the future of ecrm - grandma test

(c) 2000 Michele Bartram, [email protected] 1

Cook up a Bright Future in Customer Relationship Management…

by passing the Grandma Test!

Michele BartramDigital Diva/ E-business Evangelist, WebPractices.com

Senior Vice President, Commerce /“Commerce Czar”, iVillage.comEmail: [email protected]

As Presented at the eCRM Summit, Carmel, California, May 17, 2000

“Follow Grandma Sally’s Traditional Recipes to bring in Real Customers and keep ‘em

comin’ back in a Virtual World”


AGENDA Background Real Requirements from Real People Grandma’s eCRM readiness tests and examples Grandma’s Recipes for eCRM success Final Advice from Grandma Resources


How to create E-commerce for real people?

Q: How can you add online commerce that supports your user community and business partners yet helps real people solve real problems in their lives?

A: See where the bar has been raised in customer experience by: – analyzing the current Best Practices in eCRM

and – adding your own new customer relationship

functions to differentiate you from the rest.


Fond Remembrances Back to the Future

In this age of impersonal technology, do you yearn for your Grandma’s time before "cookie cutter" malls when… :

the store owner on the corner knew you, your family, and your tastes and set aside for you that special something “he just knew you’d like”,

you could find merchandise that reflected your own individual needs and tastes quickly and easily (or the merchant did for you!),

you could get friendly, useful advice when and where you needed it, from the store clerk, other shoppers, family or friends,

the shopping experience was personal and friendly, and

you got “service with a smile” before and after the sale?

Do you... want all that, plus modern speed, access, selection, convenience and one-stop shopping?


The New Customer is Really the Same Old Customer with a New Twist

Problem: Customers today want old-fashioned service where “everybody knows your name” and sound, neighborly advice, but also want “new-fangled” tools and convenience

eCRM Solution: “Sail the Seven C’s”– You must Combine relevant Customized Content, Community and

Commerce to provide Control and Convenience.

– With commerce based on her own stated preferences, she won’t want or need to shop anywhere else!


What is CRM?

TO YOU: Talking with not at customers and responding to their needs throughout your organization’s lifecycle with them:– Acquire & Retain

– Understand & Differentiate

– Develop & Customize

– Interact & Deliver TO YOUR CUSTOMERS: You

know me no matter where or when I deal with you. You treat me better the more you know me, and give me personal, friendly service.


Why bother with CRM? It’s the numbers*! It costs six times more to acquire a new customer than keep an old

one. The odds of selling a product to a new customer are 15%, while the

odds of selling it to an existing customer are 50%. One dissatisfied customer typically tells eight to ten people about his

or her experience. 70% of complaining customers will do business with the company

again if it quickly takes care of a service snafu. More than 90% of existing companies do not have the necessary

integration of sales and service processes and systems to support e-commerce.

A company can boost its profits 85% by increasing its annual customer retention by only 5%!

* Source: Sybase Customer Asset Management, www.sybase.com


Goals of eCRM

Reduce– costs of marketing

Improve– accuracy and relevancy of recommendations

– customer satisfaction Increase

– conversion rate, i.e., Turn browsers into buyers

– customer retention and frequency

– order size

– customer response

– competitiveness through differentiation

– profitability, ROI


Customers’ Desires

Convenience: One-stop shopping, tools, online services Relevance: all community, content, products and services around

a topic Simplicity: usability, ease-of-use Choice: Selection of products/ services and way they are presented Voice: Interaction with and responsiveness of merchant Reinforcement: community, ratings / reviews Safety: of credit card and other personal data Control: over use of her private data, plus offers, content Recognition: Remember and apply my unique name &

preferences. (Ex. Women surveyed insisted they wanted to be known as “unique” not part of a group.)


