CRM Know How In Practice Project inception Best Practice Guide 01
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CRM Know How In Practice Project inception In This Guide 02 Introduction: Why CRM? It s simply good business sense 02 CRM best practice based on our hands-on experience. A CRM model refined and developed through years of varied engagements 03 Why focus on project inception? Laying foundations to keep your project stable 03 The most crucial phase of your CRM planning? xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 05 Environmental factors and business maturity. Your track record matters 06 Project governance. Controlling and tracking progress 07 CRM project team. The right people to drive success 08 Business alignment. Linking to critical business goals at every stage 08 Conclusion Best Practice Guide 01
Introduction: Why CRM? Understanding your customers - and their needs and expectations - is the key to delivering great service, attracting and creating loyal, repeat customers, and being able to grow your business with them. If you agree with that statement, you ve grasped the essence of CRM. It s not rocket science, it s just common sense. Your organisation possesses plenty of information about customers and prospects. Your financial and order systems hold data about what they buy and how much they spend. Your employees know how the customers they come into contact with like to engage and do business. Through market research and industry intelligence, you keep up with trends and developments in your marketplace. But how do you bring all of that together, continuously adding to it, and making it available to everyone who engages with that customer? How do you derive competitive edge from rich insights, using them to identify opportunities and risks and to anticipate what your customers will need next? As businesses and individuals, customers choose to engage, communicate and inform themselves through many different media. With the continuing rise of Web 2.0 channels, you need to capture customer insight and offer your customers convenient and user-friendly ways to engage with your organisation. CRM technology and processes allow you to incorporate new media and dynamic communication into your everyday business activities and develop correspondingly deeper, multi-dimensional relationships with your customers, prospects and stakeholders. A CRM programme puts in place common methods of doing business and instils a culture of sharing information and collaborating across departments, functions, staff and managers. You ll capture and share information reliably and comprehensively. You ll be able to work with that information easily to support decision-making and to prioritise investment of time and resources. You ll be able to identify new business opportunities and act on them quickly and efficiently, bringing goods and services to your customers at the moment they need them. If your employees have the right information to hand when any interaction with a customer takes place, they can respond appropriately and efficiently to the particular needs of that customer. Customer satisfaction will be high: you ll create a virtuous circle of loyal customers who evangelise on your behalf. Everyone in your organisation can play their part in adding to your collective knowledge and making use of it to deliver outstanding service. That s what CRM can achieve for you. CRM best practice based on our hands-on experience This Best Practice Guide is the second in a five-part series. It describes the second step of our proven, five-step CRM optimisation model The TouchstoneCRM Success Cycle. We ve developed and refined this over hundreds of engagements where we ve introduced CRM from scratch or stepped in to recover or improve existing and unsatisfactory CRM programmes. We ve observed the characteristics of projects that achieved their full potential, fell some way short or failed outright. The TouchstoneCRM Success Cycle is technology agnostic. It works whether you prefer cloud-based or on-premises CRM. It applies equally well to projects supporting B2B or B2C organisations, to commercial organisations and not-for-profits. It s a best practice approach that supports engagements driven by a range of business objectives, including: increasing sales increasing customer loyalty and stakeholder engagement introducing a social media engagement model supporting 1-2-1 marketing decreasing the cost to serve or a combination of these and other business-specific outcomes. 02 Best Practice Guide
TouchstoneCRM Success Cycle Why focus on project inception? Once your CRM business case is signed off, you need to get ready for action. Because of the wide-ranging impacts of most CRM initiatives, it s vital to plan and prepare in detail before deploying resources and incurring expenditure. Just as a building that s expected to stand the test of time and survive the elements must have a strong set of foundations, so a CRM project can only be expected to deliver value to an organisation if it s similarly built on a sure footing. That s what project inception is all about. This Best Practice Guide explores key considerations in the inception stage of a CRM project. Based on our track record of delivering best-practice CRM Consulting, we ll share our knowledge of how to lay a firm foundation on which you can build a successful project. The most crucial phase of your CRM planning? The first stage of the TouchstoneCRM Success Cycle is creating a robust CRM business case. Once this has been validated and signed off by your leadership team, your project will progress to the inception phase. This is when you get down to detailed planning and preparation. The woodworking maxim measure twice, cut once applies very well to this phase. You only have one shot at delivery, so this is the moment to make sure you have verified and anticipated the assumptions and data that your project rests on, before deploying resources and budget that cannot be retrieved. We identify four elements that must be addressed before your organisation is ready to move into full scale implementation. Because this following design and build phase costs the most, it s vitally important to go into it fully prepared, to avoid overspending, overrunning or encountering unforeseen problems. Best Practice Guide 03
