Q&A with Ian Tavener
Xchange Asia Pacific is one of the worldwide regional offices of Xchange, Inc. Xchange
enables an organization to develop customer interaction strategies, based on
profitability, that coordinate all touch points — creating a consistent and
personalized dialogue with customers. Xchange’s solutions are impacting the bottom line
at approximately 290 client sites worldwide including Westpac, SingTel Mobile, PCCW and
Citigroup.
internet.com: What belief best describes Xchange?
Ian: Many CRM vendors talk about managing customer relationships, but that is about efficiencies in automation. You must be able to drive the effectiveness of the interaction to the mutual benefit of the company and the customer. For the customer that means relevant and timely communications, and to the company that means driving profit.
internet.com: Why should businesses care about CRM?
Ian: In the US, and we are starting to see a trend here as well, the value of an organisation is being impacted by how well they execute on their customer strategies. This is why CRM needs to become an organisation wide culture and focus – not an isolated marketing activity or a channel manager’s pet project. Companies have to compete by developing a relationship and trust with a customer. Permission marketing is the next step – any communications must be seen to be relevant and adding value to the customer, as every interaction either adds or subtracts value from the relationship.
internet.com: What are the greatest challenges related to CRM that businesses face?
Ian: Most importantly, the majority of Companies do not have the measurements in place to determine what impact their CRM initiatives are having, yet alone if they are providing any value for the organisation. Accountability is a growing issue. The other challenge is arming your sales and support staff with up-to-date and complete customer information. A recent survey showed that only about 30% of companies thought their staff were empowered to use customer information correctly, and only 15% were confident that they could deliver a consistent customer experience across all channels. And this despite the fact they all had CRM initiatives.
internet.com: What is Xchanges CRM Claim to Fame?
Ian: Many CRM vendors are about creating hype, but are unable to deliver a working solution within the agreed timeframe, yet alone ROI for their customers. Xchange, in most instances, is delivering implementations in less than 3 months, value within a month, and ROI within a year – many in far less time.
Proof of this is that for the last 3 years Xchange has been awarded the Cross Roads A-List award from Open Systems Advisors for the best enterprise solution, most recently in multi-channel campaign management, and was recently named by Intelligent Enterprise Magazine as one of the Top 12 Most Influential Software Companies in the World.
Reprinted from australia.internet.com.