Head of CRM
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The role of the Head of CRM is to oversee all CRM functions, building the business’s overall consumer management capability in order to provide a high level of service and excellent consumer experience and capture data across all key touch-points of the business.
The Head of CRM is a key pillar in the business’s income generation strategy and he serves to maximize consumer retention and the acquisition of new consumers, therefore, enabling the business to achieve its consumer base targets and ultimately its financial goals.
Objectives and Responsibilities of the Head of CRM
Leadership/Supervisory Role: The very first and most prominent role of the Head of CRM is his leadership position in the department. The Head of CRM at this capacity leads the entire CRM department in data collection on consumer insights concerning CRM programs and the business as a whole. This is for the purpose of ensuring that there is a consistency in data-driven decision making and strategy formulation within the CRM department and in CRM campaigns and programs.
The Head of CRM also determines the scope of support necessary from other organizational departments such as the IT department in order to support CRM programs and follows up on establishing those relationships. He leads the development and maintenance of relationships not only internally but also externally with data analysis providers in order to drive the most value to the CRM department and the business at large.
At this capacity, the Head of CRM also leads the department in the formulation of CRM strategies and programs/campaigns and ensures that they stay aligned with the business’s overall objectives. He is also tasked with structuring those strategies and campaigns against allocated budgets and playing a leading role in the CRM departmental budgetary allocations.
In addition to this, the Head of CRM is responsible for instilling the business as well as a departmental culture at all levels in order to inspire a unified vision and direction towards the achievement of the business’s goals. The Head of CRM also plays a mentorship role for key junior CRM personnel, providing assistance in the execution of their duties upon request, ensuring that their professional skills are continuously growing, and essentially readying them to occupy his position if needed.
Financial Management: The Head of CRM also has financial obligations. He develops, manages, and reviews the annual CRM budgets and makes forecast that he presents to the Director of Search Marketing for approval. At this capacity, and as mentioned, he is tasked with ensuring that all CRM programs fall within the allocated budget and timeline.
He also plays a major role in devising and implementing business planning against key performance indicators and financial projections, taking appropriate corrective measures if required in order to maximize on the business prospects in terms of revenue and profit generation.
Collaboration: The role of the Head of CRM is also a collaborative position and, as such, he supports the Sales department by providing the personnel with his expertise in sales decision making as well as engaging in consumer acquisition and retention approaches that compliment and support sales efforts.
He also works closely with senior CRM management and stakeholders in the formulation of CRM strategies, campaigns, risk management measures, and solutions as well as the determination of budgetary allocations within the department. This collaboration is also for the purpose of defining departmental principles and visions that will make up part of the working culture of the CRM department.
Analytics: The Head of CRM also has analytical responsibilities where he undertakes rigorous monitoring and evaluation of CRM campaigns and activities in order to measure ROI, prioritize resources, and enable continuous improvement in consumer acquisition and retention initiatives. At this capacity, the Head of CRM also conducts consumer experience research, consumer segmentation, and consumer roadmap analyses.
On top of this, the Head of CRM consistently evaluates consumer data, that is, consumer behavior, program engagement, rewards redemptions, user experience analyses, as well as business performance metrics in order to realize areas of improvement in the business’s CRM campaigns, which will drive better results in consumer acquisition and retention.
Knowledge and Opportunity: The Head of CRM monitors and conducts research on trends in the CRM field within the commercial sector and identifies emerging opportunities that the business could capitalize on and gain a competitive advantage in terms of consumer acquisition and retention in the market.
Other Duties: The Head of CRM also performs other duties as he deems necessary in the execution of his duties and duties as assigned by the Director of Performance Marketing, the Chief Marketing Officer, or the Employer.
Required Qualifications of the Head of CRM
Education: The Head of CRM must have a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Economics, Finance, Public Relations, Business Administration, Information Technology, or any other related field. The equivalent of this requirement in working experience is also acceptable for this position.
Experience: A suitable candidate will have had at least 7 years of experience in CRM working in a fast-paced and competitive market setting, preferably as a Senior CRM Manager. This should be inclusive of proven experience in developing and delivering CRM strategies for a business, resulting in an increase in consumer value and revenue. However, the Head of CRM must also have knowledge of CRM systems and data in offline channels, inclusive of call centers, direct, and events.
The candidate must also have a proven experience leading a team in a CRM campaign from its conceptualization to its successful completion, demonstrating exceptional leadership and management skills in the process. The Head of CRM must also have experience in creating high quality reports and documentation for both internal and external audiences in an attempt to further enhance CRM efforts.
He must also be experienced in budget development and the establishment of procedures for the purpose of monitoring progress against the business’s plans and objectives and ensuring the best application of finances and other resources. Finally, the Head of CRM must have experience in campaign reporting and analysis.
Communication Skills: Communication skills are an important quality for the Head of CRM, both in verbal and written form. Being a collaborative position, effective execution of cross-functional and departmental duties will be highly dependent on the clarity of communication down the line.
Additionally, the Head of CRM has a responsibility to create reports generated in the execution of his analyses. These reports are presented to senior CRM management and key stakeholders and have to be well structured, clear, concise, easy to understand, and unambiguous. He must also be capable of defending the conclusions and proposals resulting from his findings/reports in an articulate and convincing manner.
Analytical Skills: The Head of CRM must have keen interest and ability in conducting analyses of data and deriving insight from those data analyses. This should be coupled with logical thinking in approaching issues in order to achieve productivity gains and ongoing improvement in key processes.
He will have an understanding and experience of consumer tools and targeting systems, for example, IBM Unica, Neolane, Pure360, Silverpop, Apteco Faststats, and Cheetahmail. The Head of CRM will also have a clear understanding of the CRM campaign lifecycles including conceptualization, planning, monitoring, reporting, post-campaign analysis, and application of solutions.
Ms Office/Software: The Head of CRM must also be proficient in Ms Word and PowerPoint for the purpose of creating both verbally and visually engaging reports and presentations for CRM management, collaborating personnel, and key stakeholders.
Interpersonal Skills: The Head of CRM must be passionate about facilitating consumer experience and value, he will be self-motivated and proactive, he will have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he will display creative problem solving skills, he will be able to work comfortably in a group setting, he will be comfortable taking calculated risks, he will readily embrace and lead change, and he will possess a high levels of resilience and display composure in uncertain situations.
Leadership/People Skills: The Head of CRM has to have an ability to build positive internal and external relationships. He will have an ability to command a crowd and move it with a unified vision and towards a common goal. He must be approachable, relatable, and inspire trust in others, making the junior CRM and collaborating personnel ready and willing to follow in his direction.
This will also earn him the trust of senior CRM management who will give his judgments and approaches due consideration, hence, enabling smooth performance of his duties.
