What is implementing a CRM software program worth to your company?

The question really boils down to a few simple issues. 

Ask yourself these questions to determine what value a CRM software system will bring to your business.

1) What sales opportunities are you missing that you could close if you had more efficient management?

2) What do you NOT know about your current customers that you should, how many of them will switch to the competition, and what revenue will be lost as a result?

3) Are inefficiencies in your customer service creating extra costs or causing you to loose revenue?

4) Which of your current accounts cost more than they are worth and how much are they costing you?

5) How much could CRM software save you by making your lead generation efforts more effective?

Now add up all of the real costs, as well as the lost opportunity costs and it is likely that you will find that you are losing and spending a lot more than you expected.  In most cases, the total you come up with will be more than the cost of CRM software implementation.

Now, here are some more questions you can use to determine the log opportunity cost of not implementing CRM software:

1) How many accounts did your company lose in the last year and what were the annual revenues of those accounts?

2) What would you estimate the number of sales opportunities lost in the last year to be and what were they worth?

3) How much time was spent adjusting orders because of inaccurate or incomplete information and what did this cost?

CRM software helps track employee actions and gives managers the ability to see the results of sales, marketing and customer service efforts.  With the data collected, CRM software gives your company new capabilities. You can launch targeted sales and marketing campaigns to uncover new revenue opportunities and service customers better.

Technorati Tags: CRM Review, CRM Software

As with all business decisions, return on investment should be a main consideration in deciding whether to implement a CRM solution for your organization.  The CRM Review blog is here to assist you in making this important decision.

Most CRM programs include contact management and some form of campaign tracking.  When reviewing different CRM alternatives you will want to consider the following features when deciding which CRM system to use:

CRM Review Items

Web-based or Local System – A web based system allows anytime, anywhere access wherever there is internet access and tends to reduce IT costs because someone else is managing the hardware and monitoring the software maintenance and upgrades.  Local software solutions may be less expensive up front, but will require time and resources to maintain.

Interface Ease of Use – Some interfaces are built to be user friendly; others that are not may require a longer learning curve.

Configurable by Industry – Does the CRM solution you are considering have templates or add-ons or modules that can be customized for your particular industry?

Technical support – What level of technical support will you need to effectively run your system?  What support is offered by each provider being reviewed?

Advanced User Permissions – Does the CRM program being reviewed have the built in security that is necessary for your operation?

Automated Backups for Data – Maintaining backups is critical to any information system.  Having a built in system is helpful in making sure this critical function get done.

Marketing Automation – Many CRM systems you will review will have the ability to coordinate multi-step marketing sequences that include email auto-responders, email broadcasts, direct mail, newsletters, fax, voice broadcast and tasks such as phone calls and personal visits.

Sales Force Automation – Do you need a system that will help you manage your sales team, such as customizable steps in your sales pipeline, the ability to set up sales teams, automatically distribute sales leads and build automated triggers into your sales process to make sure your leads are being followed up on time.

Email Deliverability – As more companies use email to communicate with prospects and customers, email deliverability becomes a critical factor in successful campaigns.  Deliverability assurance programs ensure that your emails bypass the spam filters and get through to the customer or prospect.

Contact Management and Tracking – As you continue your CRM review you will find that many CRM programs allow you to track all emails, faxes, appointments, tasks and phone correspondence to contacts in one place

Additional CRM Review Features

Affiliate Tracking – If you use affiliates or joint venture partners you will want to look for a CRM solution that allows partners to view their referrals and commissions online, set up their own tracking links and download marketing resources.

E-commerce – Some CRM services offer an integrated shopping cart.  Some even allow for up-sells, cross-sells, special discounts, payment plans and custom html to maximize your online sales.

Process Credit Cards – If you are doing e-commerce the ability to automatically process credit card transactions through your existing merchant account or via Paypal is extremely useful.

List Management – As you complete the CRM review process you will want to find a system that allows you to segment your customers and prospects into meaningful lists that can be used for promotions and follow-up.

Billing & Accounting – Having a CRM system with integrated sales and accounting reports, custom reports, and the ability to automate recurring billing programs and notifications of failed credit transactions can be very useful in reducing the overall cost of sales and customer service.  Another option to built-in billing and accounting is the ability to integrate with 3rd party accounting programs.

