CRM 5 UNIT

OPERATIONAL CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

CRM, an acronym for Customer Relationship Management is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, which may include attracting the customer, analyzing the customer, and satisfying the customer. CRM is not simply advanced technology; it is a comprehensive approach to customer relationship management. Straight Marketing offers different types of CRM packages that accommodate customer relationship management and can include anything from setting up policies and processes, to customer service, employee training, marketing and systems/information management. To fill a company’s requirements, Straight Marketing considers a company’s needs before determining the best CRM tools.

WHAT EXACTLY IS OPERATIONAL CRM ?

Operational CRM generally refers to services that allow an organization to take care of their customers. It provides support for various business processes, which can include sales, marketing and service. Contact and call centers, data aggregation systems and web sites are a few examples of operational CRM. If your company has a high customer turnover, or perhaps high service costs, Operational CRM Solutions is a tool that can help you solve your problems. The high tech expertise of CRM gives you access to information about your customer as well as giving you a clear view of your customers needs.

Definition

Operational CRM generally refers to services that allow an organization to take care of their customers. It provides support for various business processes, which can include sales, marketing and service. Contact and call centers, data aggregation systems and web sites are a few examples of operational CRM.

WHAT IS A CRM IMPLEMENTATION?

A CRM system is a software tool that helps manage interactions with constituents. To be successful, a CRM system must track and report information about the people you engage with in a way that helps you further your goals.

Key Challenges in CRM implementation

1. Defining Clear Objectives:

An organization must define a clear set of objectives that need to be achieved through customer relationship management implementation. Ensure the objectives are measurable. By doing so, you can assess the benefits and challenges of CRM while tracking the return on investment.

2. Appointing a Core CRM Team:

One of the major problems in implementing CRM is that many organizations assume it to be an IT project. You must rather employ a core CRM team that works with the company’s stakeholders, senior executives, customer support professionals, and end users to understand the requirements. Once the requirements and objectives are clear, you can allow the IT team to initiate the CRM implementation process.

3. Defining the Processes:

The process to implement a CRM should be defined clearly in order to ensure the success of your CRM project. One good practice is to create a central repository, accessible to all, which stores all the process definitions. This allows the document to be available for reference by anyone using the system.

Key processes that you need to define from the start can include change management process and feature re-evaluation process. Also, the security measures with adequate access and authorization rights should be in place to prevent unauthorized access to data and security attacks.

4. Managing the Application:

Once the CRM has been rolled out, it is important to re-align it with your company culture. Mapping your business operations with the CRM application lets your end users perform day-to-day operations using the CRM application by default while allowing you to keep a track of everything through a single platform.

5. Finding a Right CRM Partner:

A right CRM development partner helps you ensure the success of your CRM project. Ideally, you must select a partner who can cater to all your CRM requirements such as consultation, development, customization, integration, and maintenance. The partner must also blend with your work culture while understanding the potential risks and challenges of customer relationship management system and the methods to address them.

CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT

Call Centre A— call center is a third-party customer contact desk, which handles customer calls and complaints, but also tries to build a comprehensive CRM (customer relationship management; CRM is the process of sales, marketing, service and support within an organization with the customer as the focal point)

10 BEST PRACTICES FOR EFFECTIVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT

Call center management is, by no means, an easy job. It requires strategic vision, hard work, difficult decisions, the ability to motivate people to hit tough targets, and much more.

Effective leaders in the call center industry need to be familiar with every aspect of their business, lead by example, and work within strict budgets. It can be overwhelming at times. To help you get out from under this overwhelmed feeling, and move you and your call center closer to success, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best practices for effective call center management.

1. Hire The Best Employees

It’s essential for successful call center management, but few managers put enough time and energy into

hiring the best employees for the job. Call centers need people with a natural ability for customer service, good listening skills, effective communication skills, an excellent memory, and an enthusiastic attitude. It’s the intangibles like enthusiasm and ability to listen that often make the best employees. And the tricky thing is, these traits can’t be taught. That’s why it’s so important that savvy managers take the time to screen new employees for attitude and aptitude.

