Keeping Customers Coming Back
Mon Oct 28, 2002 - Tue Oct 29, 2002
Every business no matter how large or small has to attract and retain customers to exist. This has been
a maxim from when trade was conducted through barter until the present day where many enterprises
are making sizable investments in trying to reinvent or reengineer how they pursue this goal. This
current upsurge in customer focus has been popularized as Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Trying to capture this broad a concept renders the term CRM so general that it requires interpretation
from one person to the next. The gamut runs from slightly modifying business as usual to the CRM
protagonist's view of one face to the customer, a holistic, integrated approach involving all customer-
related activities, processes and systems.
Many CRM endeavors have been grandiose in nature and resulted in greater than anticipated expendi-
tures and less than anticipated benefits. Where there are benefits, it is often difficult to tie them
directly to specific CRM actions. To some in management, the mention of CRM brings on disdain and
a loss of credibility.
It is time for a pragmatic assessment of where the enterprise is and where it wants to be in its relation-
ship with its customers. For those who intend to go the whole way, the journey will be long and
expensive. Others will choose to cut off investment somewhere along the way as benefits diminish
and costs continue to rise.
This meeting will focus on the results enterprises are having in pursuing customer-facing initiatives. IT
and business leaders will discuss the following topics:
Presenting One Face to the Customer - What needs to be integrated and how to go about it.
Improving Customer Service - Experiences in and results of applications that support the interaction between the organization and its customers.
Self Help, Help Desks and Call Centers - Current trends in what's being done in responding to customer requests for information and problem resolution.
Organization, Culture and Technology - How organizations are approaching business and IT restructure, instilling a customer-focused culture, building a supporting technology platform, and user and IT training to avoid new application disuse and failure.
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