Boosting practical customer management

Focused on improving business performance, REAP aims to enable companies to create real value from customer management, and ensure that their people can continue to improve this fundamental component of the business through dedicated knowledge transfer programmes.

"Built on the passion of customer management, REAP is about retention, efficiency (the cost of servicing your client), acquisition and penetration (the ability to cross- and up-sell), the four key customer management metrics," says Leather. "Our aim is to help organisations transform the way they manage their customers and prospects for sustained competitive advantage and profitability."

Leather says the market today is characterised by increasingly competitive pressures and ongoing commoditisation. "The only way for organisations to build sustainable competitive advantage today is through deep understanding of the value and the need of the customer. Customers are not all created equal. I am passionate about working with organisations that recognise these facts and are willing to operationalise and embed the principles of customer management within the DNA of the organisation. Organisations that recognise that customer management is an enterprise-wide initiative will build competitive sustainability and differentiation."

REAP works with a network of associates - people who are first and foremost solid practitioners, as well as strategic theorists, in the field of customer management. "By working closely with a handful of appropriately qualified, high-output driven people, we deliver real value to organisations," says Leather.

The company draws on global best-practice insights generated via a series of tools and methodologies such as CMAT (Customer Management Assessment Tool), which help private and public sector companies measure and implement customer management initiatives.

Leather says CMAT is the leading CRM assessment approach for organisations that want to understand how well they are managing their customers and prospects, and to compare this to a global benchmark.

"Over 500 assessments of blue-chip companies have been conducted. These assessments have been conducted across a wide variety of industry sectors, all over the world. During this process much has been learnt about the criteria that determine success and failure of customer management initiatives, uniquely qualifying us to understand the state of play in customer management around the world. Furthermore, our research into the impact of customer management on business performance is leading- edge and practical. Everything we do is focused on improving business performance," he notes.

Based on a set of over 260 questions that address customer management based on demonstrably good practices, CMAT enables companies to identify clear plans, real delivery, and an identifiable effect of each of the practices questioned.

"In this way, the all too common gap between senior management's perception of the situation and the stark realities are often identified and defined," Leather says.

REAP also facilitates the local chapter of Customer Futures, an internationally renowned network of highly personalised and interactive learning groups, designed to meet the delivery of a competitive customer experience and other strategic business priorities.
Leather says REAP is already engaged with clients in the financial services, mobile telco, automobile and IT sectors, and that he aims to move the company into retail, healthcare, media and the public sector as part of his long-term business goals.

"Our assessment model is applicable across all market segments, and for any organisation that is seeking an objective and quantitative assessment of how well it is managing its customers."