Fixing the flaws of CRMs

There has been considerable hype on CRM solutions, the
productivity, the information, the improved customer
relationships, you name it. But everything has its
flaws, and the seemingly perfect philosophy has its
own too, both psychologically and financially.

Repetitive, menial work

Its hard work to populate a database; and it doesn’t
help if you imagine the number of hours people have to
type in the initial content of the database. It has
been said that doing this menial task can take up from
a few weeks to a good number of months, ouch.

This will slow down the whole system of the
organization, given the stress interns receive and the
panic managers have to go through because of the
urgency of the data. In order to solve this recurring
problem, a simple but marginally costly measure must
be made: hire temporary workers.

There is always a small pool in the market that is
dire need of a job. They don’t mind if it pays to
little, as long as it puts money in the pocket. Those
are the people companies must target so as the core
group of people in the company doesn’t get unnecessary
stress.

Design has a purpose You’re not blind; you’ve read the
subheading right: design does have a purpose in
company efficiency and it’s premised on basic
convenience. A well-designed data template must be in
store in company databases; there are a lot of
templates from the CRM systems but it may also
complicate things.

A good advice is to search through the net for
consumer reports and simply pick the recommended one,
preferably the one with sleek pull down menus and with
icons that truly represent what they mean. You have to
love the internet, no?

Less is more Sometimes, too much information is in the
CRM system, and it simply frustrates users to find the
information that they want. But then if there is too
less information, no progress shall be made.

What should be done to solve this problem? The answer
is good segmentation. The team must know how to
organize everything and keep information as
conversational and concise as possible.

There is no need of often-misleading jargon
reminiscent of audit reports. This is a section of the
business where the "KISS rule" applies; and for the
sake of efficiency and less headaches, be organized
and inputs should be as casual as possible.

Attention to detail Too many companies trust CRM
software too much and they wonder why their firm is
underperforming compared to competitors. The problem
in this case lies not on CRM software; it is the
complacency of managers.

Yes, consumer tastes can be effectively monitored, but
loyalty cannot be built with that. It still comes down
to each sales clerk in the business and how they talk
and look to customers.

The company’s image is practically in their hands as
they are the first people customers see. Not only
should managers pay attention to detail in their
database, they also shouldn’t forget a basic rule:
their personnel speak for the company.

Conclusion With all the hoopla surrounding the
business world about CRM solutions, it is natural that
some companies get complacent and virtually put their
companies on the information CRM applications provide.

Don’t get into that pitfall, thinking that it
"automatically" provides answers to marketing
questions. The heart of the company is always in the
people that handle it; it’s neither on the facilities
nor on the technology. Read More......

The Unintended Sincerity of SugarCRM

Nowadays, proprietary software has become "bloatware":
software that has too many features and as an added
consequence, the computer will run slower. These kinds
of inconveniences stem from the seller’s assumption
that consumers usually go to the "heavy" applications
in their software needs. Furthermore, the immense
marketing that sellers usually do is a testament that
these companies care more about their profits and
development more than yours. Ironically, it seems that
they try to improve your business model so that theirs
will too.

At the end of the day, what CRM software does
everything such applications should and also come off
as lightweight, quick and efficient?

Enter SugarCRM: not only is it a cost-effective
alternative to expensive CRMs that corporations sell,
it has also proven itself to a respectable CRM
application is inconceivably free of charge. That’s
because no one owns the software, since it is
open-source.

The advantages of open-source software

The wonderful mix of words "open source" and "CRM
software" benefits executives, both from high-scale
corporations to small-time businesses is that they can
customize it to their needs. An example of an
open-source application is the web browser, Mozilla
Firefox. As one may observe, he/she may put add-ons to
the application, trying to add a certain
characteristic to it, making it more suited to the
user: there’s the no-script add-on for
security-conscious users and adblock for those who
dislike certain advertisements that eat up RAM. This
is the type of personalization every open-source
software, including SugarCRM, that makes it
lightweight yet versatile.

Another feature is the availability of the source
code. Each user of the software has an opportunity to
fix annoying bugs and errors that may still be present
in the application. So to speak, with the reach of the
web and the success of open-source applications, it
may be safe to declare that SugarCRM has actually a
lot of "testers", contributing to the safety,
reliability and quality of the product.

Lastly is the software’s longevity. There is no single
entity on which the future of the software depends,
which is common with proprietary products/software.
Usually, a company relies on a software manufacturer
that improves upon the application. If the
manufacturer closes shop, then the future of the
program is stymied and future versions are definitely
out of sight. The thing about open-source is that no
single entity creates the software, so its development
is sure to ensue. But in the rare case that the
started the code decides to stop development, there is
always another software group fixing things up for
consumers, and it is without neither legal nor
practical limitations.

