Lessons in CRM

There’s a right way and wrong way to deal with customers, and most companies can produce examples of both within their own organizations. Here are two examples –one of each - from my own experience.

Several years ago, I changed jobs and moved to the Philadelphia area from the Midwest. Upon arrival in my new location, one of my first acts was to open a new checking account at a bank branch near to my new office.

Unbeknown to me, the bank I had selected places a hold on all checks used in opening new accounts. So the funds I had deposited wouldn’t actually be available until several days later. When the check manufacturer drafted my account for the $8.00 worth of checks I had ordered, the draft bounced, and the bank posted a $35.00 overdraft charge to my account – even though my initial deposit was $5,000.

When I asked the branch to waive the charge, they did so willingly and apologized profusely. I asked the manager how often this problem occurred, and I was astonished at the answer. Shaking her head and looking dejected, she said, “Oh, it happens all the time!”

Another example – this one a great example of good customer relationship management – happened several months later. I had bought a Chrysler from a local dealer and needed to take it in for regular service. I called and asked if I could bring it in on the next Thursday, and was told by the service advisor that they were all booked up but that they could take it on Friday. That was OK, so I agreed.

Twenty minutes later I got a call from the manager of the dealer’s service department. He wanted me to know that if Thursday was really important to me, they’d figure out how to work it in. Even though Friday really was all right with me, I really appreciated the gesture.

The point is, great CRM is much more than marketing. Before you start down the path of communicating how great your service is, take a long, hard look at what you really deliver. Test the customer experience in the real world. A broken promise is far more harmful to your business than no promise at all.

This stuff is important to your customers.


Written by Richard N. Tooker, VP - Solutions Architect at KnowledgeBase Marketing