White PapersThis study shows how European SMBs have emerged from the recession and now indicate that their main priorities are growing their revenues and customer bases. Cost-cutting was not prioritized as a business objective. Indeed, Datamonitor has forecast that European SMBs will spend over $400m on CRM technologies alone in 2005
European SMBs are positive about the market. Datamonitor believes that SMBs will increase their spending on implementing CRM strategies and technologies, and on aligning people and process to any new technology investment. A focus on growth of customer bases and revenues will translate in a focus on processes and systems (and company cultures) to manage these new relationships effectively and profitably.
When forced to choose one business objective, almost 46% stated that growing revenue and maximizing margins were their top objectives, with an additional 23% noting that improving customer service was a top priority. In contrast only 5.8% cited cutting costs as a priority.
Results of a Europe-wide survey of small andmedium-sized businessesGoing for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meetcustomer demands? Untitled DocumentABOUT DATAMONITORDatamonitor plc is a premium business information company specializing in industry analysis.We help our clients, 5000 of the world s leading enterprises, to address complex strategicissues.Through our proprietary databases and wealth of expertise, we provide clients with unbiasedexpert analysis and in-depth forecasts for six industry sectors: Automotive, Consumer Markets,Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Technology.Datamonitor maintains its headquarters in London and has regional offices in New York,Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo.Untitled DocumentTable of ContentsIntroduction1Going for Growth6SMBs Report Significant Investments in CRM9SMBs are not setting goals or measuring results13No Process = Poor Execution15Drivers for SMB CRM Adoption17Best Practice19Strategic Recommendations20Research Methodology21Results of a Europe-wide survey of small and medium-sized businessesGoing for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meetcustomer demands? Untitled DocumentINTRODUCTIONPutting customers at the heart of business is important for all companies, large and small. In the late 1990s,Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was largely the domain of large businesses which could afford to spendmillions on CRM strategies, software, integration and change management services in order to transform their sales,marketing and customer service operations. While larger companies embraced CRM in the late 1990s, in 2005 thefocus has shifted towards smaller businesses.Datamonitor can reveal some major findings:" Going for growth, not cutting costsEuropean SMBs have emerged from the recession and now indicate that their main priorities are growing theirrevenues and customer bases. Cost-cutting was not prioritized as a business objective. Indeed, Datamonitor hasforecast that European SMBs will spend over 400m on CRM technologies alone in 2005 (see Datamonitorreport CRM for SMBs, DMTC1030, November 2004)." SMBs have invested in some key customer-focused technologiesOur study reveals that SMBs across Europe have made CRM investments. But there are two caveats .1The existing investments are not thought of as being part of a comprehensive CRM or customer management strategy.2SMBs are failing at the execution stage. The technology may already be there but the results of our anonymous buyer survey indicate they are not being used effectively." Most SMBs which have invested in CRM are seeing benefitsEuropean SMBs which have CRM claim it has worked. They have realized a significant return on investment andstrongly indicate that the technology is very useful." But most businesses with a CRM strategy fail to executeFew SMBs set any performance targets for their sales, service or marketing staff. It is rare for a European SMB toguarantee response times or measure the quality of its responses to customer inquiries." Many see no links between organizational silos such as sales, marketing and serviceWhile respondents claimed a high adoption rate of point CRM technologies (for example, Sales ForceAutomation), relatively few indicated an understanding of CRM as a series of linked technologies which, whenworking together, can generate even more operational benefits. In this way, SMBs may be mimicking themistakes of larger enterprises in the past decade." SMBs want flexibility from their CRM supplierSmaller businesses in Europe want to choose among various CRM delivery models hosted, managed serviceand premise-based solutions. One model will not satisfy all SMBs." CRM: an opportunity for SMBs to punch above their weightThe survey results indicate that SMBs are striving for a way to punch above their weight and not just meetcompetition from fellow SMBs, but also challenge larger competing enterprises. Datamonitor firmly believesSMBs in Europe can leverage their CRM investments to gain competitive advantage and meet their stated goalsof increasing customer activities and growing revenues.page 5Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?This is a study about CRM strategies, technologies and practices in European small andmedium businesses based on research of 1000 of these organizations in late 2004. Small andmedium-sized businesses (SMBs) are defined as companies with fewer than 1000 employees.Datamonitor conducted this extensive and comprehensive study of SMBs in five majorEuropean countries - the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The study focusedon