| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
Is Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System Doomed To Fail?
"Right, People. Let's blast out that mail campaign we've been planning for so long." It's time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You run a search of people and companies you want to target. You soon realize something's wrong when your list is far smaller than anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles/categories have not been filled in, impacting your search results. Further inspection shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with typos. And that's just for starters. With a sinking feeling, you realize that last push isn't going to happen in a hurry. Time for some Damage Control or Preventative Maintenance. Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes 'garbage in, garbage out'. So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software? You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use. Spell out: ? Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action. ? Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what 'de-duping' or 'data scrubbing' features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record. ? Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future. ? Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and when are CAPS acceptable? ? By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or updated? Same day, on return to the office? ? Check to see whether your Postal Services have specific requirements. Ensure your data meets these criteria. ? Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or a physical address? ? Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure and do not trust spellchecker! When in doubt, ask the client - they'll respect that. Is it Clark with an 'e'; Shawn, Sean or Shaun? One certain way to get your mail binned is to spell someone's name incorrectly. ? Also confirm the kind of corporation e.g. LLC, Inc, PTY Ltd. and so on. ? Make rules for creating new profiles or User Definable Fields (UDF) (or whatever your specific CRM software calls them.) Place a lot of emphasis on this. Every time a new UDF is needed, it should first be approved. Otherwise duplicates will permeate your database e.g. Lead Source: Yellow Pages, YP, yelo pages. ? Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic but common mistake! ? Set up procedures, if not supported by your software, of how to create records from inbound emails. ? If applicable, are you going to use Mandatory/Forced fields? You might as well address the issue of Backups while you are about it. ? Who is the responsible person for backing up your databases/s? Who covers for them when they are absent or unavailable? ? How frequently are backups to be done? Diarise! ? How are backups done e.g. by the Grandfather, Father, Son method. ? Ensure backups are made on good quality CD's or whatever format you are using. It's no good doing a backup, then finding on attempting a Restore that it doesn't work! It is also a good idea to copy backups onto more than one data format. ? Where are the backups to be stored? ? Are the backups secure? This is important for both security and practical reasons. Once your Data Capture Procedure Document is finished, get everyone to sign it off as READ! As standard practice, ensure that document is handed to all new employees at your company. Refer back to this document for possible revision every three months or so. Try this: select a couple of records - both good and bad - every week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you don't unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become the light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when having fun! What if your database is in one unholy mess? Has the rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish contact with your clients and let them know you care. You can always put lapses down to data crashes but tell them you have fixed the problem! Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from the data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and hence the success of your business and their careers. By creating a sense of pride and ownership in the company database, you are nurturing the essential process of buy-in, necessary for the success of your CRM initiative. Don't compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software to be infected by inferior data. About The Author Perry Norgarb has specialized in Small Business CRM solutions for the last 15 years. Contact him or find out more about CRM, Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com. You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact. © 10 December, 2004.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Who Says the Customer is Always Right? We all know the old adage, "The Customer is Always Right." If you are an online business owner or offline for that matter, you are on both sides of the subject almost everyday. The 3 Rs of Customer Service What I am about to tell you may seem very obvious - you may even say DUH!!! but the fact is, - many company's forget the 3 R's of good customer service- Respect your Customer, Take Responsibility for Your Actions and Products and give your Customers a Full REFUND when it just isn't right. I promise you that if you follow these 3 simple rules you will never have to run after the same customer again!Respect the customer! Just about as plain as the nose on your face Right? Wrong!How many times have you been greeted in a less than courteous manner or worse yet- not at all!! Never lose the opportunity to