Blueprint for CRM Success Pays Off
By Jay Curry, Customer Marketing International
Published January 19, 2004
The CRMGuru.com study, "The Blueprint for CRM Success" identified four critical success factors. CIMCO Communication, Inc. has embraced these factors for a number of years-and they have paid off, big time.
CIMCO Communications has been providing integrated communications to "the forgotten 5,000"midcap businesses in the Chicago area for over 19 years. CIMCO serves businesses with mission critical communications needs by integrating network infrastructures.
CRM Success Factor 1: Establish and follow a customer-centric strategy.
CIMCO's CEO Bill Capraro has assembled a "Customer Advisory Board" which advises the company on products, promotional efforts while providing tips on how to serve all customers better.
The CIMCO Customer Advisory Board represents the CIMCO customer base in terms of vertical industries and company sizes. The Board meets four times a year, with a dinner following each meeting. The members of the Board receive no compensation for their input (except the dinner), but they are pleased (and possibly flattered) with their participation.
CIMCO's Customer Advisory Board is symptomatic of CIMCO's customer focus. The company regularly measures customer satisfaction. All new customers are surveyed on their satisfaction following their conversion of previous telecommunications to the CIMCO service. Other groups of customers are surveyed periodically.
Monitoring customer attrition is also a routine which CIMCO follows. And here is where they discovered the payback of their customer focus:
CIMCO only loses an average of 2% of their customers each year against an industry average of 30% customer loss.
CRM Success Factor 2: Line-level training and support.
CIMCO customers experience the passion for extraordinary service in the responsible, knowledgeable and person-to-person way CIMCO meets their needs.
The customer service and personal attention given each customer is the key to its business success. That personal attention begins with the first contact.
The phone is answered "live" and an experienced CIMCO professional is always on hand to answer questions or find the answers. Each customer is assigned a personal account manager.
For new customers with extensive communications needs, a CIMCO account manager will personally visit the business to review the first invoice and answer any questions, And, yearly account reviews are held with all customers.
CIMCO's billing system is quite advanced.
Bill reporting is Web-enabled and is totally customizable to meet a customer's needs. The bill report can be manipulated and organized by numerous categories, all at the touch of a mouse. CIMCO is a true Chicago success story - having recently announced record year-ending growth in profits and revenue, and experiencing real growth in the industry in terms of employees and customers, all at a time when most competitors in the market are experiencing significant cutbacks.
CRM Success Factor 3: Setting and measuring goals
Setting and tracking measurable goals is also a factor for CRM success. And CIMCO also sets and measures goals for managers and staff. This, too, pays off: CIMCO has been growing 40% per year, even in these tough times.
Interestingly, CIMCO also measures and monitors employee satisfaction, making adjustments in personnel policy when the results show the need. This policy, too, pays off: there has been 0% turnover among top and middle management in the last three years!
As Bill Capraro stated recently: "We have goals all over the place. And we measure the results."
CIMCO's bottom line results-the ultimate goal to measure-is quite positive.
Factor 4: The ability to manage change.
A final success factor for CRM is the ability to manage change. Bill Capraro says, "The telecoms business is changing every day. Thus we are in a constant state of change."
On the micro level, Capraro cited a recent change in CIMCO's office facilities. He says the change involved new and different communications channels created by the new and different places where managers and departments were located
P.S. The CRMGuru.com study, Blueprint for CRM Success, found that that the selection of the CRM solution was not a significant factor in CRM success (ROI). So, what CRM systems does CIMCO use? A home-grown solution, tightly integrated into their business processes.