Business Process Mapping for CRM

Any business that is planning a change from the traditional way of doing business (delivering what is good for you) to a customer-centric way of doing business (delivering what is good for the customer and then you) will require a re-alignment of information flow and work flow by going through a business process mapping exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to expose the the fundamental inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of cross-functional work flows.

In the front office, the biggest problem is always in the hand off of information between functional units like Sales and Marketing, or Sales and Customer Service. And once you begin the business process mapping exercise you will also likely find redundant work processes from department to department. The goal of realigning processes for CRM is to look at how things flow from a customers perspective. Bottlenecks, delays or even asking the customer to bridge the gap between departments, only serves to lower their satisfaction with the process and ultimately leads to lower customer loyalty.

What to expect from realigning business process

The guru on realigning front office work flows for CRM is Dick Lee of High Yield Methods. He was writing about what CRM really is way back in the 1990's. Back then, I was simply plowing forward in my standard VAR mode. I still can't believe how long it took me to understand the fundamental changes that need to take place in a company in order for CRM to be a success. For a long time, I thought all the problems were technical in nature. I was really mistaken.

Dick has developed a business process mapping methodology called Visual Workflow designed specifically for the front office. He feels, and I agree, that there are fundamental differences between front and back office environments. Here are a few of his examples (see his white paper on Visual Workflow:

Office	Manufacturing
Low repetition	High repetition
Decision-based business process	Fixed business process
Adaptability is critical	Consistency is critical
Majority of defects at the workflow level	Majority of defects at the work process level
Invisible Defects	Visible Defects
Empowered staff	Compliant staff

Those area just a few examples of the differences. It's important to keep these in mind because methodologies like Six Sigma were designed for manufacturing processes. Frankly, anything with a cottage industry attached to it scares me. So I like Dick's more appropriate approach.

The Outcome

Probably the most important thing about realigning business processes are the outcomes.

• Driving toward shared objectives across functional lines
• Building a stronger relationship with your customer
• Building stronger cross functional employee relationships
• Eliminating workflow bottlenecks etc.

The outcomes of your alignment need to address the specific challenges of front office work flow, especially those designed with the customer at the center. A process for forming sheet metal is difference than a workflow where people are empowered to make decisions. Business Process Mapping is a powerful and necessary tool in your CRM initiative, but choosing the wrong methodology could hurt your efforts.

Business Process Mapping
More information on Realigning Work Flows