There are thousands of things the average company needs to do as it implements CRM or CEM systems. Most of the hard things come from the need to replace products with customers as the starting point for strategy construction.

Consultants call this 'becoming customer-centric' (probably because we cannot think of a suitable three letter acronym).

Getting through this cultural upheaval, from;

• I have a product, let's sell it to as many customers as possible, to
• I have a customer let's sell her as many products as possible

requires a roadmap, a set of directions, a sequenced plan of action.

To build a roadmap, it helps to have a  framework for determining the work required and relative priorities. The process for using the framework can be methodical and predictable and makes for a good workshop outline;

1. Determine the gaps between your current situation and where you would like to be on each element of the framework. We use a technique called KJ to determine both the desired situation and the gaps between now and then. Sometimes also called a gap analysis. This use of KJ and other process-defining techniques came from the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement.
2. Have the group vote on priorities for the groups of gaps produced and named in step 1.
3. Slot these tasks and priorities into a project plan, overlapping tasks using different resources where possible and reflecting dependencies
4. You have a roadmap
5. Don't forget that the product still matters and it includes CEM

This makes for a productive session and with the right mix and number of participants uses the "wisdom of crowds" to quickly focus on the important work and the quick wins that are available.

The framework we use to conduct this gap analysis has 4 elements;

• People - as you make customers the starting point of all processes, you need people who
  • understand what you mean and how it changes what they have to do every day
  • have the skills required to do the new job required
  • are measured and rewarded for the new tasks and outcomes, not the old product sensitive ones
  • see a management team that 'walks the talk', visibly puts the new customer based metrics and tasks at the top of their priority lists ever day, not just in the budget - customer centricity cannot be bought with a cheque, it has to be adopted
• Processes - company processes must be
  • personal for chosen customers
  • interactive with customers
  • responsive to customers
  • integrated internally
• Programs - marketing folks run programs; these should
  • use data driven customer insight to target by customer value and needs and
  • gather customer insight so your insight improves over time
• Systems - full functional requirements are out of the scope of this framework; they are generally a task on the roadmap. Data is the starting point and customer centric organisations must manage and utilise 4 types of customer data
  • Base id data
  • transactional data - also called behavioural / shopping / spending / claiming / renewing etc. data
  • conversational data as it gives insight into needs and attitudes - the link to the marketing mash
  • insight data - the customer data you generate through analysis and predictive modelling

Does this help?