Customers’ Pet Peeves against online commerce

Opt-outs vs. opt-ins Unsubscribes that don’t work or are hard to find or use Incomprehensible web design and check-out processes Repeating themselves (e.g., retyping account numbers) Not asking permission

– Amazon’s dynamic recommendations

– Spam and junk mail Breaking promises (fast service, easy terms) Treating them as part of a group, not an individual Not allowing them to access and change their own data Poor or non-human customer service


Where to find a solution that all customers will find compelling?

Question: Who buys your products or services? Answer: Real people, not manufacturers or marketers.

– So, ask REAL PEOPLE what they really want.

I asked the wisest “real person” I know, my Grandma Sally from Kentucky, who’s worked in the customer food service field for over 65 years, to advise me on what it takes to provide the best customer experience and “keep ‘em comin’ back for more”.

All companies could learn from her 82 years of experience .


Passing “The Grandma Test”

To succeed in a future with eCRM, companies must pass “the Grandma test” and provide ease of use, safety, convenience, simplicity, and good value

Follow along with my

Grandma Sally’s

conventional Kentucky

wisdom for customer-

driven success

and test your company’s ability and readiness to walk the path of total customer relationship management.


Grandma Sally’s eCRM Wisdom

Like the egg teachin’ the chicken.

Squeaky wheels get the grease.

Know what side of the bread is buttered on.

Get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.

We’ve howdied, but we ain’t shook.

As nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rockin’ chairs.

They give advice by the bucket but take it by the grain.

Empty cans make a lot of noise. If wishes were horses then beggars

would ride. I’m busier than a one-armed paper

hanger My mind is like a sieve! Don’t buy a pig in a poke. Grandma knows best. One man’s junk is another man’s

jewel. Talkers ain’t doers.


More of Grandma Sally’s eCRM Wisdom

They made me as welcome as a roomful of “Howdy’s”.

Save a penny, earn a pound. You like the apples more if you

have to shake the tree. It’s as about as fun as watchin’

grass grow. I feel like I’m caught between a

rock and a hard place. It’s as useless as two buggies in

a one-horse town. Beauty is only skin deep, but

ugly is pure to the bone.

To hear a secret is human, to “air” it is divine!

One-size-fits-all don’t fit nobody good.

Don’t start choppin’ ‘til you’ve treed the bear.

You don’t know the worth of water until the well runs dry.

Don’t muddy up the well that you get your water from.

I’m so durned glad to be home, I’m glad I went.


Final List of Grandma Sally’s eCRM Wisdom

You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Make hay while the sun shines.

Call a shovel a shovel and start diggin’.

He doesn’t have enough studs for his dry wall.

Like a hog on ice.

You can’t put one foot in two

shoes at the same time.

There ain’t no time like the

present.

There never was a road that didn’t

have a turn in it.

He who pays the fiddler calls the

tune.

The post always wears out before

a hole.

You can’t put scrambled eggs

back in the shell.

Stoppin’ at third base don’t add no

more to the score than strikin’ out.

No more chance than a

grasshopper in a chicken coop.


CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE MUST PRECEDE STRATEGY FORMULATION

Creating a strategy without knowing your customers is

“like the egg teaching the chicken.”


CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

“Squeaky wheels get the grease.”– e.Piphany says there are 3 types of customers: Great customers,

potentially profitable ones and eternally unprofitable ones. Many companies spend all their time, money and resources on unprofitable customers. Don’t spend $ on poor customers, but on great customers and on developing your potential greats. Unless you measure this, you won’t know.

“Know what side of the bread is buttered on.”– To find out who are your most profitable customers, what made

them great and attract new ones like them, you must perform a customer segmentation study to assess their value to you and their preferences in products, services, advertising/ communications, etc. (Ex. US Mint, Unilever, credit card companies like American Express)

– Allow customers to self-segment but verify.


