Businesses deal in relationships. They have to create a relationship with their clients and customers to keep them coming in the door, whether they are serving other business needs or consumer ones. Of course, it can be hard enough to manage all of the relationships in one’s personal life… how can one possibly add business relationships into the mix?
This is where a Customer Relationship Management application comes in. Let’s examine how a CRM can help you attend to various business challenges.
Challenge: Internal Lack of Communication
In order for your business to function, how much communication does there need to be? The answer to this is obviously a lot, and a lot of it will involve the client or customer. This is precisely why it is so crucial to get this communication right.
I want you to think like one of your own clients for a moment. Would you be inclined to work with a business that had multiple people calling you to discuss different matters, but you still would often repeat information between different people? I would certainly be more hesitant about it.
On the internal side of things, missing communication between departments prevents information from properly spreading - such as when the last call was made to a client or prospect, and what needs to be discussed. A CRM can help solve this issue by keeping essential information accessible to the resources who need it, allowing them to send a much better impression to the people who work with you.
Challenge: Missed Opportunities
Many businesses, by nature of their industry, work with the same clients repeatedly over time, while others see more diversity in their customers. One thing remains the same, however: each client or customer is looking to have a need or expectation fulfilled in a reasonable (to them) timeframe. A big part of your job is to identify these patterns and meet the expectations set to the best of your ability.
A CRM can assist you with that, as it allows you to track trends in your customer’s behavior, thereby enabling you to anticipate and prepare for opportunities more effectively. If Clients 1, 2, and 3 each agreed to a given service after they each experienced something independently, it is a pretty safe bet that the same will happen to Client 4, and by collecting and analyzing data, you can better predict when that will be.
Challenge: Business Unification
There are some habits that, while a small business can get away with them, are ultimately going to become a problem once a business grows. Scrawled notes on a legal pad and shoved in a desk drawer aren’t going to be helpful when someone else needs that information as they’re preparing for a meeting. The CRM can help to eliminate the need for such behaviors.
When used properly, the CRM effectively becomes your reference guide to your clientele - a centralized reference guide that anyone in the organization can refer to and supplement. In other words, it becomes the company’s official cheat sheet for effectively handling your crucial business relationships.
Are you interested in finding out how a CRM could fit into your operations? Give us a call at (760) 466-1200 to set up a consultation meeting with Data Net!
Comments