In my past articles, I have always been using the story of Samson and the bank. I have explained how he was treated harshly and the steps that he took after that. In this article, I want to look at how to excite informal Customers effectively.
What do I mean by informal customers ….
Informal customers are elderly customers who have not passed through the four walls of a university. They are elderly citizens who would like to be served in the convenience of their homes. Let me show you in this article how you can retain this kind of customer for life.
The second customer is Samson’s parents- a busy, older retired couple who love to travel and who also have standard banking requirements. A point of interest here is that although Samson’s parents are individual people, each with specific relationships to bank products, they function as an economic decision-making unit.
This unit is recognised by the bank as a type of customer and is treated as such.
Samson’s parents do not own a debit card and rarely if ever, use the ATM service. They use the monthly account statements to balance their chequebook, and they open and read all the literature that comes to their house from the bank.
Samson’s parents frequently visit their local branch to perform banking transactions. If they have banking operations while they are on a trip, they call the bank’s service centre and speak to a phone service representative.
Their package of products and services provides free cheques, free credit protection on their credit cards, and branch and service centre transactions support at no charge.
They have minimum balance requirements on their savings accounts and pay a fee for each non-bank ATM use.
A well-managed banking interaction that satisfies them and profits the bank would go like this:
Samson’s parents receive the monthly statement for their savings account. Included with the statement is a circular announcing an open house to introduce the new travel service associated with the bank’s credit card.
The statement also includes a letter from the branch manager personally inviting his parents to attend the open house. The letter also details a discounted travel promotion for a Caribbean cruise that will be featured at the event.
The letter from the branch manager is no accident. The bank understands that Samson’s parents have a high level of interest in luxury travel because of the consistent usage patterns on their credit cards.
The branches hosting the open house have also been selected with care; they are typically located in communities containing large concentrations of wealthy retired people.
His parents and others like them, have been identified as likely candidates to utilise the new travel service and have received personalised invitations to the open house.
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Many at times organisations have put mechanisms and technologies in place that allow the customers to relate with organisations; ask questions and make suggestions. If this is well utilized.
Many at times organisations have put mechanisms and technologies in place that allow the customers to relate with organisations; ask questions and make suggestions. If this is well utilized.
It will help the organisation to satisfy its customers and retain them for life. Now let’s go through the stages of the Customer Interaction Cycle as presented in the diagram below.
#1 Be Ready
In relation to your customers, you have to be ready. You must be ready to prevent attrition.
You must be ready to guide your customers. You must be ready to see to it that you do not lose customers that are still learning about your competitors.
This involves welcoming new customers to your Life Cycle and assuring them of superior products and services as they enter your Life Cycle.
#2 Receiving
The next thing is to receive new customers into your fold. When you are receiving them, you have to give them a feel of what they should expect from your organisation.
You should also take into consideration the fact that they have not made their final decision, as to whether they should stay with your organisation or not.
#3 Understanding
As you and I know that if two people want to have a long-lasting relationship with each other, they have to take time to learn their like and dislikes of each other, which will help them to have a long-lasting mutual relationship.
This principle is also applicable to you and your customer; you have to learn the best ways that they want to be served.
Give them what they want and they will be with you for life. In doing this, you have to listen to them, and allow them to do the talking.
Apart from that, you have to ask them questions concerning areas that are not clear to you about what they want.
On a final note in this section, you have to confirm their facts and feelings. All these will help you in serving them better.
#4 Helping
if you want your customers to remain with you for life, you and your entire workforce should learn how to treat them like royalty.
You have to help them; they came to your life cycle so that they can be served.
You should see that as an opportunity to gain them for life. Not only that, they will drag their friends and families to your Life Cycle.
#6 Keeping
This has much to do with guiding our customers so that you don’t lose them to your competitor’s life cycle.
In order to keep your customers, you must be able to produce quality goods and services that are better than what they can get from your competitors.
You should understand one thing about customers, one better opportunity avail itself, they are bound to leave.
#7 Follow-up
This is just telling you that you have to continue to learn about your customers.
You must find out how they live their life, the kind of relationship they keep; their marital status; their mother’s maiden name and all other details about your customers.
You can also use their birth date to your own advantage. Take, for example, I have been trying to reduce the number of saving accounts that I have but I will never close down n my GTB account.
They always wish me a “happy birthday” on my birthday. The same thing applies to those that moved to GT Bank because of their zero account policy.
Customer Interaction and CRM
In a contemporary time when the next organisation that produces similar products and services are just a mouse click away, organisations have to devise ways of maintaining a consistent customer interaction in order to stay afloat.
In a customer-centric organisation, they devise ways of learning from the customers in order to use the knowledge in devising ways of delighting the customers, we have said earlier that the beauty of a customer-centric enterprise is the ability of the organisation to predict the customer’s next move and meet them at that destination with goods and services that meet their specification. Through interactions with your customers, you should be able to group your customers based on the nature of their needs.
You can do this by segmenting and profiling your customers in order to come up with models that can meet up with their needs.
This will help customers to come up with goods and services that will meet the need for a very large number of your customers, thereby reducing costs.
Changing Role of CRM In the past, in advanced countries of the world, CRM was all about attending to some customers’ complaints and setting up chairs and tables in order for customers to ask some questions and get some inconclusive answers.
In such settings, the Customer Service Representative (CSR) is not fully empowered to resolve customers’ complaints completely. In that archaic setting, as it is still applicable to many organisations in Nigeria today, customers’ files move from one table to another unattended to. It is very bad for a forward-looking organisation.
What we are saying, in essence, is that CRM is ever-dynamic. It is no longer what it used to be. In modern times, the multifaceted job of customer relations is no longer left in the hand of the Customer Care Agent.
Almost all the departments having direct contact with customers are involved in customer relationships.
In this era, you can’t say that because you are a salesperson, and not in Public Relations, there is nothing that concerns you about projecting the good image of the organisation to customers when you are trying to sell some products or services to.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
He is interested in the products and services that you have to offer and would likely move to another organisation that produces similar products and services if you are no longer satisfying his or her needs.
Therefore the following point must be well noted.
Customer is king Have you ever been to a palace? If your answer is no, you need to visit one. It’s also very imperative for you to study Royalty.
A king is treated with respect. He commands, in Yoruba land, for example, it is not proper for kings to make suggestions, they give orders.
When we say that a customer is a king, all we are saying is that you have to treat them with respect and honour.
You don’t need to argue with them about whatever they are doing. That is why it is often said that “A King does no wrong”
It always amazes and baffles me the way some organisations and small businesses treat their customers.
They treat them as if they are doing them a favour.
This is with the wind of privatization that is blowing in the government sector, customers will dictate the way they want to be served.
Organisations that are not ready to abide by the rules of the game should prepare to go out of the market. It is as simple as that.
On the other hand, every organisation; most especially the customer-centric enterprise, treat customers as an asset.
You should know that the first thing that drives vent customers to vent life Cycle is because you have goods and services that can satisfy their needs.
You should also know that you are in a competitive environment. If another organisation is able to produce superior goods and render services at a cheaper rate.
There is a high tendency that your customers will move to their Life Cycle.
That is why customer-centric enterprise always finds every opportunity to delight their customers.
They treat their customers with dignity and respect. They treat them like Royalty and retain them for life. This xviii force the customer to introduce the product to another customer.
A Scenario
There was a time when I was so much delighted in using Dudu-Osun as my bathing soap. I will buy twelve at once as if I am going to use them all at once.
I started using the soap because of the scent and name. It got to a stage where I forced my wife to be using the soap, even though it is not really good for her.
The company producing the soap has increased the price many times over but still continues to use the soap, along with my wife.
That means I am one of their assets and if they failed to meet up with my expectation, it can force me to start using another soap.
Know your Customer
I want you to take the time to ask this question from many organisations in Nigeria.
It will surprise you the kind of result that you will get from them. Ask giants like MTN, and GLO. First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Zenith Bank Plc, Oando or any other organizations in Nigeria to tell you the exact number of customers that they have or who their customers are: many of them cannot answer those questions correctly. They don’t know their customers.
Many organizations in Nigeria today just open shops and start selling, they don’t take into consideration who their customers are, who are the end-users.
How many of their products does a particular customer need?
As a customer-centric enterprise, you must endeavour to know the person that is actually responsible for the settling of the bills.
Don’t just assume that the person using the line is also the person making the recharge.
As a boss, I will compel my staff to open a salary account with GT Bank Plc. If the bank is no longer meeting my expectations as the boss, I might be forced to move them to another organisation.
It is very sad that organizations in Nigeria do not really understand the potential of CRM. If you ask an average business person, they thought it is all about opening a call centre with multiple touchpoints.
But CRM involves almost every department in an organisation. Part of it is what we called Partner Relationship Management where you let your partners and distributors understand the position of your organisation as far as the relationship with your customers is concerned
This will ensure that you are not misrepresented by them.
Knowing your customers goes beyond giving out a form to fill out. It goes beyond KYG in banks.
It involves looking in-depth into those forms and deducing some facts which you can use in retaining those customers for life.
Some scholars have argued that it is more profitable to do business from a customer perspective than a product perspective but many organisations in Nigeria still prefer to do business from a product perspective. Discuss the factors that are responsible for this.
Many Customer Care units in many organisations in Nigeria attend to customers’ issues as if they are doing them great favour and this is affecting the perspective of the organisation from the aspect of the customers and management seem to be helpless. As a CRM Consultant, how do you think Management can address this issue on the ground?
SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have learned that:
A customer is someone who is interested in any goods or services that you have for sale.
A customer should be treated as a King. That is, you should allow them to determine what you produce and how you produce them. Never argue with them.
Knowing your customer should go beyond getting data about your customer. You should be able to ascertain the kind of relationship that they keep and how you can use such a relationship to your own advantage.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
We are going to take a closer look at these dimensions in order to have a good grasp of it.
#1 Procedural Dimension
This is die established systems and procedures to deliver products or services.
If for example, an organisation has problems as related to the quality of their products, inadequate equipment or supply issues or your procedures as an organization are not customer-friendly, you have faded as an organization from the perspective of the customers.
In the view of the customers, you have succeeded as an organisation when you operate from their own perspective.
At the end of this article, you should be able to:
Talk about the two dimensions of customer relationship. I-low organizations can acquire customers.
Why do they need to retain customers?
The reasons why top management must be involved in the customer-centric endeavour.
#2 Personal Dimension
This has to do with how service providers interact with customers (attitudes, behaviours arid verbal skills).
The personal dimension is the key to success. When a customer begins to do business with an organisation, they are already in some type of emotional state.
The impression an organisation gives in the first time may be the deciding factor in retaining an existing customer, obtaining a new customer or gaining referral business.
You should know that using the following strategies makes a tough job just a bit easier Take the initiative, anticipate the customer’s needs, be helpful, be positive; listen and understand, deal with the uniqueness of the situation, and always make the customer feel special.
The reason for this is very simple, in acquiring new customers; you are trying to steal people from other people’s Life Cycle into your own Life Cycle;
This is somehow very difficult where every organization is trying their possible best to retain their customers.
Every serious-minded organization must endeavour to retain their hard-earned customer.
A simple positive decision can make prospects to Hood your Life Cycle while a simple negative decision by the management can also lead to attrition.
That is why it is advisable that when carrying out customer-centric strategies, the top management must be carried along.
There are two main reasons why the top management must be carried along when embarking on a customer-centric enterprise.
The first reason is that you will need them when you need to take some crucial decisions.
You will also need them to approve your spending. Without their approval, you might be cash-strapped along the way.
Another reason is that the organizational structure employed in a customer-centric enterprise is much different from the one used in organizations that are not customer-centric in nature.
An organisation that is customer-centred must empower its customer-facing agents so that they can resolve customers’ issues completely.
In order to retain customers, you must not ask customers to wait when you can answer them now. Staff dealing with customers must be able to resolve their issues. This will help in retaining customers for life.
You should know that you cannot retain customers if you fail to meet their needs. Know that the first point that is dragging customers to you is that, they have a need to satisfy. If you are able to satisfy those needs and go beyond their expectation.
There is nothing stopping the customers from sticking to you for life.
SUMMARY In this article, we have learned that:
There are two types of CRM dimensions which were the Procedural dimension and the Personal dimension.
It is more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.
In order for organizations to acquire new customers, they must be ready to do more than what the organization that is currently satisfying their needs is doing.
You have to continually increase customers’ experience if you really want to retain them for life.
Brainstorming Session
Discuss the two dimensions of a customer relationship.
