CRM – What to expect next?

Here’s an interesting presentation of what will be the next phase of CRM by Paul Greenberg:

On-Demand Analytics – Changing the face of retail

Out-of-stock, poorly timed inventory levels and other lost sales opportunities present a problem for retailers.

They frustrate consumers and cost retailers and consumer product companies.

A growing group of companies are targeting this problem. Companies can create a highly sophisticated picture of what’s happening at every step of a product’s journey to the consumer purchase by harnessing the store-level sales data that retailers make available to suppliers and incorporating analysis and other relevant information like weather patterns.

The promise of demand data analytics – the catch-all phrase for such services – is that a better understanding of how, why and when people buy coupled with more knowledge of the supply chain and store-level execution will help stores stay stocked with the right stuff at the right time.

TrueDemand is one of the companies hoping to capitalize on the situation and has established a Bentonville office to better serve its growing Wal-Mart supplier clientele.

The company created software that takes Retail Link data, the sales data that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. provides to its suppliers, and analyzes it on a daily basis. Then, it creates company-specific, daily reports that predict out-of-stocks and prioritize actions at the store level to help prevent them.

Shiloh Software has become a market leader of data mining tools. It takes information from Retail Link and integrates data from a number of other syndicated data providers like NPD Group Inc. and ACNielsen, and other information like weather forecasts, U.S. Census Bureau data and store-level traits like whether it’s by a university or in a largely Hispanic community.

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Loyalty Equals Growth for Sony

Here’s an interesting article from1:1 Media on how even a well established company like Sony wants to be customer-centric:

At last week’s Conference Board Customer Loyalty conference, Sony Electronics Senior Vice President of Service Platfom Dan Wiersma asked attendees how many of them owned Sony devices. Every hand in the room went up.

So why would a company like Sony, which has so many customers, look at customer-focused initiatives to drive loyalty? “Customer loyalty is the pathway to long-term sustainable growth,” he said. Even a company as successful as Sony can’t rest on its laurels as competitors flood the marketplace. “Technology is still important, but the customer experience is critical.”

Sony discovered that customers have very high expectations of quality across the customer experience, from the products themselves to the packaging. “In some cases the packaging inside the box was just a pile of papers,” Wiersma said. “Customers expected something more sophisticated and organized from Sony.”

In another example, Sony discovered that customers shopping in a Sony Style store consider it a high-end experience. They wanted a nice box and bag for their purchases, so they could walk around showing off their purchase [à la the very recognizable Tiffany's blue bag.] As a result, in November the company redesigned its Vaio computer box and reorganized its packaging. As an added touch, each box now contains a thank-you card from Vaio’s senior general manager, containing his direct phone number and email address.

These are just some of the first steps in Sony’s loyalty journey, Wiersma said. While the Vaio product group has been very aggressive with its loyalty strategy, some other groups are a little slower to take action. In addition, Sony plans to start working with retailers to identify and interact with the majority of Sony consumers who remain anonymous.

Wiersma hopes to keep internal momentum going with assigned “loyalty leads” for each business unit to help support the loyalty strategy. Sony has also set up an internal website called Customer Experience Excellence, where every employee can view loyalty data such as customer verbatims, survey results, and business unit action plans. “It gives employees the opportunity to leverage their capabilities and compare themselves to other business units,” Wiersma said.