uncovering the attitudes among SMB executives which are both holding back and spurringon CRM investment.Untitled DocumentGOING FOR GROWTHSMBs expect market growthEuropean SMBs are positive about the market. Datamonitor believes that SMBs will increase their spending onimplementing CRM strategies and technologies, and on aligning people and process to any new technologyinvestment. A focus on growth of customer bases and revenues will translate in a focus on processes and systems(and company cultures) to manage these new relationships effectively and profitably.When forced to choose one business objective from the list in REF _Ref76698190 Figure 1, almost 46% stated thatgrowing revenue and maximizing margins were their top objectives, with an additional 23% noting that improvingcustomer service was a top priority. In contrast only 5.8% cited cutting costs as a priority.Figure 1: Going for GrowthA focus on cutting costs usually translates into reduced investment in people, process and technology. A focus ongrowing business, on the other hand, translates in to an increasing willingness to spend on new organizationalstrategies and the systems which support them. While Datamonitor has forecast that European SMBs will spend over 400m on CRM technologies in 2005, they will spend more than 550m in 2007 (source: Datamonitor report CRMfor SMBs, DMTC1030, November 2004).page 6Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentIndustry and country trendsSpecific industries which bucked this trend were automotive, energy, the public sector and travel/transport. Theseare sectors which are not known for their past investment in customer-focused strategies; indeed they are all facingthe challenge of increased competitive pressures due to deregulation and legislation mandating transparency (publicsector). Many of these same sectors also had a higher than average focus on cutting costs . Datamonitor views this asan opportunity these are exactly the firms which will gain the most competitive advantage when investing in thepeople, processes and technologies which enable better client service.Figure 2: Business objective by industry sectorSMBs in the United Kingdom were the most aggressive in terms of growth with over 60% claiming that growingrevenues was their top priority. In contrast, German businesses were, in general, more concerned about cost cutting,with only 42% focused on revenue gains and over 10% keen to cut costs first. This is clearly a result of a slowereconomic recovery in Germany when compared to the UK. The Spanish and Italians rated improving customerservice as key (37% and 40%, respectively, rated customer service improvement as their top priority). Spanish andItalian respondents were also even more pessimistic than Germans about the opportunity to grow revenues in 2005.The overall pessimism of the continental European respondents is reflective of the relative sluggishness of theEuroland economies.page 7Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFigure 3: Business objective by countryDatamonitor believes there is a particular opportunity in Spain and Italy for smaller businesses to make the linkbetween improving customer service and retention and increasing revenues. Spanish and Italian SMBs which investin improving their customer strategies should gain an early advantage over their local competition and also see anuptick in revenues as their customers stay loyal and spend more.European SMBs are poised for growthWhile some industries and countries deviate from the average, the overall result is clear: European SMBs are positiveabout the market outlook in 2005 and are gearing up to grow their businesses.With a focus on increasing revenues, this research investigates whether these SMBs have the infrastructure in placeto:" Successfully manage their sales opportunities;" Deliver effective customer service;" Market to a set budget and track results.The findings were mixed. Those SMBs that are investing are reporting benefits. Given renewed confidence in themarket, European SMBs are at the stage where a strategic investment in CRM could enable them to gain competitiveadvantage, punch above their weight in a crowded market, and meet their stated goal of aggressive growth.page 8Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentSMBS REPORT SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS IN CRMSMBs do invest in key CRM technologiesContrary to assumptions that SMBs are well-behind large enterprises in their approach to sophisticated customermanagement IT strategies, our survey reveals that European SMBs are investing in sales pipeline management toolsand customer contact management tools. These are some of the silos of a full CRM strategy.While many SMBs may not link the silos (sales force automation and customer service automation) into a single CRM project , departmental-level point solutions are proving popular. This is a theme throughout the findings -European SMBs are making point investments in CRM technologies and not approaching CRM as a strategy whichtransforms business processes and breaks down previously siloed business functions.REF _Ref90809029 \h Figure 4 and REF _Ref90809035 \h Figure 5 indicate that, for example, in most countries,adoption rates for sales pipeline management are in the 60% range, which marks good progress towards automatingkey functions and capturing customer and prospect data. There is no significant variation by industry sector or SMBcompany size.Figure 4: Do you have a tool that helps you manage a sales pipeline? Figure 5: Do you have a tool to manage your employees customer contacts? page 9Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFigure 