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CRM如何才能成功？本文关键字 案例交流 广告 主要内容：
Counting On CRM Success Sometimes, playing the role of lead champion for a technology implementation is the most rewarding part of an otherwise reward-challenged job. Sure, you might be paid well, and if you're lucky, you might even like the folks you work with. But let's face it, being responsible for the implementation and maintenance of technology solutions in your retail operation has likely been the cause of more than a few gray hairs. Fortunately, every now and then it's that very responsibility that elevates you above the clamor of system support calls, troubleshooting, and management of implementation grunt work to near superhero status. When bottom-line savings or sales increases are attributed to a quick-payback solution that you spearheaded, your deeds are all the more heroic. On the other hand, there are the failures, and woe to the champion of the failed technology implementation. In a hyper-competitive market, those who champion a cause and fail are fortunate to have jobs in the morning, and the failures who keep their jobs won't have an easy time championing their next brilliant idea. Perhaps that's why so many retailers put off implementing or altogether shy away from CRM (customer relationship management). Oh, there have been resounding success stories, but more often than not CRM fails. In fact, IBM's 2004 Global CRM Study says 85% of companies aren't satisfied with the success of their CRM initiatives. If your credibility depends on the success of the implementations you drive, you're probably not too thrilled with those odds. Plan Your Way To CRM Buy-In Cano knows that CRM isn't an easy sell to the internal powers that be. While he bills his company as a customer-centric one, cost consciousness also factors heavily in its technology buying decisions. Given the perceived black magic of CRM implementations, it takes careful planning and creativity to present a case to buy. "We're not the first retailer to attempt to tie ROI to CRM, but at the end of the day, I don't think you can," says Cano. "Ultimately, the decision to implement comes down to determining how much you're willing to spend to enhance the customer experience and how confident you are that such an enhancement will impact your bottom line." Not exactly a sound business case for securing budget sign-off, is it? Fortunately, Cano knew that setting realistic expectations by clearly defining his company's CRM strategy would help him get the green light to spend money on CRM tools. With a hefty database of customer information in hand, it was up to the CRM believers at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM to show the rest of the company what could be done with a DW (data warehouse) and some analytical tools. Demonstrating that a DW allows finite, segment-specific customer queries using data already being collected is one step toward clinching the CRM project. It's also important to focus on the efficiency gains anticipated by the ability to analyze and report on campaign success rates while the campaign is underway. Translating this flexibility from a neat feature to specific hard-dollar savings or increased sales is difficult to do, but the theory isn't hard to prove. Nonetheless, proving that theory to corporate powers is important. The IBM study claims that when CRM initiatives are driven corporately, rather than by a specific division, success rates jump by between 25% and 60%. That said, the study revealed that only 26% of respondents are practicing corporate-owned CRM initiatives. In fact, Big Blue figures that senior management at 36% of the companies it surveyed this year are actually impeding CRM progress because they view CRM as useful, but not critical. That's why securing enterprise-wide buy-in by illustrating the potential of the project to solve business problems is key to its success. CRM can do many things, but when
seeking corporate backing for a CRM initiative it's often more productive to
focus first on what you can't do. For example, direct marketing is a staple for
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, but as little as a year ago it couldn't gauge the success of
a direct marketing campaign until well after the promotion had been signed,
sealed, delivered, and paid for. Cano says it took up to two weeks to compile
and analyze campaign results. Making matters worse, the company didn't have the
tools necessary to segment customers efficiently prior to developing campaigns,
so most direct marketing efforts were targeted poorly, if at all.
Putting The CRM Petal To The Metal "Today, we can see campaign success or failure happening in real time and gauge the success of our promotions daily. That allows us to change the focus of a campaign on the fly if necessary," says Cano. "We can change a banner on our Web site or a partner's portal, for instance, within minutes. We monitor conversion rates on these sites, and if a banner, picture, or link representing a promotion is not converting to sales, we'll change it within minutes. E-mail promotions can also be followed up in short order when the company decides to enhance or change its efforts. The power of these tools for on-the-fly maintenance of stock levels as they relate to promotion demand is obvious. Measure Your Way To CRM Superhero Status While predicting your ROI on a potential CRM implementation may be difficult, measuring the outcome of your CRM efforts once underway (or even better, during a pilot program) doesn't have to be. Simply creating a control group representative of your mass market and several test groups segmented using the target demographic, lifestyle, and purchase history information you've most likely already collected will provide a solid indicator of CRM success to come. If new customer acquisition is your goal, find prospect lists that match the profile of your target groups and throw them in the mix. Then target relevant campaigns at your test groups, hit the control group with the same campaigns, and compare the sales rates of your targeted tests to those of your mass-market approach. If you're like 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, you'll see the response to targeted programming produce 30% more sales than the mass-market approach. "It's all about hitting the right people with the right promotion," says Cano. "When you see retention numbers and repeat buyer numbers going up every year, you know you're doing something right. That's a direct result of the customer's experience, which is a result of CRM." Building Customer Relationships Requires
Commitment At 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, SAS' CRM solutions span the entire decision-support process for managing customer relationships. The company collects data at all of its many multichannel customer contact points, then uses SAS' Enterprise Miner data mining application to turn that data into information that helps it understand and anticipate customer behavior. Enterprise Miner handles the whole data mining process -- from data access to model deployment -- using a process-flow diagram approach presented via a GUI (graphical user interface). This eliminates the need for manual coding and enables use of the solution by even non-statistician types. The retailer uses this information to help meet its 10 million customers' merchandise and service needs, to discover the lifetime value of individual customers, and to deliver more targeted (and therefore profitable) marketing campaigns to its most valuable customers. User Acceptance Drives CRM Why 85% Of CRM Implementations
Fail
The IBM study claims that, when clear guidelines were applied during implementation, CRM success rates were bolstered from less than 15% to greater than 70%. If the implementation of a CRM plan garnered the same respect and sense of urgency given POS and back office systems, perhaps that figure would be even higher. 如果您希望与本文章的作者或其所在机构，进一步交流，请联系：畅享网 姜小姐 jill.jiang@amt.com.cn | 021-51096826-112 | 在线联系 |
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