The CRM Champion: Where Did This Person Go?
1 Nov, 2004
By: Rhonda C. ProctorIt wasn’t too long ago that CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, meant big talk and big money in contact centers across the globe. Everyone wanted it, no one knew exactly how to get it, but most agreed it could be obtained by doing two things: effectively utilize the right technologies, and hire someone who was willing to take ownership over the initiative, affectionately referred to as the “CRM Champion.” Typically a C-level executive, this person was the stakeholder charged with establishing, defending and maintaining the CRM initiative throughout the enterprise. No small task, mind you, but in the past year a hush has fallen over this formerly “mission critical” position. CP began to wonder what happened to this person, this position and who now holds the CRM reigns in today’s progressive contact centers.
To learn more, CP conducted roundtable interviews with CRM experts, consultants and practitioners to learn more about this important, but elusive, topic. In the process, we also learned about where CRM is today, and where it’s headed.
The Experts:
- Gary Lemke is the publisher of RealMarket Today! the industry''s premiere on-line publication which tracks the latest trends in customer management technologies and strategies.
- Dr. Jon Anton is the director of benchmark research at Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality and has long been respected as a thought leader in the contact center industry.
- Chris Selland is the Vice President, Sell-Side Research, for Boston-based Aberdeen Group, Inc., and was the founder of Reservoir Partners, a relationship management strategy consultancy, which merged with Aberdeen Group in 2004.
Q1: Up until about a year ago, there was a lot of buzz in the contact center space about the importance of naming a C-level executive to lead their organization’s CRM initiative. The buzz over the topic seems to have died down, and in fact some people are no longer even sure what this “CRM Champion” is. What do you think has happened to this supposed-once-critical owner of the CRM initiative?
Lemke: The short answer is that everyone in the organization should feel ownership for the customer experience. But when the term CRM Champion is used, it usually means the person in charge of a new CRM initiative. At the least, initiatives involve change and often include new technologies, new processes, new entities, etc. Rarely do initiatives go as planned. Mr. Murphy, the patriarch of Murphy’s Law, is always lurking around.
There will be surprises, unexpected obstacles, changes in business priorities, financial considerations and a host of other “roadblocks.” The CRM Champion is the person that keeps the customer experience center stage when initiatives meet roadblocks. Who is the best person for this? The short answer is the person with position power. Often that defaults to a C-level person, but it doesn’t have to be.
The critical point is that you have to have a champion. In the past, some organizations created a new position and that created a bit of buzz as organizations scurried to create new job descriptions. However, if this person didn’t have the budget and the people, position power was often limited and their ability to succeed was limited. Nowadays, most organizations understand the importance of the champion with teeth. I think we hear less because enough failures have taught us that it is suicide to try CRM without the CRM Champion.
Anton: I agree there is the perception that you project in the question. However, every contact center that I have visited in the last 12 months (approximately 40 centers) still has some kind of CRM initiative in place and the center manager would consider CRM a “work in progress.” Like so many “new technologies”…the initial “hype” far exceeds the technical reality. Regarding the existence of a CRM Champion, let’s not forget that every new contact center improvement initiative begins with a “champion”…formal or informal. What I have found is that if the project is on schedule—on budget—and delivering the ROI projected, then there are many champions ready to lay claim to the idea. Since most CRM projects are behind schedule, maybe over budget, and not yet delivering the projected ROI, the champions are laying low for now, understandably.
I am still very optimistic that CRM is “directionally correct” but, like so many great technologies, it needs to survive the test of time - I am betting on CRM…. I laud those that have not given up and that labor to make it into a full reality for their companies. They are the real champions, and their long hours and personal commitment should be recognized.
Selland: First of all, it’s important to recognize that what the term “CRM” is supposed to mean is the integration of Customer Support with Sales and Marketing. Unfortunately, it’s been applied departmentally so many times that it’s not thought of that way nearly enough. But using this definition, the C-level executive would have to have oversight of all of those functions—and enough clout and authority to make sure they work together.
Q2: So, to be specific, who are the emerging stakeholders in the CRM initiative?
Lemke: Usually a C-level executive, with full organizational support.