5 above reveals that adoption rates for customer contact management are slightly higher than for salespipeline management. This result indicates awareness among SMBs that employee contacts with customers must becaptured not just for customer service and sales purposes, but also to prevent revenue loss should the employee leavethe company.SMBs rated CRM as very useful When Datamonitor pushed further and asked those people who have invested in the technology to rate theusefulness of their CRM investment, the results were strongly positive.Figure 6: Do you have a sales pipeline tool? If yes, how useful has it been?" In all countries, existing sales pipeline tools and customer contact management tools were deemed eithermoderately or very useful by over 90% of those who had them;" There is no significant variation by company size or industry;" This indicates that key decision makers in smaller European businesses do realize a significant return oninvestment for their point-CRM projects;" However, Datamonitor notes that European SMBs may find their existing CRM investments beneficial, but thereis a huge execution gap and SMBs are not fully realizing the benefits of their IT investment. The findings of ourown anonymous buyer tests among these same SMBs prove this (the anonymous buyer results are presentedand discussed in Figure 12 and Figure 13 below).page 10Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFigure 7: If you have a customer contact management tool, how useful has it been?SMBs: are they maximizing returns on their IT investments?While these survey results indicate that SMBs are prepared to invest in various CRM technologies, the results of theanonymous buyer tests on this same population of European SMBs reveal a different picture that European SMBsare failing to fully leverage their CRM capabilities by not setting targets for service levels and by not responding tocustomer inquiries according to best-practice norms. The tests revealed that when SMBs failed to respond torequests for information over the phone and via email.Datamonitor believe this is because each CRM technology investment remains siloed and SMBs are still not fullyaware of the benefits which can result from knocking down the walls between marketing, sales and service. Such bestpractices will be presented later in this study.No link between discrete CRM technologiesAlthough demand for specific CRM technologies has fluctuated since the late 1990s, there is no question that CRMstrategies and technologies have both transformed businesses and customer expectations in the world s leadingeconomies. The growth of contact centers globally is one consequence of changing customer demands for access tocompanies, and of increased efforts by small and large businesses to reach out proactively to get new customers.Large enterprises have led the way by embracing CRM; meanwhile, many smaller companies have still not made theconnection between specific CRM technologies and the concept of Customer Relationship management as a whole.If smaller businesses in Europe want to compete against the industry leaders, they need to do more than followenterprises exhibiting best practice; they need to use their nimbleness to leap ahead.Figure 8 shows that 61% of European SMBs do not believe they have CRM technology. However, more than 60% ofEuropean companies report using contact management and sales force automation tools, which are indeed CRMtechnologies.page 11Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFigure 8: Do you have response time targets? This is yet another example of the disconnected, siloed approach smaller businesses are taking towards initiatingprocess and technology change in their organizations.Datamonitor believes this disconnect in the heads of SMB decision makers is the result of several factors:" A sense that CRM as a concept is the territory of large enterprises, even though currently available high-functionality, low-price CRM solutions on the market mean that this is certainly not the case. One UK-basedSMB executive told Datamonitor that her understanding is that most CRM systems are designed for things likethe National Health Service or much larger organizations. " A perception that CRM is a large business transformation process which is long, painful and expensive, andwhich requires the expertise of a global consulting firm." A lack of awareness that many best practices developed by consulting companies in engagements with largeenterprises are now well-established and that such services are often packaged to be delivered at lower pricepoints which suit SMBs;" Little understanding of the opportunity to increase the ROI from their existing IT infrastructure, and boostcompetitiveness, by linking processes across their businesses;" Few case studies by CRM solutions providers which are focused on demonstrating SMB success. In the words ofanother SMB executive: I would need to see examples of small companies and companies like ours using aCRM system because I would not even know what functionalities we need. page 12Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentSMBS ARE NOT SETTING GOALS OR MEASURING RESULTSTechnology: link it to people and processCRM is not just a technology. CRM is a strategy to know, win and keep more profitable customers. It involveschanges to people and processes technology is a key enabler and supporter of these changes, but it can not beconsidered the only part of a successful CRM strategy.Good intentions aside, European SMBs are not linking their technology investments to people and process. This isclearly evident when European small and medium-sized businesses indicated