Customer Service

We can all improve the way we handle customers, even if we consider ourselves to have excellent customer service. Below are ten things which you should consider when trying to develop your CRM strategy.

Get organizational buy in

No strategy is going to happen if it isn’t adhered to from top to bottom. Whether you are 2 people or 20,000 people, everybody must live and breathe the approach – especially at the top level. All too often Sales Directors are very quick to apply the strategy, but then do not follow it through themselves. If they are seen to be not adhering to it, the people that look up to them are unlikely to either.

Understand what is good and bad about how you deal with your customers and prospects

One of the most important pieces of information is knowing what problems currently exist that need addressing. There’s only really one way to find out (without simply assuming) and that’s to ask the people on the receiving end. If you try to second guess what is and isn’t working, you may simply exacerbate the problem. Similarly you can’t assume that what you’re doing is wrong, just because it might not be getting results. Your approach may be good, but maybe your targetting and message are out. By asking the question, you may just get the answer you’ve been looking for.

Idenitfy the best channels of communication

Often people like to be dealt with in a really personal way. Maybe people want the ‘no contact’ approach. Sometimes people want to be called on the phone while others would prefer communication by email (or maybe even text message). Understanding how your audience work and what they expect as a minimum is very important. It’s unusual for people to want no communication, however the level of personalisation and care taken is very important. For an online shopping service, confirmation by email, on screen as well as shipping and billing confirmations are often all that is needed. For a consultative sale, hiding behind email and communicating en masse is unlikely to work. Once again, it comes down to knowing your audience. If you’re in doubt, why not ask them at the first point of contact? It may take you out of your comfort zone, but ensuring you begin the relationship right is vital.

Improve your understanding of the role of technology

Often, when CRM is mentioned, thoughts immediately turn to a bit of software stuck on a computer with lots of fields and a database in the background. In essence that’s what CRM technology is – a database which allows you to record as much or as little data/information as you need about your contacts. However, the technology is just a facilitator to assisting how you manage your contacts, it isn’t a substitute and just because you have some technology, it doesn’t mean that you’ve got a CRM strategy in place.

Identify the tools which you need to implement

It’s important that you choose the right tools to make it happen. Choose a multimillion dollar technology and you’re likely to get something with bells and whistles and then some. However, do you need all of that? I’d argue that even some of the largest organisations in the world don’t need that, because at the end of the day it’s still people that use it – and if they don’t put the data in, you’re getting very little out. If you’re an online businesses you might want to consider having a CRM system which connects to your web analytics and also directly to your online ordering system and make sure the loop is closed.

Also consider if you need an email system built in. This is probably one of the biggest aspects of what a CRM system can do. Third parties, such as MailChimp, are absolutely dedicated to making emails happen. If you had that functionality in your CRM system, could it be abused? It’s a question which must be asked!

Essentially you need to draw up a list of what you need to facilitate the CRM strategy and then start to look for the technology which can provide it. It’s unlikely you’ll find a perfect match, so try to prioritise what it is you’re looking for.

Tie in compliance with objectives

Getting people to use a CRM system or adhere to the strategy is very tough. But it’s not impossible. Because it’s often quite quantitative in it’s approach (i.e. you can measure log ins, calls, notes etc…) there is no reason why you could not tie it into objectives. Often the response will be “do you want more sales, or more data”. Well, both are important in maintaining a good customer relationship strategy, so don’t be dazzled by the $ sign. Building relationships and recording them are just as important and could lead to more money in the future.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew

CRM is a massive subject. It’s full of psychology, technology, sales and marketing – and it’s nigh on impossible to know everything. When considering how to improve it, don’t be scared to ask for advice. It’s normally forthcoming.

Make the distinction between the technology and the theory

This is simple, but vital. The technology is the facilitator to the theory. CRM is not a technology in itself. Customer relationship management is exactly that, it’s about managing and building relationships (and often not just with customers). If you want to see how the technology and theory differ, consider how you relate to your friends and then your customers. You don’t use databases to manage your friends – yet that is, in some respects, customer relationship management. This is a little bit old school as Facebook and similar sites do provide the technology to make managing friendships easier… but the distinction between the two is still there.

Put your customer at the heart of your business

When building any strategy, you should have the customer at the heart of what you are doing, it’s the marketing philosophy. If you make a decision about changing your CRM strategy, while you may consider the end goal to be revenue, consider this… there would be no revenue if you did not have happy customers. Empathise with your customers, try to understand them better and the rewards will come.

Don’t expect miracles to happen overnight.

Any change in strategy will take time to come into effect. If you are starting out afresh with your CRM strategy, it will be a lot simpler than changing habits. However, this is often unlikely unless you are a start up. Your company will already have a CRM strategy in place, even if it is not formalised. It will be habitual and therefore difficult to change. Start from the top and permeate it through, encouraging, supporting and emphasise its activity. The larger the organisaton, the longer it will take, but it can happen and it will – then people will see the true benefits.

This list is certainly not definitive, however above all else remember that your customer is the reason you exist. Believe in the strategy and focus on building and improving the relationships; your business as a whole will benefit.

Rob Hallums is focused on providing small and medium organizations with advice and guidance to help them get the most from their resources. Find out how Glasscubes can help deliver an online crm solution for your business: http://www.glasscubes.com/online-crm