Customer relationship management is one of the areas that suffers most in a merger or acquisition b whether itb s a telecommunications company or any other business.B There are lots of reasons for this, some of which are avoidable while others must be managed.
A few of the reasons that come to mind are:
- Staff restructuring b we have seen layoffs, elimination of positions, transfers, and promotions/demotions.B You lose a lot of history when you have to deal with a new person.
- System consolidation b each company had its own customer relationship management and billing system.B You lose a lot of history when you move to a new system.
- Policy changes b the surviving company has to re-think all of its policies in light of the added services and customers.B You lose a lot of history that led up to the creation of the old policy.
Can you see a common theme here?B Itb s the loss of history that can be so damaging to customer relationships.B On the flip side (remember that nothing is all good or all bad), itb s much easier to break free from the b we’veB always done it that way mindsetb when thereb s no history to draw from.
It is instructive for all of us in business.B How can we preserve the history AND discard the inflexible mindset?B The only thing constant is change. B Itb s up to us to use it to our advantage.