Lighter and faster than any other CRM

By the time you download the free CRM software, it is
incredibly lightweight (around 40MB) compared to other
CRMs like Microsoft Dynamics (280MB). But basically,
you are provided with a "software skeleton": you have
the absolute basics of the application and you have
options to download more in the internet, which makes
it fit to the downloading corporation’s system. Also,
obviously, when a program has lesser size, it is
faster; in the end, productivity will increase over
time. Compared to Microsoft Dynamics in
mid-performance servers and computers, SugarCRM
flutters towards its goal while MS Dynamics CRM labors
towards its goal.

Conclusion

Consumers have to deal with endless marketing pitches
and disappointing results from many corporations who
currently sell software, especially CRM applications.
But with the advent SugarCRM, the best open-source CRM
software available, customers are assured of a
lightweight and secure application because of its
open-source underpinnings. Read More......

The Role Of Customer Facing Operations With CRM

Customer relationship management is a strategy
focusing on the customer making their experience
excellent with the business.

The customer facing operations aspect of CRM is vital
because these are the individuals the customers have
direct contact with.

People can be the customer facing operations portion
and provide the experience the company desires when
they work in positions as customer service, sales, or
any position that has direct contact with.

When you have direct contact with a customer and you
are polite and courteous then you are creating a good
experience for them and it makes them want to come
back. This includes answering any questions the
customer might have and if you don’t know the answer
then finding someone who does.

When you are rude or discourteous to a customer then
you are creating a bad experience and potentially
losing a customer for life.

Computer systems and other forms of technology might
be the responsible for CRM also. This might include
data terminals in a book store you use to look up
books, public computers at a library, or the wireless
access you would like to use in your bedroom.

If the equipment you offer to a customer for use
doesn’t work then this too is creating a bad
experience which may also cause you to lose a
customer. Especially, if you offer wireless Internet
in a hotel room and it is not working.

This is because many people will stay at your hotel
because they need to be able to get work done while
they are traveling. You will lose them as a customer
if your equipment isn’t functional.

CRM is a strategy that focuses on every aspect of the
business to create an outstanding experience for your
customers.

The customer facing operations is the portion of the
business that has the most contact with the customer.
Read More......

The Power of CRM 2.0

The voice of the common man has been amplified tenfold
with the advent of Web 2.0, as seen when people gain
fame and recognition due to their contributions in
blogs, wikis, forums and podcasts. It seems as if
every opinion is heard and each word that they say
count. With the massive amount of users surfing
through the internet and with some people needing
advertisements in their webpages for income, this has
become a wonderful opportunity for companies to tap
into this potential oil rig of prospective customers.

Since companies are taking great efforts to reach out
to consumers in the internet, software publishers have
announced the arrival of the modern CRM: CRM 2.0.
Along with the basic tools of CRM applications, Web
2.0 technologies are integrated into these programs,
allowing businesses to keep track of the likes and
buying patterns of online customers/ shoppers. This
also gives leeway for marketers to present their
products more forcefully and convincingly without the
need of an expensive marketing research team for
information...CRM 2.0 can do the job perfectly.

Collaborative leanings

The main feature and driving force of CRM 2.0 is that
it’s inherently collaborative, putting the business
and consumer on the same page for the benefit of both.
With also the versatility of CRM software, marketers
and PR agents can truly engage the consumer across
multiple points. The assurance of the client’s
attention is guaranteed given that he/she has visited
a specialized site (e.g sports site) that is in
accordance with the target market of the business (in
the previous example, Nike is the perfect company to
reach out in that site).

Also, given human nature’s tendency to believe in the
testimonials of peers rather than repetitive marketing
pitches, the presence of blogs and podcasts create an
opportunity for companies to find legitimate models to
talk about their products, and spread the benefits of
their products to the market. This then encourages a
two-way exchange of communication where firms can hear
about the good and bad side of their products, giving
them inexpensive access about consumer concerns, which
will in turn help the company’s business strategy.

Lower costs

With the internet having more and more surfers every
year, this gives companies potentially more knowledge
about the market and also giving less value to those
expensive research firms, which implicitly benefits
big companies and handicaps small ones. Such is the
reach of Web 2.0, and it is necessary that
entrepreneurs be aware of its massive reach, which has
insight on literally billions of voices from around
the world.

Monitoring costs are also slashed and advertising too,
since the latter can be done in single click in a
consumer reports website and the latter’s cost is
based on the frequency of clicks on the company’s
banner. In the end, the company is getting closer to
that sweet dot in the profit maximization graph.

Lend an ear

Communications is developing at a staggering rate. Two
decades ago, text messaging and picture messages are
unheard of. Today, online video conferences can be
done and every internet surfer has an unsaid
opportunity to be a journalist or be a plain concerned
consumer, warning people of the boons and banes of
products. Either way, it benefits companies greatly.
And with the help of the organizational prowess of CRM
2.0 applications, managers and entrepreneurs should
lend an ear for millions speak their mind behind the
monitor. Read More......

