Subjective considerations for Customer Relationship Management implementation

In a previous post we reviewed factors for determining the real dollar value of implementing a Customer Relationship Management system.  Here we will discuss some of the more subjective factors in evaluating the benefits of a CRM system.

Simply put, if you don’t give your customers and clients what they want your business won’t make a profit and if your business doesn’t make a profit, you’ve got a real problem!  The whole basis of implementing a customer relationship management system is to allow you to know what the customer wants and enable you to give it to them in a more efficient manner.

Many of the benefits of a Customer Relationship Management system are quantifiable while others are more subjective.  Here are some questions you should ask yourself to help you determine how Customer Relationship Management will benefit your company:

Does your company really put the wants and needs of the customer first?

Do your customer service department, sales department and management staff all have access to the same customer information?

Does your sales staff have information about individual customer accounts that no one else in the company has access to?

Is your Marketing department abile to segment customer accounts so they can do highly targeted marketing?

Is your company organized in such a way that all departments support marketing and sales efforts to win and keep customer accounts?

Is customer turnover a rare occurance?

Are you tracking opinions of your customer service?

Is employee compensation tied to customer satisfaction and sales results?

Does your management team have a long term expectation for customer relationship management results?

If your answer to any of these questions was “No” then these are the areas in which customer relationship management will prove to be the most beneficial.

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Some of the highlights of the study that stood out to me are:

- Expectations for social CRM (tapping into social networks to improve marketing, sales and service processes) will dramatically exceed the measurable benefits.  (Isn’t that always true)

- For much of the world, Facebook will – or already has – become the dominant social networking site. Marketeers and customer service managers will need to take this into consideration when planning social networking projects, while monitoring for shifts in user sentiment.
(surprising how much of a hold it has made in such a short time, the question is who will be next?)

- Consumer willingness to perform all possible customer service functions themselves (self- service) will be universal by 2011.  (That seems a bit of an overstatement to me)

Recommendations

- Customer service or customer experience should measure the consistency and effectiveness of customer interactions across all touchpoints from the customer’s point of view.  (Sounds like something that should be a regular habit to me)

- The popularity of social networking sites means that the service organization cannot expect the customer to come to the corporate website only, but must work on ways to reach out to the customer at these destinations as well.

- When developing a long-term strategic road map for contact center infrastructure, include call recording as part of this single-vendor solution.

Source Article is here.

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Far More Profitable!

Think about it…once you’ve spent the high upfront costs to acquire a new client, it’s relatively inexpensive to send them a letter promoting another product or service.

For example, after a Mortgage Broker provides a loan for a new customer, what other products or services do you think they would be interested in?

 By-Monthly Payments, Debt Management Consultation, Credit Repair, Tax Preparation Services, Insurance (i.e. Health, Life, P&C), Retirement Planning,  Buying Or Selling A Home, Buying Income Properties, Commercial Financing, Etc.
 
The list is endless. The sky is the limit.  You just need to look at your own customer base and look at their wants and needs and figure out what other products or services will satisfy those needs.

Now it’s up to you to either offer these services yourself, or set up Joint Ventures with other companies who already offer these services and split the profits.   Either way, you can increase your bottom line without adding a lot of extra effort.

More information on automating your marketing.

Technorati Tags: increasing business, increasing sales

Here Are Dan Sullivan’s Four Referrability Habits:

1. Show Up On Time

How often do service providers show up late, return calls late, or keep their clients waiting?

This creates a feeling of anger and resentment and make your clients feel like you don’t respect or value their time.

Don’t make this mistake – return calls when promised, and show up to all appointments and seminars on time.

2. Do What You Say

How many salespeople and service providers promise you the world before they have your money, then fall far short of providing the service they originally promised after they have your money?

This may get a company the sale once, but no one will ever repeat purchase from them since they didn’t do what they originally promised.

3. Finish What You Start

Builders and contractors are notorious for not finishing what they start. All of us have experienced entering into an agreement with a service provider who does half the work, and then stops for one reason or another and never completes the job.

Make sure you finish what you start with all of your clients – that means sticking with them all the way through negotiating for a better rate and payment, and making sure they get what they deserved.

Don’t make the mistake of only focusing on signing up new clients without also completing the service for your existing clients.

Remember, you want your existing clients to refinance with you next time.

4. Say Please And Thank You

When was the last time a service provider said “please” and “thank you” and genuinely meant it?

You must show appreciation for your clients – they are the lifeblood of your business. Make sure you treat them like gold!
 
Sullivan’s Four Referrability Habits sound deceptively simple, don’t they?

