Customer Relationship Management: Everything Old is New Again
At a time when the platitude "The customer is always right" has transformed into the more alarming maxim "An unhappy customer can blog about it", Customer Relationship Management seems to be a new twist. Reasoning goes like this: the Internet has forever changed our world and we must change the way we do business accordingly. We must treat the market as a conversation, we speak of an authentic voice, engage the customer as a partner. We must listen to the customer and give him what he really wants, and not just what we sell. The alarm was sounded – our customers can talk to each other, we can not hide behind our corporate firewall.
These are all valid points. He can not deny that the Internet has changed our world forever. The interesting thing is the idea market as a one-way conversation, where you can hide your customer after you sell a bad product, is very modern. It can be argued that on some level, the Internet is taking us back to an earlier era, where news travels fast, where everyone knew everyone now, and the market was in fact where you went to the conversation, and a colorful carpet, and perhaps some exotic spices. Internet made the world a smaller place, and small, the big news.
What has changed is how the conversation takes place, and the speed with which news, good or bad, travels. Today, customers, for better or worse, have many options available to them. You can not send today? Click – I'll find someone who can. You do not have it in blue? Click – I'll find someone who does. Similarly, if the Today's customer is curious about what others think of what you have to sell, another with a few clicks usually lead to an examination or forum where consumers can speak more freely and volubly on all aspects of your product and service. The challenge is to keep customers and brand awareness in a market full of itchy mouse finger.
But suppose none of this is new to you. You read Cluetrain Manifesto. You know the social customer. Frankly, you do not believe in some vast conspiracy by U.S. companies to scam and defraud consumer. The quality and value to win the day, always, always will be, if the consumer gets on the market by camel or Firefox. The fact of the matter is, you engage in conversations, real conversations with your customers every day. You know you're not invisible, and no company can survive long time not listening to its customers. You know as Customer Relationship Management is not just about getting new customers, it will keep the old. What you want is new and better ways to deal with the cream of the customer loyalty while aggressively cultivating land again. Consumers want more transparency, you want them without compromising confidentiality. If news travels fast, and information sharing must be instantaneous. This not only gives everyone in your organization a complete and updated all interactions with customers, it allows your employees to deal with knowing your customers, leading to a high quality customer experience.
Customer Relationship Management (MRC) has kept pace with the demands of the new (old) market, and is absolutely essential not matter what size your organization is. There are applications Web can be viewed on demand via Internet, there are also applications that can be implemented locally. These could be stand-alone applications, or you can integrate with their existing applications to back office. Anyway, a CRM software has many advantages, contact management depth the most sophisticated forecasting and reporting. Come to work every day and see a list of activities you can prioritize. Analyze and organize your sales opportunities. Manage each prospect through a sales cycle. Quickly resolve customer questions, issues and requests tracking and advanced tools resolution. CRM software can expand your reach and improve your communication with the lifeblood of your business – the customer.
At ACI we are experts on the Sage ACT! and SalesLogix CRM product line. If you need help selecting a CRM solution, email me at solutions@ACIconsulting.com or visit our website www.ACIconsulting.com. I'll put our team working on it!
About the Author
Douglas Luchansky is the President of
ACI Consulting
, a reseller for ERP related software and services such as
Sage CRM Saleslogix
.
Golden Rules to successful Customer Relationship Management
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