A Practical Guide to CRM: Building More Profitable Customer Relationships, by Janice Reynolds, softcover, 285 pages, 2002,$34.95

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Overview

In today's global economy the customer has more and better choices than ever before, bringing on one of the biggest challenges the business community faces today- customer loyalty and retention.

To thrive in today's customer-driven economy a company needs to give customers what they really want.  They don't just want the best prices, selection , and service; they want a relationship.  CRM (customer relationship management) technology is designed to collect, store, and analyze data about customers, optimizing marketing, sales, customer service, back-office operations and new product development.  Yet, technology can't do it alone.  In practice, CRM is a business strategy that evokes a corporate culture where the customer is the center of the corporate universe and CRM technology is what enables that business strategy.

While CRM may start out as a means of linking different customer-facing functions, it must end up changing the way the entire company thinks about customers: who they are, what they want and how they can be better served.

This book explores how to:

• Develop and use a CRM strategy to integrate all channels and media of customer contact from the Internet through field sales into one system.
• Know the customers and focus on their needs to better deploy resources and achieve lower costs, higher revenue, and increased customer loyalty.
• Use CRM tools to increase profitability.
• Link CRM tools with sales partners both up and down the value chain.
• Choose the right customer-focused strategies and the right CRM systems.
• Implement and deploy CRM for the best results.

Table of Contents

1. What Is CRM?
   • A Different Corporate Culture
   • The Internet's Influence
   • CRM Architecture
   • The One-to-One Philosophy
2. The Evaluation Process
   •  The CRM Team
   •  Determine the Objective(s)
   • Perform a Needs Analysis
   •  The Prospects of Success
   •  What's the Best Strategy
   •  Cost Considerations
3. Preparing a Business Case
   •  The Construction Process
4. Creating the CRM Strategy
   • Where to Begin
   • Understanding the Technology
   • The Road to Success
   • Avoiding Potential Land Mines
   •  Key Strategy Issues
5. A Program of Projects
   • Project Management
   • Program Management
   • Corporate Oversight and Control
6. The People Factor
   • Managing the Changes
   • Communicate
   • Training, and More Training
   • A "Change Management" Plan
7. Increasing Customer Loyalty
   • The Reality
   • The Problems
   • The Fix
   • Benefits
8. Know Thy Customer
   • Assessing the Customer Base
   • Customer's Roles
   • The Customer Experience
   • The Customer's Perspective
9. The Many Flavors of CRM - An Overview
   • The History
   • Current Events
   • The Choices
   • Technology in Evolution
   • Software Selection
   • Hosted Solution
10. Marketing
    • CRM to the Rescue
    • Marketing Automation
    • Finding the Right Fit
    • Something Old, Something New
    • Benefits
11. Sales
    • Planning
    • Sales Automation Choices
    • Vertical Solutions
    • The Human Element
    • Benefits
12. The Call Center Evolution
    • The Stampede to CRM
    • CRM and Traditional Call Center Architecture
    • Haste Makes Waste
    • Evaluating CRM Systems
    • Field Service
    • Call Center Staffing
    • Costs and Benefits
13. The Importance of Data
    • The Customer Data Architecture
    • The Data Storehouse
    • Data Access and Analysis Tools
    • Data Mining Tools
    •  The Web
    • Managing Data in the Mid-sized Business
    • Knowledge Management
14. Hosted Solutions
    • What is a Hosted Solution?
    • Acronym Alphabet Soup
    • Why use a Hosted Solution?
    • Differences between Hosted Solution Models
    • Benefits
    • The Concerns
    • Trade-offs
    • The Decision Process
    • Integration Woes
    • Costs
15. Partnering for Success
    • How to Find a Tech Partner
    • Consultants
    • Systems Integrators
    • The Selection Process
16. The Vendor Selection Process
    • Understand the Vendor Community
    • Vendor Selection
    • Request for Proposal
    • Pre- and Post-RFP Tasks
    • And the Winner Is.....
    • Negotiations
17. Implementation and Deployment
    • Implementation Philosophy
    • The Implementation and Deployment Plan (I & D Plan)
    • Middleware
    • Avoiding the Pitfalls
    • Security
    • Final Deployment
    • Training
    • Post-Implementation
    • Costs

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