The problem is not 10 in 100 mortgage businesses actually practice these four simple skills consistently.

I’ve added some additional habits that I feel are necessary for you to automatically generate referrals and renewals:

5. Under-Promise And Over-Deliver

Most mortgage brokers do the exact opposite of this – they promise you the world, and automatically set you up for disappointment.

Always promise your clients less than what you think you can accomplish.  This way, when your results are better than expected, they think you walk on water, and end up referring and refinancing with you.

If, on the other hand, you promise you will get your clients a fully paid private university education, you are bound to disappoint them which means they won’t be referring or renewing with you and they will tell, at least, 5 – 10 of their friends not to use your services.

Don’t make this mistake – instead under-promise and over-deliver.

6. Bond With Your Clients

Most businesses don’t have any idea how to “bond” with their clients. They feel business relationships should be treated differently than personal relationships.

They’re Dead Wrong!

People are people, and they enjoy the emotions of love, respect, friendship, closeness, honesty, integrity, recognition, etc., regardless of whether the relationship is business or personal.

Don’t try to fight this. Instead, look at all of your clients as friends, and treat them that way.

Send them written correspondence once a month to keep in touch with them (I love using a monthly newsletter for this!), send them unexpected gifts (like books, audiotapes, brownies) to let them know how much you appreciate them, admit when you’re wrong instead of arguing and send apology letters or gifts, recognize them in your newsletter and let them know they’re special, and make personal calls to your best clients to see how they’re doing.

If you consistently practice the six habits over the next 90 days, you will start to see a drastic change in your business.

Business will start to flow to you almost automatically without you having to push so hard for it.

You will also begin to enjoy your business and your clients more, and it will start to feel more like fun instead of work.

Also, make sure you constantly listen to your clients – what they like, what they don’t like, why they bought from you, why they refinanced with you, what other products and services you can provide for them, etc.

Your clients have all the answers if you listen to them.

Click here if you would like more information on how to get qualified leads, sales and referrals for your business,

Technorati Tags: getting referrals, sales strategy

Think about this for a moment:

1. When was the last time you made reservations at a popular restaurant only to wait 30 minutes to an hour after the time of your reservation to be seated?

2. When was the last time you went into a clothing store, and asked one of the store clerks for help only to receive a blank stare of ignorance, or rude and inappropriate behavior?

3. When was the last time you left a voicemail message for a person or company which wasn’t returned for several days or even worse, not returned at all?

Why do you think corporate earnings have slowed for many businesses?

Because they fail to place a high enough value on client retention.

Most companies focus all of their time, energy, and money on one thing…

Getting New Customers In The Door!

But once they get a new client, they spend almost no time, energy or money on keeping that client happy.

This Is A Huge Mistake!

Did you know it’s five times more expensive to market to a prospect (someone who doesn’t know you) than a client (someone who knows and trusts you).

Where do you think long-term profits and earnings come from – constantly having to find new customers OR maintaining your existing client base and growing it through referrals and renewals?

I think the answer is pretty obvious yet most businesses I’ve observed do the exact opposite.

They spend the majority of their time trying to convince strangers to do business with them, and they completely ignore their most valuable asset…

Their Existing Clients!

Double your sales by automating your marketing, sales, and customer relationships.  Automated Follow-up Technology fixes follow-up failure and helps you: Convert more leads, Get repeat sales, Grow your business  Click Here for Free Demo

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Are you starting to get the point?

Just because you have always offered just one version of your product or service doesn’t mean you can’t use a little imagination and give your clients more than one option. 

Offer them the “No Frills” service for one price, and the “Premium” service for a higher price.   Add extra bells and whistles to the “Premium” service, and create a much higher “perceived value” and I GUARANTEE most of your clients will choose the “Premium” service.  

The bells and whistles don’t have to be complicated.  They could be extra bonuses, extra support, or really anything you can come up with that will be of benefit to your customer, in fact, a good way to figure out how to add to your product is to simply ask you customer what they want.

Or, if you are using CRM Software to manage your database you will likely be able to mine this type of information for your records.

You can even offer an “Intermediate” package if you want too.  You want to give your clients a “Yes” or “Yes” decision NOT a “Yes” or “No” decision.

So if you aren’t already offering a deluxe service, start doing it immediately!

See CRM Reviews hear.

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If not, why not?

Did you know it’s far easier to re-sell an existing client than to sell to someone who doesn’t know and trust you?

Did you also know that you lose 1/12 of the value of a client every 30 days you don’t communicate with them?

So knowing these two facts, what’s the easiest, most profitable way to maintain relationships and re-sell existing clients?