The Executive, Consumer and CRM

In today’s information age, the typical consumer is
continually getting lost and confused in the sea of
random facts, news and reviews; which are just a click
away in the information superhighway that is the
Internet. The declining stock value of "clogged" Web
sites such as Yahoo.com proves this, as surfers are
slowly averting their eyes from these kind of sites
and subsequently go to more specialized (and therefore
credible) ones that truly cater to their needs:
ESPN.com for the sports buff and BBC.co.uk for the
current events-savvy businessman.

These are the types of things that any Marketing
Department of an enterprise should jot down on their
databases whenever they’re trying to reach out to
their target market; and this proves the growing
importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
in today’s information-clogged era.

Approach

The approach of CRM utilizes every facet of the
organization; and each of those groups go hand-in-hand
in order to achieve what the enterprise is meant to do
in the first place: please customers, which, in turn,
cultivates brand loyalty, leading to a gradual
increase in profit.

The core departments for the building
corporate-consumer relationships are the Internals and
Marketing Department as they direct the mechanisms and
paint the image of the company, respectively. The
former, for instance, guides the whole enterprise by
creating policies and safety nets in accordance to the
company’s philosophy. The latter on the other hand,
identifies their target market and will find ways to
cater to their needs.

These lay the background for the other departments,
who see to it that the complex machinery that is the
corporation gets what it wants with the greatest
efficiency (Human Resources) and with a clean and
respectable image to boot (Public Relations).

Delivery

But given all this massive information about consumer
wants, performance ratings, cost-efficiency ratio and
tons more, how does a company streamline all this to
make the information as convenient for the Brand
Manager as it is for the Marketing Analyst? CRM
software: technology gives enterprises, big or small,
a chance to gobble up all the statistics and facts
that hound them and present it in a clear and
simplified manner.

Products such as the web based Infusionsoft and
outlook based ProphetCRM offer entrepreneurs and
managers alike different features and conveniences
atop of the standard contact and referral tracking
management options. So to speak, there are specific
CRMs that cater to small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
and also to the heavyweights of the corporate world.

The growing need for consumer-centric strategies

In this rapidly globalizing world, where trade borders
are gone and the once daunting walls that are tariffs
eroded, companies, old and new, are jostling to be on
the top spot in their respective industries. This is a
time where one needs to know more than the other with
regards to consumer desires simply to survive the
corporate wolves’ den.

Information is the key: not only do they have to
recognize their primary and secondary target markets,
they have to "be them": they have to engross
themselves into their customer’s culture, empathizing
with their feelings about products and correcting
themselves whenever they hear complaints about the
company’s shortcomings and faults. What better way to
be figuratively a part of them by the means of
observance of sales tracking, surveys, employee
relations, service reconstructing and the like? That’s
the beauty of CRM and technology, hand in hand.
Read More......

The Benefit Of Implementing CRM

There are many benefits to implementing a CRM solution
into your company. Many of the benefits include
synergy, sales, and a happy customer.

Most cases of the implementation of a Customer
Relationship Management solution have improved
processes, flow, and the customer experience.

Synergy is one of the biggest benefits of implementing
a CRM system into your business. You might have a
company and it seems as if the departments are
detached and they don’t talk to each other.

Maybe one department thinks they are more important
than the other. This type of attitude happens all of
the time and by creating a CRM strategy with your
entire organization it can improve these attitudes.

This will give everyone the knowledge how important
each department and position is and how they provide
an excellent customer experience.

When you make a job important to the employee who is
working in the position they tend to want to do a
better job. This is because they feel important as an
employee.

When your employees have a clear understanding of the
importance of CRM then you will see improvements
across the organization.

Sales will improve also because customers notice a big
difference when an employee is working for a company
and they don’t feel their job makes a difference.

When employees are happy it rubs off on the customers.
They will want to return and they will recommend your
business to other people too.

The biggest benefit of implementing a CRM strategy
within your organization is by improving the overall
employee morale.

When morale is improved with the employees then so is
their performance and their attitude about their
impact on the company. Read More......

Teaching New Employees About CRM

One of the best strategies a company can have is
putting new employees through a Customer Relations
Management training session before they begin their
jobs.

Human Resources can make this happen and this will
ensure the employees begin their positions the way
they should.

Human resources are the department that should be
responsible for ensuring a Customer Relationship
Management module is in place and working properly.

They should work closely with management and employees
to ensure everyone knows their role as an employee and
that they have a clear understanding of their job
responsibilities.

Human Resources can help an employee understand how
their position ties in with the entire company and how
they are important.

All employees entering into the company should
immediately go through a CRM training program. This
will give the employees a clear understanding of the
company’s goals and where they want to be headed.

An employee can also understand how their particular
position is important for the company to meet the
desired goals and why the company needs them. It is
important to instill a sense of importance into the
employee from the get go so they begin their new
position with a sense of being needed.

When you don’t instill these things in an employee
immediately, they may think they are just collecting a
check and have a bad attitude.