Customer Segmentation StudyBusiness Objectives

Program Execution

Segmentation Requirements Audit

EnterpriseSegmentation

LifecycleSegmentation

ValueSegmentation

OtherSegmentations

Marketing Strategy / Master Planning

AcquisitionModels

(Customer Profile,Response, Conversion)

RetentionModels

(Retention, Lifecycle,Response)

GrowthModels

(Cross-sell, Up sell)

Marketing Solutions focused

BusinessIntelligence focused

BehavioralSegmentation

Program PlanningCustomer Engagement

Identify Opportunity

Identify Opportunity

TestProgram

TestProgram

Develop Program

Develop ProgramMeasure &

Analyze

Measure &Analyze

ImplementProgram

ImplementProgram

Wrap-Up

Wrap-Up

Source:

Dialogos, Inc. www.dialogos.com


RESEARCH & TESTING “Get it straight from the horse’s mouth.”

– You can’t assume you know more than your customers.

– Use focus groups for ALL web usability and new products and surveys for customer satisfaction and new strategies (current AND future customers).

“Run it up the flagpole, and see who salutes it!”– TEST, TEST, TEST constantly and consistently!

– Use REAL users, not your own people, before, during AND after launching a new strategy.

– Web-based research is fast and free and builds loyalty, so use it constantly as an integral strategy.

– (Ex. iVillage Surveys and polls, Candies’ Trend Spotters )


PROFILING, RECOGNITION & PRIVACY INCREMENTAL PROFILING: “We’ve howdied, but we ain’t

shook.”– To overcome natural reluctance to give info to strangers, treat data gathering

like a dating process, collecting data from and repeating learnings about the other person incrementally as you get to know her.

– Allow self-profiling and personalization. (Ex. Travelocity )

RECOGNITION: “Don’t make me repeat myself!”– Extend this relationship by repeating data back to the customer in useful and

meaningful ways. Don’t make her repeat data entry.

– Consolidate data across all touch points (Ex.Not AAA application.)

PRIVACY: Giving out my information “makes me as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a roomful of rockin’ chairs.”– Don’t betray her trust by misusing it. Keep it safe No exceptions..

– Collect and use her explicit data only with express, advance, opt-in permission.

– Let her know the source of her data when you use it, and let her access and update it from an easy, prominent user profile. (Ex. McAfee )


HONESTY, LISTENING & CONVERSATION

HONESTY: “Honesty is the best policy.”– Only make promises that you can keep. “’Fess up” when something goes

awry. (Ex. IBM launched a splash page and coupon during site outage.)

LISTENING: Seems companies “always give advice by the bucket and take it by the grain”. – Listen and respond, not just talk.

– (Ex. All managers and employees should have to work customer phones or email one day a month or quarter.)

VALUABLE CONVERSATION: “Empty cans make a lot of noise.” – Abandon old-style “advertising speak” in your copy. Customers see

through it and don’t believe it. Participate in real multi-way conversations and use a natural speaking style in your editorial.

– Have something valuable to say when you speak. Encourage your best employees to chat with customers regularly. (Ex. Dell.com )


OLD-TIME CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS:They Want It All

“If wishes were horses then beggars would ride!”


CONVENIENCE & REMINDERS:

CONVENIENCE: “I’m busier than a one-armed paper hanger!”– Customers, particularly women, are busy! They prize convenience and

short-cuts above all, even deals.

– Combine all useful, “essential” functions, even from competitors. Create shortcuts. Provide data in all formats (Ex. My iVillage , My Yahoo!, My ZDNet , Switchboard , Amazon’s One-click.)

REMINDERS: “My mind is like a sieve!”– Customers have a lot to do, and remembering to use your site may not

be “top of mind.”

– Use email, pop-up boxes, link to calendars/ reminders, calculators and other event and time-based triggers that the customer can set herself. Link to relevant commerce.

– (Ex. Lifeminders, iVillage Reminders and newsletters. )


DEEP PRODUCT RESEARCH & RECOMMENDATIONS

DEEP PRODUCT INFO: “Don’t buy a pig in a poke.”– The higher the price, anxiety or confusion produced by a product or service the

more research the customer requires.

– Particularly true for women, and health, family and relationship matters, high-ticket items like cars, houses. Also for clothing care.