You guessed it…

A Monthly Newsletter!

But don’t just send a monthly newsletter. Make sure you also enclose inserts about other products and services that you offer.

Heed this advice: Don’t try to sell directly from the insert. Instead, offer your clients FREE reports that tell about the benefits they will enjoy from your product.

Remember, you must re-market to your clients the same way you got them in the first place.

So if someone becomes a client after reading a FREE report, offer them more FREE reports on other things.

But whatever you do, make sure you keep in touch with your clients once a month!

Here is a great place to get newsletter content.

The best way to manage your list and your newsletters is with a CRM program.  See CRM Reviews

Technorati Tags: client contact, client newsletter, keeping in touch

There was a famous marketing study done several years ago which determined that over 70% of all people who respond to an advertisement (or letter) will ultimately buy the product or service being offered.

Here’s the interesting part…

Almost All Of Those People Will Purchase The Product Or Service From Someone Other Than The Original Advertiser!

Why do you think that is?

I’ll tell you why…because people do business when THEY are ready not when YOU are ready to sell.

So what does all this mean to you?

It means that sending out one FREE Report to a lead is not enough.

When a lead calls your “Recorded Message Line” (800#) to get a FREE Report, all they are basically saying is that they are interested in buying what you have to offer (but NOT necessarily ready to buy yet).

“Yet” is the important word here. This means that at some point in time they will be ready to buy, and the company that gets the sale will be the one who stayed in front of them until they did become ready to buy.

Let me give you a personal example.

In my company, more than half of all my members sign up for our lead generation program  which teaches “How to eliminate Cold-Call Prospecting and instead get motivated ready-to-act clients calling you” after the first notice.

What would have happened had I not mailed a 2nd or Final Notice?

That’s right, I’d have half as many members, and I’d be half as profitable.

Let me ask you a question, “Do you send 2nd Notices, Final Notices, and postcards to follow-up on leads?”

For ways to automate your sequenced mailings check out Infusion CRM Software

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The second common failure is in handling lead management.  Company owners often have no idea what is happening to leads they distribute to their sales force.  They don’t know if anyone is calling them, or if the sales person is just “skimming the cream” or “cherry picking”—which by the way, you can’t blame them: they have a limited amount of time and get paid commissions to close sales, so they spend time with the hot leads, not the ones that are tough to get a hold of or the ones where the timing isn’t exactly right.  The problem here is that no one knows what is happening to the rest of the leads that come in the door.

This is where a Customer Relationship Management Program can help.  Not only in can it help your sales force use their time more effectively but it can also help managers do a better job.

A good CRM Program will have the following benefits:

1. Marketing Automation & Communication.  Automatically execute multi-step, multi-media marketing campaigns to prospects, partners, clients, past customers, friends, and anyone else you want; track responses to marketing campaigns and report the effectiveness of marketing pieces and campaigns

2. Sales tracking that allows sales people to manage prospects and customers through various stages of the sale; know exactly what to do with a lead and when to do it; automate the process.

3. Central Contact Management Database: Store prospect and customer data in a central system; manage tasks;     store documents electronically; keep customer’s communications logs; group contacts for organization and efficient communications; import & export data from virtually any source.

4. Management Tracking to assign leads to sales people and keep tabs on the progress of those leads; customize the sales pipeline to reflect the sales stages used in your company; identify bottlenecks in the sales process (bad leads, bad lead sources, bad sales people?)

Technorati Tags: contact management, crm, marketing automation, sales tracking

If you want to get the quickest return on investment from CRM implementation then it will pay to have a plan.  Check this list to make sure you are going to get the benefits of CRM right from the start:

1. Set strategic and tactical goals that CRM will accomplish.

How is this going to help you serve your customers better? 

2. Resolve any problems with your sales and delivery system. 

If your sales and delivery system is not working properly, CRM won’t help, it will just make it more obvious where the problems are. 

3. Get senior management buy in and agreement on expectations and make sure you have buy-in from the important functional areas of the company. 

It’s better to get everyone on the same page going in.  Some will always resist change but remember the big picture and benefits that will occur company-wide.

4. Make sure that short-term expectations are realistic, yet long-term goals are most important. 

You will see immediate benefits of using CRM, but the greatest benefits will be long lasting.

5. Set a tracking system on a few key metrics so that you can see the improvement you are making over time. 

Motivate your employees to embrace CRM with incentives tied to metrics.

6. Position the project as a cultural change project to improve the whole company. 

The main philosophy of CRM is focusing on the customer and their needs/wants.  For some, this may take an attitude adjustment, but for the success of any company it is critical.

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