Gurus On Marketing

Configuration perspective
Day found out that very few companies emphasised customer satisfaction
and retention in their incentives. Siebel Systems, the leader
in CRM software, is obsessively focused on customer satisfaction tying
50 per cent of management’s incentive compensation and 25 per cent
of salespeople’s compensation to measures of customer satisfaction.
Superior configurations also have organisation structures that ensure
the customer has a seamless interaction with the company.
Information perspective
This perspective is less important than orientation and configuration
in distinguishing leaders from followers. Most companies were
investing in data mining, databases and software because this was
the easy thing to do in benchmarking against competitors.
Day concludes that big investments in CRM technology are yielding
negligible competitive advantages. It is the classic ‘Red Queen’
syndrome; although they are running faster and faster they stay in
the same place.
One of the reasons many CRM failures occur is because companies
concentrate on the customer contact processes without making corresponding
changes in internal structures and systems.
Before focusing on customer retention which is very important, it is
necessary to know why customers are defecting. Is defection due to
poor service poor delivery, poor quality, or are customers polygamous
i.e. used to shopping around.
He also makes the point that successful relationship managers are
always collaborating in their successes against their competitors. In
the sophisticated financial services industry, for example, Fidelity,
Schwab and Merrill are all highly competent. But Fidelity and Schwab
have an edge… because of their orientation.
SEVEN GEORGE DAY 115