There is a popular saying among CEOs, “It is easier to keep an existing customer rather than trying to find a new one”. Every CEO knows the company’s bottom line is directly impacted by repeat business and without it, the business will struggle.
Whether large or small, a business is dependent upon their customer relationship strategy. All companies are driven by customer wants and demands and if not met, they do not survive. Meeting the client’s needs throughout the organization is critical in client retention.
Sales, Support and Service are the 3 levels of interaction between client and provider. Managing the three vital points is difficult unless you have a competent customer relationship manager with a working customer relationship management application that enables the internal departments to share customer information.
When looking for a CRM tool, the application should help these three areas not only to manage information within their department but easily share this information with the other areas that service the client.
Sales – Opportunity and contact management information is key data each sales person uses to manage customer calls and find and close deals. Each e-mail or phone call is tracked and logged for efficient and effective sales management.
Services – The delivery organization can use the CRM tool to track milestones and review contracts and develop a matrix of implementation steps to deliver the products and services based on expectations. The CRM tool should be able to track project expenses, documentation for proper project management.
Support – After the project is completed and the customer is live, the customer relationship tool should enable the call centre to easily log cases that tie back to the contact and account records. This information is again available to the other departments and provides a total 360 degree picture of the lifecycle of that account.
In summary, your Customer relationship management application should have the ability to track and manage the various stages of your customer from sales through delivery and into support. Over time, this data can be rolled up into management reporting for the executive team to measure customer satisfaction and other aspects of the business.