| Whether
you call it customer centricity or relationship marketing, we
are living in the next era of customer relationship
management. This era is marked by many companies having a
baseline capability to communicate with customers and feeling
they have avoided a CRM failure.
However, most would admit their results are not as lofty as
originally planned.
Most likely your organization has significant
customer-focused short-term goals along with a desire to learn
more about core segments. Part of
the foundation of your customer marketing plan is solid,
secure and reliable customer data upon which to base your
customer communication plan.
At the same time, policies and procedures regarding data
access, use, sharing and data retention are probably
incomplete, or even nonexistent. Yet many companies ignore the
crucial need for a customer information management plan.
Customer information management often is defined as the
centralized management of all customer information regardless
of where the data reside and who owns the data within the
enterprise. It is a reasoned strategy for collection and
retention of data, the assurance of responsible use of
customer data and a unified approach to data quality and
integrity. Other components of CIM include the administration
of risk management strategies, implementation of standards,
policies and procedures as well as the execution of privacy
laws and industry standard practices.
CIM involves:
· Developing business rules that direct data use.
· Administrating data and collection policies for all
customer touch points.
· Creating and finding new data sources and elements.
· Evangelizing “data respect” at all levels of the
organization.
· Coordinating cross-functional policies and procedures.
· Educating new and existing users on the meaning of
information.
· Monitoring quality, consistency and completeness of data.
· Developing detailed security requirements.
· Ensuring information is used to its fullest.
· Communicating notification and use policies.
To capture more customer data, your organization needs a
centralized process responsible for CIM enabling all divisions
in the organization. A sound CIM policy directly affects your
ability to collect more customer data. Better data quality
allows more accurate matching, leading to more identification
of customers, and cleaner data provide more opportunities to
match customers — identifying existing unknown customers.
Studies have shown that customers of companies that protect
their customer data trust the company more, thereby making
them more willing to share data.
Having a CIM process is important because customer-focused
initiatives depend on reliable customer data. The new level of
business sophistication creates a dependence on and
expectation of sound customer data. Given your organization’s
large investment in building the customer capability and the
future plans based upon the existing customer base, CIM is
essential for effective collection of additional data and is
necessary to execute privacy initiatives. Legislation also
will mandate some changes in the way we do things.
With a sound CIM process in place, your organization can
increase revenue and customer intimacy, leading to higher
loyalty and retention. Without a sound CIM policy, your
company risks eroding credibility with customers as well as an
inability to identify or fully recognize best customers.
Creating a public relations fiasco similar to those of
ChoicePoint or Bank of America could be costly to your brand.
One challenge many companies face is that data collection
is done largely without the consent of the customer, which
increases the potential rejection of your relationship from
the customer. Also, business units beyond marketing are not
fully aware of available customer information and potential
applications of customer data. To address these issues, your
company should:
• Dedicate resources responsible for creating a vision for
customer identification opportunities.
· Execute a short- and long-term strategy for data
collection, use, retention, quality and integrity.
· Assign a position accountable for ongoing management of
responsible use of customer information assets.
· Create a strategy, application and management of a
comprehensive information risk management plan.
Begin this process now because of the tremendous demands of
running and transforming the business. The existing business
requires dedicated full-time resources that let business
experts focus on current marketing tasks. Marketing needs to
stay focused on the customer. Be proactive in addressing your
firm’s CIM needs because a reactionary mode exposes it to an
ill-advised level of risk.
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