Develop your customer-focused strategy first before considering what kind of technology you need.
Break your CRM project down into manageable pieces by setting up pilot programs and short-term milestones. Start with a pilot project that incorporates all the necessary departments but is small enough and flexible enough to allow tinkering along the way.
Make sure your CRM plans include a scalable architecture framework. Think carefully about what is best for your enterprise: a solution that ties together “best of breed” software from several vendors via Web Services or an integrated package of software from one vendor.
Don't underestimate how much data you might collect (there will be LOTS) and make sure that if you need to expand systems you'll be able to.
Be thoughtful about what data is collected and stored. The impulse will be to grab and then store EVERY piece of data you can, but there is often no reason to store data. Storing useless data wastes time and money.
Causes of fail of CRM projects
Many things from the beginning, lack of a communication between everyone in the customer relationship chain can lead to an incomplete picture of the customer. Poor communication can lead to technology being implemented without proper support or buy-in from users.
CRM Application components (Asked in the paper)
•Contract & Accounts Management
Capture & track relevant data about every past & planned contact with prospects & customers as well as business & life cycle events of customers
•Sales
Tracks business & life cycle events of Customers for Cross & Up selling
•Marketing & Fulfillment
–Automate tasks such as Qualifying Leads, Managing responses, Scheduling sales contacts & Providing Information to Prospects & Customers
•Customer Service & Support
Help Desk assists Customer Service reps in helping customers who may be having problems with the Product or Service by providing relevant service data & suggestions for resolving problems. Can quickly create, assign & manage service requests
•Retention & Loyalty Programs
Costs six times more to sell to a New Customer than sell to an existing one
•A dissatisfied customer will de sell by word of mouth
•A company can boost its profits by 85% by increasing annual customer retention by 5%
•70% of complaining customers will do business with the company again if it quickly takes care of service problems
3 Phases of CRM (asked in the paper)
•Three Phases of CRM
•Acquire
•CRM software helps business to acquire its new customers by doing superior job of Contract Management, Sales prospecting, Selling, Direct Marketing & Fulfillment
•Enhance
•Enables to keep the customer happy by supporting superior service
•Service from responsive networked team of sales & service specialists & other business partners
•SFA & Direct Marketing & Fulfillment helps the company to Cross Sell & Up Sell to their customers
•Convenience of One Stop shopping at attractive prices
•Retain
•Helps the company proactively identify & reward its most loyal & profitable customers to retain & expand their business via Targeted Marketing & Relationship Marketing programs
•CRM failures
•Lack of understanding & preparation
Benefits of CRM (asked in the paper)
–By streamlining processes & providing sales, marketing & service personnel with better, more complete information, CRM enables organizations to establish more profitable customer relationships & decrease operating costs
–Sales organizations can shorten sales cycle & increase key sales performance metrics such as revenue per sales rep, average order size & revenue per customer
–Marketing organizations can increase campaign response rates & marketing driven revenue while decreasing lead generation & customer acquisition costs
–Customer service organizations can increase service agent productivity & customer retention while decreasing service costs, response times & request resolution times
–Effective CRM is a strategic imperative for corporate growth & survival
–Companies that create satisfied & loyal customers have more repeat business, lower customer acquisition costs & stronger brand value – all of which translates into better financial performance
–Allows business to identify & target their best customers, who are more profitable to the company, so that they can be retained as lifelong customers for more profitable services
–Enables real time customization & personalization of Products & Services based on Customer wants, needs, buying habits & life cycles
–Keeps track of the when Customer had made contacts with the Company
–Enables the company to provide consistent customer experience & superior service & support across all contact points a customer chooses |