– Make your customer know she’s made the right choice by providing detail. “Smart buys for smart women” at iVillage Shopping Central.

– (Ex. iBaby detail , ConsumerNet & ConsumerWorld) RECOMMENDATIONS: “Grandma knows best.”

– Highest rated requirement from women along with convenience is recommendations. Need help to sort thru choices, but not only from you!

– Provide extensive ratings, reviews, recommendations and collaborative filtering to link customers with external experts and others “like them” to help them choose. (Ex. Amazon, CNET)


CONTENT, COMMUNITY & COMMERCE IN CONTEXT

COMMERCE IN CONTEXT: “One man’s junk is another man’s jewel.”– Ads or communications for products they don’t want or need are considered

“junk mail” or “spam”.

– Let use determine what ads she sees when through context and explicit requests. (Ex. Tire ads in the Sunday paper: you toss them when you don’t need tires, and are mad when you can’t find them if you do need new tires.)

– Non-targeted ads can cause severe negative reaction if randomly served to sensitive community or content areas. (Ex. Displaying random Baby ads near Infertility boards or junk food ads near diet area.)

– Only display relevant ads or communications based on context (area of site) and customer permission (from her profile).

– (Ex. Epicurious recipes with Williams-Sonoma ads)

CONTENT + COMMUNITY + COMMERCE– Display all related Commerce, Content and Community together, in context

with the topic she is researching. (Ex. MSN Carpoint)


COMMUNITY AND HUMAN TOUCH COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: “Talkers ain’t doers“

– Customers want to talk with people who’ve actually used the product or service in real life. They may need additional support and learning to use your product or service, or knowledge on which to choose. Create support opportunities like chat, clubs, posts and discussion groups to aid utility. (Ex. iVillage Web Store Reviews, Fit by Friday discussion groups, CNET user posts)

HUMAN-TO-HUMAN CUSTOMER SERVICE: “They made me as welcome as a roomful of Howdy’s.”

– SERVICE QUALITY OUTWEIGHS PRODUCT QUALITY! Customers will return to businesses with average but CONSISTENT quality if the service is outstanding. EX. Have you ever returned to a restaurant with great food and lousy service? No, but you keep going to one with okay food that treats you great.

– Consumers want GREAT RETURN and GUARANTEE policies. They’re more likely to take a chance on your unknown products or services if you do.

– They also want to speak with a human being, not a machine, when they need help. Limit auto-replies to confirmations, not for involved service questions.

– Include live customer service in all your plans, via live chat with a representative or phone service to differentiate and create absolute loyalty. (Ex. iVillage Personal Shoppers, WomenOutdoors live service)


DEALS, TOOLS & ENTERTAINMENT

RELEVANT DEALS: “Save a penny, earn a pound.”– Women see (some) shopping as fun, with “getting a great deal” top in enjoyment.

– Present offers that are in context and relevant to her needs (wants $ off vs. free trial, etc.) (Ex. E-centives customized, event-driven newsletters)

TOOLS: “You like the apples more if you have to shake the tree.”– Provide interactive tools, planners, calendars, registries to get the user involved in

the buying experience. (Ex. TheKnot.com , iVillage Shopping Lists )

ENTERTAINMENT: “It’s about as much fun as watching grass grow.”– While men seek out games as a primary activity online, women tend to want their

fun and relaxation, “their wanna do’s”, once they’ve completed their “gotta do’s” or errands. Content about their interests is counted as fun.

– Solution: Include entertainment in your site, such as quizzes, polls, games, screensavers, etc. that complement your brand.

– (Ex. US Mint Screensaver & games , iVillage Music Network)


USABILITY & DESIGN SIMPLICITY: “I feel like I’m caught between a rock and a hard

place.”– Keep the experience easy to use and adjusted to the user’s level of experience,

such as a Grandma. (Ex. Computer.com )

USABILITY: A poorly designed web site is “as useless as two buggies in a one-horse town.”– In testing, some users couldn’t even add products to shopping carts! Many got

lost in navigation and abandoned carts or sites. Test all design in advance with real users, not your own people. New eyes see differently.

