September/October 2008

What's your CRM strategy?

All businesses use customer relationship management (CRM) to manage contacts with the customer.  Each time you interact with the customer, you are exercising your CRM strategy.  Your customer should see a unified approach that illustrates your company's values. Gathering information about the customer by recording and tracking each contact is the foundation of a CRM program.  Your CRM strategy is the way your company wants to relate to your customers. 

Your CRM approach can be manual or automated. Often companies use software to capture customer information and analyze patterns. CRM software can be an excellent tool to get the most from your marketing campaigns.  Data mining is used to find customer behaviors that make up-selling and cross-selling successful. CRM is often used to monitor customer satisfaction and loyalty.  And as your company grows, automation of your CRM program is essential.   

For a successful CRM strategy, start with your company goals.  Be sure that your plan aligns with what you want to accomplish.  For instance, if you want to thank a customer for each order make sure that all the necessary information is in the CRM system and that completion of the task is clearly noted.  Also, be sure that if a task is missed, it is obvious.  If you want to use CRM to notify customers of new products and services, be sure that you put customers into categories that identify their recent purchases and preferences.  Use classifications that are meaningful to you and your customers. 

Remember, CRM  is something you use to deepen your relationship with your customers.  It is how you serve them and take care of their needs.  Any system you choose should bring you closer to your customers, not get in the way. 

If you want to discuss CRM software options, we would be happy to tell you what we are doing and our automation plans.

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