You don't KNOW me!?: CRM & Personalization

Effective CRM of the future will focus on psychographic customer profiles in addition to traditional demographic profiles.  Beyond the basic principles that determine how profitable a relationship with a customer will develop, successful businesses should seek to know WHO their customers are and WHAT motivates them as accurately as possible.

Why?  Understanding the belief systems and circumstances that motivate your customers to buy or BUY MORE can increase incremental value if your communication is in line with those factors.  Below is an example based on my favorite hobby; video gaming. (Refer to this chart to understand psychographic jargon.)

Amanda is a 25 year old female in social grade B living in a metro area with a steady job at the same company for many years. Classified as a Reformer, Amanda has been a loyal subscriber to Microsoft's online gaming service for at least 5 years.  During this time, she has never changed her profile name.  Microsoft wants to sell her on their name change service.  As a member of social grade B, she is a good canidate for purchase as she has some disposable income and has attained enough social status that titles matter.  As a Reformer, she regonizes that value often comes in small packages and a hefty price tag is not required for satisfaction. 

In order to properly sell their name change service, Microsoft could use the following dialogue:
-"Thank you for being a loyal member of XBL.  We've noticed your tag has not changed in the 5+ years you've been a member.  While you are welcome to retain your name for as long as you are a subscriber, we'd like to offer you a 30% discount on our name change service.  Think of it as a chance to re-brand yourself and find a title that fully grasps who you are now.  For just $5, you can select a new name that reflects your individuality." ( This tactic speaks to the thrifty and anti-establishment tendencies of a reformer, the status of a grade B, the targets age and gender within the life-cycle of a loyal customer.)

However, Microsoft should NOT use a tactic like the one below to speak to Amanda:
-"Did you choose the wrong name?  Does your title scream WIMP?  You can fix that by ordering a name change for $8.  In just seconds, you can go from lame to fame as you let our name generator provide you with the ULTIMATE handle!  Don't be stuck with xX01Loser10Xx!  Get a new, cool name today!" (This tactic speaks more to young, male D status NEW subscribers with a Struggler or Aspirer psychographic profile.)

By choosing a specific dialog suited to a small group, CRM marketers can almost guarantee a sale.  Don't believe me?  Look at my new "DarqueDuce" xbox gamertag.

Effective CRM

Most CRM professionals cast out huge nets to contact their database. Fishing in a large anonymous pool and catching what they can by working the law of averages. They work hard but not smart. Most databases are too large to do anything but work off volume, they say. But are they?

Here is where ROI analysis comes into play. Ex: You send the same message to 500 of your clients via email and DM. You get a 10% response rate on mail, but a 30% response via email. By recording this ROI on subsequent trials, you can increase the effectiveness of channels, and then move on to measuring the message itself.

Effective CRM depends on the cost-saving accuracy that ROI anaylsis brings to the table. Without data analysis, CRM professionals are wasting time and money repeatedly chasing business with the wrong message and thru the wrong channels.

For small businesses, a large IT spend may not be nessasary for recording ROI, if employees are diligent in track responses. However, large businesses would be foolish to save money on their IT budgets while hemmoraging their marketing spend on fruitless contact.

My first Android post

It's funny how technology evolves so quickly and many people make a living talking about tech trends, but few talk about the emerging skills that follow those trends.

Now, i've had a smartphone for a while now, but I have resisted the urge to blog from it simply because my swyping skills are no match for my 90wpm typing skills. Why use a platform that takes twice as long to get the job done, I say. Then I realized, it's not the software or hardware; it's the operator!

While i've been using my phone for everything BUT document creation, the generation behind me is learning to swype at 90wpm. And while i've been neglecting my laptop (and by extention, my blog), recent grads are pumping out content while waiting for business meetings to begin.

Knowing how the tech works is just one piece of the puzzle... mastering the related core skills is the elephant in the room. It's about time we acknowledged that.