The Connected Customer: Changing approaches, building capabilities

In this final part of our review of the findings of our new Connected Customer report, produced in collaboration with IDG, we take a look at the report’s key conclusions and summarise some actionable recommendations as the pathway to success in CRM transformation.

With over 100 companies of varying sizes from a range of sectors providing their responses, a clear picture has emerged of the current state of digital maturity in the CRM landscape. After a paradigm-shifting period which has irrevocably moved the goalposts for companies as they deal with increasingly connected customers, successful CRM transformation can produce a far-reaching impact on your organisation.

Closer relationships

The conclusions of the report reiterated that the relationship between customers and their preferred brands and service providers has changed forever. Organisations’ competitiveness can now depend on the quality of their customer experience offering. What the report calls ‘the leap towards digital transformation’ has brought customers closer than ever, requiring companies to hit the target with five key capabilities.

With customers remembering each interaction and building a cumulative relationship in their minds, it’s vital that your organisation’s interactions with customers are consistent. Discrete departments must act together to ensure that consistency.

‘Brands must embrace the new relationship model, which is more integrated and experiential’

As a result, CRM must become a strategic imperative for each company, redefining what it means to the organisation to place CRM at the centre of operations. This means CRM transformation is essential to cope with a new consumer landscape, allowing for the integration of emerging tech such as AI, chat messaging and intelligent automation.

Furthermore, CRM transformation doesn’t end at implementation; it’s critical that, in its ongoing use, your business takes advantage of its new capabilities to deliver on business objectives. And while it may seem a daunting prospect to many companies, if best practices are followed, including a comprehensive governance model and effective user support, the risk to operations is minimal.

More than just tech skills

Our report concludes with five recommendations that will maximise the impact of CRM transformation. With a 360-degree view of the customer and processes that place them at their heart, businesses can add value and gain competitive advantage, just as Grupo PSN have done. They regard digital transformation as ‘a necessity for the survival of all companies’ and turned to redk to deliver a digital strategy that aligned with their business objectives.

‘The market environment is changing rapidly and companies cannot be tied to targets that may become obsolete’

As a pathway to the sort of success that our clients have enjoyed, our report concludes with five main recommendations:

• Identify your business’ objectives, match them with the capabilities you need to achieve them, and you will pinpoint the functional requirements of your transformed CRM solution.
• Involve all heads of department in a forum, including the IT team, to create a governance committee from the start of any CRM transformation process.
• Early involvement of the HR department is key to building agile methodologies into the business; prepare and train people and fill skill gaps to complement new processes and technology.
• Your company’s processes and even objectives may have to be flexible to adapt to changes such as market conditions, emerging tech or any other disruption.
• Finally, the people actually using your CRM solution are best placed to provide feedback and suggestions. Build a continuous learning loop to make sure you’re getting feedback from the people who know.