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Customer Relationship Management Readiness Quiz Customer Relationship Management (or CRM) and Knowledge Management (or KM) are hot IT software and management topics but for you to win with these solutions, the groundwork must be properly done. There are many CRM and KM applications available and they can be expensive. When you visit the websites of the leaders (Siebel, Clientlogic, Salesforce etc), they show dramatic ROI’s and offer great success stories. Don’t let yourself or management get carried away with visions of great savings, if you haven’t already implemented the basics of client relationship management. If you are missing some elements of the basic client relationship processes, IT systems won’t be effective and you could get savings without the software investment. Take the following quiz and see if you are indeed ready for the technology. Give yourself a point for every Absolutely answer, half point if you do it somewhat and a zero if you don’t do it at all. Absolutely (1) Somewhat (.5) Should We? (0) 1 Clients belong to the business, not to a specific member of the business. 2 We have a current contact management system for the team responsible that is shared among all team members serving the same client. 3 Every client and prospect is entered into a contact management system that is actively maintained and utilized. 4 Clients and prospects are separately identified in the current contact management system. 5 Regular communication is sent to both current and former clients (targeted offers, newsletters, articles of interest, personal notes (recognition of their or their children’s success, birthdays)). 6 Former clients are surveyed as to why they are no longer active clients, with the information documented, shared and tracked. 7 Satisfied former clients are regularly contacted for referrals and to see if opportunities exist to do business together, again. 8 A member of the business is rewarded for bringing in a new client. 9 Members of the business regularly inquire of clients, “Is there anything else I can do for you? Was everything to your satisfaction today?” 10 Clients that refer prospects are thanked and rewarded. 11 Surveys are done at least annually to understand why prospects chose not to become a client 12 Clients are regularly surveyed to understand satisfaction 13 Clients are prioritized based on their lifetime value (High, Medium, Low value) by the management team. 14 Clients are segmented by business type and each target receives targeted communication. 15 Preferred communication channel (phone, in person, email, etc.) is known for each client contact 16 We have a strategy for growing a customer into maximum potential TOTAL Score 13 or above—Great! The investment in more sophisticated IT Customer Relationship Management software will likely pay off. Score 8 to a 12—Look at ways to shore up your existing business practices and start mining the client information you already have. Below 7—Do you care about clients? Don’t invest in a Customer Relationship Management IT system until you go back to basics and begin to have a relationship with clients. If your score isn’t where you would like it to be, chances are your business is not growing as fast as it could be or as profitably as it should. Customer relationship management the IT software solution is getting confused with the basics of good marketing of knowing your clients. Make sure that your front line people are treating the clients you have well, design processes, experiment and test—when you find options that work then consider moving to more sophisticated solutions.
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