2. Provide Thorough Onboarding

Hiring is only a very small part of successful call center management. Granted, it’s an important part, but hiring mistakes can be mitigated through a thorough onboarding process that teaches good habits and communicates your high standards. We recommend putting special emphasis on training employees how to deal with customer complaints. The bulk of their calls will probably be of this type so it’s important to prepare them right from the beginning. Make sure that your employees see customer complaints as an opportunity to provide great service rather than an obstacle that needs to be crossed. With a thorough onboarding program in place, your new employees will feel better able to handle any type of call that comes their way. That makes for a happier employee, and ultimately, a happier customer.

3. Prioritize Employee Engagement

Call centers have a notorious reputation as difficult places to work. Whether that label is true or not, it can make attracting good employees and minimizing turnover an overwhelming job. Attracting good employees starts with the hiring process, but minimizing turnover is a direct product of

employee engagement. Effective employee engagement can be as simple as talking with your employees each day, or as elaborate as a team retreat. Engagement activities like holding brainstorming sessions, or a team happy hour, can make your employees feel like part of a team, and keep them on point and ready to handle customer problems. Take the time to institute some employee engagement programs to keep your team’s motivation and performance at a high level.

4. Ensure Proper Scheduling For Effective Call Center Management

Working in a call center can be a high-stress job. That stress can have a negative effect on your employees. The moment they begin to feel overworked, their ability to perform at a high level decreases.

5. Communicate Regularly With Your Employees

There’s no experience like first-hand experience. Though you may not be on the frontline of the call center everyday, your employees are. They are familiar with the customer service process inside and out. That makes them more aware of where the problems lie, and perhaps more cognizant of what is necessary to fix them.

6. Give Employees Targeted Feedback

Regular quality-of-service assessment is vital for the successful operation of any call center. Take the time to listen to your employees’ performance and then be ready to offer targeted feedback so they can improve. Do this evaluation systematically so that you can gauge the abilities of each and every employee. And while targeted feedback can lead to profound change, sometimes it may not be enough. We suggest you establish an ongoing-training program to reinforce the standards you’ve set for your quality of service.

7. Use Data When Making Decisions

Just about all decision-making in business is driven by data these days. Your call center management should be too. Set goals and establish appropriate metrics to reach those goals. It’s important for managers to be familiar with the metrics that are most applicable to their employees and customers.

8. Delegate Responsibilities To Your Employees

It can be very easy for a call center manager to get bogged down in the specific details of the job. There are a myriad of small tasks that need to get done for a call center to run smoothly. But there are also a lot of high-level strategy decisions that can keep your call center performing at its best. It’s these later jobs and decisions that an effective manager should focus on.

9. Establish Positive Incentives For Good Work

Encourage your employees to do their best work, all the time. One of the best ways to do this is through positive incentives. Quotas, contests, and rewards can provide positive incentives in a number of different ways. First, they can keep employees motivated when the calls get difficult. Second, they can help maintain a higher level of morale throughout your entire team. entire company.

10. Improve The Process By Putting Yourself In Your Employees’ Shoes

Communicate with your employees regularly to find out the problems they see and the concerns they have about the customer service process. But nothing helps you improve your call center activities like putting yourself in your employees’ shoes once in a while.

Donning a headset and taking a few calls will give you a better understanding of the challenges your employees face on a daily basis. It will help you see what they need to do their job better. It will help you see what your customers need. It will help you refine the strategy that governs your call center and show you how you can improve the process overall. Putting yourself on the frontline with your employees is also a great way to lead by example. It engenders respect and shows that you’re not so far above your employees that you’re not willing to get your hands dirty when it’s necessary.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) AND INTERNET

Internet can enable customer relationship management (CRM). The ways are: 1. Getting Information out to Customers 2. Getting Information Back from Customers 3. E-Commerce Sales.

1. Getting Information out to Customers:

The Internet can provide an avenue for getting information about your business and your products and services to your current and potential customers. At its most basic level, this means letting them know you are there and how to reach you in the “real world.” It can be as simple as a Web-based brochure that describes your products and services and tells customers where you are located and how to reach you by phone.