make a great first impression- very rarely do you have a second chance to undo the damage done by that first encounter. Are You Satisfying Your Customers? The latest report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (Michigan School of Business) reports the following:Customer dissatisfaction with the quality goods and services offered in the marketplace is more than a nuisance. The US economy is heavily dependent on increases in consumer spending. Make Your Customer Your Friend The simplest way to describe a 'durian' (pronounced doo-ree-ann) is to say it's a yellowish-green fruit about the size of an mid-sized watermelon. It has a thick skin of spikes, and a rich bitterish-sweet fruit. Customers - Hold Onto the Ones Youve Got You probably spend a great deal of your time looking for newcustomers or clients. However, are you sure your doingenough to hold onto the ones you've got. Leverage Customer Capital First If you're still dreaming about raising outside capital for your business before you have any paying customers, I've got a nice big bucket of ice water to throw on you. Wake up! The cold reality is that investors aren't interested in your business idea unless you can demonstrate that you've got customers who are actually willing to buy. E-Business's Best Friend: eCRM From Ebay to the smallest home-operated start-up, e-businesses of all sizes struggle to accurately answer a common question: who are my customers? If you can't answer that question, chances are you're also in the dark about the following questions. What customer demand trends can I expect in the future? How can I improve customer retention? What can I do to build long-term relationships of trust with customers? Knowing the answer to these questions can mean the difference between long-term growth and profitability and crashing and burning. Create a Positive, Upbeat, Can-Do Workforce and Dazzle the Customer with Your Caring! Given the choice of dealing with a positive, upbeat employee with a "can-do" attitude or dealing with a disgruntled, distracted, uninterested one, which would you choose? No contest. Customers always want the best experience possible; they want it to be easy and pleasant to do business with your company. Learning from Your Employees and Customers Complaints Listening to complaints, whether they're reasonable or not, is a part of every manager's job. Sometimes complaints can be overwhelming. Dealing with People - Words to Avoid You probably realise how the wrong tone of voice andnegative body language can cause problems when dealing withother people, particularly customers and staff. However,using the wrong words can also cause problems. The Drawback of Hacking Off a Blogger Through Weak Process Gaps and Pathetic Customer Service With all of the recent data theft in the financial sector, it is important to make sure that we don't go crazy trying to protect ourselves from risk. Risk management does have a value but this value lies mostly on the front end. How to Easily Increase Your Profits Do you remember the last time you went into a shop and the person 'serving' raced over to you, greeted you with a lovely smile, heaps of enthusiasm and said, "Welcome to our store, what can I help you with today?" And then listened attentively to what you had to say?Doesn't happen very often does it? In fact, while I was writing this, I couldn't recall when I had experienced it. I'm sure I must have yet it would have been so long ago, I can't remember. How To Build a Profitable Business It's never too soon to start saying thanks to your clients, vendors and referral sources for what they contribute to your business. Everyone loves to be appreciated and acknowledged, so start now and do something every month. RETAIL GREETERS: Sales Builders or Customer Turnoff? Do you need greeters or should you avoid them? That is the perplexing question many retail organizations are struggling with today. Often touted in the press as the perennial example of the benefits to employing greeters,Walmart has hung on to its practice faithfully. Write a Business Thank-You Note Have you seen that thing on TV where the gal tellsthe nerd she wonders why he never asked her tomarry him and he stumbles and says "Thank You" andshe turns to butter?The point of the message is that "Thank You" goesa long way to making people feel better.Personally and in business, develop the "ThankYou" habit. From Disgruntled to Champion - How to Turn an Unhappy Client Into Your Best Customer It's a salesperson's worst nightmare- the phone call that comes in from a disgruntled customer. Not only does it create extra work for you, but it cuts into your valuable selling time. How To Build Stellar Client Relationships Your opportunity to build a stellar client relationship starts with managing the gap between your perception of how things are going and your client's.Begin the process here . And The Difference is... Attitude I returned a rental car at an airport yesterday. As the person who was going to check me in approached, he smiled (which shocked me) and said, "Hello Mr. Listening: The Foundation of Communication Listening is the #1 communication skill for leadership, selling, customer service, and even romance! The problem is, most of us don't listen very well. We're not trained to listen and we don't even realize that listening is a skill. The Importance of Good Customer Service Do you have good customer service? Even for your free giveaways?I have been thinking over the past couple of weeks why some WAHP's have trouble growing their business. They host chats or do online parties.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