Discuss acquiring and retaining customers and CRM.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
When we talk of touchpoints, we are talking about different ways through which customers can have access to an organization.
In many forward-looking organizations, today gone are those days when customers cannot have access to their accounts or transact business with an organization unless they physically enter the branch offices or relate with the distributors.
When we talk of touchpoints, we are talking about different ways through which customers can have access to an organization.
In many forward-looking organizations, today gone are those days when customers cannot have access to their accounts or transact business with an organization unless they physically enter the branch offices or relate with the distributors.
In a customer-centric enterprise or organisation that plans to retain customers for life, they must devise ways of making transactions with the organisation as easy as possible.
As I said earlier one thing that people do enjoy most is the ability to have their freedom. No customer will like to be restricted to branch offices.
A Scenario
Mr Alfred is a very busy businessman. He has businesses with many people and he has transferred money into many accounts and relationships with many people.
Mr Alfred had to monitor his business so he does not have the time to see his Relationship Manager or go and line up in banks.
This made dealing with banks to become a sort of headache to him. Because Mr Alfred is dealing with a forward-looking bank, they are able to come up with a mobile device that allows him to do anything that he wanted to do.
He can now transfer money and load his phone through the mobile application.
Mr Alfred also prayed earnestly that the bank will come up with an application that xviii make savings easy for him.
When we talk about creating touchpoints, there are some touchpoints that an organization can provide for its customer One of such is contact centres where customers can call in and get their issues resolved.
Organisations can also adopt emailing or they can appoint an Officer that relates to customers from the convenience of their office.
One thing to know about creating a touchpoint is that the creation of touchpoints will allow your customers to dictate how they want to be served.
You should allow your customers to determine this. Your own is to make sure that their needs are met.
When creating touchpoints also, you should empower those that will use the technology in such a way that they are able to resolve customer’s issues completely.
It should not be in a way that customers will have to wait endlessly before they can find a solution to their array of challenges.
Never forget the fact that the next organisation that produces the same products and services as you are is just a “mouse click away”.
On a final note, as a customer-centric enterprise using touchpoints, you should never joke with your customers’ privacy.
You need to have a lot of information about your customers in order to serve them better. Once they are giving you this information, you must never disclose it to those that will use it, or those that are not authorized to have it against them.
There must be access levels as far as customers’ information is concerned but that does translate to the fact that customers will have to call up to ten numbers before they can change their contact address.
Customer Regaining Strategies
As I said earlier, customers move over and over around your cycle as they purchase new products and services; that is why you have to make sure that you continually meet up with your customers’ expectations.
If you lost a customer to your competitor’s Life Cycle, there are some practical ways that you can use in order to regain your lost customers back to your customer lifecycle.
One of the basic ways of regaining a lost customer is to have adequate information about the lost customer Suffice to say that before you can know that you have lost your customer, you must be able to say with precision, the total number of customers that you have.
If you don’t know the total number of your customers, how will you know if you have lost a customer? There is one reason why you need to seek help concerning knowing the total number of your customers.
It is simply because it takes less to retain existing customers than to gain a new one.
As I said earlier, you must have adequate information concerning the lost customer; this might give you a hint as how the customer can be regained.
One other way of regaining a lost customer is to know what your competitors are doing that is making your customers rush to their Life Cycle.
If you want to succeed in business, you cannot be oblivious of what your competitors are doing. You must take time to study their marketing strategies and sales tactics, including their promotional offers.
In recent times, you would have noticed that among the communication giants, once one of them gives particular promotional offers others will follow suit.
This at times includes promotional offers and midnight calls, including a bonus on recharge.
This is due to the fact that consumers are free to make choices. A reduction in tariff can force a consumer to move to another network. It is as simple as that.
If you want to regain your customers, you must learn how to increase your customer’s experience.
Look for every opportunity to delight your customers. If you do that, those that have gone will come back and those that are with you will remain with you for life.
Total Customer Experience When we talk of customer experience, we are talking about how the customer felt after they used your product or service.
A good customer-centric enterprise must find every avenue to delight its customers.
One thing organisations need to know is that customers have something at the back of their minds before they purchased an organization’s product or service, if after purchasing those products or services, it does not meet up with their expectations, they are bound to look for another organisation that can satisfy the pre-purchase need.
It is on this premise that organisation have to work earnestly in order to ensure that they do not fall short of their brand promise.
The brand promise is what you offer your customers that they would derive after they might have used your product or services.
If you fail to meet up with the expectation of the customers, that means you have betrayed the trust that they have in you, they will have no option but to look for another organisation that can satisfy their needs.
Key Account Management
With key account management, you can map business relationships to particularly important customers and support the expansion of these business relationships.
Institutions can be identified and classified as key accounts using the data available to the organization; this allows goal-oriented addressing and support.
In product and institutions plans, you can record customized strategies and analyze then for key accounts and identify key people and product(s).
Using the actual and target values in the goal definition and tactics, the development of key accounts can be monitored.
Benefits
Identification and classification of key accounts using objective criteria.
Structured management of key accounts in CRM systems.
Concrete goal definition for the development of key accounts, including monitoring possibilities.
Key account management drives the profitability of business marketing.
Building quality key account strategies are the heart of successful business marketing programs. The role of the sales force in establishing and nurturing this relationship is vital.
The sales environment is rapidly changing. This includes selling cycles, complex prepositions, and high-value sales make new methods necessary.
SUMMARY
At the end of this lesson, we have been able to discover that:
Customer touchpoints are channels through which an organization relates to its customers.
Creating touchpoints will allow customers to dictate how they want to be served.
You have to continue to meet up with customers’ expectations in order to retain customers
If you want to regain your lost customers, you must first know the reasons why they have left your lifecycle.
Total customer experience has to do with how customers felt after they have used your product(s).
Brainstorming Session
Critical examine Mr Alfred’s case and profer solutions to some of his problems.
How relevant are customer regaining strategies discussed in this article?
Discuss Total Customer Experience.
What do you understand by Key Account Management? What are some of its relevance?
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In this kind of organisation, profit is not their main motive of establishing a business, they first resolve to satisfy customers’ needs which will, in turn, generate profits more than they expected.
At the end of this article, you should be able to: · explain what a customer-centric enterprise is; · explain the stages that an organisation has to pass through before they can become a customer-centric enterprise; · know the reasons why an organisation has to be customer-centric; · functions and roles of customer-centricity in a customer-centric enterprise; and · Know the reasons why customer-centricity is the best solution for organisations experiencing customer attrition.
In this kind of organisation, profit is not their main motive of establishing a business, they first resolve to satisfy customers’ needs which will, in turn, generate profits more than they expected.
That is why CRM scholars have agreed that it is ten times better to do business from the customers’ perspective than from a product perspective.
In the word of the Gartner Group, they define CRM is an enterprise-wide business strategy designed to optimize profitability revenue and customer satisfaction by organizing the enterprise around customer segments, fostering customer-satisfying behaviours and linking processes from customers through suppliers.
In evolving into a customer-centric enterprise, an organisation tries to foster customer behaviours and they also develop business processes that will allow the organisation to do business from a customer perspective.
Apart from that, they have to come up with technologies that will allow customers to have a total experience irrespective of the channel that they are using to communicate with the organization.
Evolution of Customer-Centric Enterprise
#1 Product-Focused Enterprise
This is the default for many organizations. This is so because the primary purpose of the arty organization is to make a profit.
At this level, all that the organization is concerned with is, how they can increase productivity.
The organization here honour their staff based on the volume of sales they were able to make in a given year.
You should know that product-focused enterprise has much information about their customers but the information is not structured in a way that it can be used to satisfy customers needs.
#2 Customer Focused Enterprise
When an organisation begins with a product centric-vision, situation at times will force them to begin to reckon with their customers. they will now realize that they have to deal with arrays of customer issues which have much to do with the use of their products.
The organization will now realize that if nothing is done about the complaints, it may force them out of business.
This at times has forced many organizations to set up call centres in order to attend to customer issues and complaints.
The main purpose of doing this was to maximize customer and employees satisfaction.
#3 Customer Value-Focused Enterprise
Under this, the organisation tries to minimize the amount being spent on customers that are not really adding value to the organisation. The organisation tries to concentrate on customers that have a larger wallet share with them.
Take for example; MTN tries to come up with a programme that rewarded customers that load up to ten thousand naira airtime monthly.
The company knew that it would be tough for a poor man that could not afford to feed three square meals.
The main onus of this is to gather as much information as possible about the customers and to use this information in formulating strategies that will allow the organization to serve its customers in a dynamic way.
They see their customers as one of the stakeholders in the organization. In this kind of setting, all policies and actions of the organization are geared towards customer satisfaction and making sure that the brand lives up to expectations.
It should be noted that the CRM initiatives of these enterprises can help reduce costs by encouraging customers to render service to each other in communities of interest, promote the enterprise to like-minded people known to them at low cost, seek redress willingly in the event of a shortcoming, be enterprising in taking up new products, and remain loyal for life.
Need For Customer Centricity
There is a need for organizations to operate from customers’ perspective as this will help them to retain their customers for life.
The only reason why profit is coming in the first place is that customers decided to remain with the organization.
Once they decide to spend their money somewhere else, profit will cease.
One thing is that customers love to enjoy their liberty, if an organization gives them that, and surpasses their expectation in terms of services, there is nothing that will make a customer in his right sense to lock somewhere else.
The mother thing is that if you are satisfying your customers in the right way, you will spend less on promotional offers and adverts as your satisfied customers will do the talking for you.
There will be an opportunity to cross-sell as they will gladly accept your new products and offerings and introduce your products to others.
It has also been said that the best way for an organisation to go, is to operate from a customer’s perspective.
Although this may not be profitable in the first place as you have to spend much in order to gain their trust. Once this is achieved, you can rest assured that you have had those customers for life.
Functions of Customer Centricity
We have all agreed that customer-centricity is the act of doing business from the customers’ perspective. There are some basic functions that customer-centricity is meant to perform.
It is the function of customer-centricity to increase the profitability of the organization. If customer-centricity is well managed, it will help the organisation to reduce its cost of production; once you are able to manage your customers.
it will reduce the cost that you to spend on acquiring new customers. This will ultimately reduce overhead cost and will also increase the volume/number of your products that your customer uses.
Customer centricity will also increase the bond between you and your customers. It will help you to know the exact number of customers that you have.
What are those things your customer needs and you can provide those needs? You must be able to know what your customer wants and how to meet those needs.
At times, you may need to know the network of people that your customer or prospect has before you can even think of the best way to serve them.
Once you are meeting and exceeding their needs, you will be able to sustain the bond between you and your customers.
Customer centricity will also increase customer and employee satisfaction. If customers are not satisfied, they will spend their money elsewhere, this will ultimately lead to loss of jobs and once the money is being spent elsewhere.
It will create tension in the mind of staff of your organisation. That is why you have to satisfy your customer so that your employees too will be happy.
That is why it is often said that employees satisfaction is customer satisfaction.
Customer Centricity: A Systematic Solution
Have you ever wondered why a computer system is called a system? It is a system because there are many components that come together before you can have what is called a system.
It is a combination of many subsystems that form what is called a system. In a computer system, you have application software like MS Word, Microsoft Excel, and Corel Draw, among others.
We also have the keyboard, mouse, and UPS among others. You would have been wondering, how then can we relate a computer system to a customer-centric enterprise?
Many organizations today in Nigeria have closed down because customers are no longer patronizing their organisations.
They have spent a lot of their hard-earned money on promotional offers such as: Be a Millionaire promo, 180 cars in 180 days among others.
This is not really necessary when you have a customer-centric enterprise in place. It is a policy that will allow you to do business from the customers’ perspective.
You will have to consciously examine and discover some facts about your customers and you will use that knowledge to decide on what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce.
We called customer-centric enterprise a system because it is a combination of many parts that come together to become one.
You can leave one step aside and move to the other, and you are still expecting the same result.
You should know that in evolving into a customer-centric enterprise, you have to make up your mind that you want to operate from the customers’ perspective.
This will be backed-up with technology that is meant to ensure that your dream is realized. You need to practically learn how you can consciously satisfy your customers’ needs.
This will help your business.
When organisations are established, they provide access and ways by which their customers can reach them.
These include coming to branch offices, and meeting over the web and through the telephone.
Each of these subsets has its own method and components which were used for handling customer contacts,
A customer-centric enterprise always offers its services through the combination of these three channels.
In doing these, the organisation needs processes, technologies and services that are conditioned to take customers first and think about them in everything that they are doing.
