Retail has entered the “age of the consumer,” a new era in which customers lead rather than follow. This paradigm shift requires more thorough and effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies for understanding customers and their changing behaviors. Capabilities that move retailers towards a 360-degree view of consumers are essential, and must include investments in multichannel CRM strategies, including mobile and social.
To best command this new consumer-focused era and its significance now and in the future, Epicor Retail, in conjunction with Retail TouchPoints, has released results of an exclusive Retail CRM Survey, entitled “Meeting The CRM Challenge In 2012 And Beyond.”
The report revealed that the majority of retailers recognize the essential value of supporting their businesses through CRM: nearly 80% of retailers currently have (63%) or plan to add (16%) a CRM program. However, understanding the advantages of CRM and obtaining maximum returns on a CRM investment are two different issues.
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The Epicor Retail report focuses on the key variables affecting the value and performance of a CRM program. It reveals insights into seven critical issues retailers must address in order to succeed in CRM.
The seven challenges isolated and discussed in the report include:
1. Investing in the ideal CRM system;
2. Discovering the best uses of CRM data;
3. Making the most of loyalty programs;
4. Getting social with CRM;
5. Moving toward mobile CRM;
6. Staying in touch with current customers; and
7. Coordinating the in-house CRM team.
As retailers attempt to meet the challenges of competing and winning in this new age of the consumer, they must remain focused on a single, enterprise-wide, data-driven view of customers that boosts customer-centricity and long-term loyalty within an intuitive, multichannel CRM platform.
