The CRM Road Map Planning phase (we call as Phase Zero) is the most important phase of the entire project. If started incorrectly, time and costs increase.

CRM projects consist of many stages and the most important stage is planning [2]. During the preparation of the Road Map [3], careful and intensive work is required. In this period, intensive efforts in the right direction affect the success of the CRM project positively. It provides a shorter and more efficient application.

Some companies want to start the project as soon as possible and present something to the boss. However, when starting out without good planning, the chance of success in the medium and/or long term is negligible. In fact, the time spent preparing the Road Plan prevents unnecessary time wasted in the later stages of the project, going back and starting many times later.

In this article, we will discuss the principles of road map planning.

As in every industry or every company or every project, the road map planning in CRM is the result of investigation:

• What do we want to be in the future?
• How are we now?
• What is the difference?

The preparation process starts with the definition of the ideal environment to be seen after the CRM project.

Important note: Here, when we say ideal, we mean the affordable & applicable ideal, which we call “reasonable ideal“, not an ideal in which technologies that are not common or expensive today are used.

In other words first of all, where you want to be in the future is determined. Management is asked what they want to know, do or learn. Thus, concepts that are thought to be marketing jargon (or CRM bull shit) are made concrete.

We ask a question to the managers working at various levels of the departments that come into direct contact (such as sales team, branch / dealer / agency employees, service stations, repair maintenance team, call center employees) or indirect contact (such as operations, collections, loans, logistics) with customers: “If everything went as desired, at the end of the CRM project what questions would you like answered?”

Often the following questions are encountered:

For financial services:

• Which of my clients are likely to take their account balance to another bank?
• What are the profiles of my most and least profitable customers?
• What is the risk associated with loan applicants?
• What is the profile of low-risk and high-risk customers?
• Who is more at risk of default?
• What are debt movements that indicate a possible bankruptcy?
• What purchase transactions indicate credit card fraud?

For the public sectors:

• What actions can be associated with taxes, benefits, contraband drugs, and other illegal acts?
• What kind of people, which means of transportation, material are indicative of possible illegal movements?
• Which military personnel would be the better leader in war conditions?
• What methods are helpful in monitoring stock market movements?
• What are the indicators of violations in investment transactions?
• What indicators reveal money laundering cases?

For telecommunications:

• Which customers are likely to leave the Firm or move to another Firm?
• Which are the most and least profitable customers?
• What products and services should be offered to potential customers?
• What is the customer profile that defines frequent card users?
• What usage patterns indicate fraud?

For tourism:

• Which of my customers are likely to travel with another company?
• What are the profiles of my most and least profitable customers?

For insurance agents:

• Why was my offer not accepted? (Relationship or price?)
• Will my other jobs be affected because I lose this job?
• What other jobs can I get for my current client?

For companies in every industry:

• Which product/service groups sell better to which customers?
• How do I understand my client’s life stage or lifestyle changes?
• Which customer profiles are the most promising for which campaign?
• Who are the customers who are most likely to respond positively to the presented offer?
• Which proposals are most likely to receive a positive response?
• How should existing and prospective customers be segmented for maximum profitability?
• What are the customer characteristics that will generate high lifetime revenue?
• How often and when should customers be approached?
• What are the cheapest but most efficient ways to acquire new customers?
• Where can we find the most efficient customer segments?
• Which customers am I likely to lose?

Apart from these questions that indicate the needs of the institution or company, the needs and expectations of various departments should also be specified.

