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Everyone loves a holiday.

Most people have holidays around the same time, whether they believe in the holiday is a different matter and a personal issue I don’t want to address here.

I know on a few forums around Christmas time there is always the debate about who to send cards to and what to send. (Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah etc).

Call me simplistic but I could care less.

If someone sends me a card, they are thinking of me, and that’s great!

It means, to me, we did enough stuff this year to warrant a contact of some sort. Maybe it wasn’t this year but a year or two ago. Who cares? I got a card and that’s great.

It means they wish me well. I like that.

So why am I writing this now?

Well, I also know that at Holiday time, we are all busy sorting through a whole bunch of stuff that just puts more and more pressure on us.

So I’m suggesting you write your cards now! Yes, NOW!

Don’t post them, diarise that for a day that you’re comfortable with. But write them out now. You’ll have more time to think carefully about the recipients and you’ll get the writing part out of the way well before the pressure is on.

Birthday Cards Count Too

While you’re at it, write some birthday cards too. Maybe a year’s worth and then sort them into monthly divisions. When the month arrives, pick up the wad of cards and drop them in the post box. Done! All you need, besides the cards, envelopes and stamps is some high -tech gear like a shoebox, or an elastic band. (Tutorials on how to use them will be posted soon! )

In a recent survey it was found that clarity and effective feedback are the two key elements to improving employee job performance.

On reflection, it’s not rocket science, is it?

If you’re clear about what you want a team member to do and then provide good feedback on the performance you’re more than likely to be on a winner.

It’s the same for Customers in your CRM strategy.

One major flaw in customer service and in building relationships is the gap between how a client believes their service will be delivered and what the company believes how it will be delivered. If the gap is a small the overall experience will be quite good. Better if there is no gap at all. The wider the gap and there’s be plenty of sleepless nights for the company.

A carefully and clearly constructed Customer Charter will remove the chances of any gap appearing.

A customer charter, especially one that incorporates a flowchart of some kind, will cover a lot of issues when it comes to customer expectations - and deal effectively with them.

I developed this with a mortgage broker recently in an effort to help them deliver a better level of service as well as reduce the amount of time spent with the customer answering questions that had already been covered.

The charter, in his case, was a process flow of the mortgage delivery process. It highlighted key stages, time frames and what to expect at each stage. It came with a FAQ Section as well simply because there are a number of common questions all customers ask. These common questions work well in written form. Note that the charter does not preclude client contact. In fact, when providing the charter, the broker emphasises the point to contact them if there are any questions left unanswered. If there is contact with the Company that is covered in the charter, the broker firstly answers the question and then politley, if necessary, refers them to the charter. This then reinforces the relationship as the client knows the company have backed what they ’say’ by writing it down and giving it to them in black and white.

(One thing this broker does is sign the charter in front of the client! A bit of theatre but the impact is quite powerful.)

The value of the charter to the Client is:

• It empowers the client in the process - this can’t be over empahsised. Being in control is a huge benefit to both the client and the company. The process becomes a partnership. When (if) things go wrong both parties work on resolving it in accordance with the Charter - to get back on track.
• The client knows when the next stage is and what they may need to provide. This keeps the process moving along and pro-active.
• They know what to expect when a finance company calls or the Broker contacts them with any news and;
• They know what they are expected to do - if anything

This is all in place of being left bewildered by a whole range of foreign processes that makes them feel uninformed at best and, at work, stupid.

The value to the Company is:

• They truly know what they need to deliver and prepare for it
• Setting reasonable time frames allows good time resources to ensure the right action are taken
• Setting times frames also allows for better resourcing and management
• Staff know what is expected and work towards those expectations
• Setting a process also will highlight possible gaps than can be closed next time - so the charter is a tool for continuous improvement.

What if We Have a Range of Processes?

For a company with a range of products and process, a general charter around customer service delivery would suffice. However, having expereinced a clear and concise charter and process flow, I have found many companies err on the side of generalising their Customer Service Charter. This actually works against the company. Why? Because the client is then generally looking for how well the service is delivered and at certain times the Company may not deliver, thus devaluing the process and the customer relationship. It also offers too many options for improvement at the point of error. Thsi simply wastes, time (read money), resources and energy.

Next week I will post a template of a customer charter you will be able to modify as well as see the context in which these can be developed.

I’ll also post further benefits and scenarios where a Customer Charter can assist in your CRM Strategy.

If you have already instituted a Customer Charter that is working well for you, please let me know. I’d love to see some examples.

Okay, so last time I had a whinge about poor CRM. I guess it’s time to look at what makes good CRM and how you do it?

Goals, Objectives, Outcomes

The big three of CRM. If you don’t know what you want then you’re going to struggle to get there. Try a visualization exercise that has you looking back over a successful CRM implementation and reviewing the results?

• What do you see?
• How is it happening?
• Who are your best customers?
• What are you doing with them?
• Who do they refer on to you? How often?

CRM is a strategy, not a technology. Technology is the enabler or the facilitator of your CRM strategy.

So, what is your strategy?

