Pub. 3 2013 Issue 3

15 SUMMER 2013 T ODAY CUSTOMERS HAVE MULTIPLE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION RELATION ͳ SHIPS AND ENDLESS OPTIONS, PUTTING PRESSURE ON COMMU ͳ nity banks to more effectively sell to and service those needs. Customer Relation- ship Management (CRM) has evolved as an essential tool. Yet most CRM solutions have sub- optimal user navigation, resulting in manual data capture on spreadsheets and requiring manual tracking and reporting. Front line employees toggle between multiple screens, information tracking is inconsistent, product messag- ing is weak and the lackluster features are all bundled together through difficult and time consuming navigation. In the end, the right information isn’t known at the right time, making it difficult to achieve product cross sell and customer relationship goals, or measure perfor- mance. Timing is everything when cross- selling the right product at the right time to customers. Knowing customer life events is extremely useful in targeting new opportunities, but simply capturing the information is not sufficient. Front line employees must have the right in- formation automatically presented, with no hunting through different systems, screens or fields. Product talking points can be made easily available to provide employee confidence in having a relevant con- versation with the customer. To insure system-wide success, this information must be consistent across the entire Today’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) BY TOM ROBERTS, DIRECTOR OF GONET USA organization; call center, teller opera- tions, lending, new account opening, etc. Customers are more open to prod- uct and service recommendations when they feel the employee better under- stands their needs. The ability to track and assist on service issues is also important. Cross selling a new Debit Card when there is an unresolved checking account overdraft issue would not be a high probability sales opportunity. Knowing there is an outstanding issue that it is being resolved when interacting with the customer increases the customer’s confidence in the relationship, and that confidence provides the “glue” to increase customer retention. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be established, measured and analyzed. A KPI for sales opportu- nities could state that for every 10 qualified sales opportunities presented to each Customer Service Associates, 6 must turn into a referral. For refer- rals, a KPI could state that of every 10 referrals, 8 should close. For customer support, a KPI could state that all e-statement referrals must be acted on within two hours. KPIs give insight into how employ- ees are managing the process, and if a KPI goal is missed, the reason should be known. The KPI could have been set too high, or it could be an indicator of employee performance. If the average Customer Service Associate is generat- ing 8 product referrals daily while a specific Associate is only generating 3, the discrepancy needs to be understood. It could be that the Associate is being presented with a below average amount of sales opportunities a day (based on branch location, customer qualifica- tions, etc.), or it could be the Associate’s level of discomfort selling a specific product or overall products in general. Unless performance is measured and monitored, it is difficult to know or ef- fectively respond. Q CRM | continued on page 16