Should my CRM be Account or Contact Centric?
Posted by admin in Uncategorized, tags: Contact Management, CRM, PersonalTo determine if your CRM system or customer database should be account or contact centric, we must clarify which is which. We can apply a few questions to answer the question. In addition, one must choose a software system that really supports both account and contact centric data architectures.
First question, not a data or technical question but one of daily business operations: Does your business deal with consumers directly or with businesses?
If your answer is CONSUMERS, then you will likely manage your customer data in a contact centric manner. Meaning that you will be specifically interested in grouping your information, intelligence, documentation, and other items around the person or contact. There is no real, “commercial entity” in the picture – or not that plays into any decision or action. Sure, you may have information about where the client works or what business a client owns, but in your business the business of the client doesn’t become a factor.
If your answer is “I deal with people AT COMPANIES….” then you should manage your data in an account centric fashion. Let me explain. Managing data in an account centric manner means that the top layer of the data model is a Company or Account name. Of course, we deal with people so we need contact records. In fact the bulk of our information from a relationship perspective really centers around the people at the company. So, we need detailed abilities to “know” our customer, that person we talk with, in addition to the knowledge of the company as a whole entity. To reiterate, account centric says the top level of the entity we deal with is the company. Think a bit like this – “If Mr. Joe Customer changes employment from company A to company B, do I lose the entire business relationship at Company A?” If the answer is yes then you are NOT an account centric business. If the answer is no, then you are likely an account centric business. Obviously, if your answer is not clear, then you might want to investigate your ties to Joe and potentially others. Certainly Joe can be key but if you are account centric it is imperative that your team know the account as well as Joe.
Now, we must consider if the software you are using or planning to use will allow account, contact or both centricities. It is important to really investigate the software in detail with respect to this need. There are products that claim to be account centric, there are products that claim to be contact centric, and there are those that supposedly do both.
One of the best questions to get a clear answer on is: If I work with Joe, and Joe works at ABC Company, where do I run an account report from?
If you are advised to go to Joes record, the product is likely a contact centric product and you will have difficulties managing a true business account with it. An example of why this is true: Mary joins ABC Company as head of ABC’s division 2, your company is an HR Services company and you will be providing resources to Joe and Mary’s divisions.
Where do you go to run a company wide report about your business with ABC Company? In a contact centric system it is virtually impossible and is many times done with “smoke and mirrors” and of course much human resource.
If you are told to go to the “account record” an run the report from there, then you are indeed in an account centric data structure. An account data structure will allow the “rollup” abilities where all pending, history, details, product purchases, etc. are available on one record.
If you are in a position where this is a concern of your business, feel free to contact us for a detailed analysis of your needs. We not only advise in this area, but enjoy the process and can assist you in becoming familiar with choosing the proper database management tools.
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