DESIGN VS. USABILITY: “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly is pure to the bone.”– Don’t allow design shops to add beauty in expense of utility. Research shows

customers, particularly, want speed over beauty. Only make it pretty if you can do it without losing ease-of-use.

NOTE: Join www.CreativeGood.com’s newsletter, and see their superb Holiday ‘99 Report. Also available to Shop.org members.


PERSONALIZATION

“One-size-fits-all don’t fit nobody good”

CUSTOMERS WANT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS INDIVIDUALS, NOT PART OF A GROUP


Evolution of Personalization

Identify customers individually and addressably. Differentiate customers by value and needs.

– Great ones, Potential great ones, Eternally unprofitable ones,

– Personal Profile

– User’s Shopping Mode Interact with customers (at reduced cost and increased

efficiency). Customize some aspect of your enterprise’s behavior on a general

basis. Personalize response for each individual customer.


Michele’s User Shopping Modes The Speedy Hunter: “I’m looking for a specific product or service and I want it

fast! Offer express “Buy Now” one-click buttons and full product search capabilities.

The Category Killer: “I know I need something for myself in a category, like a white blouse or car tires. Help me find the best one”. She needs categories and sub-categories and information about the options.

The Gift Giver: “I need to buy a gift for my sister-in-law who wears size 8, likes powder blue and sunflowers, is a mother of a toddler, and I don't want to spend more than $50. Give me personalized recommendations based on these criteria.”

The Impulse Buyer: “I just have some money burning a hole in my pocket and want to spend it... let me "flip thru the catalog" or "browse the aisle" to see what I want.” This person needs a fun online tour to simulate the browsing the aisle feel of a shopping trip or flipping through a physical catalog.

The Problem Solver: "I have a problem or issue and don't know how to solve it. Show me information and research about how others like me have solved it, and then give me product and service recommendations that match the solution I determine is the right one for me." This buyer needs detailed content, research, expert recommendations and products.

The All-in-One Buyer: Any one buyer may fall into one or all of these profiles in one user session.


Types of Personalization Environmental: demographic, geographic, psychographic

– (Ex. 100percentgirls.com customized to tween girl talk) Preference-based personalization: user enters requirements Collaborative filtering: recommendation engines Behavior-based: on website, in store, with catalog Rules-based: match offers/ content to fixed business rules

– “Purchasize”: Offer fries with that burger Analytics-based: pattern analysis thru segmentation

– Offer salad to customers who are on a diet, not the fries


What to Personalize

Search results Product mix Recommendations Offers

– Sales, discounts, bundles, cross and up-selling, pricing

Web pages Email Ads Editorial voice

Personal accounts – Banks, clubs, etc.

Customer service– Specialists, type of service

(phone, chat, email) Fulfillment options

– Shipping, billing, Personal productivity tools

– calendars

– email

– reminders


Ways to Personalize Content

Search– By Keyword– By Attribute (Ex. Gift)– By Event– By Category– Full Text– By Preference

Collaborative filtering Mass customization Personalized tools- wish

lists, reminders, calendars, calculators

Ratings: Community, Editors

Surveys and polls Email & Ad Targeting Entitlements Event-based Matching Alerts Matching agents Observation Rule-based Matching Personal web pages User Profile

– User-defined and controlled

– Localization- language and geography


STRATEGY

MARKET ANALYSIS: “Don’t take your ducks to a poor market.”– Assess value of market you’re attempting to win in and determine cost of

entry and domination. Find a niche. COMPETITION: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

– Look at all competitors for your customers’ share of time as well as wallet, not only online but offline as well.

– Determine the market gaps you can address to gain first or best mover advantage.

