Customer Relationship Management (4)

After too much of a good thing

Natural language input is something that most application today should have. For example, if my action item in Excel spreadsheet says 'setup a meeting with Dorothy Ba. next Tuesday' and my filename is '012507-GE-Security.xls', the CRM application should be able to interpret next Tuesday = January 30, 2007, and look for Dorothy Ba. from my client list within GE Security. [Hint: both date and company name are from file name, date from file is January 25, 2007]

If there are two Dorothy's (Dorothy Barnes, Dorothy Bailey) who work for GE Security. CRM application would ask me to confirm whether this action means: 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Barnes on January 30, 2007' or 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Bailey on January 30, 2007'. Then Since this entry contains - setup+ meeting, it could look up Dorothy Barnes' channel of contacts. Some clients prefer an e-mail, some prefer a phone call. If Dorothy Barnes prefers e-mail as a channel of communications. An e-mail could be sent to Dorothy by the CRM module.

It's not that hard to teach an application to do something. The last part (e-mailing a client automatically) may sound a bit much but it could send a notification e-mail to me to e-mail Dorothy.

We are now in the world with automatic cleaning robots, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and many more automated machines. We have auto-park feature (called Electronic Park Assist), auto-cruising feature in our cars. Why can't we build something that's intuitive to users, something that keeps guessing what users want to do and do them if users confirm that action.

What else could have been done?

Channel management -

Clients have different ways of communications. Some like phone calls, some like e-mails, some like short-message (text message via mobile phone), and more. CRM application should know what is their most comfortable channels and utilize those. CRM application should not send out e-mails, notes to clients without approval. This demands for a quick workflow. A salesperson can approve to send messages (e-mail, voice mail, SMS, etc) to his client only. What about a large client? Then workflow can be set easily on how many approvals before sending the message out.

Waiting for approval may take too long. A salesperson can just e-mail or call the client before the system does. When everyone approves, salesperson can just add to the item that it's been taken care of. CRM application should not get in the way. It surely should be used to notify people.

Channel management is not only for clients. Salesperson can also be notified through channels as well. A salesperson can setup the preferred method to be notified. For example, I will like it very much if I get notifications on my mobile phones (via Short-Message-Service or SMS or Text Message). I'll also need an e-mail carbon copy for every SMS notification that I get. If I don't have the phones with me when I travel internationally. I still can check my e-mails.

DISCLAIMER: My company now makes intuitive (learning) software for various industries. One of application that we are working on is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Time to first flight is within months now. It's going to be exciting!

Customer Relationship Management (3)

Too much of a good thing simplified

Too much of a good thing happens with CRM these years because after years of adding new information to CRM, it means someone will have to enter them all. I've had experience with Siebel and others so I've got a drift of what they were trying to do (see the list of things you need to do in CRM(2)). I had a chance to look at several CRM products that came along including SugarCRM, and another up and coming Tokuii CRM.

The current idea is to simplify CRM input as much as possible. This idea is not new. Everybody in the industry have thought about it. How could a salesperson spends less time in front of his work PC and spends more time in front of his clients? Along came smart contact management module. What do I mean smart?

Every salesperson must be good at least producing a quotation. Spreadsheet skill is a must. So let's start from their ability to use a Spreadsheet application. Salesperson should be able to put in his notes in free form in his spreadsheet. The application should be able to scan through spreadsheet and realize that it's a quotation, it's an invoice, or it's just action items from a meeting. Spreadsheet filename should reflect which customer it's for and what date this document is created.

As for customer contact management, salesperson only needs to type one line to a spreadsheet that contains everything (name, address, phone numbers), CRM application will map that entered line in address, city, state, zip code, country. Before adding any information, this smart CRM will ask salesperson first whether data is correctly guessed. Salesperson can use his existing spreadsheet to get customer contact or download another spreadsheet from CRM for a cleaner contact information. To be even easier to use, most namecard scanners come with spreadsheet support. Salesperson can just use namecard scanner to scan a new namecard, save it in spreadsheet format then feed this new spreadsheet into CRM system. Voila, entering customer information is now a breeze.

