Last year, new member Philip Grant of business consultancy CM Leaders wrote a business book ‘In Demand, In Command’ (published by Austin Macauley) which has now attained ‘5-star’ ratings on Amazon. The book has also now been made available in Audible format, alongside E-book and paperback versions. ‘In Demand, In Command’ is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to creating a winning digital customer strategy.
The primary reason for Philip writing the book is that, despite the exponential growth of digital and mobile services, companies simply do not achieve their business potential when managing their customers. Many businesses of all shapes and sizes could, and should, be doing so much better at serving their public. Independent research bears out the importance of this subject-matter:
• Up to 80% of customer contact in some sectors came from broken processes or systems – Preventable contact resulting from significant repeated, wasted, duplicated or failure effort.
• 5% improvement in customer retention can increase profits by up to 85%, and up to 90% of revenue can be attained from the top 10% of a customer base
To help address this situation, these customer strategy ‘Top Tips’ should be adopted and adapted:
1. CRM is more than a technology – it’s a business strategy that places the customer at the heart of the company and adds value to the full customer engagement lifecycle
2. Digital Transformation doesn’t just work in a Marketing or IT bubble – it impacts the whole organisation and is a change of mindset and habits
3. Merely satisfying customers is a hygiene factor and not a motivator for allegiance. Customers must be made to feel welcomed, wanted, understood and valued
4. Customer Retention and Loyalty can be fickle – changeable, choosy and demanding. Ask less of “how did we do?” and more of “how can we do better?”
5. ‘Done in One’ – Simplify your customer journeys at every single touchpoint. Customers should find it effortless to do business with you
6. The power of Web Analytics is all about making better-informed decisions – insightful, coherent, relevant, actionable information, not a data-gathering exercise
7. Empower your People – digital enablement requires vision, innovation, creativity, leadership, communication, motivation and commitment to making things happen
8. Convert Resources – Address your pain points/wasted/failure effort, and cross-skill from preventable contact to targeted sales opportunities – Pro-action, not reaction.
By developing a cohesive, intelligence-led digital customer strategy and service fulfilment capability, it unlocks the capabilities for businesses to achieve:
▪ Improved customer value through differentiated customer insight, online sales conversions, exceptional experiences, and personalised services
▪ Effective analysis, interpretation and action of key information at your disposal – turning data into intelligence to make smarter business decisions
▪ Responsiveness to an ever-changing market, customer, technical and business imperatives in a timely, coherent, seamless and agile manner
▪ Optimised business economies through organisational realignment, shared infrastructures, data integration, process simplification and preventable contact
▪ Stimulation of a positive brand reputation and market competitiveness.
In Demand, In Command provides immediate access to astute, insightful and pragmatic expert advice for a tiny fraction of the fees that would be charged by any management consultancy. Although the book was written prior to the global pandemic, in an ever-evolving digital ‘virtual’ world, it’s topic and central themes are even more relevant to our times. Philip believes that if you really want to stay ahead of the game and be in command of an always-connected world, you need to differentiate yourself in the market with a winning digital customer strategy.