Week Five

Article Summaries:

The first article is essentially about using the correct metrics makes marketing more meaningful, especially when presenting results to other departments. It also mentions that not monitoring the correct metrics or not measuring enough metrics could result in crediting an increase in sales to the marketing team when, in actuality, it was the sales team or something similar.

The second article is about how you must properly benchmark your company before you implement new CRM technologies so that you can properly measure your improvement or lack of. Clarify, a company based in San Jose, CA,. has developed a metric that they call “Return on Relationship” for  evaluating customer loyalty. This metric measures customer profitability over time and then models, measures, and maximizes that particular customer's profitability for a competitive advantage.

Key Managerial Takeaways:

• Views and clicks should be viewed as indicators, not results
• Use CRM systems to track which marketing activity/method attracts which customers
• Business want three things from CRM systems: increased revenue, decreased cost, and intangible efficiency
• CRM loyalty metrics are extremely very important but it's even more important to understand how to read the information and implement it
• Loyalty metrics are still more so in the infancy stage but firms are starting to take a great interest in them

Article Citations:

Cohen, Howard M. "Making Marketing More Meaningful With Metrics." Channel Insider. QuinStreet Inc., 22 Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2015.

Costello, Daniel. “New Measures of CRM Performance.”  destination CRM.com. 1 Oct. 2000. Web. 27 Sept. 2015

Week Four

Article Summaries:

The first article of the week focuses on a couple of cases where businesses used social CRM metrics successfully to their advantage. Eurosuites Hotels monitored their social media traffic and engagement through third party software and used the info to figure out what their customers were interested in and when they wanted to see info about it. Another company, Udema, was unsatisfied with their current social CRM monitoring software are switched to a more in-depth program with great success.

There are tons of things that you could measure in your CRM system, but the hard part is deciding what you need to measure. Without a clear strategy, all metrics acquired are almost worthless. You should communicate with your salespeople that are collecting the data about its purpose so that they have a clear meaning of its use. If they understand the reasoning they can also help to implement it. One of the main failures of CRM metrics is because they are tracking the wrong things. Just because it's easy to focus on measurable sales data does not mean that it is the right strategy for your company. CRM metrics are extremely effective when they are focused on your prospects buying process.


Key Managerial Takeaways:

• Social media increases sales leads
• Just using a social media monitoring program isn’t enough, it has to be one that matches the goals and desires of the company using it
• Monitoring social media is an increasingly important part of CRM Marketing
• Don’t waste time and money measuring the wrong CRM data
• Explain the importance of proper data collection to whoever is collecting it, by understanding what it’s used for they can gather it more effectively
• Start at the end and work backwards.What is your CRM goal? How will you achieve it?

Article Citations:

Britt, Phil. "3 Social Media Monitoring Success Stories." - Enterprise Apps Today. QuinStreet Inc., 16 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.

Apollo, Bob. “Forrester - Which CRM Metrics Really Matter?” The Inflexion-Point Blog: ReTH!NKING the Fundamentals of B2B Selling. 19 July 2011. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

Week Three

The first article of the week is about the intersection of social marketing and CRM. The author explains that social marketers often use ‘soft’ metrics to measure impact, but ROI is such an important measure of the success of social marketing that social marketers should team up with CRM marketers to determine more accurate and efficient ways of measuring ROI.

The second article of the week talks about the importance understand your company’s value proposition. By understanding the value proposition you can focus directly on the metrics that will be the most beneficial. Don’t make the mistake of trying to use a ‘stand-alone’ metric to try and judge the success of an organization; however, do not try to judge off too many unnecessary metrics either, without the correct metrics a pile of data can not be properly deciphered.  

Some key takeaways from the week's articles:

• Social marketers collaborating with CRM marketers would be beneficial for both parties
• Overall business objectives and social media goals should be aligned and integrated
• Understanding your value proposition is the key to finding the right metrics (ie: If you compete on cost, efficiency and productivity measure are important)
• It is important to start measuring before you start implementing metrics to see how accurately your performance has increased, or decreased 

References:

Roy, Rohit. "Why Social Marketers Need to Collaborate With CRM Teams to Accurately Measure Social ROI." MarTech Advisor. MarTech Advisor, 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Sept. 2015.

Morris, Tricia. “15 Customer Service Metrics to Measure.” Customer Service Success Blog. Parature, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 14 Spt. 2015.

Week Two

Article Summaries:

The first article singles out four specific metrics the author thinks are the most important when analyzing ad campaigns: Lifetime customer value, online/offline bounce rates, web site dwell time, and estimated campaign ROI.

The second article talks about 6 common metrics that are usable for every business. They include the number of sales calls made, number of sales calls per sale, sales cycle duration, customer value, cross-selling and up-selling, and client retention.

Key Managerial Takeaways:

• In order to truly analyze a campaign, you need to go beyond the basic metrics most companies use
• It’s important to prioritize the objectives of a campaign in order to determine which metrics should be used
• CRM software costs a lot upfront but when used properly it will pay for itself in no time
• Some metrics can be applied to any type of business and yield success

Article References: 

Hawthorne-Castro, Jessica. "With Campaign Metrics, You Need to Go Beyond the Basics." CRM Magazine. CRM Media, 03 Sept. 2015. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.

McCord, Paul. “6 Key Metrics for CRM ROI - Base CRM Blog.” Base CRM Blog. Baseline, 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2015.

 

Week One

Article Summaries:

Salesforce, a popular piece of sales software, underwent an upgrade, introducing what it calls the Lightning Experience. The software is now more customizable and allows users to select which metrics they want to see featured when they use the software. Users can also make their own additions and upgrades to the app.

You cannot truly measure the success of CRM metrics if your company does not have a strategy. In order to have successful CRM metrics your company must first develop a strategy and then find metrics that will complement it.

Key Managerial Takeaways:

• The Salesforce upgrade shows the importance of customization when catering to a wide array of clients
• It also shows that different companies emphasize different sets of metrics to measure the effects of their CRM efforts
• Metrics are not universal, what works for one company or situation may not work for yours
• Establish the goal(s) of your CRM metrics first, then proceed to build them up
  
  

Article References:

Weinberger, Matt. "Salesforce Finally Kills Its Embarrassing Old Look and Starts over." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 29 Aug. 2015.

Article reference

Davey, Neil. “CRM Metric: What Should You Monitor and Measure?”

MyCustomer.com. My Customer, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Aug. 2015