CRM Leadership Should Be From the Top

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***tier3square.shtml***In order to talk about CRM leadership, we need set the stage properly. First of all, most people would reflexively assume that I'm talking about forcing users to adopt new CRM software. After all, low user adoption rates all to often result in major CRM failures. So CRM planners and champions try to figure out ways to get user to like the software; even when it changes the comfortable daily routine they've become accustomed to. This is simply an exercise in futility!

When you look at the problem the way I do, you would see that this is dealing with the symptom. The symptom is that people are pushing back for a variety of reasons:

1. The stress level has increased because you are inserting the unknown into their world.
2. You are telling them that they have less value because a piece of software can do something better.
3. They own their current process and they don't own the new one. Therefore, they see no reason to love like their own.
4. The new process may eliminate the personal touch they feel is important in maintaining good customer relations because, after all, it's them doing the relations.

I haven't consulted a psychologist, but this list hits a few of the major points of contention. The problem here is that there is no way to brute force acceptance after the fact. Poor leaders remind people who writes the checks. Good leaders never have to deal with this.

Here's a great customer experience blog entry from an "Experience Designer" named Ross. He outlines changing a company to customer focused in four short points. CRM Leadership isn't all that complicated if you look at it this way.

Good CRM Leadership

Avoiding the problem all together is a great way to succeed. Of course, this requires a high level vision. In this case, a CRM Strategy is key to guaranteeing high user adoption rates. Here's how this works:

A C-Level executive, whether it's the CEO or the CCEO (Chief Customer Experience Officer), must begin the process by deciding the enterprise must become customer-centric. Once this has been done, there will be a process of gathering and analyzing customer data. Staff at every level will participate in this; not only collecting data, but helping to understand what it means.

As the discussions evolve, everyone that participates will begin to understand why it's important to understand their customers better. They will see why and when customers become dissatisfied and leave. They will see how each area of the business plays a role in this. And they will most certainly have ideas about how to fix the problems.

This process involves everyone, not just sales or marketing. Transparency between departments or product lines will grow and the importance of working together more effectively will grow with it. Your employees, who may have lived in a bubble until now, will see for themselves how they can change to help their customers, the business and themselves.

Now that a clear picture of the customer has been developed, they will also participate in generating ideas that achieve the stated goals of the CRM strategy. These are the tactics and practices that will be deployed to achieve the goals. These functional pieces to the puzzle are both people practices and technology. Both need to work together, technology supporting the people and the people using the technology. And since every level of the organization has participated in defining these, the benefits can be communicated in terms that are easily digestible at each level.

OK, Where Was the CRM Leadership?

In this case it was simply the process of starting this initiative the right way. A good leader will set the vision, and then listen and guide and new information becomes available. They don't need to participate in every meeting or analyze each piece of information. Their role is to set the vision and then monitor the process to ensure that it moves in the right direction.

So what happens when the technology is put in front of your staff? Well, it will make perfect sense to them because they participated in a cultural change and they understand what their role is in the bigger picture (they own their process); and they've bought in to it because they helped create it. The technology is simply a tool they use to ensure that information they need is available, or that processes they helped identify can happen automatically; when the customer needs it to happen. It makes them look like super staffers and it makes the company look good as well.

CRM Leadership generates a win-win-win.

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