Calendaring & Tasks – Some useful features include the ability to access information away from the office via computer, PDA or cell phone.

Help Desk – Some CRM programs offer the ability to handle support requests, create ticket stages (to track and manage customer support issues) and set triggers to automatically initiate required actions throughout the ticket process.  These can be helpful for saving on manpower in your customer support center.

Some CRM solutions offer all of these features; others offer some of these features.  Take some time to analyze your needs to figure out the features you must have as you begin the CRM review process.

CRM Reviews

Technorati Tags: CRM Review

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.

CRM Reviews

Technorati Tags: CRM Software, Customer Relationship Management, Web Based CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management software, otherwise know as CRM software can help a business not only manage marketing processes better but also can save money by cutting advertising costs and keeping sales staff hours to a minimum. There are several options when it comes to CRM programs.  Some are web based while others reside on a local computer or server.  There are programs for a single person and solutions for world-wide corporations.

We will be discussing the advantages of using web based CRM software in this article.  There are many advantages to web based CRM software as apposed to stand alone software that resides on your system.

Advantages of Web Based CRM Software

Web based CRM software systems allow your staff to access customer information anytime and anywhere they have internet access.  This means that if your sales rep is sitting in the customer’s office and needs access to the customer’s information he can simply login to the system and get what he needs.

Because web based CRM software is managed by the provider the provider takes care of updates, security, redundant disks, backups and many other I.T. tasks.  This reduces your need for I.T. staff, equipment, office space and training.

Most web based systems provide technical support services, again reducing the need for staff, office space and training.

Data backups are handled by the provider which relieves you of the obligation and ensures that it will actually get done.

Email deliverability can be a real problem for marketers.  Your web based CRM provider should have a deliverability assurance program to ensure that your emails get pass the spam filters.  This can be a full time job if you do it yourself.

A web based system also allows you to have an Affiliate program that allows affiliate partners to view their referrals and commissions and manage their affiliate account online.

Calendaring and other sales tasks can be accessed at home or on the road with any web-enabled desktop, laptop, PDA or cell phone.

Often web based CRM software will have help desk features that handle support requests and track and manage customer support issues.

CRM Reviews

Definition of CRM
C.R.M. is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management. It is an authoritative database system principally focusing on the management of a business’ client database.

Collaborative or Operational CRM Process
When a new customer is produced in the system, whatever interaction with that client is done it is recorded to the client file. An example would be a problem that a client has, that could not be concluded immediately. For instance, when a client telephones into a call center and has a problem that may call for a fair measure of time and a number of professionals from various departments, this problem for the client can easily be managed by CRM.

The call center agent would register the problem reported by the client into the CRM system. Another employee from a different department would find any outstanding issues marked for their department, and would be privy about that customer’s issue by using the CRM system. If the problem is resolved, the resolution is mentioned on the client’s record and the customer would then be contacted by that employee. If however the problem is not concluded than that said employee can create a notice and send it to another department that he or she thinks can resolve the problem. This procedure continues until the customer’s worries are concluded. This is just one good example of what nearly most CRM computer software can do.

Sales CRM
This component of client Management Software is probably the most popular and sought after module. Some programs such as Salesforce offer a scaled down edition of their software. Offering merely this single module, primarily to small and mid-sized business organizations. Sales CRM permit the tracking of future and current customers. This is a potent tool for a sales department of a company because leads are a good deal easier to switch into new sales. A lead would have basic data about that potential client, possibly how and why they filled a contact form rendering this lead. This data can be used by a sales person to close a deal often more effectively by employing the data accumulated by the CRM system. A current client can also be sold new products or services because the software system would recognize what kind of products the individual has purchased in the past, allowing the sales agent to advocate, up sell or cross-sell more services to their already existing customers.

Campaign Management CRM
This component is very essential for a marketing department of a business because it provides for not only the management of a campaign but also the creation of and promoting of a campaign. Internet Advertisements using Google Adwords could be made and controlled by CRM computer software such as Salesforce. Targeting Groups using Microsoft Dynamics with email and address data imported by Microsoft Outlook is very popular. This permits a company to target individuals based on demographics or where they live (geo-based targeting). Special offers can be shipped to these prospective customers through email, telephone or post. As you can imagine there a number of components provided by an array of CRM solutions. I will attempt to recap a list of the most common CRM computer software of today.

