached out to customers in the lower 80 percent that displayed top tier profile characteristics but were not buying at the top tier levels. Finally, we used the top 20 percent buyer profile to target prospects and reduce acquisition costs. The result?  Increased revenues in all three sectors!

No matter the industry, analysis of external customer/market information coupled with internal customer transactional data can be used to create highly predictive propensity-to-purchase models. But it requires a robust CRM system that has integrated marketing and sales modules and real-time workflow tools to move data seamlessly between marketing and sales. It also requires a sales team that is well trained on the importance of accurate tracking and reporting in the CRM system. This closed-loop marketing/sales process is critical for generating key ROI insights that marketing personnel can utilize to evaluate future campaigns/initiatives and that sales can use to close additional business.

At the end of the day, it is a simple equation with big impact: marketing + sales + CRM = big impact. Read more in my February destinationCRM column, “Marketing + Sales + CRM = Big Impact”.

Tags: , , Posted by - Barton Goldenberg @ 1:22 pm

Jan 18 2011

Lookback at 2010 – Peek at 2011

As we begin a new year, ISM remains cautiously optimistic about the state of the CRM marketplace for 2011.

The long-term prospects of the CRM marketplace continue to be bright as Gartner predicts that the CRM market will continue to have a positive growth rate, considering the slowing economy.  The CRM market is poised for a “healthy growth” rate through 2012 when CRM software revenue is forecasted to reach a whopping $13.3 billion.  There are several reasons for this market growth, according to Gartner Research Director Sharon Mertz.  CRM continued to grow through 2010 because it added value to the bottom line of organizations needing to do more with less. Three keys to CRM success in an economic downturn were setting up low-cost customer service, analyzing and optimizing marketing, and finding sales leads through social-networking platforms. This combination, experts agreed, is making CRM software an indispensable tool within organizations.

However with the worldwide economies still beginning to emerge from the Great Recession, 2011 will be a trying year for the CRM industry.  CRM vendors will be more challenged by their clients to provide clear and specific ROI about the business value their CRM solutions can provide for the company.  CRM professionals cannot afford failed CRM projects, particularly in down markets when business survival may be at stake.  In 2011, “risk-proofing” CRM projects will near the top of the priority list for CRM professionals.  CRM professionals will have to sharpen their negotiating skills to get more value from their vendor relationships in the coming year. During 2010, companies began looking for ways to cut costs on technology and became more customer-centric as the U.S. economy went into a recession, which made on-demand CRM applications and Social Media tools popular choices for those looking to invest in CRM.  Stay tuned for future blog posts as I will review the major trends that are having a huge influence on the CRM market in 2011.

Tags: , , Posted by - John Chan @ 7:34 pm

Nov 23 2010

Trend of CRM Integration with Social Media Applications

Here is my explanation on a key trend that within the CRM marketplace: CRM software Integration with Social Media applications

With the tremendous growth in Social Media spending in today’s marketplace, a number of prominent CRM vendors now offer direct integration with major Social Media applications and platforms, rather than taking the time to develop such functionality internally.  The reasoning behind the direct integration with Social Media vendor applications and platforms is that developing such comprehensive functionality internally will take too much time and effort, leading to the CRM vendor losing numerous sales opportunities and revenue from the present growth in Social Media spending. 

As a consequence of the increasing need for Social Media information, ISM foresees that major CRM vendors will need to open up their collaboration platforms in order to accelerate their integration of Social Media tools to provide services that they do not presently offer.  Unless these major CRM vendors act towards opening their platforms, smaller Social Media companies such as INgage Networks, Lithium, Jive, Socialtext will increase their presence in the marketplace with their ability to have a more open platform that can integrate easily with other Social Media applications.

As an example of such movement by Social Media companies: recently, the Social Media vendor Lithium rolled out a Social CRM suite as discussed in this article: http://bit.ly/fQN0Mn

To all my Blog readers, please feel free to post any comments on any of my posts on my Blog.  I welcome and encourage discussion/debate on my Blog postings.

Tags: , , Posted by - admin @ 3:55 pm

Nov 18 2010

Highlights of My CRM User Adoption Webinar

On Tuesday, Nov 16, I held an hourly Webinar on the topic: CRM User Adoption: Securing this Critical Success Factor Once and For All!  It was a very successful Webinar as we had several hundred attendees and lots of questions posted by the Webinar attendees.  Due to high demand, here are the highlights of the CRM User Adoption Webinar.

The key question to ask is: How do you secure CRM adoption & productivity gains?

I discussed three major topics concerning CRM User Adoption:

Key CRM Risks are:

  • Executive team not on board
  • Little/no commitment to process enhancement
  • Unwillingness to commit to change
  • Non-prioritized business functions
  • PPT out of whack, e.g., technology-driven
  • Lack of user adoption (little/no WIIFM)

Best Practices To Secure High User Adoption & Productivity include:

  • Executive Leadership
  • Training
  • Change management
  • Communications
  • Champion program
  • Rewards & incentives
  • User experience

Also include two key elements of CRM in your best practices: Mobile and Social CRM

User Adoption Metrics include Metrics For:

  • User Activity
  • Operational
  • Executive 

Conclusions

User adoption is based on achieving meaningful WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?)

The same features that encourage user adoption also enable users to enter, find, apply, and understand CRM data more efficiently, thus increasing productivity.

The entire Webinar recording is available under the ISM Webinar Archives heading within this Weblink: http://bit.ly/cxUric

Please also register for any ISM Webinars that may be of your interest on the same Webpage.

To all my Blog readers, please feel free to post any comments on any of my posts on my Blog.  I welcome and encourage discussion/debate on my Blog postings.

Tags: , Posted by - admin @ 6:54 pm

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