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CRM COMPETENCIES IN AUSTRALIA

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Lawrence Ang Francis Arthur Buttle

Macquarie Graduate School of Management Macquarie University
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 CRM COMPETENCIES IN AUSTRALIA

Lawrence Ang
Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Macquarie University
Tel: (02) 9850-9135; Fax: (02) 9850-9019
Email: lawrence.ang@mq.edu.au

and

Francis Buttle
Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Macquarie University
Tel: (02) 9850-8987; Fax: (02) 9850-9019
Email: francis.buttle@mq.edu.au
 CRM COMPETENCIES IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

Our survey of CRM competencies in 170 Australian companies focussed on 4 main areas:
customer knowledge, customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer development. We find
that current practice is rather elementary. Companies are failing to perform the basic tasks of
generating customer knowledge, customer acquisition, customer retention and customer
development with a high level of competence. We find that there is considerable potential for
improvement.

Understanding CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term that has yet to achieve uncontested status and
meaning, unlike some other management terms (Buttle 2002). Hardware vendors, software vendors,
consultants, and managers responsible for implementing CRM strategies are likely to have different
viewpoints. There are at least three different perspectives on CRM – strategic, operational and
analytical – though these have been consolidated into a single definition below (Buttle 2003):

CRM is the core business strategy that integrates internal processes and functions, and
external networks, to create and deliver value to targeted customers at a profit. It is
grounded on high quality customer data and enabled by information technology.

Implicit in this definition are a number of CRM competencies. A CRM competency is some
proficiency that is necessary for the successful implementation of a CRM strategy. Among these
CRM competencies are the following. Competency at:

1. Generating customer knowledge, that can be used by companies to

2. Acquire new customers, and
3. Retain existing customers, as well as
4. Create additional value for and from those customers over time.

These competencies are reflected in a customer lifecycle or customer-journey view of CRM (Ang
and Buttle 2002; Buttle and Ang 2002). The customer journey describes the pathway that a
customer takes in relationship with a supplier. Along that pathway, the customer generates costs (of
acquisition and service) and revenues (purchases). The net present value of the differential between
customer revenues and customer costs reflects the value of the customer to the company. It is this
value that can be used to evaluate the return on CRM investments in technology, people and
processes.

There have been few published studies of CRM competencies. One 1998 study of the banking
industry found that competencies in customer acquisition and retention were limited by the
capability of institutions to generate suitable customer data, inclusive of transactional history
(Bradway 1998). A more recent study confirms these conclusions. This found that skills in data
capture and analysis are insufficient to achieve strategic goals in customer acquisition, retention and
relationship development (Wright & Donaldson 2002). Effectively, there was a mismatch between
strategy and competencies. Berger & Nasr (1998) and Calciu & Salerno (2002) both demonstrate
that data about company costs and forecasted buyer behaviour underwrite customer retention and
development strategies. Thomas (2001) has shown that the processes of customer acquisition and
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retention are not wholly independent, yet management decisions about them are flawed because
companies tend to rely only on data about existing customers to guide their thinking about both
strategies.

Research objectives and questions

Our primary objective in this research is to develop a baseline understanding of the CRM
competencies of Australian organisations at different points on the journey. Our purpose is to
identify strengths and weaknesses so that the academy can develop programs that facilitate
improvements in CRM performance. The 4 major competency areas examined and the main issues
addressed are as follows:

1. Competency in understanding customers. This means having knowledge about customer

demographics, transactional and contact histories, preferences, expectations, future needs and so
on. Companies that understand their customer base are better equipped to perform market
segmentation, and conduct customer profitability analyses. How well resourced with customer
knowledge are Australian companies to perform these tasks?

2. Competency in customer acquisition. Do companies construct plans comprising strategies and

tactics explicitly focussed on new customer acquisition? Is this a stand-alone plan or integrated
into a bigger sales or marketing plan? Are such plans adequately resourced and is responsibility
for execution and results assigned? What are the objectives and key performance indicators
(KPIs) of such plans?

3. Competencies in customer retention. Do companies construct plans consisting of explicit

strategies and tactics to protect their customer base by reducing customer defection? As above,
is this a stand-alone plan or integrated into an inclusive sales or marketing plan, and is it
adequately resourced and responsibility for execution and results assigned? What are the
objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) of such customer retention plans?

4. Competency in customer development. Do companies construct plans with explicit strategies

and tactics to earn additional value from retained customers? If so, is the plan part of a bigger
customer management or marketing plan? What KPIs are applied to development plans and
what particular strategies are employed (increase revenue or reduce costs)?

This paper reports our preliminary findings.

Methodology

Sampling. Our population of interest is Australian industry and commerce. A stratified random
sample of 732 companies was contacted from the Dun and Bradstreet database of the top 1000
companies in Australia. The population was stratified into 3 annual turnover groups: $50 to $99
million, $100 to $500 million, and above $500 million. One hundred and seventy responses were
obtained, representing a 23% response rate. The invitation to participate was addressed to the
person in charge of customer relations. The incentive was a summary report on the study.

Data collection. A questionnaire was developed (over 18 versions) and piloted. Following an initial
telephone solicitation to participate, the instrument was mailed to the sample at the end of 2002. Of
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the one hundred and seventy participating companies, forty-three had annual turnover of between
$50-$99 million, forty-six were between $100-$500 million, and forty-two were above $500
million. Thirty-nine companies declined to divulge their annual turnover. Participants represented
all major standard industrial classification (SIC) codes. Dominant sectors were manufacturing (43
companies); wholesale and retail (24); and health, community services, accommodation,
cultural/recreation, personal and other services (23).