that they did not set target responsetimes for customer inquiries.Figure 9: Do you have response time targets?Without time targets, employees have no baseline to drive their activities, and small businesses are unable to offercustomers and prospects a service-level guarantee. This is a perfect example of the importance of people and processin the success of a technology.If European SMBs want to compete with larger enterprises, they need to adopt best practices which not only mimicthose of larger competitors, but beat them. These best practices will be described in a later section.Germany lagsWhile there was little variation in target setting by industry sector, SMBs in the United Kingdom have come closer tograsping the need to couple CRM investment with response targets (55% do so today). In contrast, less than 30% ofGerman small and medium businesses set any response time targets. This will be a serious impediment for Germancompanies looking to challenge competitors on a pan-European basis.page 13Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFigure 10: Do you have response time targets? No customer satisfaction measurementSetting targets is merely the first step in ensuring quality customer management throughout an organization.Measuring the results of investment in process and technologies is critical. Yet when asked whether there was anyformal means of measuring their customers satisfaction levels, the majority of European SMBs indicated that theysimply didn t bother.Figure 11 shows that only 36% of European SMBs have some type of formal customer satisfaction measurementprogram in place. For most large enterprises, regular customer satisfaction surveys and programs are old hat .Interviews with selected SMB executives indicate that less formal can often mean simply asking sales representativesif they feel the company is meeting customer needs. This is clearly an inadequate means of gauging customersatisfaction and loyalty.Figure 11: Do you measure customer satisfaction?page 14Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentNO PROCESS = POOR EXECUTIONWithout contact response targets and without formal measurement of customer satisfaction, it is not surprising thatwhen Datamonitor contacted 100 European SMBs from the original 1000 responses, and posed as anonymousbuyers asking simple questions about advertised products or services, that the majority of European small businessfailed to respond to these requests.Failure to send more information via email or the telephone is a good indication that while some SMBs haveinvested in CRM technologies, they are neither linking them together (for example, sales and service), nor are theyactually generating the responses required to meet basic requests.Failure to respond phone to emailDatamonitor telephoned and emailed the target SMBs and requested a simple email response.Figure 12 shows that five working days subsequent to the phone request, only just over one-fifth of European SMBsmanaged to generate an email response of any sort." France and Spain did the worst, and this indicates that these companies were particularly badly prepared tohandle cross-channel (phone to email) requests. This could be the result of voice-based telephone or call centeragents not having access to email systems;" Italy technically performed significantly better, with a 45% response rate to the phone request for an email.Italians phone culture can get the credit here. However, the Italians actually took the longest time (over 10hours, compared to a European average of 3 hours) compared to other European countries to generate the emailresponse." Even in the UK, firms only sent emails in 25% of cases. SMBs will fail to grow revenues in 2005 if they ignore75% of prospective customers requests.Figure 12: Email response rates to phone inquiries, by countrypage 15Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentFailure to respond email to emailIn addition to requesting an email by phone, Datamonitor also requested a response via email to a basic emailinquiry. Keeping communication over one channel rather than multiple channels did yield better response rates." The average email to email response rate was close to 40%, significantly better than the response rates whenrequesting an email via the telephone;Figure 13: Email response rates to email inquiries, by country" In this case, Italy performed the worst, again being indicative of the fact that Italian companies generally use thephone for business and have not embraced email in the same manner as their French and UK competitors;" While the UK and Spain did post good response rates, the timeliness of their responses was inadequate responses were typically received from British and Spanish firms more than 20 hours after the original emailrequest, which compared to a European average of 10 hours.Customers expect to receive a response to an email request in one day. Clearly European SMBs, despite their currentlevels of CRM investment, have not yet ensured that they follow-up most revenue opportunities. If SMBs want tocompete against larger foes, they need to raise the levels of both their CRM awareness and execution. They cannotafford to miss these opportunities.page 16Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentDRIVERS FOR SMB CRM ADOPTIONWhat is it that SMBs in Europe look for when they decide to embark on a CRM strategy and select a CRMtechnology? It is clear that as more European SMBs attempt to grow their businesses, they will focus more oncontact management, sales force automation, marketing automation and the technologies that enable them.Indeed, this study has shown that SMBs have already