Business
Small Business Printing News
| Saturday, 01 November 2008 13:17 |
You can lead horse to the water...Improving your CRM is crucial in today’s economic climate but it’s no good investing in fancy software if you don’t use it! Here’s what you should be doing to get the most from your customer knowledge.“Avoid the common myth - ‘we have all the CRM information we need in our accounts package’.”If you have a successful customer relationship management system in place read no further. But if you’re one of those for whom CRM never shifts from the bottom of the ‘to do’ list, here’s how to implement a workable solution without having to scale the Everest-like amount of information surrounding the topic. In today’s economy, managing your customers is key, so CRM is a hot topic. Yet most CRM initiatives fail – fantastic news for you. In theory you should hardly have to stretch yourself to outpace the competition, but that’s only if you really understand what CRM is about. Firstly, CRM is a philosophy, an attitude, a way of thinking - it is not something that comes out of a box. Though it is closely linked to software, starting out by asking “which software should I use?” is like asking JK Rowling what make of pen she used to write the Harry Potter novels, and then going and buying the same pen in the hope you’ll have the same writing success. Software is available which allows even SME's to deliver powerful CRM programmes, but without objectives and strategies agreed by all the managers and employees in a cascading effect, CRM will be a waste of time and money. Many organisations have spent good money on CRM software but do not run successful CRM programmes. That’s because too few spend time on working out what that software is going to do, and then, crucially, ignore the fact that they still need to manage how they use it. CRM is a long-term investment. It is not a quick fix. Most printers practice CRM in an unconscious way, but for real success this needs to be carefully thought through plan. So let’s get a few things straight: 1 THE BIG BUY-IN Where do you start in adopting CRM within your company? A key element is getting employees to ‘buy in’ to the notion and understand what you want to achieve. If they don’t get it, or aren’t on side, all the software and new strategies will get you nowhere. CRM needs to start at board level and trickle down throughout the workforce, especially to those on the front line such as sales, account handlers, and reception staff. 2 GOING SOFT Specialist software and MIS modules make it easier to work successfully with customers/contacts. The good solutions also provide a place to store follow-up information. If you send out a promotion, following it up with a phone call will increase the success of the campaign by a significant margin. Having somewhere to record the conversation and when to call back is a key ingredient of success. If you have more than one sales person, managing all this on one Excel spreadsheet can be a challenge, but CRM software will take it in its stride. 2 IT’S ALL IN THE ACCOUNTS Avoid the common myth ‘we have all the CRM information we need in our accounts package’. This may be true – but it rarely is. Most people do not load their prospects in to their accounts package, and most printers have more prospects than customers. In some cases, the person you send an invoice to is not the person who is responsible for placing contracts, so by using your accounts package as a CRM system you could be sending promotions to the wrong person, clearly a waste of time and money. 3 BUT CRM COSTS MONEY Paying no heed to CRM costs a lot more – think insolvency or bankruptcy! Keep costs down by keeping things simple. Divide your contacts up in to a few groups and manage them according to what they bring, or could bring, to your business: key customers, other current customers, lapsed customers, prospects, listed but not seen as a prospect etc. 4 NICK IDEAS Look at your post, your Inbox, competitors’ websites and adapt the promotional ideas you like to make them workable within your business and then pick up the phone to your customers – there’s no point talking to them unless you have something worthwhile saying. 5 DON’T BOTHER WITH CRM IF… …you do not want to: run any offers / promotions; and/or modesty stops you from singing your own praises. Amazingly, some businesses set up customer databases but take the view ‘I am sick of all the unsolicited mail / emails I receive and I don’t want to be responsible for sending out such types of information’. If you don’t want ‘the hassle’ of communicating with your contacts there’s no point developing a CRM system. But, bear in mind that your competitors might have one and may well be contacting those same contacts. 6 GET IT TOGETHER Follow these basic guidelines in how to get a CRM programme together and you’ll be off to a good start. First, obtain permission to contact your contacts! If you have invoiced a named person and want to target them there’s no problem. But, if they have for instance, come to you via your website, ensure that they have requested to have further information from your company. Then make sure you organise your data in such a way so that you can merge it with any planned ‘offers’ you might want to run. If you have Excel and a copy of Word you already have the basic tools to do this. Alternatively, email might seem attractive. Whilst you could use Outlook / Outlook Express for example, there are specialist programs which provide more power and the ability to create colourful newsletters. If you capture contacts’ mobile telephone numbers sending text updates is an option. Postcard mailings are cheap, work well and are hard to ignore. 7 TIME WAITS FOR NOBODY Find out when it’s the best time to call your contacts. Get the timing wrong and you’re more likely to lose business than win it! Keep the info. in your CRM system. 8 MADE TO MEASURE Work out how to measure the success of your CRM system. Typically, adding a code to contact promotions can be very useful. Bear in mind that any numbering system needs to be robust and can used from campaign to campaign – year to year. Only by doing this will you really know what’s working and what isn’t with individual and types of customer. 9 TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW With money tight it’s easy to take the attitude ‘let’s just hang on in there’. In truth this is a great time to establish new relationships as well as build on existing ones. A CRM system implemented with imagination will be central to those businesses that succeed over the next 12 months. If you do not feel that have the discipline to manage your own CRM system consider getting some outside help. About Charles Willcock The information in this feature was supplied by Charles Willcock, CRM sales and marketing consultant, Miraquel. This is a company that provides CRM products and consultancy services. www.miraquel.co.uk 
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