Customer relationship management—the name should speak for itself. Right? Well, companies all too often take this critical piece in the retail puzzle for granted, equating it to the technical components that support it and reducing it to a database of point-of-sale information. However, CRM is no longer just a back-office repository for client information; it’s assuming its place at the very center of the sales picture as consumer expectations evolve. It’s the key to a comprehensive strategy of brand engagement, with the customer at its core.

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Shaking Up the CRM Concept
Customer relationship management—the
name should speak for itself. Right? Well,
companies all too often take this critical
piece in the retail puzzle for granted,
equating it to the technical components that
support it and reducing it to a database of
point-of-sale information. However, CRM is
no longer just a back-office repository for
client information; it’s assuming its place at
the very center of the sales picture as
consumer expectations evolve. It’s the key
to a comprehensive strategy of brand
engagement, with the customer at its core.
Technology and mobile devices have
precipitated a fundamental role reversal
between marketers and customers. It’s no
longer enough for advertisers to produce a
shiny, polished message, send it out
through the omni-channel, and wait for
sales to trickle down the funnel.
Consumers are now empowered to engage
with brands
whenever, wherever, and however they
choose, from countless different points of
entry; they’re the ones driving interactions
and seeking responsiveness. The
merchants that rise to the challenge don’t
push them in a direction so much as draw
them in by fostering relevant, personalized
experiences.
In the age of big data, companies have all
kinds of tools at their fingertips, but how
can they ensure they’re collecting the right
information to develop a truly sophisticated,
dynamic understanding of their customer
base? What’s the right strategic
conversation for marketers to have before
implementing technology? How might their
CRM synergize with community and
gamification to drive their brand?
In sum, how can retailers
transform CRM into an
insight engine?

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CRM has to evolve from
a mere tool to correlate
or store information—to
really prove its worth as
a business tool, it has to
create insights
“
”
Scott Webb
President, Avionos

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What is customer relationship
management (CRM)?
Some claim that CRM is a data warehouse.
Others consider it a marketing tool. Broadly
conceived, CRM is where all your customer
data is combined to give you a complete view
of the customer.
However people choose to define it, its
potential role is fast evolving beyond a
glorified digital Rolodex. Retailers can elect to
attach all kinds of information to customers’
profiles, including their behaviors online,
offline, in the brand, and outside of the brand
as well.
CRM by itself doesn't deliver a return, though
it does facilitate return in other areas that are
facing the customer. Still, this explains why
marketers easily overlook its strategic
significance—often to the frustration of
customers and the detriment to the company’s
bottom line.
Chicken or egg? Strategy or
technology?
Organizations as a whole suffer when siloes of
information exist. Similarly, CRM
implementation efforts have often not fulfilled
their potential due to fragmentation of
technology investments within companies.
From the customer’s point of view, potential
frictions abound. Not only do merchants lose
out on numerous opportunities to build loyalty;
they also frustrate repeat customers when
they don’t realize or recognize who has come
in their store, or when sales staff invite them to
become members if they already are. The
same applies to mobile and online
interactions. Nowadays, the consumer journey
meanders through in-person and virtual
encounters, yet the consumer perceives it as
one experience (seamless or not so much).
Robust CRM would help smooth out this path,
but it hinges on the retailer developing a
cohesive strategy that weaves through all
aspects of its business.
Marketers must begin with the customer
experience, with all the pitfalls and possible
delights, and then consider the technologies
that would enable sales staff to recognize the
brand’s most loyal fans upon arrival (via
mobile interaction, say) and deliver as tailored
an experience in person as online. Cloud
technology offers excellent options for CRM
platforms or modules to plug into legacy
systems, but they can only be as effective as
the underlying CRM strategy, which
determines the data collected—the behaviors
that will yield actionable insights.

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It’s too risky to
cut corners on
major technical
solutions.
Engagement turns lemons into
lemonade
In developing a CRM strategy, marketers
should view engagement as their end goal,
rather than sales. Point-of-sale data provides
only a limited understanding of customers, and
consumer expectations go well beyond rosy
sales experiences. What happens when they
want to return items?
Not only should returns and exchanges not
feel like punishment; they could also build
good will between customers and the brand.
Sale or no sale, consumers still expect
responsiveness.

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Integrating the Commerce Experience
Moving beyond the point of sale, retailers need
to be able to look at the full commerce history
within the context of the broader customer
relationship. A collaborative internal technical
ecosystem is the first step in the process for
creating this experience.
How do you interpret data to better engage with
customers’ needs and anticipate where and
how they will transact? To understand the
customer experience, assess your current
technology platforms, then consider what
technologies can be integrated into the mix.
Retailers need to think about how to make their
CRM strategies more proactive (versus
reactive) and develop ways to provide seamless
transactions across all channels.
Shifting technology into the cloud and selecting
the right channel partnerships to manage this
technology is an integral part of the strategy. It
puts the burden of testing, recalibrating, and
updating the solutions on the vendor instead of
the retailer.
Key Takeaways
• Retailers must work towards organizational
alignment through a collaborative ecosystem.
The CEO, CIO and CMO all need to be engaged
in open communications to create a seamless
customer service model.
• Legacy systems and outdated technologies will
give way to the cloud and outsourced, flexible
solutions. This allows allowing retailers to shift
from an infrastructure management to a
customer service model.
• The customer digital experience is moving
beyond mobile applications. Internet-based
technologies are leveraging in-store and online to
create enhanced levels of engagement.