Customer–centricity has much to do with rethinking the entire customer experience from the customer point of view.
NOTE:
Collaboration is a matter of degree, and the quantity of the software and services used for collaboration only defines how comprehensive the collaboration will be.
Collaboration you should know has its own price – the cost to the number increases as the number of application increases.
While collaboration CRM should be implemented in a “build–to–fit” manner, the more collaboration an enterprise wished to enable, the more critical the vendor’s support for both system–to–system interaction and heterogeneity.
In a customer-centric enterprise, the organisation tries to put machinery in place in order to meet up with the needs of their customer.
Even the workforce is trained to think about customers first before anything else.
They try to gather customer data from multiple channels in real time, analyse the data in order to find a correlation in the data.
The said data at times can reload some hidden customer behaviour and some basic characteristics that customers have in common, the organisation can now use this in making life decisions about their customers.
At its most basic, customer-centric enterprise requires that an organisation provides access to a wide range of functionality – which spans the enterprise and its IT environment – according to its specific role or job function.
They tried to educate their product users on new ways of using their products and some things that their products can do that are not, available for other products or services.
A customer-centric enterprise achieves its true value by adding value to their customer. These are achieved through integration and collaboration in a fashionable way.
You should know that data is the main thing in a CCE. The more data you have about your customers, the more you are able to serve your customers better.
The users must be able to access data that are outside their department, they should be able to use this data to solve customer issues.
This will now enhance the value of internal and external business processes and technology.
People-centric collaboration also requires that applications and services interact automatically with one another., without human intervention, in order to facilitate people–to–people collaboration.
This requirement for a system to–system interaction is a key behind–the–scene element in any people-centric collaborative environment.
The bottom lines are that CCE will lead to greater efficiency, a better return on human and technological assets, new business opportunities, and a closer and more fruitful working relationship between supply chain or value chain partners be they buyers, sellers, administrators or other service providers.
Collaborative customer-centric enterprise allows users from either inside or outside the organisation to access customer data as long as those actions will improve job performance in the bottom line.
The different users and the applications both within and outside the organisation must be able to interact and collaborate with one another.
An external client having a problem with accessibility can communicate a CSR who might be able to help him or her out.
The Benefit of Collaborative CCE
It brings about streamlined operations that offer lower transaction costs, error rates, and other operational efficiencies.
It also improves customer and partner relations that come from building tight links between technology and business processes. When done right, collaborative environments greatly enhance customer and partner satisfaction and help leverage all partners’ investments in technology and business process.
A people-centric environment provides a platform for changing products, partnerships, and business processes in support of dynamic businesses and industries that require “first–to–market” rapid response.
Above all, if a collaborative CCE is well planned and implemented, it will significantly impact the bottom line of the enterprise involved.
SUMMARY
In this article, we have discovered that:
A customer-centric enterprise is an organization that is doing business from the customers’ perspective.
There are four evolutions of a customer-centric enterprise, which are: Product-Focused Enterprise, Customer Focused Enterprise, Customer Value Focused Enterprise and Customer-Centric Enterprise which has much to do with 36O0 view of customers.
We have also observed that a customer-centric enterprise will help you to retain your customers for life. It will also ensure that both your customers and your staff derive maximum satisfaction.
Customer-centricity has to do with the act of putting customers at the centre of business
In collaborative CCE, users from within and outside the organisation must be able to access data that will improve business performance and help the organisation to improve on customers experience.
Collaborative CCE will lead to greater efficiency, new business opportunities and closer relationship among stakeholders in the business.
Some of the benefits attached to collaborative CCE includes:
The streamlined operation enhanced stakeholders satisfaction and leveraging of partners investment in business and processes.
Brainstorming Session
Use the diagram in Fig. 11 to discuss what CCE evolution is.
Do you agree that organisations should treat different customers differently?
Do you think that organizations should waste their time on non-profitable customers?
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
At the end of this article, readers should be able to:
· Know what customer-centric enterprises are.;
· The characteristics of CCEs.;
· Customers’ perspective of CCEs;
· Functions that CCEs are meant to play; and
· Differences between Customer-Centric and Product-Centric Enterprises.
OBJECTIVES OF THIS ARTICLE
Before we begin, you should know that organisations must focus on something once they are in business.
Traditionally, organizations do focus on their products.
They weigh their achievements based on how their products are doing and their percentage of the market share.
In this article, we intend to look at both product-centric and customer-centric enterprises and see what their focus are. We will be discussing this under the following headings.
#1 Product-centric Enterprise
The main focus of a product-centric enterprise is to gain increased product offering and increase its market volume.
Organisations in product-centred enterprises are ranged based on the volume of their products that they are able to release into the market.
Even employees are rewarded based on the volume of sales they are able to make in a year.
#2 Reduced Cycle Times
In a product-centric enterprise, the focus of the enterprise is to reduce the time required before their goods got to the final consumers.
At times, they may be forced to reduce prices so that they can have some form of upper hand over their competitors.
#3 Quality
Organizations that are customer-centric are more concerned with coming up with quality products that will stand the test of time.
They believe that if they can do that, they will be able to attract more customers through quality products that they offer.
Characteristics of CCEs
One important point to know about CCEs is that they always resolve issues completely. A good CCE will not go to sleep while customer issues are not resolved.
I once had an issue with an old generation bank, I went to the bank to deposit some money only for me to get there and be told that my account had been dormant for over three weeks so it has taken some time now.
As I am writing this to you, the issue has not been resolved.
That is not a good example of a CCE. Is shows the bank is not serious about its customers.
A CCE should be able to resolve customer’s issues completely no matter the number of customers that are involved.
CCEs employees must completely focus on the customers. They must have full autonomy to resolve customer issues.
They must be able to decide on the right way to treat their customers. They must not be under any undue influence whatsoever as far as customer issues are concerned. Customers must be more paramount than the company’s policies,
CCEs allow customers to interact across multiple channels. The organization only needs to meet the customers at the right place with the right products and services.
As a customer-centric enterprise, you can’t force customers to come and meet you at your branch offices. You must be able to allow customers to choose the way they want to be served.
The true mark of a customer-centric enterprise is that they choose to be loyal to their customers even when there is no immediate reason to do so.
Everything about the customers may be pointing to the fact that they are not profitable at the moment, but a truly customer-centric enterprise will continue to revolve its life around the customers.
Customers’ Perspective of CCES’
Customers dealing with an organisation desire them to be honest and fair to them. They expect the management to be men of their words.
They must be able to add value to them. Like I have said in the previous chapters, there are some things that the organization promised to offer their customers for using their products.
They must be able to meet or exceed some of their customers’ expectations.
Also, the organisations that claim to be customer-centric must be able to provide emotional support to their customers.
They must be able to develop long-lasting relationship with their customers.
Customers expect that a CCE must not place short term gains before the ultimate satisfaction of their hard-earned customers.
The customer also expects the organisation to train their employees to place customers’ interest above any other Employees relating with customers must be held responsible for all customers that they are dealing with.
The fact that you are a marketing or sales agent does not mean that you will not know anything about customer relations. They must be able to project a good image of the organisation.
One thing you should know as an organisation is that you have to know much about your customers. This includes a deliberate study of their behaviours and wants.
You should also know that when you are dealing with various levels of customers, you cannot be 100 percent customer-centric to them all. This is because one customer may be more profitable than the other
#1 Customer Acquisition
While Product-centric enterprise focus on how they can increase their market share, the customer-centric enterprise is more concerned with how they can acquire new customers.
They also shift their attention away from their products and focus on their customers by asking questions on what they want and how their needs can be met.
#2 Customer Profitability
While Product-centric enterprise is focusing on how they can produce a quality product at a cheaper price so as to increase their profit margin, customer-centric enterprises are more concerned with how they can increase the profitability of their customers.
They continue to strategize on new means of penetrating their competitors’ customer base and evolve an effective customer strategy that will ensure that customers derive satisfaction from their interaction with the organisation.
#3 Support and Service
While Product-centric enterprises continue to think of ways of coming up with quality products to increase their market share.
Customer-centric enterprises are more concerned with how they can evolve better ways of serving their customers.
They try to ensure that customers derive maximum satisfaction from their interaction with the organization.
They always ensure that customers have a total experience irrespective of the channel that they have chosen to interact with the organisation.
SUMMARY
From this chapter, we have been able to discover that:
Customer Centric Enterprises are organisations that revolved around the customer
We also discussed some of the characteristics of CCEs which includes the fact that their employees are empowered to solve customer issues completely. They also allow customers to interact across multiple channels.
We also look at sonic of the differences between Product-centric enterprise and CCEs. We observed that CCEs focus on customers white Product-centric enterprise focus on their products and hew they can increase their market share.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
As an organisation moves from a product-centric enterprise to a customer-centric one, there are some basic things that will begin to change about the organisation, we want to look at this under four main headings, which are:
Pricing capabilities
Product quality capabilities
iii. Marketing and sales capabilities
Customer service capabilities
Pricing Capabilities
Customer-centric enterprise tries as much as possible to come up with a price system that guarantees customer satisfaction.
They always come up with products and services of higher value at reasonable prices.
They ensure that they are excellent in whatever they are producing for their customers.
In this article, we want to look at the attitudes of CCEs in terms of:
Pricing capabilities
Product quality capabilities
Marketing and sales capabilities
Customer service capabilities
Product Quality Capabilities
In terms of what they produce, CCES’ have higher quality product ranking. They believe that producing quality goods and services at customer-friendly prices will make their customers stick to them forever.
They also make sure that all departments in the organization are quality 1)0th in goods and services to their customers.
Marketing and Sales Capabilities
Customer-Centric Enterprise tries as much as possible to build strong awareness by providing quality service so as to attract more prospects to their Life Cycle.
They can also create opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling. This is a way by which both marketing and sales departments are actively involved in sales. Customers can also help in increasing sales and introducing products to others.
The organisations also develop sales forces with superior technical skills in order to boost sales.
Customer Service Capabilities
Customer-Centric Enterprise has superior pre-sales services capabilities. They are able to educate their prospects on the benefit of using their products. CCES’. They also have well responsive after-sales services which are able to assist customers with any challenges they might be faced with while they use the product.
CCES are also able to rapidly handle customer orders in a way that it boosts customers’ confidence in the organization. SUMMARY
In this article, we have been able to discover:
In terms of price, CGES do not compete with Product-centric enterprise. They give customers a “wow” experience with a relatively low price.
CCES have higher quality ranking than product-centric enterprise.
Marketing, Sales and Customer services departments walk together in relating with customers. It also goes with the ability of the customers to introduce the organization’s product and buy more of the products and services.
Customer-centric enterprises have pieces of machinery in place to educate their prospects on the immeasurable benefits of using their products and services.
Brainstorming Session
Discuss the differences between CCEs and PCEs using the following parameters: · Pricing capabilities. · Product quality capabilities. · Marketing and sales capabilities. · Customer service capabilities.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
The Concept This is the simplest way of explaining the way by which an organisation whether product or customer-centred interacts with its customers and prospects. It explains the process that a customer or prospect passes through before deciding to purchase or use a particular product or service. Understanding the customer Life Cycle will help organizations to guide against losing customers to competitors.
The Concept This is the simplest way of explaining the way by which an organisation whether product or customer-centred interacts with its customers and prospects.
It explains the process that a customer or prospect passes through before deciding to purchase or use a particular product or service.
Understanding the customer Life Cycle will help organizations to guide against losing customers to competitors.
At the end of this article, readers should be able to:
Define customer Life Cycle
Understand how customer Life Cycle can be managed
Understand how the customer Life Cycle can be managed (1 in a Customer-Centric Enterprise
It will also help them to attract new prospects to their own life cycle.
The Customer Life Cycle you should know begins with reaching the target market and progresses towards an established loyal customer base.
Along the way, it is necessary to acquire, convert and retain customers.
The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) is a circle that any organization will want its best customer to move around over and over again.
This is because as customers purchase your products, they are learning about your organization over and over again.
I can even say that they are learning some new things. You should know that these processes may change from company to company the processes that lead to it are different from company to company The noticeable differences at times may be attributed to product consideration.
When a customer is considering using a particular product from your organisation, he or she is termed as a prospect.
In doing this, lie has to go through a lot of thought processes in order to decide whether or not to use your product. His conclusion will determine whether or not he will enter your Life Cycle.
When a customer enters the Life Cycle of any organisation, there are six basic things that they do.
#1 Identify needs
They try to identify needs that may be filled by a product or service available for purchase from the enterprise.
