10.16.03
By Lisa Picarille
C-level executives at some companies do more than nod their head in
approval of a proposed CRM initiative--they get involved to drive
its success.
Customer relationship management is about business processes,
access to information to make better decisions, bringing in new customers
while retaining the old ones, increasing revenue, and decreasing inefficiencies.
Most of all CRM is about changing the mindset of your employees to
focus on customers. Companies can only do this if customer-centricity
begins and is embraced at the C level.
The four top executives we present here operate different size companies
in different industries with different requirements. What they have
in common, however, is passion for CRM and the benefits it can bring
to their respective businesses. |
Chief Executive Officer: Jennifer Floren
Jennifer Floren credits CRM as a key factor in her company's expansion
and success in the market.
Floren, CEO of Boston-based Experience Inc., founded the online college
recruitment firm in 1996 after leaving management consultancy Bain
& Co. What began as a one-woman operation is now a 52-person company
that has had three rounds of venture capital funding and made three
acquisitions over the past six years.
Experience Inc.'s market share has grown from 20 to 80 percent penetration
in university career centers in the United States. Experience Inc.
now works with more than 600 universities, more than 100,000 employers
that do college recruiting, and 3 million students and alumni. Floren
says implementing an Onyx CRM solution in 2000 was a key part of this
success.
Floren had determined that highly personalized customer service was
critical for long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. She wanted
customers to feel like the company knew them, but knew that Experience
Inc. couldn't afford to have one-to-one relationships. "So making
sure any account manager can instantly know a history of our clients'
issues when they call or email is key," she says.
Because customers turn to Experience for advice, Floren wanted an
online customer portal where users can get up-to-the-minute information
about issues and best practices, sign up for training sessions, find
new features, or log bugs and feature requests.
Floren says that it was important to let everyone in her company know
that forging deep relationships with customers was a driving force
and strategic plan for the company both financially and organizationally.
She gathered the staff to sell her plans to implement a CRM system,
and then got feedback from workers about what they needed.
With Floren leading the CRM charge the company rolled out the solution,
first to the sales team, then to customer service, and then to marketing.
"This is absolutely meeting our goals," Floren says. "We wanted to
be known as having the most friendly customer service, and I think
we've done that."
The company also has other indications of success. Floren says surveys
indicate that 95 percent of customers are satisfied and that the company
has managed to retain 94 percent of its customers since 1996.
Chief Financial Officer: Mike LaRocco
Mike LaRocco may be the CFO for ISO Healthcare Consulting, but he's
no bean counter.
LaRocco, who was instrumental in bringing in a CRM system 18 months
ago, says he sees a huge value with CRM. He helped implement CRM not
as a cost-cutting method, but as a way for employees to share information.
ISO is a strategic healthcare consulting practice and a division of
Fortune 1,000 company Interpublic. Because ISO does its business on
a project basis and has offices in London, New York, and Paris, LaRocco
had specific requirements for its CRM initiative: help the company
more accurately predict project-based revenue streams, let account
managers share critical information, and offer a flexible, user-friendly
CRM system for real-time visibility.
But most important, LaRocco did not want to deal with the expense
and IT--support issues of a CRM software deployment. That led him
and his small CRM--selection task force to choose an online solution.
Once the decision was made to use an ASP, ISO selected Salesforce.com.
LaRocco uses the product heavily himself and so do the company's 12
account managers, both in the United States and internationally. He
says the value and benefits of the system can be seen in better coordination
of global sales efforts; better understanding and management of worldwide
accounts; the ability to generate reliable forecasts and reports in
real time; and improved ability to build on existing work for future
projects.
Previously account representatives were managing projects in their
own ways, whether it was in Excel or PowerPoint or another program,
according to LaRocco.
"There was no system that tracked our marketing pipeline or opportunities.
Information was very disjointed and it took a lot of manpower to pull
together even the simplest information," LaRocco says. "I look at
the Salesforce.com system and what it costs me, which is 75 percent
less than a junior marketing assistant."
LaRocco says that the keys to the success of ISO's CRM initiative
are having updated information at all times and helping people work
smarter. He is also helping spread the good word of CRM. LaRocco,
who used to work at Interpublic, has spoken there to see how it might
profit from using CRM. "I'll talk to whoever might benefit from CRM,"
he says.
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Copyright 2003, CRM magazine/destinationCRM.com.
Reprinted with permission.
About the Author:
Lisa Picarille is a 14 year veteran high tech journalist, who started
out as beat reporter with PC Week. She has also been a Senior Editor
at InfoWorld, MacWeek and ComputerWorld. Lisa also has extensive experience
running online high tech new sites. She was the managing editor of
CRN.com., the online site for Computer
Reseller News, before becoming the executive editor of TechWeb.com
and the night news editor for Wired.com. Most recently she was the
executive producer of TechTV.com.
In addition, Lisa has freelanced for many print and online publications
including Iconocast.com, Wired,
Rolling Stone Magazine, CNN.com, Schwab.com. A graduate of Northeastern
University, Lisa began her career as a sports writer and working as
a producer and voice over artist in Boston radio. Picarille can be
contacted at 415-642-1863 or lpicarille@destinationcrm.com
Read
this newsletter at: http://www.crmnewz.com/2003/1016.html |
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