What is a Customer Relationship Management System?

by on January 11, 2012

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a software solution designed to organize information to share information within the organization as well as to communicate with existing customers and prospects. CRM applications can reside in on-site servers or operate in the Cloud, and most effective ones integrate via the web to share information quickly and easily. Common uses for CRM are to manage marketing campaigns, channel prospects through the funnel, customer service and technical support. They may also be used to recover lost customers and may even be available to the customer themselves to learn of new offerings and upgrades as well as self-service.
Open source and industry specific templates permit customization. Many, such as vtiger and SUGARCRM, are open source to allow businesses to modify the application to fit their needs while others provide a more off-the-shelf solution. Some, such as Salesforce, offer industry specific templates consolidating best practices for manufacturing, financial or retail etc. These templates help in mitigating development time and costs.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

The benefit of using a CRM over a simple database is the automation that CRM can offer through varying technologies. CRM not only collects data, but presents it in a usable format to the different people and departments who need it. Automated work flow and integration with email systems and social networking can help keep your company in view of your target audience. Manage follow-up to never let a sale fall through the cracks. Smartphone apps provide mobile workers such as sales reps and technicians instant access to information to close the deal and provide support. Customer interaction history can help identify opportunities for up-sales and customer appreciation promotions.
Departmental collaboration can improve with full utilization of a CRM system as well. Marketing can key in on the most recent tests from development. Sales can improve based on customer service feedback. Management can make decisions through the use of enterprise wide dashboards.

ARE THERE RED FLAGS TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT?

Care must be taken prior to choosing a solution and during its implementation. Goals must be defined, the risks assessed and cost is always a concern. Ease of use must be considered because large, complex systems may create confusion, frustration and may not be fully utilized. Many failed implementations result from a lack of training and buy-in from end users.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

From a one-man show to large corporations, CRM solutions assist in organization, automation and dissemination of information. A properly chosen, implemented and utilized CRM that is embraced by marketing, sales, support and management alike can be a revenue generation solution that enhances your professional image, provides valuable data and creates customer loyalty.

 

Contact Management vs. Customer Relationship Management

by on January 19, 2011

There seems to be a lot of people that confuse contact management and customer relationship management, and I’m attempting to help make this a little bit more clear…

Let me just say I really dont like the term: Customer Relationship Management. For one thing you manage a lot more than just customers, in your CRM system!

Some of the things that I manage using my CRM include:

  • Follow-up Tasks
  • Appointments
  • Quote Requests
  • Support Requests
  • Notes
  • Call logs
  • And much more

Many people get confused when they think about CRM, and liken it to Contact Management, it’s not.

Here’s why:

  • Contact Management – Is nothing more than your personal Rolodex, an evolving collection of contact information that gets updated periodically. This list typically contains your family, friends, co-workers, customers, prospective customers, etc. Personally I’m a big fan of google contacts, and google sync (See below)
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Is the software / process that you use to assign deliverable tasks to specific contacts. It’s not just storage of contact information! Aside from your telephone, and email client (Outlook, etc.), it’s typically the most used tool in the professional salespersons arsenal. Not only does this software include contact information, it includes specific actions.
    • WARNING: If you are new to sales.  This tool is typically used by sales managers to review your daily activities, and track what you are doing. SO, make sure you update it frequently, and make sure you know what your manager is looking for.

For the record I’m a big fan of Google contacts for my personal contact management, particularly because I can VERY easily push the data within Google Contacts to whatever smart phone I am using for the day :) . Additionally Google has awesome push mail / calendar capability similar to Microsoft exchange that’s free and I am also a huge fan of it’s called Google sync. If you are using Google Calendar on your smart phone for all of your work, and personal calendaring needs (I recommend setting up different calendars), you should also checkout Google calendar sync, which will pull the data out of your Outlook Calendar in push it to your Google Calendar automatically.

As for CRM systems, I’m not a huge fan of any of them. I will go into the specific pro’s and con’s in another post but here is a list of some of the more popular ones I’ve used over the past 8 years.

I hope that this help’s alleviate any confusion for you as you are evaluating CRM software within your business, as always feel free to contact me with any specific questions.

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