WHEN it comes to customer relationship management, companies are shifting away from a technology focus and recognising that people, culture and strategy are playing more significant roles, according to a new study by the Australian Direct Marketing Association.
Surprisingly, for some companies, customer “relationships” are actually not a priority.
The ADMA Council completed a series of interviews with chief executives and managing directors in different business sectors throughout Australia about their experiences with, and the future of, customer relationship management as a discipline.
These included NRMA chief executive officer Rob Carter, ING Direct CWO Vaughn Richtor, and Levi Strauss Australia managing director Peter Murphy, among others.
The study provides insights into how companies view relationship marketing and customer management strategy, lessons learned and directions for the future.
Some of the study’s key findings include:
Defining CRM in terms of technology solutions is too limiting. By failing to take a “customer-centric” approach, many customer relationship solutions have lost their appeal to businesses.
Customer relationship management responsibility is still being passed down the line from chief executives/senior management personnel.
But businesses are no longer willing to leave important decisions about their customers in the hands of information technology experts. Instead, CRM is increasingly being passed down to marketing and customer service areas.
CRM continues to be difficult to measure. This is due to the “disconnect” between the all-too-limiting definition advanced by technology vendors, and the all-encompassing global definition referred to as “customer-centricity.”
Customer relationships are actually not a priority for many businesses. The study found that businesses could be segmented according to their view on the best route to growth.
The study revealed that many Australian businesses are more preoccupied with process, product specs and brand than long-term customer relationships.
The concept of “customer ownership” may be at odds with good business practice.
Chairman of ADMA’s Relationship Marketing and Customer Management Council, Tony Davis said the findings would challenge many of the conventions of CRM.
“The orthodox view has been ‘If only we understood our customers better, we could get them to buy more of our goods and services’,” Davis said.
“This study suggests that customer relationship management and the personalisation approach may not always be suitable for many business situations,” he said.
