Back to basics - Top 10 tips for successful CRM

By Robert Fleming, senior director, CRM marketing, Oracle EMEA

Even those organisations wo have already adopted a CRM strategy - whether the "C" refers to customers or citizens - are still having to cope with rapid advances in CRM technology and pressure from customers who increasingly will not tolerate anything less than impeccable service. At the same time, many are still hesitating or waiting for the right time to implement a CRM strategy, but are becoming daily more confused by conflicting received wisdoms and horror stories of costly failed implementations.

Oracle says it's time to go back to basics. In this article, Robert Fleming, senior director of CRM product marketing for Oracle Europe, the Middle East and Africa, outlines the top ten issues that any organisation should consider before implementing a CRM strategy.

1. Understand why you're doing it
Don't base your choice for adopting or not adopting a CRM strategy, based on what everyone else is doing. CRM only works when there's a clear and measurable understanding of why the organisation is doing it. If you are not doing it to improve service, foster loyalty, cut costs or increase revenue, then you shouldn't be doing it.

2. Focus on the strategy, not the software
A customer-centric approach is a pre-requisite for a successful CRM implementation. Make sure the strategy is well defined and understood before you look at software to implement it. This may even mean changing long-established business processes.

3. Gain executive sponsorship
Implementing new business strategies invariably includes an element of change management. Unless there is someone at the top who can drive change across the company and make decisions when departmental silos disagree, the technology will never be adopted culturally.

4. Understand and communicate the benefits at all levels
Understand and clearly define the return on investment at all levels including business, operations and end-user. Sometimes the biggest barriers are not technical but cultural.

5. Start small and scale up
Implement a CRM environment incrementally according to the immediate needs of the business and where return on investment can be demonstrated quickly. Then look and see how the success can be extended to other operational areas.

6. Focus on your employees
Don't forget to involve your employees. To have a unified message both internally and externally, organisations should consider capturing knowledge and showcasing best practice among employees. As well as being motivational, this can help raise awareness of current campaigns, promotions or simply how to service customers more quickly. Salespeople, in particular, should be given an incentive to ensure the technology is adopted.

7. Get your partners and suppliers on board
Look at the whole value chain. Key partners like ground staff and caterers must execute the same strategy. Consider different levels of collaboration.

8. Learn from others
The most advanced organisations in your region will know the pitfalls and opportunities you are facing. Ask your CRM supplier to put you in touch with them.

9. Choose your vendor/consultant carefully
The best CRM technologies are those that are flexible and have a full integration capability. Also ask your consultants for their experience and references.

10. Use your second-mover advantage
One lesson that the dotcom era bequeathed to us is that "first" does not equal "most successful". Many organisations have now gone through a CRM implementation and many lessons have been learned and documented. The area is now well understood and the risks are far fewer. If you haven't started on your own implementation yet, you now have thousands of previous projects to learn from. It's a good time to start strategising and planning your first pilot programme.