ALLIANCES: “Feudin’ only benefits the undertaker.”– If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Create marketplaces of convenient, essential

services from all over the web. (Ex. VirtualRelocation )


BRAND VS DIRECT RESPONSE: “Seeing is believing.” vs. “Put your money where your

mouth is.” Measuring Clickthroughs undercounts branding success, yet

overcount direct response. Know your goals.– Brand builders (Buy later): Buy Branding campaigns and measure

CPMs only.

– Direct marketers (Buy now!): use “Click to Buy” and measure conversion to sales.

Examples: – B-to-C: Direct response: online catalogs, banner ads or links with “Buy

Now”. Branding: Sponsorships, articles, events, plain banners, all print or non-direct TV ads.

– B-to-B: Direct response: Configurator tools, ordering Extranets. Branding: all print and non-direct TV, trade fairs.


THREE PHASES OF CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT

Acquisition: Attract new, profitable customers.– Differentiation, innovation and convenience

Enhancement: Make current customers more profitable.– Increased bundling, reduction of costs, improved customer service

Retention: Keep your profitable customers for life.– Delivering not what the market demands but what your customers

want and more.

– Enabling total listening and multi-way conversations between companies (including formerly “isolated” internal employee experts), customers, and trading partners.


Customer Acquisition and Viral Marketing

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION: “Don’t start choppin’ ‘til you’ve treed the bear.”– Create differentiated offerings, particularly in convenience, to

attract new profitable customers that are similar to your current best customers.

VIRAL MARKETING: “To hear a secret is human, to air it is divine!”– Use the natural tendency to spread the word (gossip) to your

advantage. Incent customers to bring in others through recognition and rewards.

– Ex. iVillage “Send a Friend”, Kira Points upon registration, user is told to get friends to sign up in exchange for “Kira Points”.


CUSTOMER RETENTION RETENTION: “You don’t know the worth of water until the

well runs dry.” and “Don’t muddy up the well that you get your water from.”– Spend generously to keep your best customers with superior service,

rewards, and recognition. You can’t afford to lose your “great ones”. RECOGNITION:”I’m so durned glad to be home, I’m glad I

went.”– Use integrated systems to remember your customer from all touchpoints.

(Not done at AAA)– Make them feel “at home” with your business. (Ex. Hotel profiles, Hertz

Gold Clubs, Amazon.com personalized home page ) REWARDS: “You catch more flies with honey than with

vinegar.”– Reward your best current customers differently than new ones.– Customers’ pet peeves include getting discounts for new subscriptions and

none for loyal readers (Ex. Most print magazines give you discount when you sign up as new reader, then charge full price for renewal, penalizing loyal customers).


IMPLEMENTATION

“You better make hay while the sun shines.”


STRENGTHS, INFRASTRUCTURE & FOCUS BUILD OFF YOUR STRENGTHS: “Call a spade a spade and start

diggin’.”– Perform an e-CRM SWOT Analysis to assess Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities

and Threats across all core areas of your business. Know your core competencies and build off them. Eliminate or downplay weaknesses that leave you open to the competition.

– Blueprint your e-CRM project. Follow 9-step methodology once to map current business, then review what other best practices companies are doing at each step, then repeat 9-step to map your ideal e-business.

INFRASTRUCTURE: “He doesn’t have enough studs for his dry wall.” – It takes time, money, people and integrated systems and processes to implement

eCRM across the organization to create a Customer-Driven Enterprise (See chart). You can’t afford NOT to do it, but do budget for it.

PRIORITIZATION: Companies who lack focus are “like a hog on ice”.– Most companies fail at eCRM by doing it all at once. Use a phased approach (see

chart) and set the dominos up in order, knocking them down one at a time.


9-Step E-Biz Blueprint MethodologyRepeat 3 times to map Current, Best, & then Ideal Practices

CustomerWho are/should be your customers & whatare their requirements and preferences foryour organization in products and services?

1

drives

Strategy2

What are the e-business policies and differentiating set of activities that your organization needs to deliver a unique mix of value to customers? What customer needs should/ not you meet?

ProcessWhat is the series of action steps, tasks &business rules that is required to completethe desired e-biz strategies and polices?