Somehow I wonder why didn't someone come up with all these functionality years ago. It's hard for me to imagine. This idea is how I would do if I build Northstar CRM suite again.

Interesting Read about Custom Software Development

I've written about Custom Software Development business on another blog. I've seen this today and liked to share. It's about a failed project even at a state level. It's about City of Philadelphia project called Project Ocean. What was supposed to be a 10-million-dollar project is now 29-million-dollar project with no success in sight.

The quote from the above Project Ocean news came about in the light that Custom Software Development is an dangerous game. Look at here for more information. It says that there was a failed project at State of Wisconsin losing >100 million USD, another failed project at UPS that put >1 billion USD suspended. I'm more particularly interested in City of Philadelphia story is because it's a proper water-utility CRM system that Oracle is trying to deliver. Half a million of Philadelphia residents still do not get their bills from the newly-built CRM system. Not until the next 4 months before the project management team see the proof-of-concept.

Also take a closer look at the Ocean Project article link above, you'll see that what's being delivered after 29 million dollars is Basis2 software that costs 1.1 million USD.

All this is because the fact that:
1. Client does not know Custom Software Development - what this means, what is the process, what is the expectation, and what is project management.

PS - before going into any types of consulting projects - one must train clients, set what's needed, how it has been done today, what's going to be done when it's completed.

2. Programmers do not know the client's business, do not to educate client about Custom Software Development (not to the extent of coding but the process, the expectation).

PS - send programmers to walk/work around the workplace for a full week without programming, learn how the client business work (not just a tour of the facility but working side-by-side with operators), thus programmers understand the client's pain. Software is delivered to solve pain not for show.

3. Project Management is not well enforced. Hiring an extremely good and stable project manager throughout the project is very important. Look for a project manager who has completed similar project in the past (in this Philadelphia case, project manager who already built CRM system for a utility company). Not only the experience means everything, but also the certification. PMP certification is preferred. Look at Project Management Institute website for more info.

So before jumping into a custom software development, need to think hard about it. Do you know enough? If not, how to get help or get educated? Otherwise don't try this at home.

Customer Relationship Management (2)

The beginning of a good thing

Since CRM (1), good old CRM for Chinese tycoon is still working today. Meeting customers, listening to their requests, and trying to compromise to make it a working relationship are still key. However, the last point on CRM (1) that mentioned about IT professionals try to move customer information from one's brain to computer systems. What is the benefit?

Customer list is growing year after year, so it's too hard for a salesperson to remember all their names, contacts, addresses, likes, dislikes, etc. A computer can be used to remember a lot of contacts. IT professionals try to solve this problem by making a computer into a contact management equipment. Read Harvey Mckay's list, you'll know what you need to remember as a traditional salesperson.

CRM in its new life is simply a book with search index that is easy to look up. However, IT professionals did not stop there. They try to link customer lists to sales information. So when a customer calls for help, a helpdesk person knows what this customer has purchased, how to direct his call to the people who know about that product. This saves customer's time and frustration.

Since customer list, customer purchase list are already on the system. Customers can call helpdesk for support. Helpdesk staffs could help customers quickly. IT professionals do not stop there either. They want a sales director to know what's going on in the field - what salespeople are doing, who do they talk to, what is the deal size, what is the percentage to win. In addition, IT professionals (now they're called CRM consultant) think of multiplying deal size (USD) and percentage to win (%) as a forecast revenue or sales pipeline.

So the above paragraph is now called Sales Force Automation and it's a part of CRM offerings.

The beginning of too much of a good thing

My personal opinion on customer contact information, customer sales information is a good thing. When SFA comes around, I start to think that this is the beginning of too much of a good thing. A simple sales pipeline report (in Excel) should suffice. Now it's beginning to require too much time to enter all the information.

Let's look at a salesperson's CRM entry before Sales Force Automation. First he needs to enter all customers' namecard information. If a customer's company has 100 offices, 100 namecards may sound horrible to enter. Second he needs to enter customer sales information (when he makes the sale) for post-sale support. Then off he goes to make another sale.

