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Exercise Four Focus on Your Customer If you think of the most successful companies around the world – GM, Wal-Mart, IBM, etc. – they all have one thing in common: loyal customers. It can cost ten to twenty times as much to acquire a customer as to retain one, so it’s easy to understand why customer relationship management is such a hot concept. But, while everyone understands CRM is a good thing, putting a CRM strategy together isn’t easy. The place to start? A customer-driven business model. A customer-driven business model is the most prudent method of ensuring customer loyalty because it fosters a better relationship with new and existing customers. Others such as market, price, cost or e-commerce-driven business models may generate profits, but fall short of sustaining a loyal customer base. At the heart of customer-driven business model is a clear understanding of the customer-not just customer trends (although this is useful information, too), but the buying habits and history of every one of your customers. This 360-degree view provides analytics from multiple channels (direct, web, fax, E-mail, call center, sales/marketing) and consolidates into a common repository. Monitoring buying habits and tracking market dynamics lets you more effectively market new and existing products and services. If you think this is a daunting task, you aren’t alone. Because most enterprises don’t have a consolidated view of their customers, obtaining customer profit and cost information is often Herculean effort. Implementing a CRM solution is usually a huge project with a high probability of failure. Some analysts suggest most businesses underestimate the cost of a CRM implementation by 40-75 percent. In fact, a successful CRM will interface with ERP systems to provide integration with all customer interactions such as order processing, billing. Also, CRM strategies must include commitment and sponsorship from senior management, as it should be deemed a strategic investment tha