Let’s take for example an organisation is offering Tomato paste for sale. You have to think of needs that can be satisfied with that.
#2 Identify products
After you have identified those products and the needs that they can satisfy at times you have to tell others about it.
You can help the organisation to create awareness about the existence of those products or services.
#3 Determine satisfaction
The next thing is to find time to learn more about the organisation and the products and services they have to offer.
You may also want to know about other products and services that WON’ nave in stock.
#4 Consider the product
Now you have to consider how the products and services offered by the organization satisfy or do not satisfy your needs.
#5 Evaluate the suitability
You evaluate the suitability of the products and services against the competition to fulfil the identified needs.
#6 Purchase product
The decision to purchase the product or service or go to another competition.
The last phase in the customer Life Cycle is often regarded as the “Customer moment”. This is the time when the customers decide whether or not to purchase the product.
As soon as he decides to purchase the product, he becomes a customer. This decision will also change the focus of the organization.
They are now concerned with how they will not lose hard-earned customers to their competitors. They can now influence the customer either positively or negatively.
You should know that if the organisation fails to live up to expectation through poor services or falling short of the brand promise, this can make the customer to join another organization’s Life Cycle.
But if they are able to satisfy his needs, he becomes a customer for life. At this stage, the customer continues to acquire products from the organisation and utilize it.
This may continue through the entire lifetime of the customer. Once the customer is satisfied, he will re-enter the organization’s Life Cycle and start the process over and over again.
You should know that while the customer goes through the Life Cycle, he might be lost at any stage in the Life Cycle but it is also agreed upon that, it is better for you to lose a prospect than to lose a hard-earned customer.
If the loss of hard-earned customers continues uncontrolled, it is often referred to as “Customer attrition”,
There are two ways by which a prospect or a customer can drop out of the Life Cycle.
The first one is known as “loss”; this is when you lost a prospect to your competitor just before they enter your Life Cycle.
While nobody prays that this kind of loss should occur but at least it is desirable.
This is due to the fact that you have not invested your hard-earned money on the prospects before they enter your competitor’s Life Cycle.
The second form of loss that can happen to an organization is called attrition which is more than an ordinary loss. It happens when your hard-earned customers decide to join your competitors’ Life Cycle.
Attrition has been defined as the erosion of customer loyalty after the customer moment leading to their capture by a competitor.
This kind of loss is painful as you have already invested in them. Such loss, should not occur when you can provide acceptable service to your customers.
You should know that competition is one of the factors that influence movements in the CLC. One thing that determines the level at which an organisation need to be customer-centric has much to do with the level of competition that an organisation is facing from its competitors.
The final goal of a customer-centric enterprise is to raise the exit harrier so that prospects are not easily lost to competitors and attrition of hard-earned customers is totally prevented.
Customer Life Cycle Management The business processes conducted by the organisation fall into the following general categories.
#1 Intrude And Engage
Under this, the organization intends to catch the prospect’s attention, and increase the prospect’s awareness of the organisation.
Tell him about what the organization has to offer and engage him in a discussion that is targeted at drawing him into the organization’s Life Cycle.
#2 Transact and Fulfill
That the prospects are aware of the organization and what it has to offer, does not guarantee that the prospect is going to purchase the organization’s product or service.
That is why the organization has to continually engage the prospects so as to ensure that they finally become the organization’s customers.
#3 Retain/Service and Expand
Once the customer purchases your product or service, you have to begin real work of ensuring that you do not lose him to your competitor.
This involves coming up with innovations that will ensure that you continually satisfy your customers and live up to the expectation of your customers.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can be seen as the expected financial benefit from customer retention investment to build customer loyalty, Simply, it is the total amount that you expect your customers to spend on your product throughout their lifetime.
Definition
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) can be seen as the expected financial benefit from customer retention investment to build customer loyalty, Simply, it is the total amount that you expect your customers to spend on your product throughout their lifetime.
Lifetime Value of a Customer
By calculating CLV, you as a 0kM manager can measure the expected financial benefits from customer retention investment to build customer loyalty You will be able to know which of your customers you should invest in and the one that you don’t need to bother yourself about.
The calculation of the lifetime value of your customer will reveal the lifetime cost of the customer which includes acquisition cost, operation expenses and customer services that you offer to your customer. It will also show the expected lifetime revenue of a customer.
At the end of this article, readers should be able to:
Define Customer Lifetime Value
Appreciate the Importance of CLV
Appreciate how to maximize the lifetime value of a customer
Appreciate the purpose of CLV in an enterprise
Importance of CLV
From what we have said, CLV will allow customer-centric organizations to know what they should expect from their customers. There are many benefits that accrue to CCEs.
One of the benefits that can be attributed to CCE is the fact that it allows organizations to minimize wastage and maximize cost.
It will help you to know the number of resources that you could spend on a particular customer
Another benefit of lifetime value is that it will allow organizations to come up with strategies and programs that will enable them to give their customers a “wow” experience.
If you have a profitable customer base, you will not want to lose them. You will want to put pieces of machinery in place in order to ensure that the customers are satisfied so that they can remain with you for life.
That is why you have to carry out a comprehensive CLV analysis of your customers in order to know the proper way of serving them better.
Maximizing Lifetime Value of a Customer
This requires that you maximize the rate of new customer acquisition, the conversion rate of prospects to buyers and the repeat frequency of existing customers.
When you want to get the best from your customers, you have to improve the rate at which you convert prospects to buyers. You must also guide against losing your hard-earned customers to your competitors.
You should know that it is very expensive to acquire new customers. Besides, the new customers are not contributing to your profit base now, they will be contributing in the future.
It is from your existing customers that the bulk of your profit is coming. That is why U is not logical for you to build your business on your first-time buyers alone.
In a product-centric enterprise, profits are determined by calculating the cost of the product and other associated costs and subtracting it from the total cost but in a CCE, you have to consider the customer service cost and weigh it against the lifetime value of a customer.
You have to increase what you spend on customer value. Therefore CLV is a projection of what a customer will be worth in the future.
The purpose of CLV is to encourage the organisation to spend a large percentage of its resources on adding value to its customers.
The application of CLV is to encourage organizations to embark on programs that will improve customer lifetime value.
SUMMARY OF THIS ARTICLE In this article, we have discovered that:
CLV is the expected value that a customer is expected to contribute to your organisation over their lifetime.
CLV is also the calculation of the acquisition cost, operating expenses and customer services.
CLV wilt help organizations minimize wastage and maximize cost.
With the knowledge of CL~ you should be able to raise the exit barrier and draw more people to your lifecycle.
CIV can help organizations spend their resources effectively on adding value to their profitable customers.
Brainstorming Session
What is Customer Lifetime Value? How can you maximize the lifetime value of a customer?
Discuss the reasons why top management in various organisations in Nigeria are afraid of CRM.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
A Customer Value Proposition (CVP) consists of the sum total of benefits that a vendor promises a customer will receive in return for the customer’s associated payment or other value transfer.
Customer Value Management was started by Ray Kordupleski in the 1980s and discussed in his book Mastering Customer Value Management.
This is is a business or marketing statement that describes why a customer should buy a product or use a service.
It is specifically targeted toward potential customers rather than other constituent group such as employees, partners and suppliers.
Similar to the unique selling proposition, it is a clearly defined statement that is designed to convince customers that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than others in his competitive set.
Why Customer Value Proposition is Important
A good Customer Value Proposition will provide convincing reasons why a customer should buy a product and also differentiate your product from competitors.
Gaining a customer’s attention and approval will help build sales faster and more profitably, as well as work to increase master share.
Understanding customer needs is more important because it helps promote the product.
A brand is the perception of a product or service that is designed to stay in the minds of targeted customers.
Creating a Strong CVP A strong CVP is a clear, concise and compelling articulation of how the factors that are important to the customers are satisfied by the company.
Deep knowledge of the potential/current customer base is invaluable in coming up with a strong CVP which reflects the tangible results that customers can reasonably expect from using the firm’s products or services.
Strong Value Propositions are also expressed from the customer’s perspective and talk about the experiences and benefits that they xviii have when using the product.
Competitive Advantage
A product with a successful CVP is directly linked to the product’s actual and sustained performance versus the competition.
The two main attributes that allow customers to differentiate among products are price and quality Finding the coned balance between those two attributes usually leads to a successful product.
If a company is able to produce the same quality product at its direct competition but sell it for less, this provides a price value to the consumers.
Similarly, if a company is able to produce a superior quality product for the same or a slightly higher but acceptable price, the value to the consumer is added through the quality of the product.
Note: A product must offer value through price and /or quality in order for it to be successful
Target Audiences
End Users: The initial and ongoing satisfaction of the end-users is the goal of every business. Customer satisfaction is achieved when superior customer value is delivered. Establishing a lasting business relationship will lead to future sales. Price and quality are the most important factors in a consumer’s purchase.
Manufacturer/Distributor: When the sales target is not the end-user, but a manufacturer or distributor of a product, the most important factor is conveying superiority of one product over another There may be other factors besides price and quality that would affect a customer’s decision and communicating those as well is essential.
Types of CVP
#1 All Benefits
Most Managers when asked to construct a Customer Value Proposition, simply list all the benefits they believe that their offering might deliver to their target customers.
‘The more they can think of; the better This approach requires the least knowledge about the customers and the competitors, and thus results in a weaker marketplace effort.
#2 Favourable Point of Reference
The second type of value proposition explicitly recognizes that the customer has alternatives and focuses on how to differentiate one product or service from another, knowing that an element of an offering is a point of difference relative to the next best alternative.
It does not however covey the value of this difference to target customers. A product or service may have special points of difference, complicating the customers’ requirements and preferences, arid what it is worth to fulfil them; suppliers may stress points of difference that deliver relatively little value to the target customers.
#3 Resonating Focus The favourable points of a different value proposition is preferable to an all-benefits proposition for companies crafting a customer value proposition. The resonating focus value proposition should be the gold standard.
This approach acknowledges that managers who make purchase decisions have major, ever-increasing levels of responsibility and often are pressed for time.
They want to do business with suppliers that fully grasp critical issues in their business and deliver a CVI’ that’s simple yet powerfully captivating.
Suppliers can provide a customer value proposition on the few attributes that are most important and target customers by demonstrating and documenting the value of this superior performance, and communicating it in a way that conveys a sophisticated understanding of the customer’s business priorities.
Brainstorming Session
What is Customer Value Proposition?
Discuss the different types of CVP that we have.
Why do you think CXV is important in an organization?
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Definition When we talk about lead which is sometimes referred to as prospects, they are people that are likely to be interested in your products or services.
They are the set of people that will finally become your customers.
Definition When we talk about lead which is sometimes referred to as prospects, they are people that are likely to be interested in your products or services.
They are the set of people that will finally become your customers.
Because of the relevance of lead to the development of your organization, you need to properly manage them so that, you don’t lose them to your competitors.
There are some basic things that you need to know about your leads because it is when you understand some of these details that you can meet them at the right place with the right products and services.
At the end of this article, the reader should be able to appreciate:
What Lead Management is
What you need to know about your leads
What Account Management is
Capture of Lead Information As a salesperson or sales manager, you need to have the contact details of your lead: you must also know their area of interest.
It is when you know this that you can package products and services that will satisfy their interest. You also need to know the source of lead: that is how the person or person(s) heard about your organization.
Also, you must be able to have metrics to measure the success of your organization as far as lead conversion is concerned.
Details Capturing You must have a record of details of your interaction with your leads, so as to monitor them and know how far you are working towards their conversation.
The organization is to monitor all phone calls, emails and meetings that lead to the conversion of the leads to a customer.
Leads Qualifications When we talk about leads qualification, we are saying that as an organization, you don’t have to entertain every dick and harry.
You must have some predetermined rules that specify what conditions a prospect must satisfy before they can qualify to become your customer. For example, not everybody n Nigeria can afford to buy a car.
Therefore a car dealer that is busy pursuing a man that could hardly afford three-square meals is chasing a goose.
Lead Allocation Under SFA, we have said the organization needs to have an application that automatically distributes leads to sales agents or resellers who monitor things and make sure that their needs are met.
You should know that leads management in any organization are organized based on the needs of the organization.
#1 Account Management
Account management is an application and process that helps salespersons and sales managers to handle individual corporate accounts with the organization. It allows the organization to monitor how each consumer with the organization are faring and follow – up on them appropriately.
This is mostly used in business to business (b2b) relationship in any organization.
