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When Customers Understand the True Meaning of CRM

Guest post by: Russ Lombardo

Article Overview: I preach this point. I wrote a book on it. I train people about it. I give workshops on it. I even beg people to do it. But no matter how hard I try, if a business owner doesn’t understand what Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about, then I am just wasting my breath. CRM is not about technology. It’s about a company’s culture and how that culture focuses on their customers. Needless to say that when I have a customer who gets this, I just love them. It makes it all worthwhile. And it does wonders for their clients and prospects too, which of course is what CRM is really all about.

When Customers Understand the True Meaning of CRM

I preach this point. I wrote a book on it. I train people about it. I give workshops on it. I even beg people to do it. But no matter how hard I try, if a business owner doesn’t understand what Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about, then I am just wasting my breath. CRM is not about technology. It’s about a company’s culture and how that culture focuses on their customers. Needless to say that when I have a customer who gets this, I just love them. It makes it all worthwhile. And it does wonders for their clients and prospects too, which of course is what CRM is really all about.

My client is Jordan Wirsz, President of Diamond Bay Investments, and he understands this. I recently installed a new CRM system, GoldMine, for his team. After discussing their needs and requirements and how his business operates, I customized and configured GoldMine to run the way his business functions. But, during our initial needs analysis discussions, without provocation or prodding, Jordan told me he wanted to develop a system where all his clients, prospects, and other various and sundry contacts would receive some sort of “touch” once a month. In most cases, these touches would be emails. In other cases, they may be a phone call from one of his Relationship Managers to a client who hasn’t been contacted in more than a month. It might also be a birthday card to a client. The important point here is that Jordan told me this is what he wanted to do before I even started my pitch on why he should do this.

Jordan is a young, smart, successful business owner who really cares about his customers. Sure, sure. I know. So do you. But what sets Jordan apart from many business owners, who supposedly care about their customers, is that he translated that into a customer retention strategy that will keep his name in front of them on a regular basis. Now this isn’t that complicated. Anyone can do it. Yet in my experience, very few businesses actually do anything to retain their existing clients. And they do even less to maintain a relationship with their dormant prospects. These are the prospects who have told you, “I’m not interested,” but may, in fact, be interested some day in the future. If you don’t keep in touch with these dormant accounts, then they won’t remember whom you are when they are ready to buy. Likewise, if you don’t keep in contact with your existing clients, they too won’t remember you when it’s time to buy more, renew, upgrade, or recommend you to their friends and colleagues.

It’s a joy working with a client like Jordan who understands this. From my point of view, Jordan did several things right, six in fact.

1. Had a Plan. Jordan understood and believed that on-going client contact is needed to maintain a long-term relationship. He knew that for his business to survive, and to grow, he had to consider the Life-Time Value of his customers. So he had a plan to do this, which was to develop the proper corporate culture, instill that culture in his employees (and what an awesome team of people he has, too), and then automate whatever steps he could to make the whole plan efficient.

2. Thought Long-Term. Jordan didn’t go for the quick fix. There were several things he wanted to implement that did have a short-term effect. But he also had a long-term vision. His processes, which I developed in GoldMine, were 12-months long. Each month for a year, a certain category of customer or prospect will be getting a unique, personalized email, for instance, just to keep in touch with, inform, and educate the receiver. I can only imagine what he has in mind after the first year.

3. Kept the Customer in Mind. Many businesses have plans, and many of those plans are good. But they are not all good for the customer. They are only good for the company itself, which could have a long-term negative effect on customer retention and the future viability of the company. Jordan considered, right from the start, what was right for his customers and his plan embraced this commitment to service, support, and retention.

4. Kept it Simple. Folks, this isn’t rocket science. So don’t make it more complicated than it has to be. All in all, Jordan’s system is pretty simple. But simple is all he needed to begin his CRM strategy. I see businesses try to over-complicate things with sophisticated and overwhelming processes that no one really understands nor cares to implement. And I see these same businesses overlook the very simple things. Jordan focused on the simple things that his business needed to implement in order to maintain and retain his customers and prospects. Once the first phase is completed and successful, then it’s time to focus on the next phase. Implementation should be done one simple step at a time.

5. Used Technology. Many businesses don’t bother with a customer retention strategy or follow-up system like this because they think it is too hard or time consuming. It could be. But if you have a CRM product, a “good” CRM product, then most of this can be automated and will therefore take little time away from your reps and management, if any. Jordan viewed this as an investment, not a cost, and is doing it the right way.

6. Sought Professional Help. Jordan did one more very smart thing. He hired a professional (me) who not only understands the technology, but also the CRM business, so that we could work together in a partnership to help implement his strategies. However, he didn’t do that at first. You see, he, like many businesses, thought they could do this themselves. But after about 4 months of trying to install, configure and customize their new CRM technology, they realized they needed help from an experienced CRM specialist who knew the product as well as the business aspects of using such a product to deploy his CRM strategy and culture. He learned quickly and adjusted.

Whenever a customer of mine understands that they need to establish a customer retention strategy and appreciates that a good part of CRM is just knowing what has to be done to retain their customers, I just love them. Is your business worthy of this love? If not, call me so we can brainstorm on some ideas.

Good Luck & Good Selling!

Russ Lombardo

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