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	<title>Customers Are Cool &#187; CRM Reflections</title>
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	<link>http://www.customersarecool.com</link>
	<description>Putting the customer back in focus</description>
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		<title>Challenge to say no</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:08:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[March 2010]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge to say no]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge to say yes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer choice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer possibilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer selection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[modern world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mp3 player]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[where's my stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=185</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here I am at the lunch restaurant and for the first time I realise what has been bothering me when I pay. It's that question: "would you like to have a receipt?". 

Why does that question bother me? It is perfectly normal and fits in the context. My take on this is that I am one of those many consumers who in our fast moving world simply cannot take on another thing to make a decision about. That combined with the fear of losing out on something and our not being in the mood for more confrontation makes me stare at the person at the till in strange confusion.

I mumble: "errr yes... uh o no, that's OK".

So I think it through while I am having lunch, and come to the conclusion that there is more to this. We are simply overloaded with decisions to make just because we have the opportunity to say yes or no. The possibility to have or have not, the right to choose. 

Now consumers some 50 years ago had the challenge to be able to say "yes". Money and availability had to be forthcoming to say "yes" to something and make a purchase or take receipt of anything, really. In today's developed world, many of us have plenty of access to money and products or services are available in an abundance. That's the challenge. We can have it all. Cheaply. Right now. And then, when we get bored, we can replace it. Cheaper and better. 

The challenge is not to say 'yes' anymore. The challenge is to say 'no', the challenge is to be selective and focus on the important things available to us consumers. 

Many of us spend time considering these alternatives. New car, change of phone, what about that satnav? I need a new mp3 player. Where to get it? Who offers the best price? Shall I wait until I can get cheaper and better but later? We have become customers with so many choices and we are at risk of becoming bothered customers who forget to enjoy the ride.

A good friend of mine once deliberately moved country and cut all ties to start up a new life elsewhere. I, bewildered at his strength and, in my view, madness, wanted to know why he would deliberately limit his choices so rigorously. His reply was simple and very provoking especially in a world which drives to expand our possibilities and our accessibility to anything our customer hearts may desire.

"Choice is choice" he said.

Draw your own conclusions]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/03/17/challenge-to-say-no/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Interactive Voice Response Blunder</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:58:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[January 2010]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[...then please press 1]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abandon rate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alternate flow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Automated Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Avaya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business analyst]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Call center agent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Call Center automation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call centre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[churn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer experience ivr]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer retention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gatekeepers to real people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound call]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound customer interaction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interactive Voice Response]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IVR options]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[main flow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[maze of ivr options]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[please make your selection]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=174</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sure it has happened to us all. We've all been the victim of the Interactive Voice Response system, the gatekeepers to the 'real people'. 

An Interactive Voice Response system is that automated voice that you hear when you call your energy supplier, your local council or any other organisation dealing with many incoming calls. They are meant to be a two-way winning setup.

The company wins because they save money and allow the customer to select options so that the call is correctly routed for queueing and handling. The customer wins because supposedly the call can be handled more efficiently....

To me, any customer arriving in an IVR curses under his or her breath. It is a necessary evil, grudgingly accepted because the product or service is competitively priced. 

No study shows that you can really only ask your customer to make an IVR selection twice, with a maximum number of options of 3 in each. Go beyond that, and the abandon rate (when the customer hangs up out of sheer frustration) skyrockets.

Yet the temptation to automate talking to your customer is strong. I baffle at  that variation which tries to answer before I even asked my question. 'If your call is regarding your invoice, press 1', 'If your call is regarding a service outage, press 2', If your call .... Some of them have the nerve to state: "Please listen to all options" before they present all eight of them. You finally make a choice and if you are unlucky the automated voice responds: 'We are experiencing high call volumes right now and cannot be of service at this point. Please call back later'. Don't you just love that one? Or the other classic in which a serious male voice explains the entire terms and conditions regarding your question without actually answering anything, finishing off with 'for more information, please visit our website, www.answeryourownquestion.com... 

Ever been through three levels of IVR menu, hanging by the fingernails only reach one of these dead ends? It makes you wonder who put these together and whether they ever, ever put themselves into the customers' position and walked through the scenarios.

I find this fascinating and wonder what motivates large, professional organisations to make blunders like this and then not even ever correct them. "So what do you do when the customer has a question?" "Yeah, we send them into our IVR maze, tire them out until they give up in the end". 