3

drives

Organizational StructureWhat is the most logical grouping of jobs &individuals needed to support the business processes effectively?

4

dictates

is c

ompr

ised

of

PeopleWhat skills,training, roles, authority,

& incentives are needed to do these jobs?Include in-house and outsource jobs, withe-biz/ marketing, content/ design & tech.

5

IntelligenceWhat intelligence (research, reports, information) is needed to allow people to analyze the results, predict the out- come or decide a course of action?

6

who need

AutomationWhat steps of these processes can be completed faster, better, or cheaperby using computers or equipment?

7

supported by

DataWhat numbers, characters, images orother recorded information is needed toprovide intelligence to make decisions?

8

supported by

TechnologyWhat hardware/ software is needed to to best capture, store, process, & distri-bute data & automate the processes?

9supported by

42


Customer Relationship ManagementCustomer Relationship Management

Strategic Development & Planning

Market Intelligence& Research

DE

MA

ND

Internet SalesRetail MailCustomerService

Customer(s)

Direct Channels Indirect Channels

Information Management

ProductManagement

ChannelManagement

MarComManagement

DistributionHuman

ResourcesManufacturingFinance

Sales

IntermediariesDistributors

SU

PP

LY

Operations dBase

Customer dBase

Channel Management

Customer-Driven Enterprise(Source: Dialogos, Inc.)

Significant integration will be required to become customer-centric. However, the resulting institutional base of knowledge will provide exponential returns.


PHASED APPROACH: “You can’t put one foot in two shoes at the same time.”

5 Core Areas of Business Transformation

by Melinda Nykamp as seen on ITtoolbox Portal for CRM at http://www.crmassist.com


eCRM Questions You Must Answer Be a Customer advocate or unbiased infomediary? Marketplace or monopoly? Be a partner with your customers not an adversary? Talk with your customers or talk at them? Allow employees and business partners to talk to customers or “control”

flow and content of info? Multi-channel or mono-channel? Mass customization (Levi’s) or one size fits all? Personalization vs. collaborative filtering?

– Personalization = customer told you explicitly what she wants (e.g., launch.com)

– Collaborative filtering = recommendations based on others’ likes and dislikes (e.g., Amazon.com)


Big Decisions: Technology Architecture

Build, buy or borrow? Create an enterprise-wide customer-centric architecture. Choose technology based on strategy needs:

– Attract new customers, e.g.,• Ad serving: Doubleclick, 24X7, Engage, AdForce, AdSense

• Incentives: Coolsavings, Ecentives

– Convert visitors to customers• Angara, Engage

– Develop and retain customers• Personalization: Broadvision, NetPerceptions, Personify, Epiphany, Siebel

– Customer Service• E-gain, Kana

– Content-serving & customer interaction• Vignette StoryServer; Chat tools like iChat


eBusiness Architecture(Source: Dialogos, Inc.)

CustomersCustomers

Financial Systems

Manufacturing

Warehousing and distribution

Order Entry

Web E-mail

Ad Mgmt

E-commerceEngine

Data Marts

Observation MartOrder Mart

Cross-sell MartSegmentation Mart

Intelligence Engine

Reporting Engine

Business RulesRepository

Business Rules Engine Data and Rules Publication

Analysis and Business Rule Development

Search Engine

Web ServerMgmt &

Reporting

Fraud Detection

ObservationServer

Content Mgmt

Business Partners


Final eCRM Advice from Grandma

before she’ll buy from you


ACT NOW: “Doin’ Shouts, Talkin’ Whispers”

Build a “Unique Boutique”– Ex. Art.com, AA.com

Provide “intelligent selection”– Relevancy of offers and content

– Ex. CircuitCity , CyberianOutpost.com (Broadvision) Give Personal attention

– Automated: Ex. NetPerceptions at SkyMall.com

– Human: Live customer help Ex. WomenOutdoors.com


“Ask but Don’t Tell” Accumulate Detailed Data from all Media with Permission &

Integrate Require only progressive profiling = Gather data gently

– Environmental data- geography, browser, operating system• Ex. StarMedia.com

– Implicit data- keep private but inform: pages visited, purchases• Ex. Amazon.com

– Explicit data- collect incrementally and with advance permission• Ex. Babycenter.com, HomeDepot.com

REMEMBER AND ACKNOWLEDGE ME!