Human Resources should work closely with the
management and all of the employees in a company to
ensure everyone is working toward the company goals
and they believe in them.

New employees should immediately be placed in a
Customer Relationship Management solution to empower
the employee and give them an understanding of their
importance. Read More......

Leave It To The Experts: ACT-Today And Its Top-notch Service

Given the well-publicized reliability of CRM software
nowadays, executives and entrepreneurs alike are
forgetting about one important aspect of Consumer
Relationship Management: the philosophy that drives
it, and the knowledge to execute it perfectly.
Australia’s ACT Today has proven itself to be one of
the premier providers of ACT! and sageCRM.com
services.

ACT Today’s highly touted and select few consultants
(hovering around 20) are top-notch CRM experts and
will definitely has the smarts to transfer concept to
reality in a contracted time span. Not only do they
provide support to their clients, they also have
training centers strategically placed in important
areas in Australia from Adelaide to Melbourne. If the
customer doesn’t live in Australia, ACT Today also
offers online training, which doesn’t lack in quality.

Services

CRM is a highly complex business philosophy, and
ACT-Today gives its clients the finest in every major
CRM category. For the Marketing departments of the
organization, ACT-Today provides Data Analysis and
Report Designing to find out the sweetest target
market and the correct amount of supply to be sold for
the latter and to impress peers and build partnerships
for future gains in the latter.

For newcomers to the ACT! software, ACT-Today can
convert existing databases to ACT!’s format, giving
the image of a company that truly values its
customer’s databases as much as theirs.

Also, rivaling open-source CRMs, the company offers
custom programming, featuring a corral of elite
"in-house" programmers that deftly designs programs
that integrate with ACT! and adhere to the company’s
needs and fixes on its weaknesses. It does this by
making tailor made add-ons to enhance the power of the
ACT! database that rivals open-source CRMs like
SugarCRM. This also gives a firm’s CRM strategy some
needed flexibility.

With the wonderful support from ACT-Today’s certified
ACT consultants and programmers, this gives clients
high business intelligence that keeps their company’s
ahead of the race.

Cost-effective

On paper, ACT-Today’s price ranges seem a lot for the
typical entrepreneur. But the CRM consultancy firm
does more than simply support the company and help it
grow. Implicitly, by investing on the said firm, the
client is investing on the future. CRMs benefits have
always outweighed its costs; and ACT-Today is the gold
standard for CRM consulting and training. With
CRM-savvy managers and employees, future costs are
also lessened because a good company would take up
everything that they learned from CRM consultancy
firms and try to cultivate their own. Productivity
must be compounded by innovation, and if a company
sticks to that rule, profits will rise in the end.

Future bonds with partnerships and relationships with
clients are priceless in the business world. Customer
Relationship Management helps attain that and with the
technological expertise and shrewdness of ACT-Today’s
consultants and programmers, they bring out the
company’s full potential for the correct utilization
of the CRM.

Conclusion

CRM is never fully realized without the latest in
technology and the elite specialists in tow. No
company that sells products can truly attain that by
themselves, so it needs a guide as much as a traveler
needs the north star. With ACT-Today being the top
ACT! consulting firm, every small enterprise looking
to be the next big thing can find its north star with
CRM and ACT-Today. Read More......

MS Outlook Based CRMs Bring Out The Best In SMEs

Almost every enterprise uses Microsoft’s operating
system to track and manage data in the company. And
thus, a lot of managers are familiar with MS Outlook
and its excellent e-mail management. However, it
doesn’t fulfill other essential features like a good
database engine. However, there are programs on the
web that utilize Outlook’s strengths and builds on its
weaknesses. Furthermore, they add CRM and Contact
Management solutions in the program, completely
beefing up the system. And these programs are
Outlook-based CRMs.

Benefits

The end result of embedding these CRM solutions in
Outlook creates a more powerful and versatile CRM
software. Not only are there added features (which are
standard to CRM apps) that contribute to more sales
and a sturdier database, the basic features of Outlook
are enhanced to give the company more convenience in
team-to-team communications. Sharing is one of those
features, where Outlook address books are passed along
networks without the assistance of MS Exchange Server.
Users can also share calendars so that there will be
no time-consuming conversations about finding a common
free time for meetings and whatnot. Lastly, tasks can
also be shared, bringing team members closer to each
other with a push of a button.

Given that the software is flexible, can it be also
hassle-free? The answer is yes. Synchronization
processes are now not required, the pains of external
database management are tempered and there will be
absolutely no problems whenever the user works
offline. Contacts, workflows and assignments are
available and can be utilized swiftly in an
Outlook-based CRM. This is because it works fully
within MS Outlook, storing your customer information
in the Outlook Contact, Task, Appointment and Journal
entries a typical entrepreneur uses every day.