2. Getting Information Back from Customers:

The next level of sophistication means you not only provide information to your customers, but also learn more about them and from them. The Internet allows you to collect all sorts of useful — and sometimes not so useful— data about your customers. Sometimes this means customers respond to questions and provide you useful information. In other cases you may be able to collect information that’s very useful to your business without interfering at all with the customer experience.

3. E-Commerce Sales:

You can use the Internet to deliver products and services to your customers. You can have mutually rewarding relationships with customers you never see, meet, or speak with! Your entire relationship can successfully exist in cyberspace.

With the technology available today, you can sell your products over the Internet, respond to customer questions, offer additional products and services based on previous purchases, and evaluate customers’ satisfaction with your offerings—all without ever dealing with them in-person. Leveraging the Internet can free up resources to deliver higher levels of value to customers in new ways.

You can provide online customer service through the following means:

i. Search engines:

A site based search engine helps your customer find answers to his or her questions, locate information, and connect quickly to the right department.

ii. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

A place on your Web site where you list and respond to the most common concerns expressed by customers.

iii. Live help:

Your customers can actually speak to a customer service representative while they’re online visiting your site through Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) applications. Online order tracking—With customized applications, you can allow customers to track the progress of their order, just as Federal Express allows customers to check package status over the Internet. Nazan Fathy, writing for www(dot)suitel01(dot)com

CRM (CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT) WEBSITES

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth

· CRM Today, provides daily news, events, directory, case studies, white papers and more for CRM, Knowledge Management and related fields.

· CRM Strategy Magazine, a rich, multi-media resource for learning innovative ideas and best practices on customer strategy.

· CRMXchange, a community site for CRM, offers events, white papers, products and services, press releases, case studies, job opportunities, chat and more

· eCRM guide, a Source for Customer Relationship Management Technology from internet.com

· InsigtExec Customer Management Community.

· ITtoolbox CRM Knowledge Base, offers content, community, and service for CRM, including technical discussion, job postings, directory, and news.

· searchCRM.com, CRM-specific search engine

· VAI, award-winning IBM Premier Business Partner and software developer of enterprise resource planning solutions for all types of businesses.

TRAFFIC BUILDING

Promotional campaign or special attractions aimed at increasing the number of shoppers passing through a shopping area, mall, store, or website.

Our six primary traffic building specializations include:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): No longer considered a stand-alone entity, good SEO is now the result of providing searchers with a positive user experience. This means producing relevant, high-quality content and bolstering it with other effective inbound marketing tactics.

Pay-Per-Click: This online advertising model is used to drive traffic to your website through ads that typically appear on the Search engine results page (SERP).

Display Advertising: Target your prospects on the websites, blogs, and social media sites where they work, play and shop. With advanced targeting techniques we can strategically deliver your messaging by geographic, demographic, interest, intent, behavioral and contextual factors.

Social Media Marketing: Social media is now an integral part of any traffic building strategy. Our experts will work with you to identify the most relevant media platforms and develop the most effective strategy, in line with your inbound marketing goals.

Local Search: When your prospective customers are ready to buy, they search locally. Local search optimization is a specialized form of SEO that increases a local business visibility online and improves the search ranking for geographically related keywords.

Mobile Marketing: SEP uses responsive design principles to ensure that your website can be viewed optimally on any device. With this approach, we can help you maximize search traffic and can provide you with the mobile conversions you need.

THE DIRECT MAILING PROCESS

Even in this age of instant communication and overflowing email boxes, there is still a place for direct mailers and quality communication with your target customers. In fact, the role played by direct mail may be more important than ever before.

People are busier than ever these days, and they have little time or patience for endless email marketing messages. But those same customers are checking their actual mailboxes every day – there is simply no substitute for finding your customers where they live, and only direct mail can do that.

Whether you are preparing your very first direct mailer or trying to make your existing direct mail strategy more efficient and less costly, it is important to understand how the direct mailing process works. Having a solid understanding of the entire direct mail process – from the initial design of the mailing and the envelope to the creation of the content to the actual printing and mailing of the finished product, there are a lot of steps along the chain. Here is a quick overview of the direct mailing process and some tips to make your own direct mail campaigns even more successful.