Environmental Factors & Business Maturity Project Governance CRM Project Team Business Alignment A robust business case is an essential first step to success, but you cannot afford to relax at that point. Your business case can all too easily be derailed. This is a complex, cross-company initiative, demanding changes to your business processes, organisation and technology. At the same time you must manage business as usual and continue to anticipate the changing demands of customers and respond to innovation from your competitors. Most studies of CRM project success therefore cite an uncomfortably high percentage of CRM projects that end in failure. In his 2009 report Answers To Five Frequently Asked Questions About CRM Projects, Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Bill Band presents evidence that under 50% of CRM projects fully meet expectations. Aligning resources and expectations is, in our experience, the key to avoiding an expensive fiasco. By focusing on our four elements of project inception, you can ensure that you prepare thoroughly and rigorously before plunging into the most expensive part of your CRM project. CRM Readiness Assessment Tool We have developed a CRM Readiness Assessment Tool that you can use as a checklist to assess your organisation s maturity, your business case and how prepared you are, before you embark on your CRM business transformation project. Download the tool free from www.touchstonecrm.co.uk 04 Best Practice Guide
Environmental factors and business maturity A solid foundation This element of your planning is the most fundamental foundation layer. Is your organisation really ready to embark upon a transformational IT and customer management initiative? To evaluate this, look for evidence of similar initiatives that your organisation has successful completed recently. Does your business have an established, internal model for programme and project management? Does it employ experienced, inhouse project managers? Any CRM initiative will impact on multiple departments, because customers have touch points across sales, marketing, customer service and finance. They may make contact through a variety of online, offline and social media channels. That s why an organisation s proven ability to orchestrate a crossdepartmental change project to deliver a stated outcome is a good indicator of readiness. It s common for a CRM initiative to uncover lines of political division, where departments, groups and individuals struggle to agree on principles to support an end-to-end customer-centric process. These risks can be mitigated through a clear scope, communication and expectation setting and the intervention of a strong and influential executive sponsor. What are we really getting into? You must set expectations clearly all around your organisation. Everyone needs to understand the full implications of embarking on your CRM project. Consider this definition, by IT research analysts Gartner Group: CRM is a business strategy with outcomes that optimise profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction by organising around customer segments, fostering customer-satisfying behaviours and implementing customer-centric processes There is no mention of software, technology or the cloud. The definition focuses on business outcomes and business processes. It strongly implies organisational change. You will need to communicate clearly that CRM is not just installing software. Gaining commitment requires more than circulating a mission statement that says your organisation is customercentric. It requires understanding of how to bring diverse people, processes and knowledge together to shift from being product-centric to customer-centric. Best Practice Guide 05
Sustained management commitment It s important to assess realistically the level of leadership team commitment that exists. To deliver your CRM project outcomes successfully, the senior management team will need to commit to investing in continuous improvement, probably over a number of budget years. This includes on-going development of customer-centric processes, data and engagement models and regular training of customer facing staff. In many CRM initiatives, senior managers perceive that their key investment is in technology. This is a crucial misconception. CRM software is a tool, certainly a very sophisticated one, but still a tool. It s like a Swiss army knife, which can be used in varied ways, but by itself cannot produce results or deliver any value. It needs to be applied to a defined task by a skilled hand. You cannot afford for business decision makers to lose enthusiasm or cut off investment in the operation of this tool, so you must ensure that everyone clearly understands and supports the far-reaching nature of the project. Other relevant environmental factors include: Is the project competing with other internal projects for resources and investment? Does the project plan and phasing take into account any seasonality in your business? Does a robust IT infrastructure exist to support the project, or is one planned? (this is less important in a cloudbased deployment model) Project governance Project of all kinds, CRM or otherwise, are risky because they are working outside an organisation s normal processes and procedures. To mitigate this risk, you should apply project governance disciplines. They keep the initiative on track and constrain you to deliver the desired outcome within the prescribed timeframe at the budgeted cost. Governance is often delivered by means of organisational structures, like project boards or technical steering groups. You ll need high levels of communication between the involved parties. 06 Best Practice Guide
Defining scope and outcomes All stakeholders (the project team, department heads, business leadership and third party providers) need to understand exactly what the problem is that you re trying to fix or the opportunity you want to address. The planned outcomes must be unambiguous, measurable and achievable. Your initial CRM business case should explain these elements. Then, at the Inception stage, you explore them in more detail, clearly identifying exclusions to the scope, phasing and deliverables, dependencies, assumptions and critical success factors. The results of this planning and definition work should be widely shared with stakeholders and supported where appropriate by risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans. Managing the journey During project inception it s important to establish a set of operating principles that support and sustain the project: On-going management of communication and project status reporting to stakeholder groups is vital in developing enthusiasm whilst setting expectations appropriately. You should establish a robust approach to risk management, capturing threats to the project outcome as they are identified, then applying mitigation activity based on the severity and likelihood of impact. No project operates in a vacuum. During the project lifecycle, changes to business priorities will inevitably occur due to internal or external factors. It s crucial to build in change management disciplines so you can objectively assess the impact of changing direction on the project. CRM project team You need to establish a high-performing internal project team who will be accountable for delivering the desired business outcome. The team will typically be supported by experts from an external consulting practice, like Touchstone. High performance project teams We have worked with and