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CRM (Customer Relationship Management ) in its broadest sense, means managing all interactions and business with customers. This includes, but is not limited to, improving customer service. The biggest benefit of CRM is that it allows you to comprehensively "profile" your current customers so that sales and marketing efforts can be directed to those who are most likely to buy - ie they fit the profile of your current customers. You can also "profile" current customers to analyse profitability, and again, target sales efforts to those customers who are most likely to create revenue. A good CRM program will allow a business to acquire customers, service the customer, increase the value of the customer to the company, retain good customers, and determine which customers can be retained or given a higher level of service. A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating communication in several ways: Provide product information, product use information, and technical assistance on web sites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Identify how each individual customer defines quality, and then design a service strategy for each customer based on these individual requirements and expectations. Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls to assess post-purchase experiences. Provide a mechanism to track all points of contact between a customer and the company, and do it in an integrated way so that all sources and types of contact are included, and all users of the system see the same view of the customer. Help to identify potential problems quickly, before they occur. Provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints. Provide a fast mechanism for handling problems and complaints so that complaints are resolved quickly, increasing customer satisfaction. Provide a fast mechanism for correcting service deficiencies so that other customers do not experience the same dissatisfaction. Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up and on-going support. Integrate with other cross-functional systems and thereby provide accounting and production information to customers when they want it. It is possible for CRM software to run an entire business from prospect and client contact tools to billing history and bulk email management. The CRM system allows a business to maintain all customer records in one centralized location that is accessible to an entire organization through password administration. Front office systems are set up to collect data from the customers for processing into the data warehouse. The data warehouse is a back office system used to fulfil and support customer orders. All customer information is stored in the data warehouse. Back office CRM makes it possible for a company to follow sales, orders, and cancellations. The more common alternative for small to medium business is, however, to use a number of software tools for "client management". E-mail and web for customer order placement, e-mail for confirmations, Word or Excel for quotes and even an Access database may be used for invoicing and MYOB accounting and financial reporting. While each of these tools is perfectly appropriate for each of these tasks there can be problems of integration and certainly it makes it hard to have a single corporate view of each customer and the multiple contacts that you may have with each. GoldMine 6.5We have recently seen a comprehensive demonstration of the well known CRM tool – FrontRange Solution’s GoldMine that may go someway to ameliorating this problem without the need to walk away from existing tools or existing corporate data. GoldMine is an excellent tool for those of you who need to win and retain customers at all stages in your relationship with them. In the Marketing stage it allows you to set up and manage more effective and easily repeated marketing campaigns, capture and qualify leads for distribution to your sales staff and analysis your leads in terms of potential sales and campaign effectiveness. In the Sales stage it allows you to maintain a complete view of your relationship with a customer, increase productivity through automated processes that allow you to send customised e-mails, schedule appointments, print letters and prompt the sales team to undertake appropriate and timely follow-up. In the Service and Support stage it assists with customer retention by keeping valuable customers informed, leading to higher customer satisfaction. In the Management stage it provides reporting and analysis tools and well as allowing managers to track products, prospects, revenue potential and closing dates in real time. If you are interested in
having an obligation free look at this software you can contact Ann
Reimer at Customer Management Software Tasmania. |