Why Outlook based CRMs are ideal for SMEs

Amidst the hustle and bustle world of SMEs, being the
first to act is crucial for survival not only against
competitors but also the bigwigs who control the
general market. The recurring question is that can
Outlook-based CRMs rival open-source ones in terms of
quickness?

They can make a case for that. One is that the user
stays in one application; every other user needs to
shuffle through different email accounts and
specialized auditing programs to find the perfect
information for his/her client. In the end, the
absence of this obvious hassle is that there will be
more pleasurable user experience, consequently
triggering improved productivity. Second, training
costs will be dampened given the universal familiarity
of Microsoft’s program interfaces, which equates to
snipping hidden costs and help pile up savings for
future investments.

There is also an observation of transparency in the
program: the user can capture customer e-mails with
just a click. With this capability, you and your sales
professionals can cultivate transparency and associate
correspondence to the appropriate contact, account or
opportunity for essential sales activity tracking.

Conclusion

Versatility, familiarity and the little details make
Outlook-based CRMs like MX Contact and ProphetCRM a
good choice for small and medium enterprises. It
provides the magic of CRM philosophy, boosting up
sales, improves on a company’s marketing strategies
and builds brand and customer loyalty. Also, it gives
the plethora of the conveniences of embedded CRM
software: it operates on a peer to peer network and
stores massive amounts of information that is
necessary for a company’s jolt to the top. With these
said, Outlook-based CRMs truly bring out the best in
SMEs. Read More......

Jumpstart Your CRM Strategies With These Tips

For every executive, entrepreneur and those ubiquitous
managers, customer databases are priceless. They move
in ways that are primarily targeted on making their
current customers happy and bringing in new ones on a
regular basis.

If the number of clients climb to degrees that are
simply difficult to handle, a CRM application can aid
one on this. But what can this type of application do
to benefit managers? CRM stands for customer resource
management, a philosophy that every manager must build
into his/her company.

A basic characteristic of which is that it keeps
things organized in order to utilize efficiently
potential clients that are in queue. With this in
place, managers can, in increasing degrees, understand
their customers and build a lasting relationship with
them.

CRM software does this by helping the user collate
data, organize it and making it look as clean as
possible so as to help the manager find any flaws in
the sales process that hamper the firm’s profit goals.

How to maximize CRM First things first: a company must
understand that CRM is essential in improving customer
loyalty and adheres to the notion that a CRM
initiative is one of the most important and
influential action a firm will ensue.

If this is in place, one must make a commitment to
organizational development in order to follow the
principles CRM entails. In the future, different teams
in the organization will discover the wonderful
answers to the riddles CRM poses and also see that
these same answers also sheds light on where customer
touch points interact and which information (buying
patterns) is necessary or not.

Also, managers will also identify which business
practices work and which ones don’t. So to speak, an
organization must commit itself firstly to the CRM
philosophy and follow everything stipulated on its
invisible handbook in order to extract CRM’s
potential.

Second, the manager must know how to adjust their
operations and see valid connections within teams
depending on projects and workflows. This seems like a
total hassle, but it is the next and only step towards
building a solid corporate strategy that a company
must believe in.

CRM software helps this by creating a matrix of all
problems identified and solutions discussed. With
this, one can see and compare challenges across
different departments and identify potential changes
in the company’s strategies that will help solve these
issues.

With this done, the firm will be developing in the
long run a standardized sales process premised on
proven business practices which can integrate into
different departments like Marketing and Human
Resources.

Understand Trade-offs With a new philosophy and
business strategy in tow, basic principles in
economics will be clearer to the naked eye, guiding
the manager on how to maximize profits and pose an
excellent cost/efficiency ratio.

CRM solutions like SugarCRM help executives understand
these concepts, given that the whole application is
fully customizable, an Iron Man in disguise, with many
weapons and tricks potentially available in disguise.
With all these things set up, one can finally utilizes
the potential Customer Relationship Management offers
to the industry. One, it makes thing more organized.

Two, holes in the system will be found easily. Three,
opportunity costs and trade offs will be gleaned and
finally, costs shall be down and profit shall store
substantially, given that consumers truly enjoy the
firm’s product and it has an efficient Marketing
system that lures more clients. Read More......

Mobile CRM And Its Advantages

Gone are the times when deals are closed with
face-to-face meetings, where service call reports and
proposals pile up in offices and those late hours
where people have to frantically rush over to offices
for deadlines. The modes of communication have now far
transcended the sweet nothings of lovers in opposite
areas of the world and sponsorship agreements of firms
across time zones in the 90’s tech boom.

Today, immense amounts of data depict inventory
controls, consumer interactions and sales forecasting
bolt through the Communications & Media superhighway,
landing on the desks of managers, partners and the
like, perusing on those priceless data for that
competitive advantage in their industries.

A lean, quick and efficient workplace is crucial to an
enterprise’s success; and even though Mobile CRM takes
a lot out of the company’s funds, there is no better
opportunity to improve upon on the sales and marketing
weaknesses of the firm and build upon its strengths.
In the long run, Mobile CRM takes advantage of best
communications technology and actually gives the bang
for the firm’s buck.

