Page 291 -

T
P
262 P a r t V : a r t V : T h e G r e e n i n g P r o c e s sh e G r e e n i n g P r o c e s s
262
• Performance Managers and Marketing Analysts These are the people and
technologies that design key performance indicators and collect metrics and data
that help keep CRM on track. This is the group that establishes milestones and data
to determine if the CRM process is being effective.
• Customer and Employee Surveyors and Analysts These are the people and
technologies that determine whether customer and employee relationships are
getting better—or getting worse.

Technology The technology you need to drive your CRM solution has many specific
components. Although there are unique pieces to your CRM puzzle, they all fit together to
present an overall view of who your customer is and what value they get from interacting
with your company.
The technological components of your CRM system include the following:
• Database A database for customer information and their interactions with the
company, which includes order information, support information, requests,
complaints, and survey responses.
• Customer Intelligence You need a system for translating customer needs and
profitability projections into plans that can be segmented for different types of
customers. Then, you need to be able to track whether those plans are followed and
whether desired outcomes have been achieved.
• Business Modeling This piece analyzes your customer relationship strategy along
with the goals. In the end, this will tell you whether you are meeting your goals.
• Learning and Competency Management Systems This component helps you get
closer to the results you desire and the goals you’ve set. Complex systems need time
to be implemented and tweaked, and this component can help you analyze your
processes.
• Analytics This piece is used to analyze customer relationship policies and
activities, using such technologies as voice recognition and statistical analysis.
• Collaboration This component allows your customers to interact with your
business and their fellow customers.

Each of these components can be implemented one by one over time, but the end goal is for
them to be configured to benefit one another. SAP (Link 13-2) and Oracle (Link 13-3)—among
others—offer CRM solutions.
Billing and Online Forms
We talked briefly about paperless billing in Chapter 6, but it is an issue your company
should embrace. This process is not only ecologically responsible, but also convenient for
you and your customers. It provides also a huge cost savings for your organization.
Consider Figure 13-2.
As the figure shows, it costs money for someone to physically create the bill and mail
the bill. Then, after the bill comes back, it costs money for someone to open the envelope,
enter data from the enclosed form, and handle the customer’s payment.

NOTE In this case, the customer could be either an individual consumer or a business-to-business
buyer.