February 2004

By Nadji Tehrani,
Executive Group Publisher, Technology Marketing Corporation

In this MVP Quality Awards issue, it is fitting to focus on quality and what it takes to become an industry leader in customer satisfaction and retention.

The Vital Role Of Quality In CRM
Over the last 23 years, as this publication played a vital role in the establishment and development of the call center, CRM and customer interaction industries, we have always defined customer care as person-to- person interactive relationships. Indeed, many practitioners have made the mistake of emphasizing technology as opposed to taking care of the staff and customer care agents who are on the firing line every day. There is no way you can provide first-class, person-to-person customer care without having extremely happy employees ' period, end of story.

Impact Of Technology:
It goes without saying that the merging of the right technology and the proper people handling, work hand in hand to create good CRM.  Neither by itself is sufficient.
Having said that, if one is interested in establishing a true CRM and customer interaction environment, one must consider, at all costs, all of the following:
1. Judiciously select functional CRM technology.
2. You must eliminate rudeness at all costs. (Please read my January 2004 Publisher's Outlook (http:// www.tmcnet.com/cis/0104/0104po.htm) about embedded natural rudeness, which is fully accepted in some cultures.) For those of you who are primarily interested in low-cost labor, it is vitally important to pay attention to the 'inherent rudeness' that will no doubt eliminate all of your customers!
3. Avoid poor communications.
4. Maintain accountability. In other words, if an agent promises something, make sure he or she follows through with that.
5. Make it a company policy to avoid the 'over-promise and under-deliver disease' in your call center.
6. Last, but not least, you must expect and require everyone to be not only friendly and fully accommodating to customers at all costs, but also require them to pay attention to detail. In past editorials, I shared with you an example where a certain employee who did not pay attention to detail cost the company an 80 million dollar order!!

Is Quality Alone A Differentiator?
The answer is: Absolutely not. As much as quality plays a vital role in every company, every product and every service, quality alone cannot be used as a differentiator. This is because each and every company I know, justifiable or not, claims to have high-quality products and services, but we all know by personal experience that such is not always the case. Only a small group of companies are, in fact, delivering high-quality products and services and the rest are somehow, for a short time, getting away with poor quality and service until word-of-mouth or a consumer group puts them out of business!
One way a company can distinguish itself from its competition is to market its quality awards. Not long ago, I wrote a column entitled 'Award Marketing Is The Key To Differentiation.' However, only a few companies are doing it right. (Please refer to my Publisher's Outlook from February 2003 http:// www.tmcnet.com/cis/0203/0203po.htm on award marketing.) The bottom line, awards are useless without an effective marketing strategy to help you differentiate yourself.

How About Quality Control?
Indeed, quality control and monitoring at every single level of CRM must be done on a 24/7/365 basis. Without it, you can stand to lose customers.

A Note To CEOs
Perhaps the most important experience I can share with you is that 'companies live or die from repeat business.' It is vitally important to get everyone in your organization to understand this basic and unavoidable fact of business life. If you ignore your customers' wishes, it is only a matter of time before your company will go out of business. And in the true sense of the word, the number-one job of CRM is to keep your customers satisfied so they will continue conducting business with your company. Having said all of that, my next best advice is don't take CRM lightly'it won't happen by itself. You need an organization 100 percent dedicated and focused on CRM to do the job right.
Your New Division Should Be Called Something Like This: Strategic Business Partnership Department or Strategic Business Relationship Department or simply, CRM Department.

No matter which one of the above titles you prefer to use, it is crucial that you establish such an organization within your company if you are seriously interested in keeping your customers satisfied and strengthening your mutually beneficial relationship.

Here Is How It Works
The business objective of the head of your new CRM department should be as follows:

By working with senior management of your customers and offering to become a partner in every aspect of your customers' businesses, i.e., effective marketing functions, business plans and, just as important, your customers' needs analysis, you are going the extra mile to guarantee customer satisfaction and support.

You need your CRM division head, preferably with a vice president or senior vice president title, to become almost like an employee of your customers. This person must be extremely close to senior management of your customers' companies to assess their needs and offer to help wherever possible. Holding customers' hands alone will not do the job, but rather you need to be extremely innovative in helping your customers save costs and maximize their profits. Only by conducting all of the above effectively can you strongly reinforce existing business relationships. It is vital that you nurture such relationships, expand and make them more profitable, ongoing relationships, which will lead to recurring revenues from your customers.

By getting close to your customers as described above, you are also differentiating yourself from many vendors that are doing absolutely nothing or, at best, very little if anything to show their appreciation for customers' business. Consequently, you can count on substantially increased market share for your company. The bottom line is: you like to create a perception for your customers that you are in this business together for the long haul.

Here are a few more suggestions for success:

1. Go beyond CRM and look at the big picture.
A key function of your CRM division should be to look at your customers' big picture and help them from your vantage point. With the benefit of your experience, lead them to new markets in an innovative fashion. For example, if a certain obstacle is preventing your customer's growth, help them overcome the obstacle so they can maintain and continue their growth. Once you have achieved that, you can almost bet that if the management of your customer's company does change, you might keep that customer for life.

2. Become a sounding board for your customer.
As you get closer and closer to a customer's operations, and because you come in from a different vantage point, you will look at the customer's problem from a different perspective. This important factor would allow you to offer your customer extremely valuable advice that could best be described as thinking out of the box. We all know that the closer we are to a big problem, the less likely we are able to solve it. Sometimes you need an outsider with a new, fresh outlook to guide us to an effective solution to our problems.

In Short, Make Yourself Indispensable
If you are truly interested in earning the customers' business and expanding those relationships, you simply must become indispensable to your customers so they can rely on you for making major business decisions and solving their problems. In my humble opinion, that is the only way to strengthen your business relationships and keep your customers, thereby continuing your company's channel of profitability.

Outsourcing Your CRM Function
If what I have described above is not within your core competency, an effective way to solve the problem is by outsourcing it to a highly competent, reputable and compliant teleservices company. If you choose to go this route, may I suggest the following:
1. You need to investigate your outsourcer's track record.
2. Consider such factors as MVP Quality or Top 50 Award winning consistency (i.e., how many years this prestigious award has been won).
3. Check all references.
4. Above all, visit the company, meet the management and observe the operations efficiency and professionalism.
5. In addition, I suggest strongly that whatever you do, start small and monitor all relationships on a regular basis because in customer care, customer service and CRM, there is never room for even one mistake.
6. Please read my December 2003 Publisher's Outlook (http:// www.tmcnet.com/cis/1203/1203po.htm) for more information on how to select outsourcing partners judiciously.
As always, I welcome your valued opinions and comments. You can e-mail them to me at [email protected].

Sincerely yours,

Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief

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[Return To The February 2004 Table Of Contents]