Functionality

As corporations get larger, the importance of the
mobility of data through different areas in the world
also heightens in staggering degrees. Certain tastes
in the Chinese market may hamper with an American
corporation’s thrust towards globalizing its brand.

In order to tackle these kinds of problems, the firm
must dig for information, scouring the land for
snippets of culture to gain insight on these specific
consumers’ tastes and needs. Inventory reports must be
shown periodically to Brand managers, in order to
adjust their marketing strategies to adjust the tab of
market demand to adhere perfectly to the companies’
supplies.

Every little detail is integral for corporations,
especially multinationals, in order to discover common
consumer likes and finally think of "China’s
Coca-Cola". Such is the beauty of mobility in a
globalized economy, and Mobile CRM gives the companies
these agile strides for better efficiency and
functionality.

Fuel up sales

The primary reason Mobile CRM is very beneficial to a
company is how it tracks every facet of the firm’s
moves, from a sales consultant in London, a brand
strategist in Singapore, all reporting on demand
shifts, inventory surpluses and more to the
headquarters a thousand miles away. Again, this
regular updating of databases influential to a
company’s business decisions gets to where it heads
to, in record time, to the Project Manager, who makes
the necessary adjustments for the success of his team.
This in turn helps them avoid catastrophic mistakes,
which can potentially cost them millions of dollars.

Conclusion

A simple look at our industries tell everything about
the importance of mobility: tech companies concocting
ideas on what could be the next biggest trend, asking
themselves what is the next Motorola RAZR or Apple
iPod. It’s a race for innovation for these types of
companies where relentless focus group discussions,
surveys and interviews are held, drafted and given,
respectively. Mobile CRM helps them get to that level.
Everything from company image and sales reports are
written in intricate databases which are passed along
and discussed by different groups of the organization,
all focused to do one thing: hitting the market at the
sweet spot, and consequently getting the jackpot.
Read More......

Improving Sales With A CRM Strategy

A big benefit to implementing a CRM strategy is the
growth in sales. You will see your sales numbers
increase dramatically when you successfully put a
Customer Relationship Management solution in place.

When you have bad customer service in all aspects of
your company, then sales usually tend to be quite low.
This is because your level of returning customers is
extremely low.

Customers can sense when employees are disconnected
and not happy with their positions. This doesn’t
necessarily mean they are not happy but that they
don’t feel the importance or the impact of their
position.

Employees need to be working toward the goal of making
a customer experience fantastic. When the customer
service is not good then customers don’t even want to
be in the business, nor do they want to spend money.

The first response is to leave.

When you implement a strategy to provide an excellent
Customer Relationship Management solution you will
increase your sales.

Your employees will have an idea of how their position
contributes to the success of the company.

Your customers will sense and see good attitudes with
the employees and they will be treated properly by the
staff.

Customers will spend the money and shop in your store.
They will also recommend you to their friends if they
like the experience that much.

Sales are sure to increase when you implement a CRM
strategy with your business. This is because the
customers are aware when the employees work together
and like their jobs.

Employees should care about the customers and about
creating an excellent experience for everyone. Read More......

Internal Collaborative Functional Operations In CRM

The people who work on the back end of a business are
ultimately responsible for the way things work for a
company.

Although, to a customer their work and duties are not
visible, they are the ultimate lifeline for CRM.

Many of these positions include departments like
information technology, billing, maintenance,
planning, marketing, advertising and more.

The Information Technology department assists with
internal collaborations by ensuring the employees have
phone lines, computers to work on, and information
processes in place. When these are not occurring as
they should be then the employees are unable to do
their jobs.

An Advertising department also works behind the scenes
for the customers to create an image for the company.
They also create discounts and coupons for the
customers. The advertising department is in charge of
grabbing the attention of the customer in a positive
way.

The manufacturing department is who is responsible for
creating the customer’s products. This department is
usually noticed the least along with the maintenance
department.

Although the customer’s primary purpose is to purchase
the product coming from manufacturing they never
experience contact with these people.

Manufacturing ensures good CRM by creating a quality
product and using quality assurance methods to be sure
the customer’s never get a defective product.

There are many departments that work behind the scenes
to ensure the customers have an excellent experience
with a company.

According to the strategy and theory of quality CRM,
the entire company and every department is responsible
for creating the experience. Read More......

Implementing CRM in Your Company

If you think its time you take a customer focused view
point with your company and you would like to
implement a Customer Relations Management strategy
with your workplace, it is probably a good idea.

It is easy to do and you are sure to notice improved
results in many different aspects of your business.
Many of the ways you can implement CRM into your
company is by using training sessions, meetings, and
technology.

When you implement Customer Relations Management into
your company you can begin by having each of the
employees take part in training sessions to teach them
about the concept.

