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In association with COMMERCIAL PROFILE■
buy based on multiple factors such Does this mean existing investments flowing to front-line staff or into
as life milestones, acquisitions, in traditional, transaction-based sys- operational systems to drive more
external events and more tems and operational CRM systems effective actions. With an integrated
• Get the most from investments are obsolete? No, but those systems platform, everybody has access to the
in advertising and other promotions need to be able to share their infor- customer intelligence they need
by understanding the media mix mation through a data warehousing to perform their functions more
that optimises returns and analytic structure that brings effectively.
• Increase customer satisfaction, the parts into a unified whole. This Sophisticated analysis of large data
loyalty and referrals by providing integrated knowledge base is contin- volumes requires process automation.
consistent customer treatment and ually updated, validated, reconciled For example, today’s solutions auto-
a cohesive company image across all and managed for integrity. The mate the marketing decision process
touch points knowledge base – ‘one version of the by automatically generating a con-
• Allocate limited resources such truth’ – disseminates meaningful sumer offer to a noted change in
as budget, staff and IT systems to analysis, insights and action across behaviour, such as a drop in shopping
greatest advantage operational units, customer groups frequency. Newer, real-time inbound
• Understand how to transform a and lines of business to optimise marketing solutions automatically
customer’s grievance into a positive customer value. recommend products and offers to
experience, or even an opportunity consumers via the web, based on pre-
to delight that customer with an 2. Cross-pollinate across dicted future shopping behaviours.
appropriate, proactive upgrade. marketing, sales and service
Analysing data across business units
5. Align marketing, sales and
How can CRM initiatives can reveal discoveries that would
service with enterprise-level
live up to this potential?
otherwise remain hidden – insights
goals
that are found only by information What if the decision that keeps a
The benefits of analytics are
depth, breadth and correlation. With marketing campaign under budget
compelling, but they can be elusive
the example of the women’s clothing alienates good customer prospects
too. Some of the reasons are cultural.
chain, it wasn’t until the company and ultimately costs more than it
Organisational processes and personnel
matched return data with the loyalty gains? Informed decisions require
issues – such as buy-in, departmental
programme members that the heavy co-ordinated intelligence across the
politics, flawed procedures or
out-of-season returns came to light. enterprise. That’s why forward-
reward programmes – hinder the
Using information gleaned from thinking organisations are integrat-
effectiveness of CRM. From a tech-
multiple sources, the company was ing predictive analytics not only
nology standpoint, however, four key
able to extend loyalty offers to cus- within marketing, sales and service
factors are at play:
tomers with a low return rate and a but also with performance manage-
1. The inability to assemble a 360-
record of making some purchases at ment at the enterprise level.
degree view of each customer or,
full price.
for that matter, the business
2. Shallow analytics or analytics
Embracing a holistic
3. Apply analytics to drive prof-
applied only to specific, niche
itable customer relationships
approach
functions
3. A gap between analytics and
In a dynamic and often unforgiving
Marketing groups were the first to
action, ie customer intelligence is
economy, companies need to predict
embrace predictive analytics – for
created but not used
and manage each customer’s needs,
cross-selling, campaign and interac-
4. Misalignment of department-
not just react to them. Simple ana-
tion management and customer
level actions and enterprise-level
lytics won’t deliver. Effectively antic-
acquisition and loyalty programmes.
goals.
ipating customer needs requires
Other functional groups are gradu-
The good news is that these limi-
advanced analytics that provide
ally discovering the value of predic-
tations are not insurmountable, and
predictive modelling to optimise
tive analytics for identifying unex-
they can be resolved with existing
customer interactions and that accu-
pected opportunities and anticipat-
technology. It doesn’t even require
rately assess each customer’s propen-
ing problems. They know that if
an IT overhaul. You can start small,
sity to respond to offers, pay bills,
they don’t, they leave money on the
supplement existing systems and
behave fraudulently or defect to the
table. Money somebody more savvy is
add capabilities as the business case
competition.
ready to grab.
The real winners are enterprises
warrants. There are five important
which realise that true customer
steps to enable analytical CRM to
4. Translate analytic insight
intelligence is about more than
deliver its promised benefits:
into action
injecting analytics into discrete deci-
Many organisations don’t have the
sions or programmes within func-
1. Create a unified view of the processes and infrastructure in place tional silos. It’s about insight across
customer across all touch points to fully exploit the insights their the organisation – a holistic perspec-
with a technology infrastructure analytical CRM systems can deliver. tive that transcends functional and
that supports this view Timely information either isn’t organisational boundaries.
September 2008 Knowledge Ireland 37
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