Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative in the World of E-business (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) [Hardcover]

"The book is comprehensive, coherent and readable - a tribute to the editor - and features a wealth of case study material. It aims to provide a clear road map for companies wishing to implement CRM."

"This book is not an academic exercise in the concept of CRM, rather, it is a hands on, ′live′ account of how to apply CRM to increase revenues. It highlights the need for development, segmentation and differentiation of channels, products and communication, ...capabilities required to create a sustainable, profitable and invincible customer relationship."
— Gunnar Brock, President and CEO, Tetra Pak International

"Customer Relationship Management provides a customer–focused business strategy designed to optimize profitability, revenue, and customer satisfaction across all interaction channels. It highlights why a web strategy must now be additive to the existing CRM strategy to create a ′longitudinal view′ of the organization that is more engaging to the customer and results in a more satisfying relationship."
— Michael Maoz, Research Director, CRM Practice, Sales Leadership Strategies, GartnerGroup

"This book is must reading for companies that want to be more competitive. It provides businesses with thought–provoking solutions to consider in their quest for superior results."
— J.A. Sinex, III, Manager, Customer Care Services Center, Global Services Business, DuPont Company

"Customer Relationship Management provides a structure for those wanting to create optimal relationships with their strategic customers. It provides an important e–business perspective and a practitioner′s guide to lessons learned."
— Larry Flynn, Vice President Merchandising, LCBO

"Customer Relationship Management provides the reader with an impressive array of specific examples and best practices that illustrate a step–by–step approach to customer care. It provides practical advice and guidance to move an organization along the CRM journey."
— Steve Hoisington, Vice President Quality, Johnson Controls, Inc.

Maximize customer satisfaction and maximize your bottom line

Over the last decade, too many organizations have assumed that their products or services were so superior that customers would automatically keep coming back for more. But in order to compete effectively in today′s marketplace, organizations must change their strategy to become more customer focused, not product focused. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the best way to integrate this customer–facing approach throughout an organization. Aimed at understanding and anticipating the needs of an organization′s current and potential customers, this innovative book shows how CRM links people, process, and technology to optimize an enterprise′s revenue and profits by first providing maximum customer satisfaction.
∗ Covers developing a market–oriented strategy, innovation in products and services, sales and channels transformation, customer relationship marketing, and customer care

Stanley A. Brown (Toronto, Canada) is Partner in Charge of the Centre of Excellence in Customer Care at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Toronto.

As the business world increasingly shifts from product focus to customer focus, most organizations recognize that treating existing customers well is the best source of profitable and sustainable revenue growth. But in the age of e–business, companies are challenged more than ever before to truly satisfy their customers.

In the face of increasing competition, mature markets, and the ever–demanding customer, it is easier than ever for customers to defect from your organization when they are just a click away from checking out the competition.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the key competitive strategy you need to stay focused on the needs of your customers and to integrate a customer–facing approach throughout your organization. CRM is an enterprise–wide approach to not only acquiring and deploying knowledge about your customers, but also to improving and automating the business processes that deliver value to your organization′s customers, suppliers, and employees. In short, CRM is critical to your business success.

Sound complicated? It′s not. Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative in the World of e–Business outlines what it takes to be effective in managing the customer relationship:

• What CRM is and how you can use it as a key competitive advantage
• Leading trends and best practices in CRM
• Successes and failures of organizations around the globe that have implemented CRM
• The 20 key steps in implementation of CRM
• The role of people, processes and technology to enable CRM
• How to define strategies for customers, channels and products, and infrastructure

Information–enabled enterprises are the business model of the future. The next evolution in CRM, eCRM, involves integrating new web technologies with other traditional channels to improve customer service and satisfaction, and to contain costs. New technologies allow your firm to have relationships with thousands, or even millions, of customers, but on a one–to–one basis. Customer Relationship Management: A Strategic Imperative in the World of e–Business:

Explains how new technologies enable CRM as never before.

Shows how back–office solutions create front–line efficiencies.

Features examples and case studies of best–in–class companies that have integrated new web technologies with traditional channels to give them the right marketing mix (for interaction with customers rather than simply forcing self–service).

Demonstrates how to implement and integrate several CRM technologies at once.

Includes contributions from PricewaterhouseCoopers CRM consulting partners and senior professionals from around the globe.

There is no doubt that in today′s business environment, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage customer relationships profitably. In response, most major organizations have embraced CRM as the way of the future and have invested millions of dollars in CRM technology and processes.

But the hard fact is that, inadvertently, most CRM initiatives fail, crashing upon the rocks of duplicated effort, incompatible business solutions, wasted investment, and an increasingly inconsistent customer experience. But it does not need to happen this way.

CRM can indeed be a powerful strategy, but knowing what
it is and what it can do is simply not enough. That′s where Performance Driven CRM comes in. It goes beyond what CRM is and what it can do for your organization, and offers a proven approach that shows clearly and quantifiably how to accomplish your CRM vision. But it doesn′t stop there.

Performance–Driven CRM:
– Ensures that your CRM vision becomes reality and fosters
a cycle of continuous improvement.
– Delivers the skills needed to identify when customer
expectations change and how to respond to them.
– Describes the three critical performance programs
necessary to ensure enterprise–wide CRM.
– Provides a performance management program that
measures and monitors customer needs, organizational competencies, and quality service.
– Offers highly practical, hands–on, and proven tools for measuring and monitoring CRM initiatives: checklists, quizzes, work steps, planning templates, and more.
– Features case studies and best practices from organizations including FedEx, Marriott, DuPont, Honeywell, Nortel
Networks, Capital One, Radio Shack, and Sears.

Performance Driven CRM provides what has been missing up until now from the world of CRM: standards of performance and a balanced scorecard approach for your customer care initiatives. Performance Driven CRM keeps your CRM vision relevant, alive, and achievable, enabling you to drive successful and lasting CRM change.

Stanley A. Brown is the Contributing Editor of Customer Relationship Management and a Partner in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He leads PricewaterhouseCoopers′ International Centre of Excellence in Customer Care.

He is a frequent speaker on the topic of customer care, and writes regularly for newsletters and magazine around the globe. He is the author of five previous books: Strategic Customer Care: An Evolutionary Approach to Increasing Customer Value and Profitability (Wiley, 1999), Breakthrough Customer Service: Best Practices of Leaders in Customer Support (Wiley, 1997), What Customers Value Most: How to Achieve Business Transformation by Focusing on Processes That Touch Your Customers (Wiley, 1995), Total Quality Service, and Creating the Service Culture.