There are a number of issues of fundamental importance to the success of a CRM application. We will explore all of these in this post. The primary issues are:
- Discipline
- Discipline
- Discipline
Discipline 1 - Information Storage
All the information on your CRM system is contained in one big store called a database. The CRM database is capable of storing details of emails, conversations, quotations, customer names, addresses, telephone numbers and contact personnel for all your customers.
It is like having a gigantic filing cabinet.
It is like having a gigantic filing cabinet.
Discipline 1
Put information in the right place – ALWAYS.
ALWAYS – put the information in the right place. If you deal with one hundred people at XYZ Widgets and you stored all the information about all the quotations for each person under the general heading of XYZ Widgets, finding any information would become very difficult.
If however you created a main file for XYZ Widgets, and a subsidiary folder for each person at XYZ Widgets and you stored quotations in the separate file for each person at XYZ Widgets, finding quotations would be much easier.
That means
if you did a quotation for John Smithers of XYZ Widgets, you can file the information in one of two places:
or
In the John Smithers folder of the XYZ Widgets file
Discipline 2 - The Right Information
Your CRM system is a place for storing all the customer related information.
There will be a temptation to record everything customer related in the database. Resist the temptation.
If you have received an email from a customer with “The 100 best blonde jokes” – PLEASE DON’T store it in the CRM system.
There is no hard and fast rule. However, common sense ought to tell you that anything of commercial relevance to your company should be stored. This includes emails with regard to purchases, contracts, negotiations, commercial information should be stored. Quotations should be stored. Details of relevant conversations should be stored. Letters to customers should be stored.
Anything that adds value to the customer relationship.
Legal Notice
DO NOT record information that is of dubious legality about your customer or competitor. There have been cases in the recent past where organisations have been successfully sued for sending internal emails that contained questionable information about a competitor. There is little reason to believe that this could not be extended to the CRM system.
Discipline 3 - CRM is a habit
Make your CRM system a central part of your working life and you will get tremendous value from it.
Make your CRM system an incidental part of your working life and watch your CRM-friendly colleagues make more sales, earn more commission and get faster promotion. Knowledge is power and CRM is a hugely powerful corporate knowledge system …. Use it or lose it.
Kindly Share Your Valuable feedback and don't forget to use social bookmarking widgets to spread the info!!
Post a Comment