observed client project teams of different sizes and designs over the years. This has led us to conclude that members of high performing project teams have common characteristics described in this diagram. Passionate About The Result Representative Available & Committed Pragmatic & Open To Change CRM Project Team Vested Interest Opinion Influencers Domain Experts The most effective project teams are made up of business leaders and managers who are accountable for the project s success and empowered to make decisions. They should be either the architects or the people responsible for implementing the business strategy that the CRM project supports. Improving the likelihood of success Successful project teams will also include representatives of the user community, to build in their real-world experience. You need to incorporate user adoption considerations into the phasing, design, training and communication strategy. In every organisation, there are individuals who strongly influence opinion, often due to their tenure, status, domain expertise or communication skills. Their positive or negative perception of a project will colour the opinions of those around them. These are great people to have on the project team, shaping its direction and championing the cause. Best Practice Guide 07
Your CRM project is long-term and strategic in nature. It will require a substantial commitment of time and energy from the project team members. There will inevitably be tough decisions to make along the way about prioritisation or elegance of solution versus cost. There will almost certainly be internal resistance to address. Robust, tenacious characters with a lot vested in the result make ideal members of your CRM project team. Business alignment In our opinion, projects fail more often because organisations solve the wrong problem than because they deliver the wrong solution. Our project inception best practice therefore specifically focuses on business alignment. This means making sure that your CRM project scope, deliverables and desired outcome absolutely align to the overarching business strategy for your organisation. Where your CRM initiative is part of a multi-year, multi-discipline strategy and owned in the boardroom, the chances of project success are high. If they are not, the initiative is nothing more than a tactical programme, with a limited chance of long-term success. In our experience, where the CRM vision supporting the project is not tied to a clear set of outcomes (such as market share, retention rates, or revenue per customer, the project is liable to meander and suffers under threat of cancellation. Executive sponsorship The most influential role in the team is that of the executive sponsor. This individual is charged with: raising and maintaining the profile of the initiative in the board room securing and protecting the budget pushing through resistance throughout the lifecycle of the project. We have found that senior buy-in, spearheaded by an executive sponsor, and a compelling business case tied to wider organisational goals are critical factors in delivering a tangible return on investment from the project. The business case and ROI analysis The return on investment analysis that supports your business case is crucial. This quantifies the intended improvement for the business in its key performance indicators against the project costs and risks. We place heavy emphasis on creating and validating a robust ROI calculation, linking project activity to the business case at every point to ensure thorough alignment. You should build in steps to measure the benefits realised after each deployment phase. Conclusion CRM is a customer-focused business strategy designed to optimise revenue, costs and customer satisfaction. It should always be considered as part of a long-term investment that supports your over-arching business goals. In this context, project inception is arguably the most critical phase of your project, laying firm foundations and frameworks for every future decision and activity. In our experience, it is difficult and expensive to recover a foundering project that has not given sufficient focus to this phase. Working with a trusted CRM consultant means you can be confident that your detailed planning at the inception stage addresses everything required. At Touchstone we have the experience and expertise to help you thoroughly explore the four key elements of project inception, so you can lay the best possible foundations for a successful project and reduce the risk of it breaking down later in the process. The TouchstoneCRM Success Cycle. All Rights Reserved 08 Best Practice Guide
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The Touchstone Approach People, Partnership and Solutions are the building blocks of successful TouchstoneCRM programmes. People Every CRM journey begins with people yours and ours coming together to agree objectives, standards and methodologies. We ll develop a partnership and work together to deliver the successful outcomes you seek. Our consultants bring a transformative combination of innovation, skills and enthusiasm to every project. They are all seasoned CRM specialists with deep sector knowledge and a firm grasp of business objectives and priorities. They take personal responsibility for exceeding your expectations. We don t just put our customers first we put you way ahead. Partnership We don t just work with you: we truly work together. You can treat us as an extension of your team. We re always on hand and deeply engaged with your CRM vision. We also partner with our IT suppliers so we always have the latest knowledge about the platforms we recommend. We keep things simple and effective by using best-in-class platforms that we ve chosen because we know they support business growth effectively. With our unrivalled expertise in these platforms, we can identify the best application for your business. Collaborative, supportive and consultative, we are success-led, not sales-led. That s why we enjoy so many long-lasting, mutually rewarding client relationships. Solutions Our core strength is in the way we use our experience to understand your business and your objectives. Software is simply a tool to help you get where you want to be. One size fits all doesn t work for us. We deliver personalised solutions that fit your organisation s specific needs. We understand that your business is constantly evolving and customer requirements are changing, so we equip you with solutions that grow with you. Whether you need support with an initiative you ve started, help to augment or recover an existing project, or a brand new CRM programme, we have the business understanding, energy, ability, resources and enthusiasm to deliver beyond your expectations. www.touchstonecrm.co.uk moreinfocrm@touchstone.co.uk TouchstoneCRM Limited 1Triton Square London NW1 3DX 010 Best Practice Guide Copyright TouchstoneCRM Limited 2013