Companies increasingly rely on customer relationship management (CRM) software to help integrate and better utilize information collected at a wide variety of organizational "touch points." Many companies, however, are not achieving the desired return on their CRM investments. Burke offers services that can enhance CRM efforts and drive better organizational decision-making.

Behavioral data collected by CRM software might not provide forward-looking insight into why customers act the way they do. Burke surveys can supplement CRM data by measuring attitudes and creating a more holistic view of customers. Surveys can be designed to gauge satisfaction with specific transactions or customer service interactions - or to measure customers' overall relationships with your organization.

Burke uses a variety of data-collection methods, including Web surveys, professional telephone interviewers and "multi-mode" approaches. Burke programmers will work with data produced by your CRM system to ensure appropriate, customer-specific information is fed into survey scripts. Survey findings - including responses of individual customers - can be viewed in real-time using Burke's Digital Dashboard^® online reporting solution. Burke will also format survey results so that they can be readily downloaded back into your CRM system.

Sometimes surveys will uncover customers who require immediate attention. These customers might use their survey response to make a specific complaint that they want someone to address. It could also be that the overall pattern of their responses indicates that they will soon defect if the company doesn't do something quickly to ensure their loyalty. In such cases, organizations can't wait until findings are analyzed to take necessary steps. They must be notified right away of the need to act.

Burke's Actiongram process can turn surveying into an alert mechanism. After collecting a "problem" survey response, Burke's system will automatically generate e-mails to relevant company employees. These e-mails can include direct links to that customer's entire set of survey responses, as it is presented within Burke's Digital Dashboard^® online reporting solution.

Unfortunately, simple notification might not be enough to cause action to be taken. Burke also creates a Web-based system used to track problem resolution progress - and escalate issues up managerial ranks to ensure they are being fixed appropriately:

• Online forms provide space for additional information gathered about the customer's situation to be recorded.
• Proposed action steps and timelines are entered.
• Managers mark their approval - or reject proposed solutions.
• E-mails are automatically generated when steps are taken - or when deadlines are not met.
• Excel files showing the status of all outstanding problems are also automatically generated and e-mailed to designated executives.

Burke's linkage and integration services can help your organization incorporate both CRM behavioral data and perceptual information from surveys into sophisticated predictive models designed to segment customers and determine which ones are likely to be secure and which ones are at risk of defecting. Burke will also use its Enterprise Value Management™ framework to demonstrate relationships that exist between customer data and financial, employee and internal quality/operational performance measures.

Burke will not just leave your company with a bunch of numbers and complex diagrams. Burke's TRACTION™ process can help your organization capitalize on findings by "Turning Results into Action." Armed with knowledge about the relationships between CRM data, survey information and organizational performance, your organization will be ready to launch service improvement and marketing efforts needed to delight and retain profitable customers. Your company will also be set to improve customer profitability by identifying appropriate cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Burke can guide your employees through the steps necessary to get this work underway and reap the benefits your CRM initiative was designed to achieve.

Burke built an Actiongram system for one of the world's largest software companies. Multi-lingual customer loyalty surveys were conducted via both telephone and the Web, and the Digital Dashboard^® online reporting solution provided organizational managers across two continents ready access to survey results. Because appropriate personnel were also e-mailed when surveys signaled problems at an account, the system allowed the company to both launch immediate responses and track the progress of its efforts to solve customer problems