These training sessions should teach the employees
about the vision and the mission of the company and
how each and every employee is all working toward the
same goal.

You should also teach each employee how their
particular position directly affects the customers.

If an employee is an internal employee who doesn’t
have any contact with the customers then they might
feel the training is not for them.

They need to know that their position does have an
impact on the customer and how.

The technology in your company can be used to initiate
Customer Relationship Management because there are
many software packages out there designed to help
companies implement a successful strategy that
provides results.

There are learning and competency management systems
you can purchase so your employees can practice and
take exams on them.

There are many ways you can implement a Customer
Relationship Management solution into your company
including meetings and using the computer systems. Read More......

External Collaboration Functions of CRM

An aspect of Customer Relationship Management that is
extremely important is the external functions. This
might include vendors, distributors, and suppliers.
These relationships and processes support the
customer’s experience in many ways.

When a company has a good relationship with a desired
supplier then they are able to offer the customer
certain items. If a business does not have a good
relationship with a supplier then the customer can
suffer if that is the only supplier that offers a
particular item. This will force a customer to go to
another business who can give them what they want.

The relationship with vendors and suppliers also
contributes to the prices a company might offer for a
certain item.

If a company can only purchase certain merchandise
from a supplier at a 5% discount then they may not
even shelf the item.

This is because they don’t stand to make much of a
profit once the item sells and it is a bigger loss to
them if the item doesn’t sell and they have to mark it
down as a clearance item.

If there is a good relationship with the distributor
and the company gets a 40% discount on everything they
purchase from them then they can offer the items at a
cheaper rate because they will make more of a profit
from the sale.

The external collaboration functions impact the
customer directly when they want to purchase a certain
item that is not offered or when they are offered an
item at one business significantly cheaper than from
you. Read More......

CRM Strategy

The strategy for Customer Relationship Management may
differ within each company. Depending on the company
needs and focus they might consider the entire
workplace responsible for total CRM or only the sales
team.

Most companies who take Customer Relationship
Management seriously believe it is the entire
organizations responsibility to ensure total customer
satisfaction. It is believed every job works
hand-in-hand and everyone is working toward the same
goal.

That goal is an excellent customer experience for
every customer that walks in the door. Each department
works together and when one link in that chain breaks
then the entire experience can be tattered.

Everyone must work together toward the same goal of
customer satisfaction to provide the best results for
Customer Relationship Management possible.

Many companies who rely entirely on their sales team
looks at Customer Relationship Management differently.

A company who might look at it differently is a life
insurance company sales team. Everyone in the sales
office might believe that the customer experience is
entirely up to the sales representative.

They are responsible for getting their own clients and
making their own sales and if they lose a big client,
no one is to blame but the sales rep themselves. This
can ring true for car sales businesses and the like.

Companies view CRM or Customer Relationship Management
differently. Not all companies believe it is the
entire organization’s responsibility to keep the
customer happy and provide an excellent experience.

It usually depends on the business and how they are
setup. Read More......

CRM And What It Has Done For Consumers

Back in the day, frequent flyer miles, and loyalty
benefits were simply unheard of. CRM has brought these
things for the contemporary consumer, being that is a
customer-centric philosophy. Looking at its brief
history, one will see how CRM played a pivotal role in
making consumer’s shopping experience much more
enjoyable while keeping companies happy with
consistent profits.

Genesis In the pre-CRM era, entrepreneurs simply
relied on generic means to attract customers and gain
loyal followings. And corporations were self-centered
and dubious enough not to realize the importance of
having personalized consumer relationships. CRM first
emerged in the 1980’s where it was first termed as
database marketing.

This isn’t as intricate as the current Consumer
Relationship Management philosophy. It basically
comprises of a firm’s public relations department
merely interacting with their consumers in an almost
casual fashion. It was helpful in trivial ways, but it
simply wasn’t enough as databases went off as
unorganized and difficult to track and update.

Exodus Database marketing in the 90’s had no way to go
but up-it was destined to improve. Its journey towards
recognition as an integral part of business
intelligence flourished in this decade. Companies were
finally seeing the advantages of giving perks and
freebies to customers in exchange for valuable
consumer information on betting patterns. From this
day on, firms began to experiment what works and what
doesn’t in the emerging business philosophy that is
CRM.

Emergence Today, CRM has gained wide acceptance in the
business community, it has reached its full potential
and helps business attain theirs as well. Better
techniques are made and more efficient software was
created in the tech boom of the late 90’s, signaling
that CRM is here to stay.

Customization of software, shared workflows and easy
peer-to-peer discussions have improved the quality and
production of clients and those extra bonus points and
privilege cards for customers have helped companies
spot trends and take advantage of it.

