[July 16, 2001]

Total CRM: Content Management Offers A Holistic View Of Your Customers

BY DAVID HINZ

If businesses have learned one thing over the past year, it is the importance of showcasing a profit and maintaining a strong customer base. Although companies are streamlining business processes and managing their burn rate more aggressively than ever, IT initiatives focused on retaining and improving customer relationships are at an all time high. With studies indicating that attracting a customer costs five times as much as retaining one, it is no wonder the mantra in sales meetings across the country is to keep all customers.

In order to accomplish this, companies are deploying customer relationship management (CRM) solutions faster than ever to nurture, retain, cross sell, and upsell products and services to existing customers and to expedite the sales cycle. Unfortunately, traditional CRM applications do not currently provide all the information needed for sales representatives and managers to understand the total customer relationship. Consequently, companies are beginning to integrate content management solutions to unlock the invaluable content outside of database systems to develop a true picture of the customer relationship.

Why Traditional CRM Approaches Fall Short
Although CRM encompasses a variety of solutions, such as sales force automation, customer loyalty and one-on-one marketing applications, the main goal of CRM is fundamental: retain existing customers longer and leverage the information to secure new customers. With current estimates that U.S. businesses lose one-half of their customers every five years, customer retention and service programs are at an all time high. However, current CRM applications often depend on information or records that are entered into a database or system, which is only a small segment of available and valuable information on a customer. The remainder of this information is generated in a variety of corporate divisions including sales, marketing, accounting, customer service, and shipping, and is captured in the form of critical business documents, such as memos, faxes, letters, reports, request for proposals, orders, invoices, policies, e-mails, and shipping forms.

These documents often capture the true essence of a client relationship and provide salespeople and sales managers with a holistic view (and therefore a better understanding) of the relationship  by representing all correspondence, inquiries and bottom line business decisions between the company and a customer. This information can also be used to understand buying patterns, differentiate your company's products or services from the competition, and to tailor sales recommendations based on a customer's needs. As a result, companies should augment their CRM systems with a solution that not only integrates with all departments and applications, but empowers sales representatives and managers to retain valuable customers and make less valuable customers more profitable by cross selling and upselling.

What Interactions Have The Rest Of The Company
Had With My Customer?
Being able to answer the simple question, "What interactions has our company had with this customer since our last meeting?" is immensely powerful for salespeople. Knowing that your accounts receivable department has sent numerous billing inquiries to a customer prior to a sales call could help a salesperson avoid a potential ambush from a customer. Or, for instance, what if you weren't aware that the shipping department recently sent a letter informing one of your best customers that a product shipment was going to be delayed six weeks? Both scenarios could damage your relationship with a customer, endanger a sale or even make you lose a customer. If only you had access to all information related to your customers, you might have been able to appease the accounts receivable department before angering the customer and recommend an interim solution or offer a discount because of the delayed product.

According to Forrester Research, less than 10 percent of companies have a single integrated view of customer information today. This is increasing rapidly because companies are realizing it is critical to customer nurturing and retention, as well as improving sales. There are a number of ways to provide sales representatives and managers with a snapshot of all customer touch points and interactions, but the last thing a company needs is an expensive enterprise solution that takes months or years to deploy and requires the sales force to undergo extensive training. A combined CRM and content management solution should be able to deploy and deliver results in a matter of weeks.

Augmenting your CRM solution with content management capabilities opens the door to a new world of information for executives, sales representatives, and all other employees in an organization to continually optimize and innovate their business processes and provide the highest level of customer service. Executives can analyze sales, inventory, and accounts receivable reports to make critical and timely business decisions. Salespeople and sales managers are better able to analyze their account base, customer history, target markets, and prospects to provide insight into resource allocation, identify upsell and cross sell opportunities, and to determine cost-effective pursuits of new prospects.

A CRM/content management approach also enables salespeople to be informed enough to rapidly adapt products and services to meet customers' ever-evolving needs. Other departments throughout the company can also access the information they need to perform their jobs more effectively and efficiently. When using a CRM/content management solution, a company is better armed to nurture and retain existing customers longer, as well as pursue prospective customers. Easy access to the total customer picture may even help establish better internal communications practices and policies to ensure improved customer service and retention, leaving the door open for new sales opportunities.

CRM: Total Picture Of The Future
Gone are the days of hit and run sales techniques. Studies have shown that by retaining five percent of customers, companies can boost profits by as much as 85 percent. As a result, companies must retain customers to stay ahead of their competition.

Given that CRM solutions do not present the full picture of a customer relationship, salespeople will need to utilize a combined CRM and content management solution to leverage the treasured information hidden in enterprise documents and applications. This enables companies to maximize the value of existing business and the potential of future business, while increasing customer satisfaction, executing more effective marketing campaigns, and reducing costs associated with customer acquisition and retention. All of which are essential for nurturing customer relationships and fostering customer loyalty and retention.

David Hinz, director of business alliances at Cypress Corporation, has led the marketing and business alliances initiatives for the company for over six years. Cypress has focused on developing, marketing and supporting document delivery systems since 1983. The 18-year-old company is headquartered in Rochester Hills, Michigan with additional offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minnesota, the United Kingdom, Brazil and France. Cypress customers include some of the world's largest automotive manufacturers, insurance companies, health care providers, financial institutions and governments.