CRM
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What I’ve just revealed to you isn’t the secret to the universe. In fact, it’s a blinding glimpse of the obvious. Excellent customer relationship management is in the execution. It’s how customer facing employees supported by technology…reach out to the customer. We’ll talk more about CRM software later on.
What benefits could be achieved with an effective customer relationship management strategy? When a customer service representative has access to a customer’s history….and can parlay that into a “conversation”; you have an advantage. This advantage includes:
• Cross-selling other products. By knowing everything the customer already owns seconds after they call-in; you can suggest other products to sell.
• Better customer service. When a “good customer gone irate” contacts your company, you may not be able to solve their problem right there. But with access to their information you could at least reassure them you know what they bought and you’re on the case. There’s no need for the customer to explain their life story again.
CRM software can move the issue to a next phase.
• Marketing goldmine. I’ve worked at companies where marketing spent its time designing perfect catchall brochures. Instead of throwing the whole pot of pasta at the wall and hoping something sticks….how about marketing relevancy.
A customer relationship management system should contain everything you ever wanted to know about your customer but were too busy chasing new ones to ask. Design emails or marketing pieces aimed at customers who haven’t upgraded to the XL-7 model or haven’t purchased a warranty. They’ll appreciate the fact you didn’t send them your annual report. You took the time to send marketing pieces that were relevant.
You're providing information on products they don't have.....yet.
A customer relationship management strategy incorporates an understanding of how your customers contact you and what is their lifetime value. Some customers are worth more than others. With a little business intelligence you can make sure they get best attention.
Analyzing your customer data helps form profiles. Where are the sales coming from…..what is the average price….what products get the most complaints….what industries generate the most revenue. You’d be surprised at how many departments can benefit from understanding who they service.
When designing a customer relationship management platform, don’t confuse what the sales force needs with support. The goal of the sales team is to close every piece of business entered in their system. There will be data fields for notes, call backs, estimated close dates and pipelines.
Customer support needs to track each customer event, forward the party to the right department and help the customer get a resolution.
The CRM software space is full of big players. SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com and Microsoft for starters. The question many companies are faced with is: Do I buy it? Or. Do I ASP it?
Like everything else in life, there are pros & cons to both.
Hosted Customer Relationship Management Solution : The market for ASP solutions has grown particularly among small to mid-sized business. That would make sense. It’s cheaper than owning it and you don’t need a complex installation. You'll also save on on an IT staff to mainatin it.
The installation time for a hosted CRM could take about three months. The number of seats needed and locations will vary the install time. A basic solution costs under $200 per user.
This solution is perfect for companies that want a standard CRM package, have minimal IT support, can use out of the box data structures and don’t require real-time integration with another back office system.
Although it would seem a hosted solution is "plug & play", you might have problems if you need to integrate the data with an in-house solution. Customizing your hosted CRM won't be easy either.
And last but not least security concerns. I'm sure on-demand CRM has good security controls, but many firms may not feel safe letting a third party host customer data.
Salesforce.com offers an application with different modules for sales, customer support and partners.
Interestingly, according to AMR Research, hosted CRM accounts for less tan 15% of the total CRM market.
Customer Relationship Management On Premise: It costs more and the installation takes longer. However, the advantages of on-premise are the disadvantages of hosted. If you need to incorporate customer data with your back office, this is the way to go.
Customer relationship management is meant to help your company care for existing customers so they don't leave and you can sell more. It’s not purely a sales tool; but that is one of its functions.
Business surveys have said customer service overall is at a low point. This is an opportunity to shine.
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