CRM Software Reviews
Microsoft Dynamics has been established a robust player as of lately in the customer Management Relationship Realm, chiefly because corporations are knowledgeable with their historic flagship software packages such as Microsoft Office and Windows XP.

Salesforce extends a list of various suites and has teamed up with Google AdWords to handle adwords ads in a CRM platform. This is popular because a sales team can see what keywords a prospect has entered into google to find their contact form. This suite also has prime tracking abilities for campaign management.

SAP Customer Relationship Management has had a robust marketplace share in the CRM domain for quite awhile. It is a software program package that extends every faucet conceivable to grow and deal with the most large-scale sized businesses.

Oracle has recently merged Siebel and Peoplesoft. Both CRM software packages are very common and now use Oracle ground breaking data management technology as well.

If you’d like to read more, check out my site at http://www.crm-software-reviews.com – and other articles specific to professionals such as CRM for Lawyers.

CRM Review

Technorati Tags: crm definition

Communication between companies and customers is perhaps the most vital tool in getting your message across to your customers, hence, if you are just starting out in sales, or if you own a small business, it is a practical idea to consider trying some of the free CRM software or web based CRM systems offered on the internet before you invest in one. This is to ensure that your company will be able to deliver the best customer service experience possible.

A CRM software is the main tool that is being utilized for the customer in communicating with the sales department since it involves many different people within their respective organizations and each with their own different methods.

Types and variations of CRM are numerous but we will concentrate only on the 3 core elements as they are of utmost importance in achieving a successful Customer Relationship Management.

Key Element No.1 – Customer Service

Customer Service or the Frontliners are responsible for selling products and services to your customers, communicating with your customers with regards to marketing, as well as with the after-sales services. They are responsible in interacting with the customers directly. Each interaction with the customer is recorded and stored within the CRM system where it can be extracted by other employees when needed. Hence, making sure that your initial interaction with the customer is a positive one.

Key Element No.2 – Sales Force Automation

Sales force automation or SFA allows the sales team to record each interaction with customers, the details of the contact, and the necessary follow ups. It provides the sales team with better efficiency and avoid duplication of tasks. Given that your sales team is in constant look out for sales opportunities both with current and prospective customers, it is extremely important that contact information and customer data for both existing and prospective customers are recent and updated in your CRM software in order for the sales team to achieve the highest level of customer service.

Key Element No.3 – Campaign Management

Acquiring new customers is mainly the goal of the any sales team. These group of specific customers will receive targeted marketing materials and most often, special price quotations and terms to entice them to purchase your product or service. CRM software is the best tool in storing the details of the campaign, responses of the customers basing on the campaign and in assessing campaign outcome. Acquiring and retaining your customers will be easy once you have a systematic way of pointing out your customers’ wants and needs accurately.

Your CRM software must have these three essential core elements for you to attain a successful and effective relationship with the customer. Once you try one or two free CRM software, you will then have a clear idea what features are important to your business. Free CRM software or otherwise, the truth still remains that these 3 core elements are the key to a meaningful customer relationship management so it is your responsibility to ensure that these 3 elements are in your CRM software.

Now is the time to level up on your Customer Service Experience! Start using our easy, intuitive and lightning fast CRM Software for FREE! Go to http://www.picrmsoftware.com.au/

CRM Review

Technorati Tags: free crm software

The term CRM is commonly used in the hospitality and customer service industry.  CRM is an acronym for customer relationship management. It entails all the various aspects of the interaction and relationship of a particular company or organization with its customers. CRM in the industry terms means the methodologies and software that usually help the company to mange its customer relationships in a more organized way.

With the advent of the Internet and the development of computer technology, customer relations have undergone a drastic change. Many software companies have developed software dealing specifically with the proper management of customer relations. This CRM software is referred to as CRM solutions as it provides a solution for the complex task of maintaining and retrieving customer information.

CRM software solutions can either be purchased from software companies or can be ordered for the customized needs of different companies. Another exciting option is to download it free from the Internet. The Internet is a storehouse of innumerable useful resources. Several websites offer free registration and use of the CRM software developed by them. These websites normally belong to software-developing companies.