CHOOSING YOUR DIRECT MAIL DEMOGRAPHIC

The first step of the direct mail marketing process is arguably the most important, since it will influence everything from the budget to the response rate. Before you write a single word or design a single envelope, you will have to determine who your existing customer is.

Do you run a pet store? If so you would want to target dog owners in your area. Do you provide professional services to local business owners? If so you will need to know who those business owners are. Are you a party planner? You will want to compile a list of busy moms and dads. Knowing your target audience is a vital part of the process, and it leads directly to the next step.

IDENTIFYING YOUR TARGET CUSTOMERS

Once you know who your existing customers are, you can use data analytics and data mining to find them and target them with direct mailers. Data mining allows businesses large and small to filter their mailing lists in a myriad of different ways, and the possibilities are nearly endless.

If you want to find new moms with sons under one year of age, there is an algorithm that can provide that information. If you want to target owners of Pomeranian dogs or Siamese cats, you can do that as well.

You can make your demographic targeting as broad or as narrow as you want. We can help you design a list that is most likely to get results, and we can work with you throughout the rest of the direct mailing process.

GATHERING INFORMATION FOR YOUR DIRECT MAILING

If you already have a list of customers and prospects, you can mine that list for demographic information and learn more about the people who buy your products and use your services. From demographic information already on the web to survey results and information from customer outreach, there are plenty of ways to gather demographic information and make your marketing efforts more effective.

FINDING THE RIGHT IDEA

Every direct mailing effort begins with a great idea. Perhaps you already have an idea for a new catalog, brochure or postcard. If so, you can work with one of our in-house design consultants to flesh out that idea and bring it to life.

If you need help getting started, our experienced graphic designers can assist you with every aspect of the job. From helping you find the right theme for your mailing to creating graphics that will get noticed in even the most stuffed mailbox, our design consultants can guide you at every step.

CONTENT CREATION

You have something to say, and you want your direct mail recipients to take notice. Creating compelling content is not always easy, but having the right partner is half the battle.

If you have the bare bones of your content, we can help you flesh it out and make it pop. If you need help, we can provide content ideas based on what we know about you and your business. No matter what you need, we strive to meet your exact specifications.

DESIGN CONSULTATION

Our in-house design consultants are experts at what they do, and they are true professionals. Whether you need top to bottom service or just a little help bringing your own ideas to life, we can help you create direct mailers that get noticed – and get results.

PRINTING AND MAILING

The last step is perhaps the most critical, and once again you can rely on our professionalism and expertise. From determining the right mailing service to minimizing your costs, we can design a printing and mailing schedule that makes sense for your business.

Professional printing and mailing services are essential to your success, and we can help you get the best results possible. Just contact us today for top quality service from start to finish.

THE 5 STEPS OF DIRECT MAIL MARKETING

All too often, we receive direct mail pieces that have been thrown together at the last minute. You can tell which pieces were rushed, and your prospects and customers can, too. So let’s clean up your future direct mail campaigns by planning them better. There are five steps to take before you send out your campaign.

Step 1: Position

Where are you now compared to the competition? Where do you want to be? What is your competition doing? Can you do it better? Set your goals accordingly.

Step 2: Permission

Do you and your team have the authority to plan and execute effective direct mail campaigns? In other words, are you being told what to do, or can you decide what needs to be done, and then do it? If you do not have the authority, find the person who does and work with them to plan out the strategy. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas.

Step 3: Creation

How are you going to go about design, copy and offer? They must work together to make an effective mailer. Will these components be produced in-house or do you need help? Who is going to do what and what will the timeline be? Keep in mind that postal regulations may limit your creativity, so make sure you know the rules.

Step 4: People

Who are you going to send to? This needs to be heavily considered. Do you already have a list or do you need to find a list of the right people for your offer? Should you employ different versions to better target people? Have you built personas so that you know details about who you want to target?

Step 5: Execution

You are now ready to proceed to sending your mail. Can you facilitate the printing and mailing in-house or do you need help? Make sure to assign someone to track results so you know what is working and what is not. The process does not stop once your campaign has been mailed — it continues on.