The tip for today is that if you cannot build a customer friendly IVR, which in most cases leads to a human being, then don't do it at all. The money that you save by getting rid of a handful of warm customer service agents you will lose many times over on the effort you send on customer retention and sales efforts to counter your disproportionately high churn rate. 

And you know, I don't even think it is technology that creates these Monster IVR setups. It is the organisations who implement them without thinking through the paths, the options and anticipating the customer experience.

Call into your own customer service, pretend you have a real problem and see how it feels. Then do it again with a different problem, and another problem, and another. Exhaust the possibilities. 

Still feel happy? Then please forgive me for publishing this blog post.

Not so happy anymore? Then get in some good business analysts, map out the paths, clean them up and reimplement.

Quickly]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2010/02/05/the-interactive-voice-response-blunder/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Social networks or cyberspace anonymity: those who do and those who don&#8217;t</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/18/social-networks-or-cyberspace-anonymity-those-who-do-and-those-who-dont/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/18/social-networks-or-cyberspace-anonymity-those-who-do-and-those-who-dont/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:30:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Organisations in Cyberspace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Networks and CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chameleon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM facts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer contact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyberspace opportunity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cyberspace-anonymous]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[do social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental information online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[instant messaging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet misrepresentation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet opportunity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new medium]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[on-line tracking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[opportunity finds you]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[portfolio of communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presenting themselves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promoting themselves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[traditional means of communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Transparency]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=164</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The world of social media seems to be dividing up into two groups: Those who do and those who don’t.

Those who do are happy to be out there, presenting themselves, promoting themselves, adding this new medium to their portfolio of communication. They leverage perceived risk with opportunity.

Those who don’t prefer to remain cyberspace-anonymous, worry about misrepresenting themselves, prefer traditional means of communication, resist with all their might. 

Perhaps they even resist against better judgement. Perhaps]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/18/social-networks-or-cyberspace-anonymity-those-who-do-and-those-who-dont/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Organisations in Cyberspace: Permission Asset CRM considerations</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/11/organisations-in-cyberspace-permission-asset-crm-considerations/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/11/organisations-in-cyberspace-permission-asset-crm-considerations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:47:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Organisations in Cyberspace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Networks and CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA['cyberspace peer pressure'not in a network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[asking for permission to approach your customer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[capture permission asset responses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[circumstantial permission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clean up your permission asset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[closed loop feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM setup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer feedback]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer relationship management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genuinely interested customer who evaluates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intentional permission]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new product evaluations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[permission asset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[permission asset contact person]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[permission asset response]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relevant permission topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[responsive permission asset]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seth godin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tribe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[updates regarding your offering]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=158</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the changes that Cyberspace has brought about is building a permission asset for your organisation.
 
It's the basic principle of asking for permission to approach your customer regarding future commercial opportunities. 
 
We have all seen it before: "May we please contact you regarding the following in future:". And then follows list with topics such as customer feedback, new product evaluations, Christmas cards, updates regarding your offering, newsletters, blogs and such.
 
In my opinion, there is intentional permission and circumstantial permission. 

This article is about how deal with this important distinction]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/11/organisations-in-cyberspace-permission-asset-crm-considerations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Amazon.com: Mitigating fear of losing&#8230;&#8230; control</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/08/amazon-com-mitigating-fear-of-losing-control/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/08/amazon-com-mitigating-fear-of-losing-control/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:47:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Case Studies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[amazon.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anticipating customer needs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cash is king]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer in control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer losing an item]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer owns the product]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dvds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet business model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet purchase]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[internet trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stock information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webshop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[where's my stuff]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=152</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Doing business has come a long way in the past 20 years or so.

Only two decades ago Cash was King and there were no credit cards to speak of.

Really, we were all still in the stone age. Buying something meant handing over your money and taking home your product.

Today, at the end of 2009, most of us don't even see our money anymore. It might as well be Monopoly money. Many households pay their bills by direct debit or internet banking. Some of the products or services received are of abstract nature such as mortgages, electricity bills, council tax and such.

Electronic money for abstract products.

Now in the early stages of internet trade, Amazon.com understood very wel]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/08/amazon-com-mitigating-fear-of-losing-control/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Teleportation of customer data for CRM</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/07/teleportation-of-customer-data-for-crm/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/07/teleportation-of-customer-data-for-crm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:34:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[360 degree customer view]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[B2B]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[C2C]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call centre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[complaints]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer thinking patterns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inbound communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intelligent customer conversation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interactions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[order revisions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[outbound communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quotations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationship building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[service outages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teleportation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=146</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[CRM is all about matching what is in the head of your customer in your CRM architecture. You need to be able to get to the right customer data when you need it.