This is a huge topic so I’ll address one aspect here and then go on to others in the coming weeks. A CRM strategy, in simple terms addresses the following items:

• Who are your businesses key customers?
  • The rationale for these can be so varied it can make your head spin. Some may be pure profitability. Other may simply be the relationship and the connections they have the assist your business. Maybe they are good to have around as mentors or people to bounce ideas off? But you are looking for KEY customers and, maybe as much as we’d like ti to be different, some custoemrs are more key than others.
• What separates them from other customers?
  • This can be the hard part of segmentation. It depends on what your measures are. If your measures are simple, clean and precise this is a simple process. You can always put some favourite customers into a category if you want to. This isn’t rocket science and it’s not hard and fast but you must have some guidelines. Even if you’re a blogger, there are may be people who you always want to respond to when they make comments and others that you never do.

• How strong is the relationship with these customers?
  • This is a great question to ask because, as you begin to separate clinets you may find you were spending a lot of time with clients that don’t bring in a whole lot of value to your business. It then means that you need to develop stronger relationships with the more valuable clients and determine how you will go about that.

• What is the communication strategy with them?
  • Many CRM software systems have a place where you can select the "best method of communication." Great idea but you don’t need special software. Just add a note into Outlook or whatever address program you use. On a case by case basis this may not seem important but it will be very important if you want, or need, to do a mass mailing. It also entails how often to communicate. What is too much, too little. What do you communicate to them also needs to be considered. If it is of little value it may mean the relationship is of little value (though that is not what you mean) therefore, consider what you send.

• Who is the key contact within your company?
  • This is crucial to consider. It may be that your client has a sales contact or a regular contact within the company. BUT, as you segment and begin to profile the client you may find there needs to be contact from the CEO, or the owner to let the client know they are valued. The salesperson, or relationship manager, may then take the key contact with them on the occasional visit to reinforce the value. If the client feels like a number, they are a number. It’s the special contact moments that minimise that effect.

There are a myrioad of more intricate strategies that we’ll explore as time goes on.

Feel fee to send me your best tips on building client relationships and I’ll put them all in a post for others to benefit from (Of course you don’t have top send me your extra special, Top Secret tips! )

Have you thought much about your CRM strategy lately? Do you wonder if you’ll ever get it quite right? Do you spend hours wondering which way to go, how much you’ll spend, what return you’ll get? Yeah, me too! Well, until recently when I decided that it can’t (shouldn’t?) be all that difficult. I was reading a post by Graham Hill over at CRM Guru. Graham is questioning the new fad of customer engagement and wonders …

"Why oh why oh why can’t businesses just fix the basics that drives success; simple things like products that work first time every time, pricing that is fair and transparent, marketing that is authentic and honest, and service that adds to the ownership experience, to name just a few."

And it makes sense, doesn’t it? All these well worn phrases and strategies simply designed to get more money from the customer’s pocket and up the share price. So what about a good old return to the basics, where we really do know the customer’s name and their kids ailments etc? CRM breakthroughs is about that B2B I believe we desperately need. Yet it’s not all that scientific. (Of course, if it’s not that scientific, you can’t charge too much either!) So here are a few questions that may help you revisit your CRM and make some adjustments to help both sides (you and the customer)

• What CRM strategies do you have in place?
• How long have you been working on them?
• Who is responsible for what? Do they know?
• How proactive is your team on meeting customer needs? (Or are you driving it all?)
• If the strategies aren’t working, how are you adjusting them?
• How are you measuring them? (Are you measuring? Effectively?)
• What mechanisms have you put in place for feedback?

I’d love to know. And I’d love to know your thoughts on B2B (Back to Basics) CRM. Enjoy your customers!

Technorati Tags: crm, customers, growth

Following on from last week’s post, here are Steps 6 through 10.1 to building customer loyalty.

All of this can be done with the most rudimentary contact system or even just a diary and a shoe box! (Seriously!)

Steps 1 - 5 were:

1. Develop a 12 month Customer Contact Plan
2. Identify customer ‘types’ and market accordingly
3. Complete standard items in ‘chunks’ to save time and increase visibility
4. Invest in technology to automate newsletters/messages
5. Create ‘contact points’ throughout the year

Okay, on with the show …
6. Set reminders for key actions so nothing falls through the cracks

• Set up reminder times for cards, anniversaries etc. This will remove the requirement to remember.

7. Set up templates for standard activities

• On reviewing your plan, you will see a lot of dates and activities. Identify those that require an invite and set this up now, so there is no pressure to do it when the time comes.

8. Create a simple yet effective loyalty program

• Loyalty programs don’t have to be complex. A simple, graded points system is all it takes. (Check with your Accountant as to allowances if necessary.)

9. Create standard surveys (automated) that seek client feedback

• Surveys (on- and off-line) are tremendous methods for gaining feedback and testimonials.
• There are many web-tools that can automate these for you, or you can create your own and do it manually.
• Either way – do it!

10. Request ‘testimonials’ at key points of interaction.

• Testimonies are powerful tools for your business. They convince others far quicker than we can when we promote our own product.

11. Engage a third party for accountability

• Take the time to have a third party review your plan with you every 6 – 12 weeks. The benefit is significant.

And the final piece of good news is you really can do this without software if you don’t want to.

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