High-Yield Methods - Customer aligning business strategies, process and technology

Customer-aligning business strategy, process and technology

CRM/CEM

HYM joined the CRM movement (back then it was SFA) in the very early stages. However, rather than “fit in” with the practices of the time, we blazed our own trail to find a consistently effective implementation method—and stayed as far away as possible from the “technology first” debacles. The outcome of our search for a successful approach was our “Four Steps to CRM Success.”

Four Steps to CRM Success

1. Develop customer-centric business strategies

2. Redesign workflow and information flow in alignment with strategies (including identification of system changes needed for new information flow)

3. Reengineer individual work process in alignment with workflow (including development of application software requirements)

4. Select and implement software in alignment with workflow and work process

The CRM software industry in particular took exception to our approach. Software sellers and consultants said we were “trying to boil the ocean” and “making a mountain out of a molehill” (actually, making a mountain out of what would otherwise be a simple software sale). But we knew the “Four Steps” approached worked, because we were successfully using it with clients.

Then, in 2002 HYM partnered in a research study titled, Blueprint for CRM Success that examined 450 implementations, looking for what worked and what didn’t. While we had much to do with the reporting, the assessment instrument was prepared by an independent research specialist, Dr. David Mangen. When the results came in, we were very gratified. While Dr. Mangen had not phrased survey questions in terms of the “four steps,” they rose right out of the survey data as the drivers of successful CRM implementations. And then six months later, IBM Global Services conducted a similar study with a much larger sample size than ours that produced the same outcomes.

Certainly, we’ve continuously improved our methodology since then, with additions such as providing clients with free, hosted project management software and leveraging Web 2.0 and other new technologies. But our essential four steps remain unchanged. Steps 2 and 3 have morphed into a complete process methodology, Visual Workflow, which lives independently of CRM. But that just strengthens our process work within CRM.

One thing we can’t say is that we just invented a new-fangled approach to CRM, or we’re going to do something absolutely new and “cutting edge” (and that razor slices deep). We’ve just found success, stuck with it, and continually improved on it.

Please download free white papers on two of our essential CRM tools, Hyper-Planning and Visual Workflow. And for a full discussion of our CRM capabilities, please contact us.

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