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Gamification and Community
The more insights a CRM strategy brings on
how and why customers are engaging with a
brand (or not), the more retailers can use
them to build loyalty and community. For
example, Sephora uses club loyalty
information to drive event and marketing
activities, as well as product awareness and
product discovery. They engineer true loyalty
by providing a rich and relevant experience
that advances the conversation. A loyalty
programs can use ranks, badges, and
reputation to reward the brand’s biggest fans
and encourage behaviors surrounding the
brand, such as answering questions on
forums or writing reviews, that also
encourage community.
Community doesn’t even need to center
around a company’s products, either, but
around shared interests. HSN, for example,
has built a community hub with an emphasis
on fun, offering free games to play. Even
though players aren’t obligated to sign up,
most eventually do to start earning and using
points.
COMMUNITY + COMMERCE
Referrals from social media sites
increased nearly
200%from 2014 to 2015
(Business2Community.com)

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The reverse intuition of
CRM is that you need to
have your strategic
conversations before you
ever do a single technical
integration.
“
”Charlie Cole
Chief Digital Officer, TUMI

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Pieces of a CRM strategy (1 of 3)
STRATEGIC THINKING
Before you even think about investing in technology, gain an understanding of the behaviors that lead
to success of the company as a whole. What data will you need to grasp how customers are
engaging with your brand? Ensure that your CRM setup benefits all aspects of your business.
TAKE ACTION
• Think outside the silo: Break down internal divisions and create a CRM strategy based on freely
flowing information between all areas of your company.
• Communicate: Any CRM decision will affect the messaging for numerous stakeholders, so loop
them in. Patiently push your point about sharing information and making all the customers’
contacts with your brand equally relevant and personal.
• Translate: Make sure all stakeholders up and down the chain understand the importance of their
role in the overall strategy and success of the company, from the timely data entry that ensures
the quality of your information on up to managers. Lose the jargon; convey the impact.
CRM’s customer insights will help you puzzle out the big picture.

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TECHNOLOGY
Once you know what data you want to collect, go ahead and implement flexible systems in the
knowledge that technology usage will evolve constantly—and unpredictably.
TAKE ACTION
• Picking the technology based on your strategy: Ensure that the technical integrations that you
select can provide timely, accurate information to all stakeholders.
• Cherish the email address: All kinds of information about customers can change over time, but
email addresses tend to remain remarkably, blissfully permanent, and customers use them to
self-identify. Email is a hook to hang your hat on when setting up your CRM.
• Embrace a smartphone strategy (but be ready to pivot): You’re probably safe to create your
infrastructure with smartphones in mind, since they’ll probably remain the quintessential
mobile device for the foreseeable future. Still, you’ll also want to build some flexibility into your
system in case of inevitable changes in technology habits.
Pieces of a CRM strategy (2 of 3)

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Pieces of a CRM strategy (3 of 3)
Engagement
Put the customer at the heart of your customer relationship management! Gone are the days of
pushing out messages; now it’s all about pulling your customers in.
TAKE ACTION
• Consideration: When customers willingly share their information with a brand, respect that trust.
If you’ve set up your CRM properly, you’ll have no trouble identifying what’s relevant to them,
and you’ll understand how they want to engage with you (including their limits).
• Gamification: Games and leaderboards used to belong to the sales team, to spur their
competitive spirit (a bit of a downer for those at the bottom of the board). The current thinking?
Badges and acknowledgements to incentivize teamwork and helpfulness work far better, for
both employees and loyal customers.
• Community: Use CRM to understand who your customers are, and foster engagement through
community, whether they’re animated by shared outside interests or by product-centered
information exchanges. Bringing them back again and again to your hub builds incredible
loyalty.

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Summary
As technology adoption disrupts traditional
retail, retailers are coming to demand much
more of customer relationship management
than ever before. Empowered, mobile, tech-
savvy consumers challenge brands to become
increasingly responsive and address them
with ever more targeted and relevant
messages.
They lead the push rather than the marketers,
who depend more than ever on CRM to
provide an accurate picture of their customers.
However, a well-thought-out CRM strategy
that’s built to serve physical stores as well as
any number of virtual experiences can not only
delight customers, but also form the basis of a
community hub and gamified reward systems.
Gaining insights into your company’s biggest
fans will help you cement customer loyalty and
build brand ambassadors.
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CONTACT:
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“
“The future of CRM is creating a hub for a brand or
business that allows a customer to engage. If you
understand how your customer is engaging, you’ll create
a relevant loyalty experience.
Kelly Stickel
Founder and CEO, Remodista

13. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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REMODISTA FOCUS AREA
Retail CRM
Remodista
COLLABORATE. RESEARCH. ANALYZE.
www.remodista.com
Remodista is a social think tank examining disruption in global retail.
Our mission is to provide insight, education and innovation to global
brands through collaborative research and analysis.
www.avionos.com
Avionos
Avionos is a digital consultancy company focused on the connected
customer and companies that engage with them in the constantly
evolving tech environment. The company helps brands deliver
seamless, cross-channel customer experiences. Avionos is an
industry leader that provides adaptive, innovative cloud technology
solutions and data-driven insights.
The CRM may conjure up visions of sales people making calls and
typing information into a database, but the CRM is a key component
on tracking and improving the customer journey. As these services
are able to better capture, track and measure data, we’re given some
incredible insight into how to best keep the customer engaged.