spent significant sums, but that they are not fully leveragingtheir investments. This section will discuss the drivers for adopting CRM and the need for strategic support from thehighest levels with the organization.Return on investmentError! Reference source not found. corroborates Figure 1 cost cutting is not a primary business objective forEuropean SMBs and so cutting costs is not a driver for IT investment among Europe s SMBs." 42% stated they spend because they expect their IT investment to generate a measurable ROI (despite the factthat the majority fail to set targets and measure systematically)." In contrast, 32% of Europe s SMBs placed the highest emphasis on the product meeting their exact needs." Only 7% of SMBs stated that advisors or consultants drive their IT spending patterns. This indicates that SMBsrely on their own internal experts to drive the IT procurement process." Brand was the least important factor for SMBs. This is because SMBs often associate the big brands with largervendors, who have not always catered to their needs and are often perceived to be too focused on their largestclients. The lack of importance attached to brand by SMBs is positive it means that SMBs are practical in theirapproach to CRM technology procurement. They value substance over style.Figure 14: Drivers for IT spendingThis research indicated that European SMBs have a practical, grounded approach to IT purchasing and have notbought into brand or consulting, preferring to focus on ROI and functionality. Again, the hearts of the SMBs are inthe right place, but their heads need to be strongly focused on the execution stage setting targets and measuringresults.page 17Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentThe importance of senior executivesIf SMBs buy IT primarily for its ROI and functionality, then why do they fail at the execution stage? Despite CRMinvestment, why are response rates and times so low?The results Figure 15, below, provide a clue. In short, it is about connecting people and process to technology.Figure 15: IT influencers in European SMBsWe asked European SMBs who had final sign-off for IT spending within their businesses. As SMBs became larger(grew towards 1000 employees), the Board lost influence and the IT manager or director gained influence. In otherwords, as companies grow, the IT director role is formalized, while in smaller companies the Board influences almostevery major decision.IT managers do need to ensure that any solution is robust and that the SMB has the capability to maintain it and theresources to support it. However, Datamonitor strongly believes:" The Board should be heavily involved in every CRM-related investment, in order to guarantee that there areoperational (people and process) changes within the SMB which complement the implementation of a newCRM system;" Pressure from Board-level is essential to effect a change of culture within the SMB, enabling it to take fulladvantage of its CRM IT investment;" Only the Board has the power to eliminate the silo approach to doing business and to link related businessprocesses across sales, service and marketing.IT directors are generally not responsible for people and process change within business. Board-level involvement inIT decision-making can help ensure that each technology investment is accompanied by changes in people andprocess which unlock the full value of CRM.The following section will discuss the best practices which board-level executives should be fostering throughouttheir businesses.page 18Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentBEST PRACTICECRM strategy is not about technology. It is about changing employee behavior and business processes. Specific CRMtechnologies can of course support this, and in many cases are critical to helping make needed strategic changes.The findings of our research strongly suggest that European SMBs have made large investments on siloed CRMtechnologies, but in the broadest terms they have missed the opportunity to link these technologies together in oneCRM strategy.Because they have failed to establish new processes in place, set targets and operational goals for key customer-facingfunctions, they have not used their technology investments to gain competitive advantage. The result is thatEuropean SMBs are not responding to prospects and clients effectively and are not using their CRM investments totheir own competitive advantage.So, what is best practice? Understand the ideal, but focus on the realOne of the most common mistakes made by companies engaged in CRM projects is not to try to do too little, butrather to attempt too much. CRM is an overused, yet under-valued concept. European SMBs should not view CRMas a discreet all or nothing expensive project. Take things step by step, make careful investments, and the payoff willbecome evident.Pick your channels carefullyTalking about multichannel integration is one thing. Doing it is another. Even in the internet age, 96% of customercontacts into European companies in 2003 were via the telephone. The remaining 4% were almost all emails (source:Datamonitor Call Centre Multiclient Survey, 2002).European SMBs should therefore focus first on integrating the telephone and email channels to handle inboundresponse to outbound marketing campaigns and general customer service and sales inquiries. Furthermore SMBsshould wrap their existing CRM technologies in solid business processes in order to make a step-change in theirperformance. SMBs will only compete effectively against larger companies if they distinguish themselves throughservice and grasp every sales opportunity which comes their way.Link