The last 18 months has seen a radical shift in the priorities held by a business. Unfortunately, too many have been forced to devote the majority of their time and resources to simply staying afloat. And, really, this is totally understandable. The recession has been painful, relatively swift, and really quite violent.
For the last few months, investment in CRM has been championed by a number of sources – seen as the one dependable way to survive a recession and maybe even exit in a stronger position than a business entered. However, there’s a significant gap between large businesses who know they should tighten up their CRM practices, and those smaller businesses who don’t know where to start. And sadly, those smaller businesses are most at risk.
So what’s holding investment back? Two key factors.
Firstly, fear; a perception that the implementation of a CRM system is incredibly expensive. Our suggestion would be that any steps taken to master your customer data are valuable. Even a little investment (maybe some data management, and some top line customer insight) can change the outlook of the business – knowledge leads to confidence.
Secondly, know-how ; a perception that implementation of a CRM system is incredibly complicated. Again, it needn’t be, and it can be done in-house. As you would expect, we’d recommend that (at least from the outset) external advice is sought on best-practice CRM creation. If this is professionally planned, then a consultant can create a system that can be handed over to the client, and to a certain extent maintained in-house. Admittedly, this isn’t best practice. However, if it allows a client to be more intelligent with their acquisition and retention planning, then it’s a positive step forwards, and a great platform to build on.
