Considering Setting Up A Customer Relationship Management System?

Quite recently, a friend of mine complained bitterly about how difficult it has been for her to retain customers in her business. She wanted to know how I seemed so relaxed with my business yet continued to make sales from several old customers as well as new ones. She asked for my opinion and advice and I shared my thoughts with her. That conversation inspired this post. I hope it helps anyone who has at some point or the other had similar issues as my friend.

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Does Your Business Need A CRM System?
Do you have a business that seems to be losing customers? Is your churn rate very high? Do you keep having to struggle to get new customers because the old ones don't stay loyal to your brand? If yes, then you need to get proactive and set up a Customer Relationship Management System/Strategy (CRMS). A properly set up CRMS in your business would help you gain insight into the behavior of your customers, thus allowing you to modify your business operations to best ensure your customers are served in the best possible way. Basically, this means your CRMS will help your business to recognize the value of your customers and to capitalize on improving customer services and relations. The better you understand your customers, the more responsive you can be to their needs.

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What Are The Benefits Of A CRM System?
The success of a business can be traced to factors like excellent technical ability, high demand for products, exceptional customer relations and a few others. The better you can manage the relationships with your customers, the more successful your business will become. It is absolutely important to be able to retain existing customers even while working on gaining new ones. This is the best way to grow and expand without excessive stress, so do your business a favor by opening up channels to manage your interaction with your customers/clients and your business processes like marketing, sales, ordering, customer care, technical support and business intelligence and customer analytics. Finding out your customers' opinions and preferences will guide you through how best to adapt your business to their various specific yet diverse needs.

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If I have piqued your interest, do permit me to offer you a very basic, simple and easily adaptable CRM strategy to build a customer friendly, efficient and effective CRM System for your business.

Get A Comprehensive Client Database.
The most effective way to store and manage your customer information is by using a centralized customer database. It can be a well designed excel spreadsheet, if the business cannot afford a customised CRM Application. All information for every client should be up to date, properly captured and categorized. New clients and their details must be updated immediately. Depending on the volume of data generated, a member of your staff can be assigned as database administrator. If it's a small business where there are fewer members of staff, you can double as CEO and database administrator. Your database must have a back-up copy to forestall loss.

Have A Proper Complaints Channel
Have a portfolio manager in conjunction with the database administrator who will ensure that clients' preferences, complaints and feedback are collated and integrated into the database. For very small businesses, this can also be done by the owner in the mean time to save cost.

Have Specific Service Level Agreements (SLA)
All customer complaints must have a fixed SLA meaning, you must be have a standard time for resolution of different complaints and issues. Some complaints may be given a 2 hour SLA while others may require a 3 day SLA. Specifying the SLA when your client raises a complaint, gives them an idea how soon to expect resolution and allows them to plan accordingly. Maintaining your SLAs would go a long way in winning your customer's respect and loyalty. The end result of all complaints must be added to the client's portfolio for easy reference in your later deals.

Use Your Client Database Always
Whether you have chosen to implement your CRM solution using a good software or an Excel Spreadsheet, it must be easily accessible on a mobile device as well laptop or desktop. You must refer to the database every time you have to deal with clients. It is important to Know Your Customer (KYC). Referring to the database would give you a quick summary of each client's preferences, patterns, complaints and requirements and these would in turn reflect in the kind of services you would offer him. Knowing your customer well, ensures you serve them to their satisfaction. A satisfied customer will be a loyal customer and would probably even provide free advertisement for your business in his circle of influence. Loyal customers don't walk away, they stay and become the strength of your brand!

Cheers and thanks for reading!!