CRM concept service provider

The service provider* is struggling to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. Customers are becoming increasingly price-sensitive and the added value of existing services is perceived less and less. There has been no investment in IT for years and numerous CRM activities have to be carried out manually, so that only a few are implemented and their contribution to success is very low. In cooperation with CustomersX®, a CRM concept service provider was to be created.

At a glance

The whole story

The service provider had tried to create a CRM concept independently. Due to the low internal resources, lack of competencies as well as the high requirements, we were asked to support service providers in the creation of a CRM concept. Based on our offer from CRM consulting, we created a 3-stage workshop series to enable as efficiently as possible the responsible persons to make an optimal decision.

In the first workshop, the existing CRM concept service provider was put through its paces. It quickly becomes apparent that no goals for customer retention and expansion have been defined. While comprehensive personas had been developed, they were focused on customer acquisition, as they usually are. Thus, the first workshop focused on the central topics of customer retention and customer expansion. It was apparent that these two important aspects for increasing profits had been considered far too seldom in the company up to that point. Subsequently, the existing CRM concept service provider was revised and sent to the responsible persons for further processing.

The second workshop focused on the data structure, usage requirements, and existing surrounding systems. At this point, those responsible were surprised at how many data fields would actually already be available in the company. In addition, it became clear that up to now too much attention has been paid to in-house development and too little to the topic of API in the area of IT. The result was an existing infrastructure with very high licensing costs and individual systems that were not interconnected. The core of the workshop was the question whether a CRM system, a marketing automation system or the combination of both systems should be introduced? This question could be answered by a detailed presentation of the catalog of requirements. It became apparent that a CRM system and a marketing automation system were needed.

In the third workshop, several applications were presented to the managers. CustomersX is an independent CRM consultancy and supports all major CRM and marketing automation systems. Despite the large number of systems, the vendor community now separates into four groups. (1) Full service provider covering CRM and marketing automation by means of two systems. This is characterized by a large range of functions and high costs for implementation and operation. (2) Focused value provider, cover either CRM or marketing automation topic. The range of functions is somewhat more limited, but the costs are more than 50% lower. (3) Funky freddies, mostly from India offer extreme functionality with very low cost. However, the company needs high competencies in IT and CRM for successful operation. (4) Happen to be there, includes 90% of the systems that somehow also cover the basic functions but either come up with a very expensive licensing model or very severe limitations in the application or feature set. Often, reference is made here to the data protection provided by servers in Germany or Switzerland.

As a result, it was decided to select a basic CRM system and a marketing automation system from the “focused value provider” group. This enabled, for example. still the printing of serial letters but also the implementation of more complex automations to improve customer value.

Based on our DTC approach, the existing weaknesses in the company were finally analyzed and it was recommended to establish a learning system. All employees had hardly any competencies in the area of CRM. It was recommended that each employee take on one topic area and that internal training be conducted at two-week intervals. It is a constant surprise to our customers that we are not convinced that external consultants should be used in the further development of a CRM concept service provider. Successful operation of a CRM/marketing automation system requires extensive internal resources to ensure that the multitude of data mining and system capabilities are leveraged to increase customer value. Today, the focus of CRM must not be on optimal implementation, but on continuous further development.

* We take confidentiality with our customers seriously. The name has been changed, the results are real.