Analysis. The analysis presented in this paper uses simple descriptive statistics. We will be
publishing more complex bi-variate and multivariate analyses at a later date. Our goal here is to
present a summary report of our major findings.

Results

The section below summarises the major findings on the 4 competency areas:

Customer knowledge
Almost all companies (93%) claimed to have enough customer knowledge to segment their
customer base. The three most widely applied segmentation variables are: geography (68%),
current sales revenue (56%), future sales potential (51%) and customer tenure (46%). Respondents
were invited to estimate the volume of sales generated by the top 20% customer. The 80/20 rule, or
Pareto principle, which suggests that 80% of sales are made from 20% of customers applies only to
about half of the sample (49%).

Customer acquisition
Less than half the companies (47%) have a documented customer acquisition plan. Nearly 3 out of
4 of these (34% of the overall sample) assign a specific budget to customer acquisition activities,
and appoint an executive to manage acquisition processes. The three most widely adopted customer
acquisition objectives are: revenue streams from new customers (84%), numbers of new customers
to be acquired (65%), and specific named customers to be acquired (57%). Only one-third (35%) of
the respondents knew the costs of customer acquisition.

Customer retention
Australian companies are even less well advanced in customer retention than customer acquisition.
Only 39% have a documented plan for this (although 70% of these companies claim to have a
budget and a person in charge of this area). Over 40% of companies say their objective is to retain
all customers. The three most popular retention objectives are: revenues to be earned from retained
customers (74%), retention of specific customer segments (68%), and retention of specific named
customers (59%). Although 2 out of 3 companies say they have a win-back plan if they lose a
customer, a large majority of these companies (62%) also say that their retention tactics are not very
effective. More companies are aware of the cost to serve their existing customers (51%), than they
are of the cost to acquire them.

Customer development
Nearly half (47%) of the sample has a documented customer development plan. Of these, 83%
(39% of the overall sample) have a customer development budget and responsible executive. The
three most popular customer development objectives are: growth in sales revenues per retained
customer (80%) and revenue growth from specific names customers (75%). The strategies
employed to achieve these objectives are cross-selling additional products and services (44%),

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selling more of the same products and services already bought by the customer (41%) and
customising current products or services (39%).

Conclusions

There are positive indicators of CRM competency in these data, but some alarming concerns, that
support the issues identified by the investigators cited in our literature review. We believe there are
opportunities for improvement in the following:

1. Market segmentation: companies largely rely on simple revenue-based attributes to segment

markets; they do not think strategically about profit potential.
2. Activity-based costing: few companies know the costs of customer acquisition and customer
retention. Without this it is impossible to estimate customer value.
3. Marketing strategy: most companies seem to regard marketing as a generic management
discipline. Few companies think strategically about customer acquisition, retention and
development as separate but related disciplines that are facilitated though the sales, marketing
and service functions.
4. Customer acquisition: most companies do not create properly targeted, resourced and managed
customer acquisition plans as indicted by only one-third of our sample having a budget and
accountable executive for this activity.
5. Customer retention: just as there is a case for segmenting markets for customer acquisition
purposes, so there is a case for segmenting existing customers for retention purposes. This
lesson has not been learned by many of our sample. Companies would also benefit from
improved customer win-back outcomes.
6. Customer development: our evidence indicates that Australian industry generally fails to think
strategically about customer development. Less than half have a customer development plan in
place, and where there is a plan, there is not always a budget and accountable executive. All the
favoured development objectives stress sales, not profitability, and all the favoured strategies
focus on revenue improvements rather than cost reductions.

In sum, we find that CRM competencies in the four areas of customer knowledge, customer
acquisition, customer retention, and customer development are poorly developed in many, and
sometimes most companies. This incompetence imperils the achievement of the primary goal that
CRM implementations value – the optimisation of company and customer value over the long term.

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 References

Ang, L., & Buttle (2002). ROI on CRM: a customer journey approach. Industrial Marketing and
Purchasing Group, Perth, Australia. Proceedings of the Inaugural Meeting of the IMP group in Asia.
“Culture and Collaboration in Distribution Networks”, December 11-13 2002. ISBN 1 74067 184 8.
Also published on the website http://www.crm2day.com/crm_academic_papers/

Berger, P.D. & Nasr, N.I. (1998). Customer lifetime value: marketing models and applications. Journal
of Interactive Marketing, Vol 12(1), Winter, 17-30.

Bradway, B. (1998). Campaign management solutions. Framingham, MA: Meridien Research Inc.

Buttle, F.A. (2002). ROI on CRM. Academy of Marketing, Nottingham, England. Proceedings of
the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, 2-5 July, 2002. Nottingham. ISBN 0-85358-114-2.

Buttle, F.A. (2003), Customer relationship management: concepts and tools. London: Butterworth
Heinemann:

Buttle, F. & Ang, L (2002) ROI on CRM: Managing value over the customer lifecycle. ANZMAC
Conference Proceedings, 2-4 Dec, 2002, Melbourne, Australia. pp. 661 to 667; ISBN 07300 25624.

Calciu, M. & Salerno, F. (2002). Customer value modelling: synthesis and extension proposals.
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Thomas, J. S. (2001). A methodology for linking customer acquisition to customer retention.

Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 38(2), pp. 262-268

Wright, G. & Donaldson, B. (2002). Sales information systems in the UK financial services
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