Expectations of Marketing Departments:

• To save on promotional expenses by not offering products that it will not use;
• Predict future yields (life time value) of customers;
• To identify the customers that can be profitable and the segments where this customer potential exists;
• To determine which products are more suitable for “cross-selling” with which other products;
• Studying or weeding out how we can make profitable customers with negative or zero profitability;
• To be able to see whether the customers that dealers, branches and agencies call “profitable” are really profitable;

Expectations of Operation Departments:

• To receive the most up-to-date data when the existing customer has a new request,
• To be able to meet the new product demand of the existing customer at the first contact point (branch, call center or internet) thanks to the decision mechanisms embedded in the system,
• Being able to determine whether it is worth losing or risking if “not a good customer”;

At Customer Touch Points

• Respond quickly to customer demands
• Seeing the necessary customer data on the screen immediately, reaching the next ones quickly,
• To see the latest status of the customer on the screen,
• Not having to fill out the form again when the existing customer has a new service request,
• To be able to meet the new demand of the existing customer at the first contact point,
• Being able to enter the changed data into the system immediately,
• For various products, entering various systems and not waiting,

😉

Don’t think that there are so few questions that need to be drilled down to the finest detail, thus revealing your data and process needs. You must have at least 100 – 120 questions or need statements.

Managers who voice these questions and expectations are assumed to know their job better than the CRM project Leader or Consultant.

For each of their questions or expectations, it proceeds with further question-answers focusing on the details. The answers received are questioned down to the smallest detail. Every answer becomes a question again. It is desirable to exemplify with real events or to explain with scenarios. It is continued in this way until a significant part of the data and process needs required for the company to achieve its ideal environment.

Now, the necessary information, data and process needs for the road plan have been determined. After that, the preparation of a consistent road map planning for the CRM project that will meet the expectations of the departments and the company may start.

🙂

Additional Materials to read

• CRM Road Map Preparation-2
• Customer Data Requirements
• Important customer data

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No wind will help those who do not know where to go.

We were doing a CRM workshop at a company.

While explaining the data part of the job, I wrote on the board

Then I asked “What information would you like to learn from your target audience?”.

Regardless of the industry, there are almost always the same answers. They also repeated the list below.

• Name and surname
• Date of birth (or Age)
• Gender
• Marital status
• Education (must actually be the School He Finished From)
• Job
• Address

I wrote what was said on the board under Data.

Then I asked what the company expected from this study.

The answers were:

• Which product groups sell better to whom?
• Who are my most frequent customers and what do they buy?
• Who are the customers most likely to respond to the offer offered?
• Which customers are we likely to lose?
• How often and how should we approach which customers?

and this kind of sentences…

I am not writing in more detail so that it is not clear which company it is.

This time, I wrote what they said under Needs.

Then, the image on the board was:

Important data are not communication data, but those which help to know the customer.

One of the first assignments I gave to those who attended the CRM course in the MBA program at Istanbul Bilgi University is as follows:

For the sector you choose please specify the 5 most important data and why it is needed:

Apart from

• • Name and surname
  • Age (or Date of Birth)
  • Gender
  • Job
  • Education
  • Address / place of residence
  • GSM number / e-mail address
  • Income

Apart from those, you will briefly explain what the 5 most important data that can be obtained are and why they are important.

Important points:
When I say the 5 most important data that are OBTAINABLE, if the income or salary information of the gas purchaser will not be disclosed when asked and if you write “income is important”, the homework will be considered incomplete.

Unfortunately, some MBA participants focus only on promotion (hence communication) in studies for various sectors:

• E-mail address: It is used to transmit all kinds of information and campaign news to the customer.
• Phone number: It is used to transmit all kinds of information and campaign news to the customer.
• TR ID: Used to unify customers in a customer-focused database.
• The credit cards they use: They are used to organize campaigns with banks.
• Marital status / Number of households: It is used to know who we can make customers except himself.
• Media preferences: Used to position the customer’s preferred media space for marketing efforts

I doubt some of these are even ‘available’ for many industries. How many people say their “marital status” or “media preferences” when buying air tickets.

However, it is necessary to focus on the information required to get to know the customer better and thus increase the lifetime value of the customer, not on promotion.

Let’s give examples from a few different sectors:

The good and bad examples in the article are compiled from the homework of MBA participants. I thank those who prepared good examples.

