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.