Customers availing free CRM software solutions need to access the software from the websites of these companies. Various options such as general edition and professional editions of the CRM software are available for the use of customers. General editions are usually free of any charge but professional editions may have a small monthly fee. These CRM solutions can provide all the information about the customer in an integrated format on a single page. The customer care associates can easily view and inform the customers about the various issues that they want information on by using this software.

However, it is advised to check the authenticity of these free CRM solutions. Many fraudulent companies extract the customer information stored in the software and use it for personal, unethical use. By studying all the options carefully, customers would be able to select a secure and reliable free CRM solution software. CRM Solutions provides detailed information on CRM Solutions, CRM Business Solutions, CRM Call Center Solutions, CRM Software Solutions and more. CRM Solutions is affiliated with Live Customer Support [http://www.i-CustomerSupport.com].

Technorati Tags: free crm solutions, ree crm

Surado Solutions, the developer of CRM Relevant Products/Services solutions Relevant Products/Services for 15 years, announced that Surado CRM Online editions will support the global Relevant Products/Services demand for localized language and features. Each version will have a functional language translation and will also include localized regional features. Initial language support will include Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. This will be followed by French, Arabic and other languages used in the Middle East and Asia.

Surado’s current users in more than 64 countries worldwide use English language versions of Surado CRM Online and Surado CRM on premise solutions. The addition of localized language support and functionality specific to regions will further increase the user experience and ultimately provide additional value to businesses.

In addition to Localized Language and Localized Features, Surado will also provide local support teams to ensure that the highest levels of support by personnel that truly understand the local culture and needs.

“With technology Relevant Products/Services continuing to break global economic barriers, Surado continues to invest heavily in providing CRM solutions to a worldwide audience,” said, Sundip R. Doshi, Surado CRM CEO. “Whether you are in Los Angeles, Istanbul, Sao Paolo, Moscow or Beijing, our CRM solutions will enable business as conducted in your region.”

Surado CRM SaaS delivery will support multiple redundancies throughout strategic locations around the world and UTF (Unicode Transformation Format)-16 enhancements will allow Surado to continue to expand its localized language and localized feature strategy to more regions of the world.

About Surado CRM Online – SaaS CRM Solutions

Localized language and features of Surado CRM solutions will be available starting 1st Quarter of 2011. To learn more, please visit www.SuradoCRM.com/onlinecrm.

Source: http://www.cio-today.com/news/Surado-SaaS-CRM-Goes-Global/story.xhtml?story_id=020000CLDZZO&full_skip=1

Technorati Tags: localized language crm

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.

CRM Reviews

Technorati Tags: social crm

“The benefit for DealerMine of standardized access through Reynolds is that it simplifies our processes and takes away a lot of non-productive work – running different queries into the DMS, cleaning and validating the data,” said Bob Quirion, president of DealerMine.  “Now, we have a much smoother process to collect dealership data and to write back to the DMS – all of which will enable us to focus on serving our customers more effectively.  We’re really pleased to be partnering with Reynolds.”

Since 2005, Reynolds and Reynolds has been working visibly with dealerships and OEMs on the safe, secure, and verifiable exchange of dealership data from a Reynolds dealership management system (DMS). 

“At Reynolds, we have been addressing data access and security consistently for a number of years, as have other major DMS providers in the industry,” said Trey Hiers, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Reynolds and Reynolds.  “Ultimately, dealers want to know that their data is safe and secure; that it is accessible by third parties, with appropriate safeguards and verification; and, that it will stay that way.”

The Reynolds third party access program provides a number of methods for dealerships to work with the vendor of their choice in a safe, secure, and verified manner when handling dealership data. 

About Third Party Access

Reynolds and Reynolds provides the largest program for third party access of any dealership services provider in the industry.  Dealerships that use a Reynolds and Reynolds DMS to run their business can choose from more than 100 third parties who can provide safe, secure, and verified handling of a dealership’s data. 

About Reynolds

Reynolds and Reynolds is the automotive industry’s leading provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms to help dealerships improve business results.  The company is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with major operations in Houston and College Station, Texas, and Celina, Ohio.  (www.reyrey.com)

Source: PRNewswire

CRM Reviews

Technorati Tags: DealerMine