Customer Relationship Manager

[Shaggy]

Hi all

Just wanted to get some views on what the more experienced of you understand a Customer Relationship Manager role to entail.

What functions would be performed, how much service management experience would be required etc.

Would appreciate comments from anyone who has performed or is performing this role or who has worked with someone who has performed or is performing this type of role.

TIA.

[BorisBear]

I am a Client Service Manager and my role consists of:

* Single Point Of Contact for customers (the people who pay the bill) in major incident/escalation scenarios.
* Service Level Management - helping customers to define new SLRs and holding Service Performance Reviews with customers.
* Dealing with the 5% of issues that aren't picked up by due process - i.e. the calls from customers along the lines of "I know it can take up to 3 days to get my PC fixed but I really need it fixed by midday so I can do end of month accounting".


A fairly senior role where you need to be confident dealing with all levels of Business as well as being technical-savvy in order to drive customer requirements.

[Shaggy]

Boris, Hi

Thank you for the response.

This sounds similar to the CRM role.

If at all possible, could I contact you directly to discuss the role in more detail.

The reason I ask is that I am looking at applying for such a role but could really do with some additional information.

TIA.

[asrilrm]

Hi,

In connection with ITIL, CRM is another discipline. It's task is far more than doing technical stuff.
However, if you should make a connection with ITIL, then ITIL SLM is part of the CRM to manage SLAs and requests.
Other non-technical tasks for CRM such as speeding up invoice payments, building intimacy with customers, and so on.

At the end, the CRM's main goal is to maintain existing customers (business-wide), while SLM's goal is to maintain service level (technical-wide).

There are many articles about CRM at the net.

Cheers,
Asril

[Shaggy]

Asril, Hi

Thank you for the response.

Would you be able to provide me with some links to these articles.

They would be very helpful.

Regards.

[asrilrm]

Don't be spoiled, mate.
Just google with subject "Customer Relationship Management" and you'll find a bunch of it.

But I'll PM you about trusted sites, if you want.

Cheers,
Asril

[Shaggy]

If you could PM some sites that would be great.

I searched last night but didn't have much luck in finding anything relevant.

There was a lot of stuff out there, but most of it wasn't of much use.

Thanks again.

[asrilrm]

It seems that my PM is not activated, and for the moment I don't know how to activate it.
If you could provide me with your email address, then I would gladly send you a good article about it

[Shaggy]

OK - you can use:

saks at easy dot com

[asrilrm]

Ok, I'll give you one good website on this
(I hope the Admin won't kill me for doing this)

Try searchcrm.techtarget.com, you will find many related articles there, including the roles and responsibilities of the CR manager.

Good luck

[Shaggy]

Many thanks, I will take a look.

[Shaggy]

Just taken a look - seems to be more to do with CRM software as opposed to a CRM role in an ITIL environment.

Is that correct?

[asrilrm]

You need to explore more.
But I will send you the link through email

[asrilrm]

Wait a minute, you said CRM role in ITIL?
You won't find one
Refer to my previous answer, ITIL SLM is part of CRM's tasks that relates with managing Service Levels. CRM is much larger than SLM.
So the roles and responsibilities of the Service Level Manager would be sufficient in the context of ITIL V2.
If you want to refer to V3, then you will have to dig out more on it.