This could be information regarding quotations, orders, complaints. service outages, moves, contact persons just to name a few. Phew....

I was joking the other day with a friend of mine how great it would be if you could just teleport the information in your customer's head into your own CRM databases. All information about ongoing orders, quotations, previous conversations, the customer's likes and dislikes, his perception of sales conversations, the way he felt when your order was delivered.

Just like that. Teleportation of customer data. Break it down on one end, build it back up in the other.

Now we all know this is not possible. But it's a good end-point vision. After all, if we had all customer data available at our fingertips, an intelligent conversation with the customer would be relatively easy. There would be opportunity for upsell of other products, there would be opportunity to anticipate the customer's wishes and surprise instead of disappoint.

]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Not enough customer information? Time to get paranoid.</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/04/not-enough-information-get-paranoid/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/04/not-enough-information-get-paranoid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:38:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[account information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call center]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[call centre]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[challenge transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[complex product structures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[create structure and insight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm catch up]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[crm land]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer data model]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer data structure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer data transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer facing professional]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer information]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer related transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer relationship management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service agent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customersarecool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intelligent customer conversation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[manageable entities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft Dynamics CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oracle Siebel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rapidly growing organisations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SaaS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales person]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salesforce.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SAP CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sufficient customer data]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[switch on the light]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=136</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There’s a saying that goes: ”if you’re not paranoid, you don’t have enough information”. It is derived from the premise, that even when you think you have everything under control, there is probably something you don’t know about which could and will bite you in the backside when you least expect it. Recognise this from your adventures in CRM world?

Sure you do.

Of course, if you lived by this rule, you would never be able to relax again. So you don’t live by this rule.

Ironically though, this saying represents the exact most current challenge that all of us in CRM-land are facing.

The fear of being confronted with something customer related that we don’t know about. How do you have an intelligent conversation with your customer if you don’t have the relevant information]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Are we collecting numbers&#8230;. or real people?</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/02/are-we-collecting-numbers-or-real-people/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/12/02/are-we-collecting-numbers-or-real-people/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:50:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[December 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Networks and CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blase about numbers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customersarecool]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[growth in cyberspace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[increasing your network]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[just a number]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[just a statistic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LinkedIn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[numbers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reach with tweet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationship building]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[status]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[thousands of followers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trap of collecting numbers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tweet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=132</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We all know that social media is a hot topic. I started out carefully on Linkedin a few years ago, added Facebook, Twitter&#8230; and for a while I got into this frenzy of collecting people in my network, friends and followers.
Some people I meet take pride in having several thousands of followers on Twitter. Sure, ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Do you know who your REAL customer is?</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/do-you-know-who-your-real-customer-is/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/do-you-know-who-your-real-customer-is/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:36:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cool customers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[core business processes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM integration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decisions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[enhanced customer value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lack of customer focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lip service to CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft Dynamics CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oracle Siebel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SaaS]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[shareholder value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[who is your customer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=126</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you know who your customer is? In commerce today, there's a lot of lip-service to CRM, Customer Relationship Management. Millions of Euros, Dollars, Pounds and Yens are spent every year on SAP CRM, Oracle Siebel CRM, SaaS CRM, SalesForce CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and a lot of other related CRM software architectures. Either the money is well spent and the projects deliver enhanced customer value or they don't, or somewhere in between.

For those that don't deliver the desired enhanced customer value - as is the case in some 50% of them in my experience - usually there is an enormous lack of customer focus.

How can that be? Lack of customer focus in a CRM project? How can we miss the 'C' in CRM that blatantly?

We do]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/do-you-know-who-your-real-customer-is/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Still not getting the basics right.</title>
		<link>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/still-not-getting-the-basics-right/</link>
		<comments>http://www.customersarecool.com/2009/11/30/still-not-getting-the-basics-right/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erik</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRM Reflections]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[November 2009]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[airport transport service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[attention]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Erik van Geest]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.customersarecool.com/?p=120</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday I referred to not having been treated as I think a customer should. With service and respect.
And wouldn&#8217;t you believe it. This morning I stroll into a huge retail outlet specialising in elecronics to buy a camera. They have just opened, so shop attendants are still standing around doing nothing, talking, joking with each ]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>21</slash:comments>
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