DISAPPOINTING CRM RESULTS

4 WAYS TO FIX DISAPPOINTING SALES RESULTS

When the not so stellar sales report comes in it creates two groups of sales people. First there are those who will always try to assign blame and fail to take credit for the team’s lack of success. Then there are those who will take a more professional outlook and try to re-evaluate their processes.

As a successful sales professional you always want to be part of the latter group, but how do you go about re-examining your sales process?

START BY EXAMINING THE LEADS

Leads should be the first suspect in this investigation. Sales people tend to complain that Marketing is providing them with low quality leads which results in poor conversations and terrible sales results.

Although lead quality might be one of the culprits, it can also be a symptom of something bigger: the disconnect between Sales and Marketing. To fix the lead quality issue once and for all, download our free Unifying Sales and Marketing Ebook and read our blog post, followed by having a meeting with your Marketing team.

If your company purchases leads be aware that some of those leads are nothing but garbage. Filtering through these lead lists takes away valuable selling time. If possible have a dedicated team member focus on qualifying these purchased leads before handing them over to the sales reps.

CREATE A MORE CONSISTENT SALES SYSTEM

If your company is quite new don’t try to adapt just any sales system and hope it works. Chances are your organization is very different than your competitors or your previous employers.

A good starting point is to meet with your sales team and ask them to recall their most successful sales. Try to find the common thread of success by dissecting every step, starting from the first contact up to the post sale follow up. How did they guide the buyers through the sale? How did they present your product? Analyzing these questions might hold the key to a more successful sales process.

UPDATE YOUR CRM

Your leads and sales pitch aren’t the only suspects in this investigation. Your CRM may have something to do with your low sales numbers. Marketing can provide great leads and sales people can have great conversations, but if the CRM system is not updated then these actions never really took place.

Maybe you are running an outdated CRM that prevents sales people from logging the information they need. Or even worse, your CRM is a generic “catch all” system that lacks industry specific features and ends up hindering your sales efforts.

SELL TO CUSTOMER NEEDS

In the B2B world there is rarely any compulsive buying. Most businesses purchase a solution that addresses a certain pain point.

How will you convince your prospects they are in need of your solution? Be creative in your sales pitches and always address how the features of your product or service will reduce costs and share problems. Instead of selling a product, train your sales people to sell a solution.

CRM IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES

CRM has become a real buzzword in today’s business world. Everyone is talking about it, everyone knows they can significantly benefit from it, yet only a few know which solution fits their business model the best. There is no denying that CRM helps businesses from all industry verticals be it healthcare, financial, manufacturing, retail etc. establish closer connections with customers and make data-driven decisions by organizing and centralizing customer data. Enterprises are eager to invest in CRM technology as part of a determined effort to grow their customer base.

There are various questions that you need to ask yourself before you start reaching out to CRM vendors. By having clear and concise answers to those questions, you will be able to clearly define your needs and follow CRM implementation best practices that will help your business grow by leaps and bounds.

1. Business Objectives

What is the driving force that has compelled you to start thinking about investing in this technology? What do you hope to achieve by adopting a CRM solution? Some are more interested in automating tasks while others desire to take advantage of the reporting and analytics features present in a CRM. Discuss the proposal with your sales, marketing, IT and customer service team, get their feedback and then devise a plan that clearly outlines what your goal is for implementing a CRM. Once you have adequately defined the problems that your organization is facing without a CRM, you can easily select the CRM that will help overcome those complications.

2. Time Duration

How long will it take for the entire implementation process to complete? Should it be done in one go or should you start with the basic functionalities and then add more features in subsequent phases? The answer to these questions will depend on various factors such as your company’s size, number of users, location of your existing data etc.

3. Deployment: On-Demand VS On-Premise

On-premise is considered the traditional way of CRM deployment since you get it installed locally on your own network. Cloud-based CRM, on the other hand, is a few steps ahead in terms of technology as the program and its data is stored in the cloud and is deployed to the customer via the Internet. However, there are still decision makers out there who get intimidated when advised to make the transition from on premise to cloud based CRM due to cloud security concerns. The final decision will be made based on how comfortable the management of your company is with its data residing in the cloud.

