Customer Relationship Management

&
the Contact Centre

Placing the customer at the centre of a large

multi-brand conglomerate

David Ford
Strategic Advisor, Al-Futtaim Group
 ‘Leading strategic thinkers are moving beyond
a focus on traditional product and services development
to pioneer development of business processes,
distribution, value chain, business models and even
functional management‘ McKinsey Quarterly
Agenda

An introduction to the Al-Futtaim Group

Customer Relationship Management and why the Contact Centre is key

Challenges and Approach

What drives a great Contact Centre experience

Criteria for Solution Selection

Closing Comments
An introduction to the
Al-Futtaim Group

Founded over 80 years ago

More than 50 companies within the group

Home to multiple leading brands

Some trivia
 Electronics
One in every 3 households in the UAE
has at least one electronic or home appliance product from Al-Futtaim.

 Automotive
Four of every 10 cars on the roads of the UAE are from Al-Futtaim.

 Retail
Every 3 seconds, a purchase is made from an Al-Futtaim retail outlet.

Large and diverse company

Serve large and very diverse customer segments

Providing a consistent customer experience across the diversity is a challenge

Knowing our customers well enough to effectively cross-sell is a further challenge
Maximizing the Customer Engagement

Customer Satisfaction:
 Who are our customers and what do they think of us?
 How do we ensure positive customer interaction at every contact?

Incremental Revenue:
 How do we create incremental revenue streams by up and cross-selling to our
customers?

Reduce OPEX:
 How do we use tools to optimize productivity?
 How do we standardize on the solution and reduce IT costs?
 How do we optimize our marketing spend?

Operational Excellence:
 How do we drive adoption of best practice?
 What organizational structure will enable a customer engagement strategy?
 How would we measure success?
 How can we share information in a transparent way and leverage effectively?

It is 5x more expensive to gain a new customer than retaining a

current customer
Comprehensive Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)

• Concept Development
• Feature and Function
• Segmentation Prioritization
• Behavior Modeling D • Customer Panel
ev

ar nd ng
• Scoring and Targeting e Management
O lop

M a eti
• Campaign Management • Cost Positions

g
rg
ffe m

tin
• Pricing requirements
rin en
Ta

ke
• Promotion Management
• Win/loss analysis g to • Competitive Intelligence
f and Research

CENTRALISED
• Share-of-wallet CONTACT
analysis Retention CENTRE
• Loyalty program and Sales
Management
• Retention
Win-back
Management • Sales Forecasting
• Win-back campaign • Lead Management
Management • Bid and Quote
• Collaborative Superior Management
• Pipeline
Innovation Experience Management
• Cross selling
• Personalization
• Presales Experience • Order Management
• Offering Delivery
• Interaction management and help desk
• Queue management and escalation
• Service broadcasting
A Centralized Contact Centre Experience
is key to a Successful CRM Strategy

Based on market survey in EMEA*

 73% of customers will do business with a company based on a great call centre
experience
 15% will do this even if prices are higher
 52% of customers stated that the last time they stopped doing business with a
company was partly or wholly due to poor customer service
 40% of customers have stopped doing business with a company due to poor call
centre experience

Further customer feedback

93% 89%
88%

63%

Want to receive pro-active Are frustrated by long hold times Would prefer a call back Would have positive opinion if
communication received curtsey call
Proposed Approach to CRM
Development

Focused drive on enhancing the Customer Experience supported by best practice

business process, KPIs and benchmarking
 Increase customer satisfaction

 Strive towards operational excellence

Embed strong Change Management to deal with cultural changes requirement

Centralized Contact Centre to manage the inbound engagement (and later, outbound)
with consistent customer experience and retain brand ethos

Centralized Customer Data Base (with brand differentiation)

Customer segmentation for outbound campaigns

Phased rollout across the Al-Futtaim Group

What Drives a Great Contact
Centre Experience

1. Personalize the customer service experience

2. Deliver first-contact resolution with streamline
Interactive Voice Recognition systems
3. Connect customers with the most suitable
agents (eg language of choice)
4. Vary service levels by segment/brand
5. Offer a broader choice of customer service
channels (ie all media types)
6. Organize customer service resources creatively
7. Delight customers with pro-active contact
8. Measure performance appropriately
9. Ask for feedback
10. Keep measuring and innovating
Criteria for Solution Selection

Solution had to be recognized as best in class (we’re looking for world

class best practice!)

Ability to scale as well as support future growth

Integration into SAP was an imperative

Referencability

Partners’ ability to provide ongoing support

Systems Integrator Partner

Contact Centre Management Infrastructure Solutions

Solution
Closing Comments

CRM requires a cultural change with organizations

CRM can be enabled by technology, but this alone will not deliver business
benefits – Change Management is vital

The Contact Centre is often the most common interface the customer has with
a company and it clearly needs to be excellent

The Contact Centre is at the centre of a CRM Strategy

The customer experience needs to be consistently enhanced

Customer segmentation/differentiation is next step in the evolution

It’s an ongoing business process and will create sustainable competitive

advantage

Remember: if you aren’t listening to your customers, your competitors

will
 Thank you
David Ford
Strategic Advisor, Al-Futtaim Group