Airline:

• Flight frequency
• Frequent destinations
• Departure place (does it always leave the same place?)
• Total expenditure per year
• Preferred class (Economic, Business, etc.)
• Ticket time (last minute, discounted offers, early booking, etc.)
• Is it through agency or personally?
• Is he alone or flying with someone with the same last name?

Note:
There are many participants who write

• • Travel purpose
  • Job

However, we cannot know them either. It is also unlikely that we will ask every customer and expect a response. We may need to interprete over other information if it is very important to us.

We can ask ourselves “From what information do I deduce that there is a business trip?” and add that information to this list.

Gym:

• Expectations from Exercise: Weight loss / gain, fit in a bikini and wedding dress, fit body and healthy life, socialization, etc.
• Time to Spend for Sports: How many days & hours per week and hours of arrival
• The Sports Branch he / she wants to focus on: Fitness, swimming, group work, etc.
• Health Status: Is there any obstacle to doing sports? Should he exercise for a specific reason?
• Sports Background: How many years, what sports
• Break Activities: How to use the training breaks; magazine, TV, music, chat…
• Private trainer / Group work preference: Do you work with a trainer, prefer group work, or work alone?

In airline,  you cannot ask “Why are you traveling? Work or vacation? ” or you cannot get the correct answers. However, those who come to the gym often tell why they came.

GSM Operator:

• Invoice amount: Cost-benefit analysis is needed to provide more reasonable offers and / or to estimate the level of income.
• Air time and number of SMS: It is necessary to get an insight of why the customer’s preferences are phone calls or SMS and to offer better offers accordingly. It helps us learn how much of his/her time she/he spends on the phone in one way or another.
• With / without Internet: Opportunity to cross-sell to customers based on Internet usage; online campaign offers; It is necessary to learn the most frequently used internet platforms.
• Hours of use: The hours when the customer is busy, what hours of the day, with whom he talks
• Numbers he speaks frequently: We can create special packages among our customers with certain numbers.
• Phone brand: We need this information as the packages offered by the operator may vary depending on the nature of the devices. Device replacement speed also gives an idea of ​​the customer’s level of income or spending.
• Voyage to abroad: It will be advantageous to know how often the customer visits abroad in order to avoid surprise invoices. It will allow us to provide information in advance.
• Churn exists or not: Whether it comes from other operators, for how many years it has received service from the same institution.
• Customer request / complaint status: It is important for behavior management towards the customer how many “problems” were opened to the customer, how many requests or complaints he made from which channels until today. What are the status of his complaints (open, solved, closed, etc.)
• Places where he frequently speaks: School / courthouse / hospital / shopping mall / airport etc. This information is needed to make special offers using the locations where the customer is at that time.
• Packages used: family pack, school pack, fan pack, tariffs, etc …
• Value-added services: vehicle tracking, lost-stolen insurance, etc…
• Sensitivity to campaigns: Personal data can be used more, it can increase income through agreements with business partners.
• In corporate (B2B) agreements, how many people will enter the system at the same time, possible income can be estimated according to their demographic data.

I know there are more than 5 examples for each industry. Any 5 of them are considered TRUE – including other important information I couldn’t think of.

If you don’t have this information, it won’t work well, even if you have full contact information. If you do not know the customer, you can only send spam messages.

You suggest me shampoo ^[1] , hair curler, breast lift bra, pink face mask ^[2], best places to go with my deceased mother in Mothers’ Day, gifts I can buy for my deceased father for Fathers’ Day.

Your industry or homework topic may not be an airline or a gym or a GSM operator. However, by looking at the examples above, you can find out what the important information is in whatever industry you are in. You should be able to parse the “important information” that is valid even in hosting or electricity distribution companies that are thought to have a single product.

There is another important issue…

The third (or fourth) assignment of the semester is mostly on breakdowns used for segmentation. If you noticed, those who did this assignment correctly actually did the segmentation assignment as well.

😉

Additional Materials to read:

• Customer Data Requirements
• CRM Road Map Preparation-1
• CRM Road Map Preparation-2

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