Anton: The stakeholders in the typical CRM initiative include customer service, product marketing, sales, IT and operations. Because of the need to integrate multiple sources of customer data, IT support plays a critical role in the success of any CRM project. The unanticipated “CRM demon” has been contending with the existing IT infrastructure that was often not designed for real-time access to mission critical customer data. Legacy systems often “lock out” the very people they were designed to service.
Selland: Sales, Marketing and Support—and the line-of-business VPs who run those functions—own it. But it doesn’t happen if they work departmentally; it only happens if and when they work together.
Q3: Do you think there is a key leadership factor, or characteristics of leadership teams, that help some organizations successfully adopt CRM initiatives? Is so, what are they?
Lemke: I think its focus is on change management, as it relates to keeping the customer experience front and center when making decisions.
Anton: In the successful CRM projects that I have witnessed, and sometimes participated in, the absolute key is top management support and a “press on regardless” mentality of everyone involved. Fainthearted executives pursuing short-term goals and expecting results in unrealistic timeframes have most often been the death knell to CRM initiatives.
Selland: It comes from looking at customer relationships holistically. Most companies operate according to their internal structures (i.e., departmentally) and/or by product/service line. Very few truly structure themselves around the customer, but when you look for CRM success stories those are the companies where you find them.
Q4: What are some of the other factors that must be present in an organization that makes a CRM initiative “stick”?
Lemke: You know, I often feel like a broken record on this one, but I guess we have to continue to say it: Organizations must have products and services of value to the customer. They must keep it simple—avoid unnecessary complexity. There must be user adoption of new technologies and business processes, with education and incentives. Focus on the customer experience; put yourself in their shoes. Remember that employee retention drives customer retention.
Anton: The factors needed to make any dream mature into reality are the same for a CRM initiative: a leader with a well-defined “vision” of what is the end goal (i.e., when finished, what will it look like, taste like, smell like, etc.). The definition of “What is CRM success?” is critical.
There has to be a team of professionals given the budget and responsibility and bonuses to “make it happen” within a realistic timeframe, and raw professional talent on the team that turns creative ideas into short-term reality—every day.
Selland: For CRM specifically, it’s ultimately up to the CEO and COO. As stated before, it may be possible to bring in a ‘CCO’ [Chief Customer Officer] or something similar, but there needs to be a high-level recognition that if we don’t get the company out of its functional stovepipes, any money we spend on technology will be largely wasted.
Q5: I’ve been perusing contact center information sites, attending conferences and talking to people, and it seems that the term CRM, in the contact center industry, just isn’t as visible as it used to be. Is the term CRM morphing into something else, or has it finally become so widely adopted that it’s become a natural part of the business lexicon, and as such, it’s “marqueed” with less frequency?
Lemke: We are simply experiencing the maturing of CRM. CRM is here to stay. Maybe the term has lost a bit of buzz or “mojo”, but it is not going away. CRM has gone through infancy and adolescence and is now entering young adult status. I would still like to see CRM matriculate and earn a better reputation in the business lexicon.
Anton: Customer relationship management, customer interaction management, customer-driven systems, customer experience management, customer life-cycle management and many more basically “boil” down to the same concept…the customer is the center of our business model…. Constant and actionable feedback from our target customers becomes the rule.
Selland: You know the line “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”? Now I think it’s been replaced by “I’m from the CRM industry and I’m here to help”. There’s a lot of eye-rolling going on in the market, and most of the customers are very skeptical. I’d love to see the term CRM go away—because it has its roots in the 1990s mindset of “If it runs on a computer, it’s IT’s job to manage it”. While companies have learned (mostly the hard way) that it’s a very bad idea to have IT driving your customer strategy, the term CRM still implies that the right answer is found in the technology—and that’s completely backward.
Having said all that, since CRM for better or worse has become a part of the business lexicon, just coming up with another ‘TLA’ (three-letter acronym)—which my analyst brethren are so good at—won’t do anyone much good. What needs to happen is for companies to realize that CRM—or whatever they choose to call it—isn’t about technology; it’s about driving business and customer value.
Q6: Some analysts are predicting increased spending on technology (and CRM) in 2005 and beyond. In what facet of the contact center industry do you predict the greatest commitment of time, energy and funds will be?
Lemke: That is difficult to say. Each contact center has different needs and may be at different places in the technology adoption lifecycle. I don’t see one overriding dominant facet. But I do believe that many contact centers have diligently worked hard over the last few years to reduce costs and now find more cost reductions of diminishing returns. Those organizations will turn to new initiatives to improve the customer experience.
