Page 332 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 12: Customer Privacy

12.3 Analysis of CRM Strategies Notes

CRM is about creating a competitive advantage by being the best at understanding,
communicating, delivering and developing existing customer relationships in addition to
creating and keeping new customers. The concept of product lifecycle is giving way to the
customer life cycle, focusing on developing products that anticipate the future needs of existing
customers and creating services that extend existing customer relationships beyond the mere
transaction. The customer life cycle will focus on lengthening the life span of the customer with
the organization rather than the endurance of a particular product. Customers have changing
needs as their lifestyles alter—the development and provision of products or services that
continuously seek to satisfy those needs is good CRM. Mission statements will focus greater
attention on how to deliver customer satisfaction, and organisations will begin to structure
themselves around customer segments and not product lines.
A good CRM strategy will take the business vision and apply it to the customer base by asking
the following questions:
 What products and services are we offering now and in the future?
 In what markets?
 What customer groups will these products and services appeal to?

 Which of these are of most value to the organization? In terms of spend? In terms of
reliability? In terms of profitability? In terms of growth potential?
 What additional needs do the most valuable customer groups have? Additional products?
Additional services?
 What different ways can we be doing business to deliver to our customers better?

12.3.1 Designing a CRM Strategy

A successful customer relationship management strategy will address four key areas of the
business: Strategy, People, Technology and Processes. CRM (UK) Ltd calls the combination of
these elements the COG Wheel Process.
The handle of the process is the “driver” of the corporate strategy that gives the “direction” to
the company. In turn, the strategic direction moves the two “enables”: people and technology.
The “interaction” of those elements is the business processes that sit behind successful customer
relationship management.

The D4 Company Analysis TM

In order to ensure that the four aspects of strategy, people, technology and processes are taken
into consideration in the design of a CRM strategy, CRM (UK) Ltd. has developed the D4
Company Analysis TH. The D4 Company Analysis TH is an audit tool that takes an interactive
approach to strategy design and has four main steps:
Step 1: Define the existing customer relationship management processes within the company.
Step 2: Determine the perceptions of how the company manages their customer relationships,
both internally and externally.
Step 3: Design the ideal customer relationship management solutions relative to the company
or industry.
Step 4: Deliver a strategy for the implementation of the recommendations based on the findings.

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