This accounts that are being managed, apart from having financial transaction information also have other information that is needed by the organization such as the corporate name, an address which is grouped according to some basic requirement or other similarities that the corporate customers share together.
This will allow the sales team and sales manager that needs information about their corporate customer to have them.
When sale and account department of a CCE are integrated in such a way that have uniform database about the organization, it will allow them to monitor some basic information such as the customer purchasing patterns and use that information to predict what customers are likely to buy in the future.
SUMMARY At the end of this chapter, we have been able to discover that:
Leads are people that are likely to be interested in your products or services.
Some of the basic things that you need to know about your leads include the capture of lead information, details of things to capture, what qualifies a lead, lead allocation
We also discover that Account Management are applications that are needed to handle individual corporate accounts and manage how corporate customers in the organization are faring.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
At the end of this article, readers should be able to: · Define Opportunity management · Know things that are associated with opportunity management · Talk about sales forecast management
Introduction From our earlier discussion, we must have known that there is no way we can divulge Lead Management and Opportunity management from SFA Lead management occurs when you generate lead us various channels available to you in order to introduce specific products to a particular market segment.
One thing about lead management which can be a form of challenge to any organisation is the ability to introduce the right product at the right time for the right consumers.
Once you have identified your consumer and you have been able to raise the financial commitment that is needed, then you can move to the level of opportunity management.
That is when lead management can become opportunity management. It is then that it will enter the sales funnel.
There are some things that point that is associated with opportunity management.
These are:
Financial Details
Decision dates
Proposal
Possibility of closure
Financial Details: Before you can say that opportunity has come as far as turning prospects to customers is concerned, you must have carried out a feasibility study and known that the lead is really worth it. You have to know the financial implication that is involved and that are you going to realize at the end of the day.
Decision Dates: One other thing that you need to take note of is the decision dates of your customers. You must be able to pinpoint the date that they actually become your customers. You might need this when you are to determine their lifetime value.
Proposal: you also have to the proposal. This at times has much to do with the type of people that are involved. But in an ideal environment, there has to be a proposal and there must be an agreement to back it up.
Probability of Closure: A business person or better still a CRM manager you must be able to predict based on certain pre-conditions if a particular prospect will finally become a customer. Like the example given earlier concerning a car dealer. if he now sees a casual worker with ten thousand naira basic salary as a lead, that means something is wrong somewhere.
You should also know that pipeline management entails
Pipeline management to track the opportunity life
Proposal management
The capture of multi-channel interactions with the prospect
Milestone management for sales processes
Managing the sales forecast depending on the decision date
#1 Pipeline management
One thing that you need to have is pipeline management. Look at it this way, your wonderful pet entered into a pipeline you will want to monitor it in order to see to it that your wonderful pet comes safely out of the pipe, so also is a lead that you desperately want to become your customer.
You have to put pipeline management in place in order for it to be successful.
#2 Proposal Management
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a proposal is a plan or suggestion which is finally made to an official person or group, or the act of making it.
If an organization for example is introducing a new product, you have to put pipeline management in place in order for it to be successful.
#3 Multi-Channel Capturing
Like was said earlier, you have to monitor the various channels that you are using to interact with your customers.
As a CRM or sales manager, you have to monitor the way your salespeople interact with the organisation so that you are not misrepresented.
#4 Milestone Management
At times, as an organization, you set a target for yourself. You might decide at times that, if you are able to convert one thousand prospects to customers, you have reached a milestone.
At times, this must be managed in order to ensure that these milestones are achieved in your organization.
#5 Sales Forecast Management Sales forecasts also must be managed in order to achieve results. Take for example that you have projected that you will sell one million tonnes of cement before December and by August, you have not been able to sell 300,000 tonnes.
That means your sales forecast is not realistic. You have to make sure that you are managing your sales forecasting order to achieve the result.
The main benefit of opportunity management is to help organizations to deal as far as possible.
It will allow organizations to identify potential customers, gather as much information about them and use that information to meet them at the right place with the right products and services.
The opportunity management application should be able to identify qualified leads and provides important information that the organization can use in order to attain success.
Opportunity management span the entire organization.it has to do with the front office staff working closely with the back-office staff in order to utilize the information that they have about the customers.
They can also go into the data warehouse in order to have much information about pasty transactions of the customers.
Another thing that an organization has to know is that they must be able to identify who their competitors are, and the leverage that their competitor has as far as the leading question is concerned.
They must have adequate information about their lead, their competitor and other things that have to do with their leads.
There are some applications that have to do with SFA being able to provide information about the product that your competitors have that compete with your product.
You will also know what your customers want in terms of product functionality, support services, and pricing among others. SUMMARY At the end of this lesson, we discovered that:
You cannot separate lead management from opportunity management.
Lead management occurs when you get leads to form various channels in order to introduce specific products to them.
There are four basic things associated with lead management: Financial details, Decision dates, proposal and possibility of closure.
Proposal management has to do with managing how you go about introducing your business to potential customers or those that might be interested in it.
We also have sale forecast management which will help you to predict what you are likely to sell in the next year that you are entering into – based in your sales in the previous year and the lifetime value of your customers.
BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Define Opportunity Management.
Discuss the components that are associated with opportunity management
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on individual and corporate levels, I will be very glad to do that I have trained several individuals and groups. They are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
A. Identify Stakeholders. B. Plan Stakeholder Management. C. Control Stakeholder Engagement. D. Manage Stakeholder Engagement.
Correct Answer: A
CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 186 Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 5.2.1.5 Stakeholder Register Described in Section 13.1.3.1. The stakeholder register is used to identify stakeholders who can provide information on the requirements. The stakeholder register also captures major requirements and main expectations stakeholders may have for the project. 13.1.3.1 Stakeholder Register The main output of the Identify Stakeholders process is the stakeholder register. This contains all details related to the identified stakeholders including, but not limited to: Identification information. Name, organizational position, location, role in the project, contact information; Assessment information. Major requirements, main expectations, potential influence in the project, phase in the life cycle with the most interest; and Stakeholder classification. Internal/external, supporter/neutral/resistor, etc.
The stakeholder register should be consulted and updated on a regular basis, as stakeholders may change— or new ones identified—throughout the life cycle of the project. Process: 13.1 Identify Stakeholders Definition: The process of identifying the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by a decision, activity, or outcome of the project; and analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it allows the project manager to identify the appropriate focus for each stakeholder or group of stakeholders. Inputs 1. Project charter 2. Procurement documents 3. Enterprise environmental factors 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Stakeholder analysis 2. Expert judgment 3. Meetings Outputs 1. Stakeholder register QUESTION 302 An output of the Develop Project Team process is: A. change requests B. team performance assessments C. project staff assignments D. project documents updates Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 9.3 Develop Project Team CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 187 Definition: The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Inputs 1. Human resource management plan 2. Project staff assignments 3. Resource calendars Tools & Techniques 1. Interpersonal skills 2. Training 3. Team-building activities 4. Ground rules 5. Colocation 6. Recognition and rewards 7. Personnel assessment tools Outputs 1. Team performance assessments 2. Enterprise environmental factors updates QUESTION 303 Managing ongoing production of goods and services to ensure business continues efficiently describes which type of management? A. Portfolio B. Project C. Program D. Operations Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 304 Which type of manager is assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives? A. Program B. Functional C. Project D. Portfolio Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 188 QUESTION 305 The approaches, tools, and data sources that will be used to perform risk management on a project are determined by the: A. Methodology B. Risk category C. Risk attitude D. Assumption analysis Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 11.1.3.1 Risk Management Plan The risk management plan is a component of the project management plan and describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed. The risk management plan includes the following: Methodology. Defines the approaches, tools, and data sources that will be used to perform risk management on the project. Roles and responsibilities. Defines the lead, support, and risk management team members for each type of activity in the risk management plan, and clarifies their responsibilities. Budgeting. Estimates funds needed, based on assigned resources, for inclusion in the cost baseline and establishes protocols for application of contingency and management reserves. Timing. Defines when and how often the risk management processes will be performed throughout the project life cycle, establishes protocols for application of schedule contingency reserves, and establishes risk management activities for inclusion in the project schedule. QUESTION 306 An input of the Plan Procurement Management process is: A. Make-or-buy decisions. B. Activity cost estimates. C. Seller proposals. D. Procurement documents. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 7.2.3.1 Activity Cost Estimates Activity cost estimates are quantitative assessments of the probable costs required to complete project work. Cost estimates can be presented in summary form or in detail. Costs are estimated for all resources that are applied to the activity cost estimate. This includes, but is not limited to, direct labor, materials, equipment, services, facilities, information technology, and special categories such as cost of financing (including interest charges), an inflation allowance, exchange rates, or a cost contingency reserve. Indirect costs, if they are included in the project estimate, can be included at the activity level or at higher levels. Process: 12.1 Plan Procurement Management Definition: The process of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it determines whether to acquire outside support, and if so, CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 189 what to acquire, how to acquire it, how much is needed, and when to acquire it. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Requirements documentation 3. Risk register 4. Activity resource requirements 5. Project schedule 6. Activity cost estimates 7. Stakeholder register 8. Enterprise environmental factors 9. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Make-or-buy analysis 2. Expert judgment 3. Market research 4. Meetings Outputs 1. Procurement management plan 2. Procurement statement of work 3. Procurement documents 4. Source selection criteria 5. Make-or-buy decisions 6. Change requests 7. Project documents updates QUESTION 307 Outputs of the Control Communications process include: A. expert judgment and change requests B. work performance information and change requests C. project management plan updates and work performance information D. issue logs and organizational process assets updates Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 308 Which organizational process assets update is performed during the Close Procurements process? A. Procurement audit B. Lessons learned C. Performance reporting D. Payment requests Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 190 12.4.3.2 Organizational Process Assets Updates Elements of the organizational process assets that may be updated include, but are not limited to: Procurement file. A complete set of indexed contract documentation, including the closed contract, is prepared for inclusion with the final project fles. Deliverable acceptance. Documentation of formal acceptance of seller-provided deliverables may be required to be retained by the organization. The Close Procurement process ensures this documentation requirement is satisfed. Requirements for formal deliverable acceptance and how to address nonconforming deliverables are usually defined in the agreement. Lessons learned documentation. Lessons learned, what has been experienced, and process improvement recommendations, should be developed for the project fle to improve future procurements. 12.4 Close Procurements The process of completing each project procurement. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it documents agreements and related documentation for future reference. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Procurement documents Tools & Techniques 1. Procurement audits 2. Procurement negotiations 3. Records management system Outputs 1. Closed procurements 2. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 309 The individual or group that provides resources and support for a project and is accountable for success is the: A. sponsor B. customer C. business partners D. functional managers Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 310 A measure of cost performance that is required to be achieved with the remaining resources in order to meet a specified management goal and is expressed as the ratio of the cost needed for finishing the outstanding work to the remaining budget is known as the: A. budget at completion (BAC) B. earned value management (EVM) C. to-complete performance index D. cost performance index Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 191 Explanation/Reference: Explanation: TCPI = (BAC – EV)/(BAC – AC) QUESTION 311 A collection of projects managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives is referred to as a: A. plan B. process C. program D. portfolio Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 1.2.1. The Relationships among Portfolios, Programs, and Projects The relationship among portfolios, programs, and projects is such that a portfolio refers to a collection of projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. Programs are grouped within a portfolio and are comprised of subprograms, projects, or other work that are managed in a coordinated fashion in support of the portfolio. Individual projects that are either within or outside of a program are still considered part of a portfolio. Although the projects or programs within the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related, they are linked to the organization’s strategic plan by means of the organization’s portfolio. 1.4.2 Portfolio Management A portfolio refers to projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related. For example, an infrastructure firm that has the strategic objective of “maximizing the return on its investments” may put together a portfolio that includes a mix of projects in oil and gas, power, water, roads, rail, and airports. From this mix, the firm may choose to manage related projects as one program. All of the power projects may be grouped together as a power program. Similarly, all of the water projects may be grouped together as a water program. Thus, the power program and the water program become integral components of the enterprise portfolio of the infrastructure firm. QUESTION 312 Sharing good practices introduced or implemented in similar projects in the organization and/or industry is an example of: A. quality audits B. process analysis C. statistical sampling D. benchmarking Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 8.2.2.2 Quality Audits A quality audit is a structured, independent process to determine if project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures. The objectives of a quality audit may include: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 192 Identify all good and best practices being implemented; Identify all nonconformity, gaps, and shortcomings; Share good practices introduced or implemented in similar projects in the organization and/or industry; Proactively offer assistance in a positive manner to improve implementation of processes to help the team raise productivity; and Highlight contributions of each audit in the lessons learned repository of the organization. The subsequent effort to correct any defciencies should result in a reduced cost of quality and an increase in sponsor or customer acceptance of the project’s product. Quality audits may be scheduled or random, and may be conducted by internal or external auditors. Quality audits can confirm the implementation of approved change requests including updates, corrective actions, defect repairs, and preventive actions. 