The Good News

We do not have to reinvent the wheel!

The answers are out there if we just put them to work!

Ten years of CRM has revealed useful truths about customers

With all the attention back on customers (where it should be) some extremely relevant  information has been uncovered (sometimes by accident).

Money and resources have been spent on collecting customer data and then trying to make sense of it all, with regard to finding out what customers really want from a buying experience  

      All the consultants and computing power in the world can not get you closer to your customers. Only you (and your employees) can know your customers.

A "new customer"  has been born over the last decade and if you can connect with  him/her they will respond and be loyal.

Some businesses have figured out what their "new customer" looks like and what they want from a relationship with a company.  

This “new customer” strategy has been so effective in some markets that big corporations have actually surrendered some segments to smaller businesses so they can better concentrate on their own most valuable core customers. They realize they can't have the same level relationship that their smaller competitors can. 

 Everything has changed!

Just think Email, the internet, Spam, 600 channels of cable television, cellular phones, laptops, palm pilots, and i-pods  were just creative ideas 10 - 15 years ago. Now they have a huge impact on how we organize our lives!

Life is very different then it was 10 years ago. As a result, we cannot expect customers to be the same because they are people :)

 Customers have changed (in some way) in almost every buyer seller relationship. The same customer of high-tech medical lab equipment also buys dry cleaning and dental work.

 We all know that customers want an easy buying experience, a fair price, and good service. But which is most important to your most valuable customers?

All things are not equally important to all customers. Is price the number one concern for your customers (or best customers)? Quality? Service? Do they all carry the same weight with your most profitable customers.

 Many software vendors and CRM consultants will give you a lecture on how customer relationships can be cemented by technology, but the last 10 years have proven that technology only enables the relationship it can not create it.

Customers want it all!

But realistically a business can not provide excellence in every area from day one. They must concentrate their efforts in areas that represent the fastest and most profitable return.     

Relationships begin with understanding customer needs.

 Implementing just one customer strategy (within a single customer segment) successfully, is worth infinitely more than spending tons of money automating sales, marketing, and service areas just to leverage resources.   

  "Advantages gained through the application and exploitation of customer knowledge (known as the learning curve) can become permanent and irreversible".   Peter Drucker

We don't have to start from scratch

With today's technology and the interactivity of all communication between people, customers have left clues as to what they value.

This is the true payoff of technology and the real value of information. Customer intelligence created from the collection of customer information will lead a business  where it needs to go.

But customer information only tells half the story

Not every path offers the same return. That is the decision that no technology can make for you!

Decision makers that are in alignment with their customers' needs, will instinctively know which customer strategy to follow. It will be obvious to them and the customer relationships will be strong and lasting.          

      What have we learned?

•  If existing customers do not have a good reason to stay with a company, a percentage of them will not. That is just the way it is!

• If your competitor integrates the “truths” about your customers into basic business operations, to provide a better buying experience, customers may be lost forever.

• When customers feel they have a connection with a company and trust that company, they are tempted less by one-time promotions or other variables.

• If a company is not customer focused, they will be vulnerable to companies that are.

•  Staying ahead of change by centering on customers is not so much a strategy but more of a survival tactic.

•  Many small organizations never realize they have a huge advantage!

• Most big companies have cumbersome bureaucracies and stifling politics. Their response to change is always slow.

• Many old thinking companies continue to live in the past. These businesses are vulnerable and one day will wonder why their market share has dwindled. "After all, we are doing what we always did".

 Some experts say that the business world is separating into very large or very small business models. The smaller businesses will be very hands on and understand their customers in a very deep and focused way.