4. User Adoption

Initially, the employees will not be very receptive to the idea of undergoing training in order to use a new software. Many would think CRM would make their processes more complex and they are better off doing things the old way. If the CRM is too complex and cumbersome, employees will not embrace the technology with an open heart. The CRM software should have a user friendly interface so that you can get your team to readily adopt it. Moreover, you need to ensure that adequate training is provided to update the knowledge and skills of each employee in order to get the best results from the CRM technology.

5. APIs

API stands for Application Programming Interface. The basic function of an API is that it allows different software programs to interact with each other and mold their best features together.

This opens the window for seamless CRM integration with third party apps such as accounting, e-commerce, social media, ERP, online web portals, databases etc. so that you can get a 360 degree customer view.

Hence, you should choose a CRM that is scalable and flexible so that new functionalities can be added whenever the need arises.

6. Generic or Industry specific

Whether you choose a generic or an industry specific CRM will depend on the industry that your business operates in. There are some industries e.g the healthcare industry that demand a highly customized solution due to its sophisticated processes and therefore a generic CRM will provide little value to an organization operating in such an industry.

You should make a detailed list of the primary features that you would like to have in your CRM which would serve your particular business needs.

7. Cost

Truth be told, CRM implementation can be quite expensive if the required homework is not done. Even more painful is the fact that many companies start realizing that they paid much more on their CRM and want to switch to less expensive options when they don’t see the desired ROI. But if meticulously planned, a company can significantly reduce costs.

One way of doing this is to opt for cloud CRM where you can pay on a subscription basis, do not incur any maintenance costs and do not require a team of IT experts to keep the system up and running.

8. Mobile CRM

What if your salespeople are out on the road or away on a business trip? Does this mean they won’t be able to conduct business as usual? Well, no business can afford such a scenario and that is exactly why mobile CRM is the need of the hour. Having your sales team equipped with a mobile CRM not only offers a degree of flexibility but is also a proven way to increase sales.

ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRM IMPLEMENTATION

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be beneficial to both supplier and customer. The supplier reduces costs by offering only products that are wanted, when they are wanted, and he passes the cost savings on to the customer who signed up for the company's CRM. To implement such a system, extensive information about the customer must be collected and stored. The two concerns with regard to this system are customer privacy and the accuracy of the information collected.

Collecting Customer Data

Ethical issues originating with the collection of customer data for CRM are related to secure collection methods and to the verification of the information. Ethical companies ensure that sensitive information such as credit credit card numbers or medical histories are collected in a secure environment and transmitted back to the databases securely. During data collection, it is also critical to verify the identity of the customer and the accuracy of the information being submitted. High security for these functions is costly but ethically necessary.

Storing CRM Data

Once customer data is safely in a company database, ethical companies adhere to four principles regarding storage. Data is only stored with the agreement of the customer. Customers must be able to view their data and either change their data or ask for it to be changed. Customers can withdraw from the program, and such a withdrawal causes their data to be erased. The ethics behind these principles are that the data belongs to the customer and the customer must be able to control his data.

Using CRM Data

Given that much of the customer data for CRM is sensitive, ethical companies ensure the data is kept private to the maximum extent possible. To achieve this, the company must store the data in a form or in a location not generally accessible. The data must only be consulted when necessary for the fulfillment of a CRM task, and only those employees who handle the data to complete the task are able to access the data. When sub-suppliers need to use the data, they must first commit to restrictions similar to what the CRM company has in place.

Disposing of CRM Data

Since customers must be able to withdraw from the CRM program and since their data is then erased, the company needs a procedure in place for safely destroying customer data when it is no longer needed. While deletion from the database is initially sufficient as long as the database remains secure, data on obsolete equipment and equipment that changes status to non-secure is at risk. An ethical company has detailed policies and procedures for tracking and destroying data and keep accurate records of such activities.

CRM 5 UNIT OPERATIONAL CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) jntu kakinada