Customer On The Edge

I was participating in the largest annually conducted festival on this planet, one that is focused pretty seriously on malt beverages and sponsored pretty seriously by the malt beverage industry (ground meat products wrapped in animal entrails and bread products tied into knots are pretty common as well).. On top of that it is in the one country where the malt beverage industry takes itself extremely seriously. So, how could it be possible that it took me two hours to get a beer?

The last time I was a participant at Munich’s famous beer party was 30 years prior as a college student studying abroad. The whole thing seemed a bit more contained way back when. The festivities have gotten bigger since then and it felt like most of the 6 million people who are expected to attend this year were there on the night of my visit. With so many kegs of world class beer within my grasp, it was quite exasperating that they were also just out of my reach. There were simply too many people between me and the tap.

I was warned not to go on a weekend, especially Italian Weekend, but I had no choice. All in all, it was great to see the spectacle again, not to mention the opportunity to savor a bratwurst in the company of so many people wearing leather shorts and wonder bras (think St. Pauli Girl). It was a good party once I was finally able to get ahold of a liter sized stein full of hop flavored barely water.

Certainly many of you out there are thinking that this scenario is just like your CRM system. This thing that has grown bigger than expected and chock full of precious customer data that is amazingly difficult to belly up to the bar and actually get a drink of. It is so close, but yet so hard to access. Why does it have to be that way?

It turns out that there are a bunch of reasons why companies don’t seem to get back what they were expecting from CRM. They include: bad data, wrong data, insufficient data, too much data, and no tools for managing the data. One can write a book on what it takes to fix each one of these, so I don’t have the attention span to address them here. But, if you suspect that one or more of these situations exists within your CRM program, I do have a recommendation.

My mistake at this year’s Oktoberfest celebration was trying to take on such a significant endeavor without adequate help from a professional. I spent 15 minutes looking over a web site and thought I was in good shape to crash the party. It turns out I needed a professional’s help. The key to successful partying is getting into one of the Beer Tents, not just witnessing the melee from the outdoor beer gartens. The gemutlichkeit is indoors – that is where the polka music is hot and the beerfrauen even hotter. On a weekend you need to have an insider’s knowledge and connections otherwise you miss out on the core aspect of the party. I was missing that this time around.

This is my advice for unlocking the value of CRM as well. There are folks out there who know how to help you reap what you have sown within your CRM program. Remember, Oktoberfest is a celebration of the harvest, after all. There are CRM insiders – they can get you to the real party.

Find a firm that is a good fit with your company and you will truly start to maximize the return on your CRM investment. It was a big effort for me to get to Munich in the 48 hours between clients on Friday in Amsterdam and Monday in Wiesbaden. If I had just invested a bit more with an insider I would have harvested a bunch more fun.

Here’s to all you pilsner consumers out there – ein Prosit!