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Gartner has issued some sage advice for CIOs who wish to target, attract, and retain new customers. It is the outcome of a worldwide survey of 1,500 CIOs by Gartner. The research firm has outlined seven initiatives that organizations should focus on to build customer loyalty and satisfaction. 

The suggestions stress those aspects that are actionable without losing sight of the broader business objectives. The suggestions include – 

1. Acting on customer feedback.
2. Design processes keeping customer experience in mind instead of working on operational efficiencies as the prime objective.
3. Keep a single window for interactions with the customer at every channel to ensure that there is no mismatch of information provided.
4. Work hard at being more open and approachable which may imply working extra hours and explore channels for greater interaction with the customer.
5. Try to offer personalized service and products but do consider the costs involved.
6. Recruit the right type of people and train them properly; their conduct is a powerful influencer of customer opinion.
7. Work on the entire customer experience, it should be systematic, events should not happen accidentally.

Here’s the lowdown on yet another study on CRM, this time by Gartner. Sometimes I feel that CRM single-handedly keeps a lot of these research companies afloat. Anyway, a Gartner October 2007 study states that the European CRM software market is expected to grow at the rate of 12% in 2008. The growth rates in 2006 and 2007 were 8.2% and 14% respectively.

The forecast for CRM growth in 2008 is positive inspite of uncertainties in the financial market. The reason for this is that 66% of companies questioned as a part of the survey stated that CRM initiatives were one of their top three priorities for the year. A very interesting fact is that 2008 is the year when most companies will be shifting to new-generation CRM systems. So, it’s the end of one cycle that began somewhere in 2008. Spending in one sense is thus unavoidable. CRM modules or sub-sectors that will be the drivers for CRM deployment are SFA and marketing and analytics software.

Here’s more on the same topic.