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Assuming the role of teacher is among the variety of duties with which an
analyst is tasked. By virtue of having access to almost every vendor in a
particular technology market, the industry analyst is sometimes given the
duty of explaining and defining a new technology or buzzword. While this
can be particularly interesting, and also gives us the opportunity to coin
a phrase for posterity, the job of teaching and defining a subject where
there is significant confusion can also be quite difficult. This is the
case with the subject of CRM. Even the words that make up the acronym
(customer relationship management) provide little clue as to the ultimate
definition, and I've seen everything from CRM e-mail programs to CRM
mousepads.
Originally, I thought of describing CRM as a religion. It has a devoted
group of followers, with a common set of beliefs, driven by a common
factor, but is unable to really produce anything tangible. After some
consideration, however, I think the term "cult" may be more
appropriate. CRM seems to have a group of mindless followers with little
or no understanding of the underlying system, who are more than happy to
throw their money towards it. To prevent the federal government from
raiding any future CRM conventions, I will try to pin down a definition of
CRM once and for all.
ALL ABOUT DATABASES
CRM is all about databases. Of course, that seems rather unexciting at
its core, but the reality is that CRM is the philosophy about better
serving the customer through a more efficient use of databases. No, CRM is
not about new ways to contact the customer, or use of the Internet or any
other multi-media channel. All of these are important applications that
can be part of a CRM system; but at its core CRM is a product that helps a
company organize its contact with the customer, irrespective of method.
In the past, all sales information existed in discrete islands
scattered about an organization. Some examples of these islands include
voice mail, e-mail, faxes, conversation records, purchase behavior data,
and customer credit. In many cases, some of this information didn't even
warrant its own island. For instance, many sales agents would store e-mail
to and from customers on their desktop, making it impossible for a
different agent to understand a customer's recent inquiries. Things have
improved, but not much. Many organizations now employ sales force
management software that stores an individual record for each customer.
Although this software must be loaded and updated each time the customer
is contacted (and generally only includes a telephone log) it is still an
improvement.
ISLANDS OF DATA
The philosophy behind CRM is a merging of databases. Scattered about
the company are computers holding e-mail records, inventory, conversation
logs, purchase history, faxes, and, most recently, Internet purchases.
These computers are often in different locations, managed by different
people, and usually don't communicate in any way. A CRM system gathers
information from these remote "islands" of data, organizes it in
a user-friendly fashion, and makes it available to sales agents via the
Internet.
When a customer contacts an organization, a CRM system will hopefully
be aware of all of this data. However, the devil is in the details. The
proverbial CRM server will pull information from every one of these other
islands of information, and either store it locally, or at least
understand where the information can be found. The trouble is that many of
these islands of data are completely different computer systems, running
different software, implemented in different points in time. Part of the
challenge of implementing CRM solution is to integrate many of these
legacy systems. Again, this involves integrating a variety of legacy
databases.
The next step is to attach every possible point of customer contact to the
CRM server. That way, when a customer calls and says, "I'm calling
regarding the fax I sent you yesterday in reply to the e-mail you sent me
last week," the agent will see a complete contact history regardless
of the fact that each of those methods of contact are actually recorded in
different locations. The CRM server becomes a clearinghouse of customer
contact.
NEW MODES OF COMMUNICATION
In this manner a CRM solution makes possible some of the products that
have received a vast amount of media attention and been branded as CRM
products. Some examples of these new modes of communication that database
management makes possible are e-mail response management, chat, and VoIP.
Without a common clearinghouse of contacts stored in the CRM server, it
would be impossible to intelligently respond to e-mails in either an
automated or human assisted fashion. The CRM server is able to pull data
from other sources, and thus make more informed decisions on how e-mail
should be answered and who should answer it.
The same is true for a text chat initiated on a customer Web page. The
CRM system is able to pull information from the ACD database and initiate
a chat with the best-suited available agent. Without proper database
management, an agent might be flooded with calls while chatting, or worse,
an unqualified agent may respond to the chat session. In the exact same
manner, VoIP calls are directed to the proper agent with the help of the
information stored in the CRM system.
To conclude, I would like to offer my definition of CRM: "A system
that functions as a clearinghouse of data from various sources of customer
information." With any luck, in the future CRM will lose its
cult-like status, and become a product with features that can be compared
and contrasted among vendors.
Brian Strachman is industry analyst, Voice and Data Communications,
Cahners In-Stat Group. To correspond with the author, please send your
comments to brians@instat.com. |
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