Anton: In a recent study we at Benchmark Portal conducted, the “wish list” of contact managers regarding technology (time, energy, and budget) included the following five in descending order of frequency:
- Web-based self-service
- Voice-activated IVR
- Channel integration software (telephone, email, and web-chat)
- Virtual agent technology
- Customer satisfaction measurement for all channels
Selland: There’s clearly an opportunity for contact centers to be run more proactively and to be used to drive both revenue for the company and value for the customer. The ugly truth, which the CRM industry hates to admit, is that the vast majority of contact centers are still run as cost centers. But be careful: that does not mean companies should start hammering customers with sales pitches on every service call, as many CRM technology “cross-sell/up-sell” advocates suggest is such a great idea. It may very well mean that the contact center plays a more indirect role in generating revenue, by working more closely with Sales and Marketing to hand off opportunities.
In other words, there’s opportunity to use the contact center as a growth driver—and that would drive both industry growth and the success stories needed to foster that growth—but again it comes from a different approach to CRM than most companies have been following. At Aberdeen, we refer to these as Proactive Service solutions—and we do think there’s an investment opportunity there.
Q7: How feasible has it become for the small to mid-size contact center enterprise (SME) to successfully adopt a CRM strategy?
Lemke: Let’s look at the question without the SME “tag.” In the world, there are a finite and small percentage of companies that can afford the resources required of a traditional enterprise approach. However, their needs are often just as complex and, in some cases, more complex. So it is a matter of equal or similar capabilities with a more reasonable price tag and less risk—the typical champagne taste on a beer budget. Today, we are seeing a new breed of solutions that offer more out-of-the-box functionality, easier to implement integration capabilities, embedded best practices and hosting options—all things most companies big and small require. Interestingly, the largest enterprises are now considering solutions that once would have only been of interest to small enterprises.
Anton: A small to mid-size contact center often implies a smaller to mid-size “younger” company. From my experience, CRM does not flourish when legacy systems abound—often the case with monolithic “older” companies. Therefore, younger companies, often with newer IT infrastructure, can adopt CRM more quickly. CRM competition and new inventions have brought CRM solutions within budgetary reach of the size companies discussed in this question. I am betting these companies will do better in achieving their CRM goals.
Selland: A ‘CRM’ strategy is essentially:
- How do we want to treat our customers, and how do they want to be treated?
- What are the best practices we should be following?
- How do we institutionalize those best practices with process?
- How do we reinforce these processes with technology?
If you boil it down this way, then it’s never too early to start. Notice, by the way, that “technology” comes last. Too many companies still put it first—which is the biggest cause of “CRM failure” and the aforementioned skepticism and eye-rolling.
Q8: As we go into 2005, what one piece of advice can you offer our readers about implementing and maintaining an effective CRM strategy?
Lemke: Program management best practices are the same now as they have been for quite some time. Two decades ago, the mantra was “Think big, start small, move quickly.” Last decade, I suggested more focus on “chunking” your way to CRM; that is, tackling CRM in manageable chunks. Today’s risk-adverse climate has made chunking even more important, and let me offer a more quantified view. No chunk should take more than 90 days or have more than a 180-day payback. If a project exceeds those parameters, break it into chunks that meet the 90/180 day rule.
Anton: Most importantly, “Don’t give up”…. CRM is such a basic need for all companies. Because it is difficult to achieve is not a reason to drop the project. To reconvince yourself of CRM’s utility, visit a contact center that has made strides in the direction of fully integrated CRM.
Selland: Simplify it. Ask yourself the questions I just asked in Q7. Answer those questions, and the path to success becomes much clearer.
And don’t forget that incentives are everything. Not only do you need to show your organization the path to success, but you also have to incent them to follow that path. I can’t tell you how many companies have spent a gazillion dollars on technology and then continue to pay their contact center reps to hang up on customers. This is true at the executive level, and it’s true in the trenches. People are where the rubber hits the road.
Thank you very much, Gary Lemke of RealMarket, Dr. Jon Anton of Purdue’s Center for Customer Driven Quality, and Chris Selland of the Aberdeen Group, for sharing your valuable time and insight with us and with the readers of Contact Professional.