8.2.2.3 Process Analysis Process analysis follows the steps outlined in the process improvement plan to identify needed improvements. This analysis also examines problems experienced, constraints experienced, and non-value-added activities identified during process operation. Process analysis includes root cause analysis—a specific technique used to identify a problem, discover the underlying causes that lead to it, and develop preventive actions. QUESTION 313 Which Process Group’s purpose is to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes? A. Monitoring and Controlling B. Initiating C. Planning D. Executing Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 314 The formal and informal interaction with others in an organization industry, or professional environment is known as: A. negotiation B. organizational theory C. meeting D. networking Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 9.1.2.2 Networking Networking is the formal and informal interaction with others in an organization, industry, or professional environment. It is a constructive way to understand political and interpersonal factors that will impact the effectiveness of various staffing management options. Human resource management benefits from successful networking by improving knowledge of and access to human resource assets such as strong competencies, specialized experience, and external partnership opportunities. Examples of human resources CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 193 networking activities include proactive correspondence, luncheon meetings, informal conversations including meetings and events, trade conferences, and symposia. Networking can be a useful technique at the beginning of a project. It can also be an effective way to enhance project management professional development during the project and after the project ends. QUESTION 315 Which process is included in the Project Integration Management Knowledge Area? A. Manage Project Team B. Collect Requirements C. Sequence Activities D. Direct and Manage Project Work Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Knowledge Area: 4. Project Integration Management Process: 4.3. Direct and Manage Project Work Definition: The process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project’s objectives. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides overall management of the project work. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Approved change requests 3. Enterprise environmental factors 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Project management information system 3. Meetings Outputs 1. Deliverables 2. Work performance data 3. Change requests 4. Project management plan updates 5. Project documents updates QUESTION 316 The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables is known as: A. Define Activities. B. Sequence Activities. C. Define Scope. D. Control Schedule. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 194 Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 6.2 Define Activities Definition: The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is to break down work packages into activities that provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring, and controlling the project work. Inputs 1. Schedule management plan 2. Scope baseline 3. Enterprise environmental factors 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Decomposition 2. Rolling wave planning 3. Expert judgment Outputs 1. Activity list 2. Activity attributes 3. Milestone list QUESTION 317 Which document includes the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints? A. Project charter B. Project scope statement C. Scope management plan D. Project document updates Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: The project team must complete a scope statement for developing a common understanding of the project scope among stakeholders. This lists project deliverables – summary level sub-products, whose full and satisfactory delivery marks the completion of the project. QUESTION 318 When an activity cannot be estimated with a reasonable degree of confidence, the work within the activity is decomposed into more detail using which type of estimating? A. Bottom-up B. Parametric C. Analogous D. Three-point Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 195 7.2.2.4 Bottom-Up Estimating Bottom-up estimating is a method of estimating a component of work. The cost of individual work packages or activities is estimated to the greatest level of specified detail. The detailed cost is then summarized or “rolled up” to higher levels for subsequent reporting and tracking purposes. The cost and accuracy of bottom-up cost estimating are typically influenced by the size and complexity of the individual activity or work package. QUESTION 319 Definitions of probability and impact, revised stakeholder tolerances, and tracking are components of which subsidiary plan? A. Cost management plan B. Quality management plan C. Communications management plan D. Risk management plan Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 320 Project or phase closure guidelines or requirements, historical information, and the lessons learned knowledge base are examples of which input to the Close Project or Phase process? A. Organizational process assets B. A work breakdown structure C. The project management plan D. Enterprise environmental factors Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 2.1.4 Organizational Process Assets Organizational process assets are the plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization. They include any artifact, practice, or knowledge from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to perform or govern the project. The process assets also include the organization’s knowledge bases such as lessons learned and historical information. Organizational process assets may include completed schedules, risk data, and earned value data. Organizational process assets are inputs to most planning processes. Throughout the project, the project team members may update and add to the organizational process assets as necessary. Organizational process assets may be grouped into two categories: (1) processes and procedures, and (2) corporate knowledge base. Process: 4.6. Close Project or Phase Definition: The process of finalizing all activities across all of the Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the phase or project. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides lessons learned, the formal ending of project work, and the release of organization resources to pursue new endeavors. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Accepted deliverables 3. Organizational process assets CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 196 Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Analytical techniques 3. Meetings Outputs 1. Final product, service, or result transition 2. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 321 The project manager notes that stakeholders are aware of the project and potential impacts and are actively engaged in ensuring that the project is a success. The engagement level of the stakeholders should be classified as: A. Supportive B. Leading C. Neutral D. Resistant Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 322 Which of the following is a narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by a project? A. Project statement of work B. Business case C. Accepted deliverable D. Work performance information Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 4.1.1.1 Project Statement of Work The project statement of work (SOW) is a narrative description of products, services, or results to be delivered by a project. For internal projects, the project initiator or sponsor provides the statement of work based on business needs, product, or service requirements. For external projects, the statement of work can be received from the customer as part of a bid document, (e.g., a request for proposal, request for information, or request for bid) or as part of a contract. The SOW references the following: Business need. An organization’s business need may be based on a market demand, technological advance, legal requirement, government regulation, or environmental consideration. Typically, the business need and the cost-beneft analysis are contained in the business case to justify the project. Product scope description. The product scope description documents the characteristics of the product, service, or results that the project will be undertaken to create. The description should also document the relationship between the products, services, or results being created and the business need that the project will address. Strategic plan. The strategic plan documents the organization’s strategic vision, goals, and objectives and may contain a high-level mission statement. All projects should be aligned with their organization’s strategic plan. Strategic plan alignment ensures that each project contributes to the overall objectives of the CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 197 organization. QUESTION 323 A project manager seeking insight on previous stakeholder management plans and their effectiveness should evaluate: A. Historical information and the lessons-learned database. B. Historical information and the stakeholder register. C. Organizational process assets and the lessons-learned database. D. Project documents and historical information. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 13.2.1.4 Organizational Process Assets Described in Section 2.1.4. All organizational process assets are used as inputs for the Plan Stakeholder Management process. Of these, lessons learned database and historical information are of particular importance, because they provide insights on previous stakeholder management plans and their effectiveness. These can be used to plan the stakeholder management activities for the current project. 13.2.3.1 Stakeholder Management Plan The stakeholder management plan is a component of the project management plan (Section 4.2.3.1) and identifies the management strategies required to effectively engage stakeholders. The stakeholder management plan can be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed, based on the needs of the project. In addition to the data gathered in the stakeholder register, the stakeholder management plan often provides: Desired and current engagement levels of key stakeholders; Scope and impact of change to stakeholders; identified interrelationships and potential overlap between stakeholders; Stakeholder communication requirements for the current project phase; Information to be distributed to stakeholders, including language, format, content, and level of detail; Reason for the distribution of that information and the expected impact to stakeholder engagement; Time frame and frequency for the distribution of required information to stakeholders; and Method for updating and refining the stakeholder management plan as the project progresses and develops. Project managers should be aware of the sensitive nature of the stakeholder management plan and take appropriate precautions. For example, information on stakeholders who are resistant to the project can be potentially damaging, and due consideration should be given regarding the distribution of such information. When updating the stakeholder management plan, the validity of underlying assumptions should be reviewed to ensure continued accuracy and relevancy. QUESTION 324 Projects are undertaken by an organization to support the: A. Product performance. B. Budget process. C. Collective capabilities. D. Organizational strategy. Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 198 QUESTION 325 What is the probability of occurrence if the risk rating is 0.56 and the impact if the risk does occur is very high (0.80)? A. 0.45 B. 0.56 C. 0.70 D. 1.36 Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 326 Which of the seven basic quality tools is especially useful for gathering attributes data while performing inspections to identify defects? A. Histograms B. Scatter diagrams C. Flowcharts D. Checksheets Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanations: • Checksheets, which are also known as tally sheets and may be used as a checklist when gathering data. Checksheets are used to organize facts in a manner that will facilitate the effective collection of useful data about a potential quality problem. They are especially useful for gathering attributes data while performing inspections to identify defects. For example, data about the frequencies or consequences of defects collected in checksheets are often displayed using Pareto diagrams. QUESTION 327 The most commonly used type of precedence relationship in the precedence diagramming method (PDM) is: A. start-to-start (SS) B. start-to-finish (SF) C. finish-to-start (FS) D. finish-to-finish (FF) Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 328 Work performance information and cost forecasts are outputs of which Project Cost Management process? CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 199 A. Estimate Costs B. Plan Cost Management C. Determine Budget D. Control Costs Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 7.4.3.2 Cost Forecasts Either a calculated EAC value or a bottom-up EAC value is documented and communicated to stakeholders. 4.4.1.5 Work Performance Information Work performance information is the performance data collected from various controlling processes, analyzed in context, and integrated based on relationships across areas. Thus work performance data has been transformed into work performance information. Data in itself cannot be used in the decision-making process as it has only out-of-context meaning. Work performance information, however, is correlated and contextualized, and provides a sound foundation for project decisions. Work performance information is circulated through communication processes. Examples of performance information are status of deliverables, implementation status for change requests, and forecasted estimates to complete. Process: 7.4 Control Costs Definition: The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it determines the cost baseline against which project performance can be monitored and controlled. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Project funding requirements 3. Work performance data 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Earned value management 2. Forecasting 3. To-complete performance index (TCPI) 4. Performance reviews 5. Project management software 6. Reserve analysis Outputs 1. Work performance information 2. Cost forecasts 3. Change requests 4. Project management plan updates 5. Project documents updates 6. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 329 Which technique should a project manager use in a situation in which a collaborative approach to conflict management is not possible? A. Coaching CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 200 B. Avoidance C. Consensus D. Influencing Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 330 The procurement process that documents agreements and related documentation for future reference is known as: A. Plan Procurements. B. Control Procurements. C. Close Procurements. D. Conduct Procurements. Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 12.4 Close Procurements Definition: The process of completing each project procurement. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it documents agreements and related documentation for future reference. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Procurement documents Tools & Techniques 1. Procurement audits 2. Procurement negotiations 3. Records management system Outputs 1. Closed procurements 2. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 331 The links between the processes in the Process Groups are often: A. Intuitive B. Iterative C. Measured D. Monitored Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 201 QUESTION 332 The scope of a project cannot be defined without some basic understanding of how to create the specified: A. objectives B. schedule C. product D. approach Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 333 The creation of an internet site to engage stakeholders on a project is an example of which type of communication? A. Push B. Pull C. Interactive D. Iterative Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 10.1.2.4 Communication Methods There are several communication methods that are used to share information among project stakeholders. These methods are broadly classifed as follows: Interactive communication. Between two or more parties performing a multidirectional exchange of information. It is the most effcient way to ensure a common understanding by all participants on specified topics, and includes meetings, phone calls, instant messaging, video conferencing, etc. Push communication. Sent to specific recipients who need to receive the information. This ensures that the information is distributed but does not ensure that it actually reached or was understood by the intended audience. Push communications include letters, memos, reports, emails, faxes, voice mails, blogs, press releases, etc. Pull communication. Used for very large volumes of information, or for very large audiences, and requires the recipients to access the communication content at their own discretion. These methods include intranet sites, e-learning, lessons learned databases, knowledge repositories, etc. The choices of communication methods that are used for a project may need to be discussed and agreed upon by the project stakeholders based on communication requirements; cost and time constraints; and familiarity and availability of the required tools and resources that may be applicable to the communications process. QUESTION 334 Which component of the human resource management plan describes when and how project team members are acquired and how long they will be needed? A. Resource breakdown structure B. Staffing management plan CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 202 C. Project organizational chart D. Scope management plan Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Staffing management plan. The staffing management plan is a component of the human resource management plan that describes when and how project team members will be acquired and how long they will be needed. It describes how human resource requirements will be met. The staffing management plan can be formal or informal, highly detailed, or broadly framed, depending upon the needs of the project. The plan is updated continually during the project to direct ongoing team member acquisition and development actions. QUESTION 335 The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables is known as: A. Validate Scope. B. Close Project or Phase. C. Control Quality. D. Verify Scope. Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 5.5 Validate Scope Definition: The process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it brings objectivity to the acceptance process and increases the chance of final product, service, or result acceptance by validating each deliverable. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Requirements documentation 3. Requirements traceability matrix 4. Verified deliverables 5. Work performance data Tools & Techniques 1. Inspection 2. Group decision-making techniques Outputs 1. Accepted deliverables 2. Change requests 3. Work performance information 4. Project documents updates QUESTION 336 An output of Control Schedule is: A. A project schedule network diagram B. A schedule management plan CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 203 C. Schedule data D. Schedule forecasts Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 6.7 Control Schedule Definition: Control Schedule is the process of monitoring the status of project activities to update project progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it provides the means to recognize deviation from the plan and take corrective and preventive actions and thus minimize risk. Inputs 1. Project management plan 2. Project schedule 3. Work performance data 4. Project calendars 5. Schedule data 6. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Performance reviews 2. Project management software 3. Resource optimization techniques 4. Modeling techniques 5. Leads and lags 6. Schedule compression 7. Scheduling tool Outputs 1. Work performance information 2. Schedule forecasts 3. Change requests 4. Project management plan updates 5. Project documents updates 6. Organizational process assets updates QUESTION 337 What is the name of the statistical method that helps identify which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development or in production? A. Failure modes and effects analysis B. Design of experiments C. Quality checklist D. Risk analysis Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 338 CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 204 Which is the Define Scope technique used to generate different approaches to execute and perform the work of the project? A. Build vs. buy B. Expert judgment C. Alternatives identification D. Product analysis Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 5.3 Define Scope Definition: The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it describes the product, service, or result boundaries by defining which of the requirements collected will be included in and excluded from the project scope. Inputs 1. Scope management plan 2. Project charter 3. Requirements documentation 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Product analysis 3. Alternatives generation 4. Facilitated workshops Outputs 1. Project scope statement 2. Project documents updates QUESTION 339 Most experienced project managers know that: A. every project requires the use of all processes in the PMBOK® Guide. B. there is no single way to manage a project. C. project management techniques are risk free. D. there is only one way to manage projects successfully. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 340 What is an objective of the Develop Project Team process? A. Feelings of trust and improved cohesiveness B. Ground rules for interaction C. Enhanced resource availability CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 205 D. Functional managers becoming more involved Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Process: 9.3 Develop Project Team Definition: The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Inputs 1. Human resource management plan 2. Project staff assignments 3. Resource calendars Tools & Techniques 1. Interpersonal skills 2. Training 3. Team-building activities 4. Ground rules 5. Colocation 6. Recognition and rewards 7. Personnel assessment tools Outputs 1. Team performance assessments 2. Enterprise environmental factors updates QUESTION 341 The product scope description is used to: A. Gain stakeholders’ support for the project. B. Progressively elaborate the characteristics of the product, service, or result. C. Describe the project in great detail. D. Define the process and criteria for accepting a completed product, service, or result. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 5.3.3.1 Project Scope Statement The project scope statement is the description of the project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints. The project scope statement documents the entire scope, including project and product scope. It describes, in detail, the project’s deliverables and the work required to create those deliverables. It also provides a common understanding of the project scope among project stakeholders. It may contain explicit scope exclusions that can assist in managing stakeholder expectations. It enables the project team to perform more detailed planning, guides the project team’s work during execution, and provides the baseline for evaluating whether requests for changes or additional work are contained within or outside the project’s boundaries. The degree and level of detail to which the project scope statement defines the work that will be performed and the work that is excluded can help determine how well the project management team can control the CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 206 overall project scope. The detailed project scope statement, either directly, or by reference to other documents, includes the following: Product scope description. Progressively elaborates the characteristics of the product, service, or result described in the project charter and requirements documentation. Acceptance criteria. A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted. Deliverable. Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is required to be produced to complete a process, phase, or project. Deliverables also include ancillary results, such as project management reports and documentation. These deliverables may be described at a summary level or in great detail. QUESTION 342 Which technique is used in Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis? A. Sensitivity analysis B. Probability and impact matrix C. Risk data quality assessment D. Risk categorization Correct Answer: A Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 343 Which illustrates the connection between work that needs to be done and its project team members? A. Work breakdown structure (WBS) B. Network diagrams C. Staffing management plan D. Responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). A grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package. QUESTION 344 Which tools or techniques will a project manager use for Develop Project Team? A. Negotiation B. Roles and responsibilities C. Recognition and rewards D. Prizing and promoting Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 207 9.3 Develop Project Team Definition: The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and overall team environment to enhance project performance. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it results in improved teamwork, enhanced people skills and competencies, motivated employees, reduced staff turnover rates, and improved overall project performance. Inputs 1. Human resource management plan 2. Project staff assignments 3. Resource calendars Tools & Techniques 1. Interpersonal skills 2. Training 3. Team-building activities 4. Ground rules 5. Colocation 6. Recognition and rewards 7. Personnel assessment tools Outputs 1. Team performance assessments 2. Enterprise environmental factors updates QUESTION 345 Which of the following is an input to Direct and Manage Project Execution? A. Requested changes B. Approved change requests C. Work performance information D. Implemented defect repair Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 346 Which of the following is TRUE about most project life cycles? A. Staffing level is highest at the start. B. The stakeholders’ influence is highest at the start. C. The level of uncertainty is lowest at the start. D. The cost of changes is highest at the start. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 347 CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 208 An input required in Define Scope is an organizational: A. structure. B. process asset. C. matrix. D. breakdown structure. Correct Answer: B Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 2.1.4 Organizational Process Assets Organizational process assets are the plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by the performing organization. They include any artifact, practice, or knowledge from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to perform or govern the project. The process assets also include the organization’s knowledge bases such as lessons learned and historical information. Organizational process assets may include completed schedules, risk data, and earned value data. Organizational process assets are inputs to most planning processes. Throughout the project, the project team members may update and add to the organizational process assets as necessary. Organizational process assets may be grouped into two categories: (1) processes and procedures, and (2) corporate knowledge base. Process: 5.3 Define Scope Definition: The process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. Key Benefit: The key benefit of this process is that it describes the product, service, or result boundaries by defining which of the requirements collected will be included in and excluded from the project scope. Inputs 1. Scope management plan 2. Project charter 3. Requirements documentation 4. Organizational process assets Tools & Techniques 1. Expert judgment 2. Product analysis 3. Alternatives generation 4. Facilitated workshops Outputs 1. Project scope statement 2. Project documents updates QUESTION 348 What cost control technique is used to compare actual project performance to planned or expected performance? A. Cost aggregation B. Trend analysis C. Forecasting D. Variance analysis Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 209 Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 5.6.2.1 Variance Analysis Variance analysis is a technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance. Project performance measurements are used to assess the magnitude of variation from the original scope baseline. Important aspects of project scope control include determining the cause and degree of variance relative to the scope baseline (Section 5.4.3.1) and deciding whether corrective or preventive action is required. QUESTION 349 What is the term assigned to products or services having the same functional use but different technical characteristics? A. Scope B. Quality C. Specification D. Grade Correct Answer: D Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: QUESTION 350 When is a Salience Model used? A. In a work breakdown structure (WBS) B. During quality assurance C. In stakeholder analysis D. During quality control (QC) Correct Answer: C Section: Volume C Explanation Explanation/Reference: Explanation: 13.1.2.1 Stakeholder Analysis Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project. It identifies the interests, expectations, and influence of the stakeholders and relates them to the purpose of the project. It also helps to identify stakeholder relationships (with the project and with other stakeholders) that can be leveraged to build coalitions and potential partnerships to enhance the project’s chance of success, along with stakeholder relationships that need to be influenced differently at different stages of the project or phase. Stakeholder analysis generally follows the steps described below: Identify all potential project stakeholders and relevant information, such as their roles, departments, interests, knowledge, expectations, and influence levels. Key stakeholders are usually easy to identify. They include anyone in a decision-making or management role who is impacted by the project outcome, such as the sponsor, the project manager, and the primary customer. Identifying other stakeholders is usually done by interviewing identified stakeholders and expanding the list until all potential stakeholders are included. Analyze the potential impact or support each stakeholder could generate, and classify them so as to define an approach strategy. In large stakeholder communities, it is important to prioritize the stakeholders to ensure CAPM www.Dumpsgate.com .com 210 the efficient use of effort to communicate and manage their expectations. Assess how key stakeholders are likely to react or respond in various situations, in order to plan how to influence them to enhance their support and mitigate potential negative impacts. There are multiple classification models used for stakeholders analysis, such as: Power/interest grid, grouping the stakeholders based on their level of authority (“power”) and their level or concern (“interest”) regarding the project outcomes; Power/influence grid, grouping the stakeholders based on their level of authority (“power”) and their active involvement (“influence”) in the project; Influence/impact grid, grouping the stakeholders based on their active involvement (“influence”) in the project and their ability to effect changes to the project’s planning or execution (“impact”); and Salience model, describing classes of stakeholders based on their power (ability to impose their will), urgency (need for immediate attention), and legitimacy (their involvement is appropriate).
Getting started with e-commerce is a process that requires learning about different aspects that influence setting up and running an e-commerce website.
It is also helpful to have in mind the e-commerce statistics that provide a glimpse into the importance of this industry and the trends that are tremendously shaping the way strategy is implemented.
• Millennials and Gen Xers are similar in their likelihood to buy online—more than 90% of internet users in both age groups have made a digital purchase in the past year. But millennials are more likely to research products or make a purchase via their smartphone. (eMarketer).
• In 2015, the global population amounted to around 7.3 billion people, of which 1.4 billion people purchased goods and/or services online at least once. In total, they spent $2,272.7bn online, which results in an average spending per e-shopper of $1,582. (EcommerceWiki).
• Worldwide retail sales—including in-store and internet purchases—will surpass $22 trillion in 2015, up 5.6% from 2014. Retail ecommerce sales, those purchased over the internet, will make up 7.4% of the total retail market worldwide, or $1.671 trillion. By 2019, that share will jump to $3.578 trillion, yet retail ecommerce will account for just 12.8% of retail purchases. (eMarketer).
• About 71% of consumers are shopping online to find the best price. (IBM)
• 53% of global internet users have made an online purchase in 2016. (SocialMediaToday).
• Primary reason for digital shoppers in the United States to abandon their carts is the cost of shipping. (Statista).
• Nine out of 10 of the survey participants said free shipping was the No. 1 incentive when asked what would make them shop online more often. (MarketingLand).
• Average e-commerce conversion rate vary from 3% to 4%. (SocialMediaToday).
• 42 percent of online shoppers worldwide stated that they preferred to pay via credit card, while 39% preferred PayPal. (Statista).
• In 2017, global B2C e-commerce sales are expected to reach 2,143 billion U.S. dollars. (Statista).
• Customer satisfaction is the number one success metric for marketers today. (Salesforce).
• 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if it takes too long to load. (SocialMediaToday).
• Eighty-eight percent of shoppers characterize detailed product content as being extremely important. (Forbes).
• Over 90% of people buying on Amazon wouldn’t purchase an item with less than three stars. (Forbes).
• One-click checkouts and e-wallets will become a game-changer in 2017. (HuffingtonPost).
• 75% of people participate in webrooming to find the lowest price, while 72% do it to compare the products. (RetailPerceptions).
• The main reasons why customers webroom over showroom is because they don’t want to pay for shipping (47%) and because they like to go to a store and touch and feel the product before they buy it. (Shopify).
• Social commerce accounted for 5% of ecommerce. But predictions are healthy and show a 25% growth rate over the next five years. Mobile ads are the backbone of this growth. (HuffingtonPost).
• Mobile remains a powerful upward force for ecommerce. US retail mcommerce will climb 43.2% in 2016, paced by a 78.3% jump in sales via smartphones. (eMarketer).
• In 2015, mobile commerce accounted for 30 percent of all U.S. e-commerce in 2015, and U.S. retail e-commerce dollars are projected to grow to almost 482 billion in 2018. (PointSource).
• 56% of smartphone or tablet users intend to utilize their devices to search for and/or buy gifts this holiday season. (Invesp) With the analysis of the data from numerous researches on the state of e-commerce, the following can be concluded:
• E-commerce market is expanding each year • Mobile commerce is increasing its share in the overall e-commerce • It is important to understand the profile of digital buyers • Digital buyers want quick and easy way to buy online • They also want the best price and free shipping • Webrooming is slowly taking over showrooming.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
The internet has changed people’s lives in numerous ways. From the way we look for information to the way we buy things. Nothing can stop the fast development of this immersion into the new technologies that we have now reached the point where we can no longer even imagine our lives without the internet.