sales, service and marketingOne of the key findings of this study is that European SMBs have not made the connection between discreet contactmanagement or sales force automation solutions and CRM technologies and strategies as a whole. This has led to afailure to respond to customer requests and sales opportunities.Drawing a line between marketing, sales and service is artificial and counter-productive. For example, a marketingcampaign never ends. Marketing technologies must be linked with those which manage sales and service. Thisprovides customers with a seamless handoff between front-office functions, and provides companies with theopportunity to track customer progress through the sales cycle and calculate the true return on any investment.Leverage response management investment by setting targetsInbound response capabilities ensure that a prospect turns into a customer. But the results of this research show thatmost European SMBs fail on that point, despite investing in contact management technology. While, investing inresponse management can provide significant competitive advantage, European SMBs must operationalize thetechnology by setting clear targets for customer satisfaction and inquiry response rates. CRM is not a technology itis a strategy enabled by careful technology investment.page 19Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentSTRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONSAdopt best practices" Link discrete sales, marketing and service business processes in order to provide better customer and prospectexperiences;" Understand that CRM is about people and that technology is a key enabler of change, not a driver. SecureBoard-level sponsorship, identify business processes which need to be streamlined, and set performance targets your IT will not do the work for you, and CRM is not about IT alone;" Measure gauge customer satisfaction on a regular, formal basis and measure your success and the success ofyour CRM IT investment against real results.Involve the BoardNew CRM solutions which cater to smaller businesses provide almost all the functionality of larger enterprise-classsystems at an affordable price which, if implemented correctly, can generate an attractive ROI. But this is not whereCRM stops CRM is a process which is supported by technology. As such, board involvement is essential in orderfor any CRM IT investment to really generate improved business process and real results.Punch above your weightSMBs can compete against larger businesses. IT levels the playing field. It s up to European SMBs to take advantageof the opportunities which SMB-focused CRM solutions provide them by focusing not just on the IT infrastructureitself, but on the business processes which envelop it.page 20Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentRESEARCH METHODOLOGYIndependent market analysis firm Datamonitor Plc conducted this research and analysis on behalf of Siebel Systems,Inc. Datamonitor used the following method in order to arrive at the results:Target identificationDatamonitor selected and targeted the required number and names of companies within each country, region andsector. SMB is defined as a company with fewer than 1000 employees. Countries covered in this study include theUnited Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.CRM SurveyDatamonitor emailed over 20,000 European SMBs with a comprehensive survey to gauge key decision makers current, future and likely CRM investments and capabilities. The survey was designed to compare stated businessobjectives with actual CRM capabilities.CRM Survey analysisWhen 1000 complete responses were obtained, Datamonitor analyzed the responses for each question based on therespondent s country of origin, vertical sector, and size band. This analysis forms the backbone of this white paper.Anonymous buyer - outboundIn addition to the email survey, Datamonitor contacted 100 European SMBs from among the survey respondents inorder to perform an anonymous buyer test on each SMB s customer service capabilities. The purpose of this Anonymous Buyer 100 was to measure reality versus claims which may have been made in the email survey.All research was conducted in the native language of the target SMB.1.Telephone. The research team telephoned the 100 targets to give personal contact details and request an email response to a simple enquiry based on a current advertised offer.2.Email. The research team emailed the 100 targets to give personal contact details and request an email response to a simple enquiry based on a current advertised offer.Anonymous buyer - recording responsesDatamonitor logged and recorded emails for 5 days subsequent to both the email request via phone and the emailrequest via email.In-depth phone interviews The final stage of the research involved conducting phone interviews with 13 target SMBs. The SMBs were chosenrandomly among the survey respondents. The phone interviews lasted 20 to 30 minutes. The purpose of theseinterviews was to gather information on CRM capabilities and investment plans direct from decision makers and toengage in a two-way discussion about the perceived pros and cons of CRM technologies. This information has beenused to add a qualitative dimension to this study.page 21Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentContact detailsSiebel Systems UK Ltd.Siebel CentreThe GlantyEgham, Surrey , TW20 9DWUnited Kingdomwww.siebel.comwww.crm-index.comDatamonitorEvan KirchheimerLead Analyst, CRMmailto:ekirchheimer@datamonitor.comwww.datamonitor.compage 22Going for Growth: Are European SMBs ready to meet customer demands?Untitled DocumentPublication Date: October 2005
