How Customer Centric are you?

I came across this site in my internet travels called Round - The Home of Customer Centricity. They have devised a Customer Centricity Indicator. CCIndicator is an on-line high-level capability assessment tool to give an indicator on where an organisation is on the customer centricity journey.Here's what they say, "Customer centricity is not a destination; it's a journey of discovery that benefits your customers, employees and shareholders". Along the customer centricity journey you will answer some key questions: Where are you on the journey to customer centricity? Take the test

A sampling of some interesting CRM related articles: (Copyright 2004, CRM magazine/destinationCRM.com)

An SMB Must: Market on the Internet
These businesses still harbor apprehensions about creating Web sites and do not take advantage of e-commerce presence.
by Colin Beasty

Self-Marketing--IT's Better Business Value
Improving marketing approaches will alter the current image of the department as a cost center.
by Colin Beasty

Marketers Grab Inbound Customers
Telecom and travel lead the way when it comes to increasing sales conversion in the call center and on the Web.
by Alexandra DeFelice

Organizations Seek Target Marketing's Bull's-Eye
Budget are on the rise; senior management and marketers agree on six initiatives as companies reset goals.
by Alexandra DeFelice

Customer Service Increases in Travel and Hospitality
Overall customer service scores are increasing at hotels, airlines, and car rental companies, but email responsiveness needs more work.
by Alexandra DeFelice

Online Travel Reservations Are Missing the Boat
Marketers need to better understand and target the offline audience without trying to change its behavior.
by Marshall Lager

An Introduction to CRM Unplugged - Up Close and Personal

Welcome, to all those interested in sharing and learning about the fascinating world of CRM. The time has come to redefine what Customer Relationship Management is all about and to discuss how businesses, in particular Small and Medium businesses (SMBs) can get value and benefits from their CRM initiative.

For starters, here's what the Meta Group has to say about what CRM is and is not:
"Customer relationship management is not simply a technology tool or business tool to "delight the customer"or show how the organization "loves its customers." CRM is ultimately about driving bottom-line revenue through proactive management of the customer life cycle. It is about applying the right CRM treatments to the right customer segment at the right time to produce business results.

CRM is a business strategy providing a systemic approach to customer life cycle management (CLCM). CLCM is a three-domain business system, aligning business processes, technologies and the customer life cycle. This business system must integrate sales, service, and marketing processes and the CRM technology environment with the customer. To fully realize the potential of CRM, this business system must be optimized around the customer life cycle(engage, transact, fulfill, and service(ETFS), where the customer is the design point(not the technology or process)."