In such a reality, people are trying to adapt their lives and to get the best out of it.
They want to improve their lives and become more efficient. Why would they go to the restaurant for dinner if they can order food in? Why would they spend time shopping when they can order everything they need in less than ten minutes?
There is a constant trend to use the internet, not only to find out information but to get things done.
Buyers and sellers
On the one hand, we have buyers, people who try to make their lives easier and better by buying online.
Regardless if we talk about making a grocery shopping quick and easy, or ordering an item from abroad.
The internet enables fulfilling those needs and the ability to obtain something you could not even imagine two decades ago.
Besides convenience, online shopping also provides a great selection of products and services, as well as competitive prices. This is something that provides an incredible advantage over any local retail.
Due to the growing expansion of the internet and the fact that new generations are growing up with the internet experience being part of their lives from the early days, the number of digital buyers is constantly on the rise.
From 1.32 billion digital buyers in 2014, this number is expected to grow to more than 2 billion by 2020.
On the other hand, we have people who create or simply resell the products through the usage of the internet. These sellers are turning to the internet as a tool to run their business and ultimately earn their living. Some are choosing the existing platforms specialized in the sale of goods, such as eBay, while others decide to create their online stores.
Either way, the goal is to reach consumers and encourage them to buy. As a seller, your goal is first to reach the digital buyers, and then persuade them to buy from you, using a series of promotional activities, online interaction, etc.
E-commerce
Buyers and sellers together make up e-commerce, short for electronic commerce. E-commerce is the transaction between a buyer and a seller, which is done through online technologies.
It is the process of using the internet to buy or sell online Despite the fact that e-commerce is something available to anyone and in spite of how easy it might be to start selling products and services online, there are many struggles to make this business viable and actually capitalize your efforts in the digital world.
As the market gets saturated, day by day, it becomes even more difficult to place your products on that market.
A modern consumer is overwhelmed with numerous advertising messages each day. He is also mobile, which means easy access to the information and ability to buy on the go.
A modern consumer is also doubtful and equivocal. Faced with plenty of choices and alternatives, a modern consumer needs to make decisions on a daily basis.
All of this shapes the approach of modern businesses whose goal is to reach that modern consumer and persuade him that theirs is the product they should buy.
It is not an easy task, but with the right strategy and tools, you should be able to introduce and position your company on the e-commerce market.
Action Point PS: If you would like to have an online course on any of the courses that you found on this blog, I will be glad to do that on an individual and corporate level, I will be very glad to do that because I have trained several individuals and groups and they are doing well in their various fields of endeavour. Some of those that I have trained include staff of Dangote Refinery, FCMB, Zenith Bank, and New Horizons Nigeria among others. Please come on Whatsapp and let’s talk about your training. You can reach me on Whatsapp HERE. Please note that I will be using Microsoft Team to facilitate the training.
I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you can drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNUGGETS is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
Anime as a company is doing pretty and they are still growing stronger. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemics, the company makes about $ 24 billion in sales. Although their sales were affected during the pandemic, that does not mean you can still not make money from Anime as a company.
In this article, I want to talk about Affiliate Marketing Anime Youtube 2022. I will be looking at some of the Affiliate Programs that they have and how you can use that in monetising your website.
Here are some of the programmes that they have that you can actually consider:
This Company happens to be one of the respected household names when it comes to anime title distribution. They are not new in the business as they have been doing that since 1987. They are also known for really some of the most popular titles in that category.
This company pays a 10% commission if you sign up for their anime affiliate marketing on Youtube. If you are also lucky to refer new customers, you will be paid 5% commission as well. They have many exciting products such as Blue-Ray, DVDs, toys and apparel among other exciting products.
#2 Funimation Affiliate Marketing Anime Youtube
This is another anime distributor that is doing wonderfully well. This company has been in existence since the year 1994 and they are responsible for the distribution of some of the award-winning anime titles as well.
Just like Right stuff Anime, they also pay 10% for every sale generated and pay a 5% Welcome Bonus for every signup for their new customers as well. Their products also include Blue-Ray, DVDs and more just like their counterpart.
Just like Funimation, they offer 10% commission on every customer referred, they also give a 5% bonus to new customers as well. Their product is also similar to that of their counterparts as well.
#4 The Anime Corner Store
The anime corner store also specialises in Anime and Manga products merchandise as well. It started operation in 2001 and has a wide range of products to offer its teeming customers.
Just like their fellow competitors, they also offer a 10% signup bonus to their affiliates and they also give a 5% welcome bonus to new customers that are buying from them for the very first time.
#5 Tokyo Otaku mode
This company also specialises in anime and manga merchandise. They started operation in 2012 and have a wide range of products to show for it. Just like their other counterparts, when you sign up as an Affiliate, you get 10% for every sale that you refer. Your user also gets 5% commission once they sign up with them.
#6 Solaris Japan Affiliate Marketing Anime Youtube
Solaris Japan Affiliate Marketing Anime Youtube has been in operation since 2006. They also have a wide range of products to offer their teeming affiliates and audience.
They also offer a 10 percent commission to their Affiliates for every customer that they refer to them as well as a 5% sign-up bonus for their new customers as well.
#7 Amazon
When it comes to Amazon, they need no introduction. They are the largest online retailer in the world. They also deal with Anime and Manga products as well. They also offer a 10% commission to Anime affiliates working with them.
They also have 5% commission for anyone that purchases anime products from them as well.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
I don’t know if I am the only one that is always pissed when someone comes online or on social media platforms to display earning figures that are too good to be true.
I have watched several videos online where someone holds hard currency and tell you that you are a fool if you have a phone and internet connection and you are not making up to $300 in a month. I will not want you to dispute that.
In this article, I want to tell you some of the characteristics that you should look out for in Affiliate marketing coaches. Let us look at some of these characteristics together in this article.
I want to approach this article based on the premise that you cannot give what you don’t have. Before you choose your desired Affiliate marketing Coaches.
What are those things that you see in his life that make you choose him? If some of the characteristics I want to mention in this article are missing, he is not the right person for you.
Here are the qualities:
#1 Determination
When you are about to choose your mentor in Affiliate marketing, you have to ensure that you choose one that is ready to give all it takes to succeed. He should not be someone that gives up easily. Success in Affiliate marketing is not something that comes overnight.
It is full of Up and down. Your Affiliate Marketing coach must be someone that is ready to do the needful in order to succeed.
#2 Creative Spirit
Another quality that you should look out for in your desired Affiliate Marketing coaches is creativity and innovation. It has to be someone that is ready to think out of the box.
He must be ready to try something new even if no one has ever tried that particular method. You should know that technology is ever-changing. If you are afraid of trying something new, you may not be able to advance in your career. That’s the bitter truth.
#3 Willingness to succeed
Another major element that you should look out for in your desired Affiliate Marketing coaches is the desire to succeed. When you have the willingness to succeed, you will be eager to learn new things and acquire new knowledge in your chosen niche.
This same training and willingness spirit will be passed to their mentees who are under their tutelage. A good Affiliate marketer will want to do all that it takes to succeed. He will never take “No” for an answer.
#4 Organisation
There are times that some of these coaches who like to dish out figures think they can actually do many things at the same time.
There is a single word to qualify them, they are simply disorganised and cannot achieve much.
A good Digital Marketer should know how to prioritise tasks and understand that one task has to be completed before you jump to another task. Such coaches will end up confusing you. They are not a good example to follow.
#5 Motivation
A good Affiliate Marketer is self-motivated. They do not need anyone to hype them before they are dedicated to tasks. Such individuals are ready to be a lone rangers if that is needed in order for them to succeed.
To be candid, good Affiliate Marketers are not motivational speakers that will come online to dish out figures, they preferred to be discovered by a Diligent student.
As some people will say, you should never believe everything that you saw on social media. Before you jumped at a mentor, take time to find out whether they are saying the truth or not.
No matter how good your plan is on paper, if you are not disciplined, you might not be able to achieve that goal. A good Affiliate Marketer should not be discouraged or distracted. He has to stay on one goal until his objective is achieved.
Concluding Thought
So, when next you need to make a decision on who will tutor you in Affiliate marketing, you have to make sure that you are guided based on the principles that I have mentioned above.
If you are also an Affiliate Marketer and you have not been following these principles, you need to retrace your step in order to succeed.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
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Try to make your listing stand out from the crowd. Does the page contain any unique selling points?
Describe the page in a natural language and enticing enough to encourage click-throughs
Keep short and concise
Max space is 156 characters (around two short sentences)
Be careful with keywords
Include the main keyword or a close variation
Keywords in meta description DO NOT directly improve rankings, so avoid keyword stuffing
Some extra info: Occasionally Google will write its own Meta Description tags in the SERPs if one hasn’t been written or isn’t deemed relevant enough to the keywords used by a searcher.
This meta description includes some benefits, that the process is going to be quick and easy. It’s written with the user in mind with “your specific riding habits”. It includes the main keyword but in a way that makes the snippet relevant to the user and not spammy.
The chosen meta description tag is: Quick and easy snowboard size calculator and sizing charts, to help you find the right gear for you and your specific riding habits.
Note: In this example, the user searches for “snowboard sizing” and even though that exact phrase isn’t mentioned, a close variant (snowboard size) is mentioned, so Google chooses to bold the text. When text is bolded, this improves the chances of the listing being clicked on.
Over time a page will build up the trust and authority which is assigned to its URL. Changing a URL without redirecting appropriately can lose trust. Because of this, it’s best not to change a URL where possible and to try and get them right from the start.
Why URLs are important:
It’s a lightweight on-page SEO signal
They are seen in the search results so they can attract click-throughs when relevant
Search Engines index and retrieve pages based on the URL – and build up search engine trust through them
By default, URLs are often generated from the main heading of the page by the CMS. This is good as default as relevancy is added but the downside is that they often become long and repetitive, so ideally they need to be changed to something different and shorter.
How to optimize URLs:
Include the main keyword or a close variation
Keep short and concise (around 70 characters before truncation)
Set URLs right at the beginning
Stick to conventions
Use dashes “-” instead of underscores “_” to separate words
Use lowercase characters
Headings help outline what a webpage is about. They are used in a similar way as Microsoft Word. The main heading should be within an H1 tag, secondary headings in H2 tags, and tertiary in H3 tags and this can go all the way up to H6 tags.
Why headings are important:
Headings are one of the first things a user notices and the main heading (H1 tag) needs to be relevant to what they have searched. Users scan a page’s headlines before deciding whether to read the whole page or go back to where they have come from.
It’s a medium weight on-page SEO signal and adds relevancy to the page.
There are six header tags (H1 through to H6) which are used to outline the hierarchy of content. The main heading should be in an H1 tag. Secondary sub-headings should be in H2 tags. H3 – H6 tags aren’t used as often in body copy but work in the same hierarchal sub-heading way.
The main copy is ultimately where the user is going to find what they are looking for or not, so search engines pay close attention to it.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
In this article, I want to highlight the three types of search engine optimization. Follow me as we are going to look at that together in this article. The optimisation process is broken down into the three core and timeless SEO principles: #1 Technical Optimization #2 On-Page Optimization #3 Off-Page Optimization
It also looks at how we can apply the theory to a real-life successful SEO campaign.
While it can help if you have a technical background, many technical optimization tasks can be either completed or directed by a non-technical person. Remember Technical Optimization is one of the three Pillars to SEO. We can think of these as broad categories for SEO that everything else fits under.
Examples of technical optimizations are making sure a website has clean code, is free from site and URL errors and has minimal duplicate content. We’ll now discuss some of these and others in more detail.
Features of technical optimization:
Activities: involves SEO activities completed on your site that are designed to improve SEO but are not related to content
Ranking factors: this stage is mostly about optimizing the crawlability of the site so that content can be easily found and indexed. Contains a small amount of less essential ranking factors but is still essential to get right
Tech Help: they may require the help of a web developer or someone technical because many changes require code tweaks within the website
Time investment: this is mainly up-front work, with some ongoing maintenance
Tools: there are lots of great tools that can help diagnose technical issues, including Google Search Console, Screaming Frog SEO Spider and Xenu Link Sleuth
Note: Google Search Console was called Google Webmaster Tools, so when you research online you may see both being referenced. The following text is borrowed from the Google Search Console help pages and you can find a link in the references below.
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We will appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
Fact Check Policy
CRMNuggets is committed to fact-checking in a fair, transparent and non-partisan manner. Therefore, if you’ve found an error in any of our reports, be it factual, editorial, or an outdated post, please contact us to tell us about it.