Not only did efficiency and customer satisfaction
improve, the incessant problem of database flaws is
finally resolved with the advent of online
capabilities, where servers can store thousands of
megabytes worth of memory. CRM has been greatly
beneficial to companies, especially companies that are
similar in the mold of Procter & Gamble and Unilever,
where consumers and how they react about their
products are top priority. It also helps when it
directs customer acquisition and helps on trouble
shooting holes in business strategy.

CRM’s future Time and time again, in the course of
CRM’s history, it has shown and proved that it is
truly useful and effective given the success of
companies who offer CRM services like Oracle. As long
as business thrive and customers delight because of
CRM, then it is here to stay and will also continue to
develop and grow to greater heights.

By the way companies treat their customers, it is a
good assumption (and it is also a fact) that consumers
will lean towards CRM-guided corporations when it
comes to patronizing brands. CRM has made customer
service an everyday word in the business strategy and
may be the reason that the phrase "the customer is
always right" exists. Truly, the impact of Consumer
Relationship Management has been so great it has
shaken the foundations of business strategy and
intelligence. Read More......

Collaborative CRM

One of the goals of Customer Relationship Management
is to provide an infrastructure of support that is
effective and responsive to support questions raised
by customers, complaints, and any other issues.

The Collaborative portion of the CRM is to coordinate
a multi-channel service and support system within the
company that can take care of these issues.

A technical support department has interaction with
customers. It is common for customers to submit
questions or complaints about things to the technical
support team.

For example, customers are often asking for an online
system to make purchases or check the status of their
order.

The technical support team will take these customer
issues to the Collaborative CRM who can use this
information to provide better customer service and
create this online need.

The ultimate goal of the Collaborative CRM is to
improve the customer service experience and ensure
everyone is happy.

They might distribute surveys out to their customers
or send them by mail if a mailing list has been
established to find out answers to certain questions.

Surveys are often used to find out about customer
satisfaction regarding certain products or the
shopping experience.

Surveys often provide a lot of useful information to
the Collaborative CRM team when the receive comments
like the bathrooms are filthy, the sales girl was very
rude, or maybe someone couldn’t find a customer
service representative for over ten minutes.

Collaborative CRM gives management an idea how to make
changes within an organization or what things are not
being done so they can ultimately improve the customer
experience. Read More......

A Step Ahead With Microsoft Dynamics CRM

With the considerable number of CRM software
circulating in the market nowadays, it’s difficult to
choose one that fits all the basic requirements of a
good application: it must have a short learning curve,
a clean interface and it must be versatile.

It’s almost impossible to pick out the best in the
industry because each one declares that they are the
epitome of CRM solutions. But one must go back to the
fundamentals and choose a CRM that has brand
recognition and experience in the field, and The
Microsoft Dynamics CRM fulfills these requirements
with aplomb and definitely gets the job done.

What sets it apart

A guiding philosophy of this application is the "360°
Customer View", which basically gets into the heart
and soul of CRM: catering and wooing to the consumers.
Not only is the application a backdrop for a
management team’s creative prowess, it is also a
toolkit wherein every facet of the target market’s
psychology is studied: how shall we sell the idea?

Is it effective if we present it in a specific medium
(internet/face-to-face)? What are the precursors to
the current demands? Are there patterns? Questions
will flow naturally during one’s research ensuring
that the best possible ideas are made or the wittiest
pitch conceivable is thought of. This service-oriented
architecture immediately warms up the executive for
his/her daily grind.

Even though Microsoft Dynamics gives the entrepreneur
or manager plenty of options to approach the consumer,
it does not compromise the application’s learning
curve.

One, the program integrates well with familiar
Microsoft applications like MS Office, Access and
Outlook, saving the company time and resources in
training seminars and workshops. And second, data
creation and transfer is dealt handily by the
signature Report Wizard option and the standard
templates for marketing packages available in the
program. With these two conveniences in place, the
company is already assured of higher productivity with
less cost.

Features

From the myriad yet familiar configuration tools and
the Microsoft Development Kit (SDK), the features of
Microsoft Dynamics prove that it is for keeps. First
is the extensible workflow model, wherein the
web-based feature allows users to share work practices
to colleagues and executives. Furthermore, the system
workflow libraries make these models easy to find and
store.

Next is where clients are catered to individually by
drop-down fields in the application, ensuring that
important notes are taken on the spot without the
hassle of shuffling through different windows in the
program.

Security and confidentiality of information is an
important aspect of any CRM application, and Microsoft
is top-notch in theirs. It allows proper delegation of
records and objects to certain teams and/or
individuals, and each of them only sees specific
windows that are only relevant to them and no one else
in the team. This improves trust between the leader
and his/her subordinates and veers away from any
squabbles that might hamper a team’s progress.

Conclusion

Clean, secure, versatile yet easy to use: these traits
characterize the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which is
definitely a cut above the rest of the pack, which
usually offers imbalanced features: high on features
but low on efficiency and vice-versa. Microsoft’s is
perfectly balanced in every aspect and is definitely
tough to overtake in the CRM solutions industry. Read More......