“If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It”: Keep Applying Lessons Learned

Commerce in context drives buying Personalization works

– Sites using see 39% increase in bottom line• Ex. Checkout.com, Pets.com (Broadvision),

Rewarding good behavior is effective– Ex. MyPoints, Ecentives, CyberGold, Iwon.com

Freshness Matters– Ex. At Xerox.com (using Broadvision), 120 contributors worldwide

update site daily


“Learn your ABC’s”

5 C’s for Companies to attract Customers: • Combine Customized Content, Community and

Commerce

4 R’s for Providing Helpful Advice:• Relevant ratings, reviews and recommendations

3 P’s of Choice for Consumers: • They will select your product/ service for its

Personality, Profile, and Performance


Remember the person in personalization

Ask permission… and forgiveness if necessary Explain why you’ve recommended something

– “You see this because you asked for this. Click here to change.” Give ownership and responsibility

– Allow them to access and update their own data (Individual.com ) People are not profiles

– Combine what they’ve done (implicit) with who they are (explicit)– Generate relevant offers that relate to her specific needs. (Ex. Amazon)

Nothing substitutes for a real human interaction– Use live, human service whenever possible – Connect customers with others with whom they want to link, such as affinity

groups like clubs or families. (Ex. iVillage FamilyPoint clubs, Support groups)


URGENCY WITH EXCELLENCE

URGENCY: “There ain’t no time like the present.”

FLEXIBILITY & CONSTANT CHANGE:

“There never was a road that didn’t have a turn in it.”

TURN YOUR COMPANY OVER TO YOUR CUSTOMERS: “He

who pays the fiddler calls the tune.”

FOLLOW THROUGH TO THE END: “The post always wears out

before a hole.”

RIGHT MOVER VS. 1ST MOVER: “You can’t put scrambled eggs

back in the shell” so get it right from the get-go.

GO FOR WOW: “Stoppin’ at third base don’t add no more to the score

than strikin’ out.”


Grandma’s eCRM Recipe For Success

Start with recreating the personal “service with a smile” and convenience of the past

Mix in futuristic speed and automation

Shake (your organization) well Season to taste (of your customers

through personalization and customization)

Bake up an online experience that Grandma will say is better than offline!– Serves 1 : 1


The Moral of the Story:

Grandmas know that companies who don’t implement eCRM

“ain’t got no more chance than a grasshopper in a chicken house.”


CONTACTS

Email: [email protected] Phone: 917-326-4198

Download this eCRM presentation and others on blueprinting for your e-business success, and find e-business resources at my web site at:– http://www.WebPractices.com/


RESOURCES

NOTE: The following software applications and companies are listed for information purposes only and

do NOT imply an endorsement of the companies or products or results that may or may not be achieved.


RESOURCES: eCRM Software eCRM Software:

– E.Piphany

– Broadvision

– NetGenesis: cross-co datamart and intelligence

– NetPerceptions: realtime personalization • Ex. CDNow.com, Ticketmaster, JCPenney.com

– Magnify - predictive modeling & segmentation clusters• Ex. CoolSavings.com, Yesmail.com


RESOURCES: e-Commerce Software E-Commerce Software:

– OpenMarket.com Transact product

– Bea WebLogic Commerce: www.bea.com

– Trilogy Multichannel Commerce www.trilogy.com

Customer Interaction:– BlueMartini.com


RESOURCES: e-Business / eCRM Consultants

E-Business Blueprinting– Dialogos.com

– Appnet.com

– IBM.com Global Services E-business Consulting

the future of ecrm - grandma test

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