|
If you don’t think your organisation already has a customer relationship management system, take a moment to consider all the valuable client data in your accounting system and your staff’s email in-boxes, or the physical correspondence and case histories in filling up your filing cabinet. Poorly managed, this information is off little assistance in building strong productive customer relationships, and a range of issues arise. For example, do any of these sound familiar?
|
1. |
Frustrated customers complaining that your staff do not know their specific requirements |
|
2. |
Not having the ability to access real-time information when you are either at home or travelling |
|
3. |
Not knowing whether valuable sales leads are being followed up |
|
4. |
Continuing and costly non-compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) |
|
5. |
Order takers not being advised when a customer is put on hold |
|
6. |
Your sales team not knowing what issues your service team is currently working on before calling on the customer |
|
7. |
Having to manually complete reports due to multiple sources of information |
|
8. |
Having to issue credit notes to keep customers happy due to an inability to easily find accurate information |
|
9. |
Not knowing what value you are getting from your marketing expenditure |
|
10. |
Losing customers to your competitors for no obvious reason? |
If these scenarios sound like an average day in your office, then a CRM system could help. CRM implementations have a reputation for being high-risk. But, with sensible planning, CRM builds value for your business by refocusing your operations onto the client for optimum client service.
Planning CRM is like planning a holiday. For both you must plan more than the destination – the journey is also a critical component. So, just as you define the goals of a holiday, promote them to travel companions, agree a budget, consult a travel agent, schedule around existing commitments, detail an itinerary, insure against unforseen events and even review the holiday for ROI – so these simple steps will mitigate risks associated with CRM:
|
1. |
Decide CRM goals upfront to guide priorities and justify the investment. Ask task related questions to help define goals, eg:
- How are inaccuracies negatively impacting your company?
- What value is being delivered from your marketing activities? Are you able to not only measure the actual versus budget spend, but also how many leads and sales revenue these activities have generated for your company?
- How productive is your sales team?
- Are you losing leads due to a lack of follow-up?
- What information do you need to make strategic decisions?
- Which reports are produced that include information that exists ‘somewhere’ and needs to be manually completed?
|
|
2. |
Promote CRM as a business culture. Get key personnel to agree a unified vision for CRM, then appoint a ‘CRM Champion’ to manage and drive the change throughout your company. By selling employees on the benefits of the changes they’ll experience, and involving them in the process, you’ll build the trust and enthusiasm essential for success. |
|
3. |
Budget. Most CRM solutions are installed ‘on-premises’, with software and data loaded onto a server and (possibly) workstations in your office. Web-based CRM applications need only be installed onto a server, meaning quicker installation and lower ongoing maintenance costs. So, depending on your choice, your budget might cover software, hardware, training and implementation consulting, which might cost NZ$1,000 to $6,000 per user, and take two weeks to three months to install. Alternatively, a hosted CRM solution is where your system resides in a provider’s secure data centre, but is easily accessible by you anytime, from anywhere via a web browser. Costs range from NZ$30 to $120 per user per month. An obvious benefit of hosted over on-premises is that no upfront investment is required for additional hardware or internal IT skills. But before you decide, compare the Net Present Value (NPV) of all ongoing monthly software and support charges, to an on-premises quote. |
|
4. |
Consult an experienced CRM solution provider. They can evaluate your needs and advise the most suitable CRM solution, plus save time and money on the installation, user training and ongoing support. Just as you’d choose a travel agent focused on Greece if you want to go to Athens, in this case find a provider that can demonstrate CRM expertise. Investigate their claims of experience by talking to their customers. |
|
5. |
Schedule your CRM rollout to minimise business interruptions. Aim for your company’s slowest time of year, or consider executing the new system on an incremental or feature-by-feature basis. To smooth the implementation process, create a blueprint of your CRM-related business processes. Like a travel itinerary, this document may be fluid, but if the goal and guidelines remain the same you should have a short and successful implementation. |
|
6. |
Risk management involves identifying events which could negatively impact the project, and pre-determining mitigating strategies to keep the project rolling. For example, what would you do if your CRM Champion left the company a week before Go Live? What would you do if a major order suddenly required numerous staff resources? Also, make sure you test the software with mock client data before rolling out. Make a list of typical operations that end-users will engage in, and test each one. |
|
7. |
Check rollout progress with ongoing evaluation. The best product in the world can’t meet expectations unless implemented to match your requirements. |
|
8. |
Regularly review results. Get feedback from clients to see if their satisfaction levels are actually increasing, or if there are additional improvements they would like to see. And never overlook the power of CRM to self-monitor. Set up metrics that the system can track to ensure that you are, in fact, increasing customer satisfaction, shortening sales or delivery cycles, improving efficiency, winning clients from the competition, increasing profitability per client and boosting the bottom-line. | |
December 2004
By Martin McCaffery
|
About the author |
|
Martin McCaffery is the director of channel development for Sage Business Solutions. Sage provides small and mid-size businesses with a broad range of end-to-end business management applications designed to enhance customers’ competitive advantage.
For more information on Sage Business Solutions phone
0800 904 409 or email sales.pacific@sage.com |
|
Further reading
Visit the Sage exhibit in the CRM Pavilion
Visit the CRM Research Pavilion |
|