Now look at a salesperson's CRM entry with Sales Force Automation. First step is the same. Second step from above paragraph now is ... Second salesperson needs to enter all conversation with a customer, what they talk in the meeting, what are the action items for customer or salesperson, what are the outcome of the meeting, then update the likelyhood to make a sale. Third salesperson needs to come back to check that all action items are completed in CRM system. If his manager, the sales manager, reads SFA information and does not agree, sales manager could enter his input and ask for explanation. Fourth salesperson then has to reply in the CRM system for a record.

Now CRM system is turning into a record management system for sales team. What do we want from a sales team? Do we need to micro-manage salespersons? Or we need to make sure that they deliver? Sales figure does speak for itself more than sales team activity report. I have worked with salesperson who entered a lot of good numbers but never turned in good sales figures. So this sales team system is all about lie detection.

To go beyond the current IT professionals, do we want to create another feature to track all incoming revenue to compare with sales pipeline to see which salesperson is lying? Call it automatic lie detector automation?

The point about SFA is micro-management. Salesperson is supposed to be out selling not stay in the office entering information to the computer (CRM system).

What is too much of a good thing? Since we already see the beginning, here it is.

Too much of a good thing

IT professionals did a very good job putting customer contact information, customer activity information (sales force automation), customer sales information, and customer support information.

All of the above customer ** systems are CRM. It isn't too much, is it? Too much of a good thing is when IT professionals try to guess the future. It's called Analytic CRM or Business Intelligence.

Who in the world you think you are going to forecast the future? Most customer sales information is history. They already happened. What a customer buys now does not guarantee what this same customer will buy tomorrow.

More on this on CRM (3) ...

I'm going to elaborate about the good things that CRM can bring to you. More on this (3).

Customer Relationship Management (1)

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was a hot key word in late 1990s. It seemed to be a holy grail to improve customer satisfaction, strengthen customer royalty, and more than everything else, create more profit for its owner. This blog entry is not a rocket science. You probably have read 100 other entries about CRM. Here is my point of view.

Good old CRM

Customer/seller relationship is probably created along human race. Even though the first customer and seller do not exchange goods, services using money. In the stone age, it's called barter system. So before the creation of CRM, how did we do it? I couldn't speak for the people in stone age. But I could elaborate things that I've seen while growing up in a Chinese family. Old CRM for old Chinese businessmen is 'good customer service'. What constitutes good customer service?

Good customer service in the old days is serve the best you can to customer's needs without jeopardizing your own company. For example, during an incident (problem with a product), seller listens to customer and tries to compromise in a timely manner. Seller may loan an equipment to let customer continue to operate. What about the time between incidents? Seller could simply call the customer to ask a few questions about satisfaction and probably request a visit.

Back then, customers weren't too many. Salesperson does not move frequently. So contact management is very simple, remember. Name/phone numbers were written down. All seemed to go well. Even large corporations, Rolodex is used to keep name cards (until today). Each salesperson keep their own customer lists (name cards). No centralized Rolodex is known to exist. When the big boss wants to contact a big customer, he simply asks his secretary to make an appointment, the secretary calls a salesperson to get this customer's contact.

New era CRM

Since companies tend to serve more customers and salespeople change jobs as frequently as they change shoes. Contact management alone became hard. If a salesperson is leaving, his manager must ask all namecards to be kept in the company. However, this may not be the case. So some salespeople even took customer information (this move is now illegal in several countries) with them. To solve this problem - Centralized Contact Management was created.

Centralized Contact Management (CCM) was first to be created utilizing Computer Technology. Years ago, I've seen large Thai conglomerate keeping all of their customer contact information in Lotus 1-2-3. They later consolidated all contacts in an Ashton-Tate dBase III.

Later on, IT professionals try to move Salesperson's notebook to become CRM database since Customer Information was already in Electronic format by late 1980s.

More on this later. Continue on CRM (2) ..