Spring 2010
"The Seven Deadly Sins" of CRM
 
Properly implemented, customer relationship management (CRM) can result in multiple sources of competitive advantage for organizations. However, even in today’s multi-billion dollar CRM industry, many companies are seeing their CRM implementations fail due to the “seven deadly sins” of CRM. Familiarize yourself with these sins, and make sure to avoid them in your CRM initiatives.
  
1. Viewing CRM Solely as a Technology Initiative
Often, managers view CRM as the technological silver bullet that will address all their problems and inefficiencies. However, this is far from reality – information technology is little more than the medium through which to carry out business practices, it in itself will not increase customer retention or reduce inefficiencies. Remember, customer relationships management in its essence is a business philosophy, not a technological solution. In order for CRM software to do its job, the whole company must first embrace CRM as a business philosophy.

2. Lacking Customer-Centric Vision
According to a Mercer marketplace survey, “Establishing and maintaining customer relationships will be the single greatest source of competitive advantage in the 21st century.” While almost every company claims that “customer is king”, few actually stand by the mantra as it is rarely reflected in the corporate vision. Oftentimes, the CRM application becomes a database of information, and companies forget that the C in CRM stands for “customer”.

3. Ignoring Customer Lifetime Value
Relationship marketing signifies a shift away from individual customer transactions toward lifetime customer relationships. A common misconception is that long-term relationships are more profitable than those that are short-term. Although this is often true, businesses must recognize that not all customer relationships are equally profitable. A study conducted by Deloitte showed that companies that understand lifetime customer value are 60% more profitable than those that don’t. The focus of a good CRM strategy should be on serving those who deliver the highest lifetime value.
 
4. Inadequate Top Management Support
As with every new initiative, CRM success starts at the top. Management and high-level executives must embrace and take ownership of the CRM project in order to get it off the ground and obtain lower-level buy-in. According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 55% of business executives say that CRM shortfalls can be attributed to inadequate support from upper management. Without management support, the CRM vision is unlikely to be deployed successfully. 
 
5. Not Including End Users in Selection Process
While management needs to support the CRM vision, it is the everyday employees who will be using the system on a daily basis, and it should be their needs that drive the purchase decision. Often, management will be sold on a system without taking the time to understand how those in the frontline operate, and as a result the system that is implemented is not used – leading to wasted money and an untouched system. Including the end user in the selection process will greatly improve the chances of a successful implementation.  
 
6. Inflexible Business Processes
Any organization that adopts CRM will need to spend time and resources to re-engineer business processes if it’s serious about CRM success. This applies not only to processes that are consumer-facing, but also all back office processes. A Gartner Research report says, “CRM calls for a fresh approach to business processes, rethinking how they appear to the customer and re-engineering them to be more customer-centric and deliver greater customer value.” Organizations should start by reviewing all major business processes within the company in order to understand the value of each since not all matter equally to the customer. All processes that are set up should support customer value. 
 
7. Undervaluing Data Analysis
In every company, customer data resides in many different places, from back-office databases to CRM applications and everywhere in between. The data is ever-changing, and needs to be analyzed in order to provide value. This involves both data mining and data integration – finding and linking all customer data scattered across the company in order to create a holistic picture of each customer. It is not enough simply to collect the data; someone must be responsible for keeping it updated and complete. Furthermore, the organization needs to determine what customer data is required to retain and grow its most valued customers.
Begin with Customer Centricity
According to Donna Fluss, the President at DMG Consulting LLC and the author of the article “Building a customer-centric organization”, one of the greatest challenges companies are faced with is answering the question “who is a customer?” With the advent of CRM software, companies began to understand their customers more holistically, however the implementation of the software is just one of the many steps companies must take in order to create a thriving, customer-centric environment. The creation of such an environment will not only boost customer satisfaction and company morale, but as well provides any company with a strategic and profitable competitive advantage.
 
In Philip Keefe’s article “The Customer-Centric Business”, he outlines important indicators that companies should consider if they truly want to make customer satisfaction their central focus. Keefe suggests that there are three things companies should continually examine: customer feelings, team attitudes and systems and processes.
 
Ask and they shall tell
A great way to truly understand what you’re customer thinks about your business is to conduct monthly, quarterly or annual surveys to ensure their satisfaction with the product or service and furthermore to gain input on what could be improved. Customers need to feel as though their opinions are not only heard but listened to, and surveys are a great way to assess their needs.
 
A happy employee makes for a happy customer
Surveys should also be administered to your sales team in order to grasp their opinions of the customers and any insight they might have on how to better serve them. The team should be continually empowered to provide feedback so that they feel like an integral part of your company and a key contributor to enhancing the customer experience.  
 
Systems and customers should be understood as one
Lastly, one should assess every component of the company that interacts with your customers so to ensure that each is effectively serving the customer’s needs. Taking a step back and looking at each process from the customer’s perspective helps to illuminate aspects that need improvement.
 
From there, companies should implement an overall strategy that not only positions the customer in the centre of the organization but as well inspires every aspect of the business to believe in it.


Luxor CRM to Host a Booth and Present at the 10th Annual DRC Conference & Trade Show

Luxor CRM will be hosting and presenting at the 10th Annual Disaster Restoration Contractor's Conference & Trade Show on June 3rd and 4th at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre. The DRC Trade Show will bring together some of the largest restoration companies across North America and consist of 40 educational sessions, hands-on workshops and some of the most noted exhibitors.

The restoration industry is becoming one of Luxor CRM's most prominent customers as we have developed a tailored, complete solution that meets each owner's individual needs. We will be hosting a booth to provide demonstrations and further information on our revolutionary SaaS-based software. Also, Luxor's CEO Lukas Szczurowski, will be taking the stage to discuss his knowledge on computer-based job management systems.

We at Luxor CRM are extremely eager to attend the conference this year and look forward to meeting the restoration industry's top professionals.

Luxor's Very Own Tax Shield: The Income Tax Cocktail

With the tax season finally over, what better way to sit back and relax than with this savoury cocktail.

Ingredients:
1. 2 oz gin
2. 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
3. 1/4 oz dry vermouth
4. 1 oz orange juice 
5. Angostura bitters to taste 
6. orange twist for garnish 
Directions:
1. Pour the ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes
2. Shake well.
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
4. Garnish with the orange twist.  
  

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