George Bliss | Relationship Marketing
CRM, Cloud Computing, e-Marketing and Customer IntimacyArchive for September, 2008
If I had my way, the Big Bang machine would use hosted Microsoft CRM!
Last week I was beside myself with excitement. On Wednesday morning, a team of scientists from around the world ‘turned on’ the largest and most ambitious scientific experiment ever conceived.
I find it difficult to get excited about physics, or chemistry, but the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), sometimes referred to as the ‘Big Bang’ machine has such an air of mystery and excitement that I’ve become completely absorbed.
Indeed, I’m so engrossed in the project that I will quite happily bore anyone that will listen about the project, the drama, the controversy, the exciting possibilities it opens up. I’m sapping up everything I can read, every documentary I can watch, and every radio show that even mentions the name.
The LHC has some key questions to answer, namely – what is mass, what is the universe made of and what happened during the first few seconds of the universe’s existence? The scientists are hoping to prove/find the existence of something called the Higgs boson – at the moment a theoretical particle that could unlock some of these answers.
It got me thinking. Perhaps the LHC scientists could leverage some of the principals of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in order to discover, acquire and nurture this slippery little Higgs boson!
Microsoft CRM can help track prospects right from your first introduction or connection. Whether it’s a website visit, a business card you pick up at an event, or a contact name on a list that you buy from a data reseller.
Now, depending on the source of your data, you’ll quickly be able to ‘disqualify’ or rule out based on their initial response (or lack of one) a percentage of these prospects. You’ll also be able to identify the ‘hot’ prospects on the same basis.
Exactly the same principals (sort of) apply to the LHC! 100 metres underground the Large Hadron Collider will be whizzing protons or lead ions around this huge 27km particle race course at staggering speeds just shy of the speed of light. Some of these particles will be lost (they’ll simply dissipate away), some will be smashed together in a collision (that’s the objective, incidentally) and others will just carry on whizzing round for a little longer.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that like the scientists running the LHC, you’ll want to know what happened to every last one of these particles….I mean prospects! Microsoft CRM can help you manage them.
With Microsoft CRM you can run a report on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, with a complete breakdown of your sales funnel. How many leads did you put in? How many were unsuitable? How many were un-contactable? How long were they in the funnel for? What’s the average conversion rate? How much have you spent on marketing and what is your average ‘cost of acquisition’?
All of these key statistics, and more, are built-in functions of Microsoft CRM, and can offer some seriously useful insight for your business. The good news is that with Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM you can get access to all of these answers with just a few clicks…without a team of IT technicians, trained CRM managers, servers or even a 27km long particle accelerator.
- BBC Radio 4′s Big Bang website
- CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) – The Large Hadron Collider
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Sales
Partner + Vendor approach better all round
I just read Joshua Greenbaum’s article (Microsoft Dynamics Goes for the Mid-market again). It’s exciting that the industry is starting to recognise Microsoft’s successes in the mid-market, winning deals over SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle based on the Microsoft CRM platform, high R&D investment, and roadmap for the product over the next few years.
Joshua raises some interesting points: does Microsoft’s indirect channel sales model actually support enterprise and upper mid-market deals? Should Microsoft engage or lead enterprise sales directly like Oracle and SAP?
You’d be forgiven for not completely understanding the indirect channel model Microsoft has established. It’s a little different from the USA in the UK too, and I guess it’s becoming somewhat blurred in the small/bottom end of the mid-market, with Microsoft offering CRM Online and plans for GP Online, NAV Online directly.
That said, I feel Microsoft’s commitment and foresight in establishing this model opens more doors than it closes. While Microsoft’s current model is ‘channel based’ I don’t think this precludes Microsoft’s involvement in deals directly at all. We regularly work with Microsoft directly to jointly pitch Microsoft CRM and our implementation approach to potential enterprise customers.
Our Microsoft team has a clear visibility of our sales pipeline and regular opportunity reports and updates from our own CRM system too.
I think a partner-led (or partner+vendor) approach is much more credible than a vendor-led sale. A partner can talk about cross-platform integration, compatibility and value added services like support and training. Sometimes a vendor could be prejudiced towards a ‘stack’ or product range, and up-sell/cross-sell opportunities.
Without doubt, the Microsoft partner ‘ecosystem’ (to coin a Microsoft term) offers a fantastic assurance for CRM buyers evaluating Microsoft CRM. Microsoft has thousands of ISV, reseller, implementation, support and system integrator partners around the world.
The Microsoft partner ecosystem also helps to maintain the consultancy resources, skills, best-practice and add-ons and it keeps the market fresh and competitive.
My only criticisms of the current ‘ecosystem’ are based around the partner directory tools currently available. This huge global network of Microsoft partners don’t talk enough – there are so many great ISVs out in the cloud spending valuable R&D budgets on marketing to other Microsoft partners or resellers. It’s ludicrous! Microsoft should be facilitating this cross pollination and ‘match making’ service.
Ultimately, selling indirectly is initially a risky and potentially expensive strategy, and it undoubtedly takes balls. Ask anyone that’s ever tried launching an ISV or SaaS service through the channel.
