Chapter 17: There s No Free Lunch - But CMR Should Not be an Added Expense

Overview

The question I am most often asked, when talking about CMR, is, “Yes, but how can we afford to cater this much to our customers? It seems as though you’re talking about a lot more communication expense.”

The answer is that evolving your customer relationship initiatives to true CMR does not involve additional expense. It entails new prioritizing of existing expenses. Even CRM attempts can be wasteful if priorities are misunderstood. Most companies waste money in their communication with customers. This is true in both a company’s proactive and reactive communications. The process of learning what is important to your customers and developing customized communications and services will involve new marketing expense, but these costs need not be additional.

When business priorities change in order to shift investments to what is critical for the customer, the value of each marketing dollar spent must be measured in terms of its value to the customer. This means dollars saved as well as dollars spent.