The fact Microsoft are making it work profitably speaks volumes and I think it offers CRM buyers and evaluators with great assurance and confidence in the whole Dynamics range.
Suits you, Sir.
Everyone can talk about a bad customer service experience. Absolutely everyone, without exception. But great, exciting, passionate and feel-good customer services stories seem a rare thing to come by. Fantastic customer service is something I’m passionate about. After all, it’s why we set up Increase CRM 3 years ago.
I wanted to tell you two stories. My own extreme customer service experiences recently, one good, amazingly good, and one so awful, so obscene, so outrageously shocking that anytime I think about it the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, I start babbling obscenities and go red.
I’m just about to move, and I’m sure you can imagine my life is somewhat disrupted. Boxes everywhere, paperwork scattered across two homes, late night packing… one thing I didn’t need to deal with was BT’s utter incompetence.
2 months ago I phoned BT and requested that my line be transferred. I gave them the dates, my details and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process was. One less thing to worry about – one more tick on my list. Hooray! Um, yeah.
Fast-forward 1 week, and I’m working from home. Using the ‘net. Using our Hosted Microsoft CRM system. One minute I’m happily tapping away, updating my opportunities and preparing to run our monthly forecast. The next…. the rug was pulled out from my feet. The screen timed out, the lights stopped flashing on my router, the plug had been pulled.
I’d been terminated. Cold turkey. No warning, just a dead line. It felt like that scene from Total Recall where the air supply on Mars was turned off and everything suddenly ground to a halt.
I won’t repeat the exact words I used, but you can assume I was jolly cross. And while trying to express my dissatisfaction to the helpful [sic.] well trained [hmm], empowered [yeah...] staff at BT’s customer care centre in Bangalore I was placed on hold 22 times, asked to speak to the supervisor/manager/team leader 9 times, transferred back the UK, then back to India 4 times and spent all in all, 8 frustrating hours sorting out the mess of getting the line, my number and broadband re-connected.
Physiologically, the whole experience affected me. Stress, raised blood pressure, numerous headaches, and at one point feelings of being physically sick. I think BT have knocked at least a month off my life expectancy.
It made me think. Do we Brit’s expect too much? Do we like a good argument? What is the definition of good customer services? Do these corps realise that bad customer service will kill us eventually?
So, my good experience. I recently bought my first bespoke suit. It’s really fancy and not only does it have my name embroidered in the lining, but it’s got hidden pockets, custom stitching and fits me like a glove. It’s wonderful.
And it’s all thanks to one man, Harold Rose. Someone I want to tell the world about. Harold runs ‘Master Tailor’ a bespoke suit making business. I first was introduced to Harold 6 months ago when he approached us to discuss CRM systems for his rapidly expanding business. We immediately hit it off, and it was clear that Harold was someone who was not only passionate about his services but also great customer experiences. “I treat each suit as if it’s my own. If it doesn’t meet my standards it doesn’t meet my clients” he told me.
I liked Harold’s approach so much I decided it was time to put my money where my mouth was and put his services to the test, and so Harold came down to London to measured me up, taking the time to go through about 100 bespoke configuration items and measurements. The process was, well, let’s just say…. thorough. “It’ll be ready in 4 weeks, George. I’ll come down and check it fits if that’s ok?” he asked. “Wonderful, Harold. Sounds perfect”, I replied.
A whole week later I had a situation. “Harold…….it’s George, I need a favour.” My dry cleaner had somehow mucked up my favourite suit, and with the Microsoft WWPC conference in 3 days I had nothing smart to wear. “Is there any chance you can fast-track that suit? I need it for Friday.”
I can’t imagine what Harold must have thought, but always the professional he advised me that he’d do his best; he’d check and let me know if my outrageous request was physically possible. True to his word, the next day Harold phoned, “George, it’s going to be okay. It’ll be tight but we’ll courier your suit next-day and you’ll have it on Friday morning before your flight.”
Sure enough, as promised, 3 hours before my flight to Houston, the doorbell rang. Wrapped in tissue, delicately packed and impeccably finished was my suit.
I’ve learnt a lot from Harold Rose. And believe it or not I’ve learnt a lot from BT. When things go wrong, or don’t quite go to plan sometimes you need help. You need quick, honest, and realistic answers. And if nothing else you need to be treated well and listened to.
Customer service and support, particularly in the IT industry has a bad rep. It’s something I’m desperate to change. With our current struggling economy, people like Harold Rose are our only hope.
I’m even thinking about starting a campaign.
At Increase CRM exciting customer service is something we’ve affectionately nick-named ‘Beyondness’. Our service plan, Beyond Demand™ (a little play on ‘On Demand’) is not just a support service. It’s a philosophy. We’re beyond 9-5. We’re beyond making you wait in a phone queue. We’re beyond IVR (press 1 for….press 2 for…) systems. We’re beyond “no can do”.
We’re just Beyond Demand™. And so is Harold Rose. Suits you sir? Yep, it really does.
- See Master Tailor, UK: http://www.mastertailoruk.com/
- About.com talk about 8 Rules for Customer Services:http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/customerservice/a/custservrules.htm
