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Customer management in just six steps – how to successfully deploy CRM in
small and medium-sized enterprises.
Step 1: Integrate customer orientation into corporate strategy
Customer orientation is a corporate strategy that places the focus on the
customer. The first step begins in the minds of those running the company.
Senior management is required to act as role model and to include all employees
in the customer-oriented strategy. The goal: successful and satisfied customers
who share their own economic and emotional gains with your company.
Step 2: Update and define your address data
Who is an important "A" customer? What is customer B's potential? Who is to
be included in which distribution list? A consistent and up-to-date address
database is the foundation of any CRM project. Addresses of customers, potential
customers, cooperation partners and suppliers are all stored in a central
database.
Step 3: Create a 360 degree view of your customers
To ensure that every employee always has a complete and up-to-date picture of
the existing or potential customer in front of them, all discussion notes,
e-mails, letters, offers, agreements, follow-ups, appointments and complaints
should be stored centrally in the customer's dossier and, if needed, enriched
with external data. Furthermore, by integrating an existing ERP system, you will
be able to view all sales in the customer dossier. Step 4: Establish customer
relationships systematically
A complete customer profile allows you to generate offers and provide
services tailored specifically to your customer's needs. Inquiries are handled
professionally and followed up systematically, and sales forecasts can be made
based on detailed analyses. All this turns sales staff into expert consultants,
whose detailed knowledge enables them to make qualified decisions and provide
the customer with the exact information they need.
Step 5: Surprise, impress and fascinate your customers
The key to the lasting emotional commitment of your customers is the good
feeling they get from you. The right sales approach and the ability to meet
their demands are therefore essential. In order to achieve this you need to make
sure the picture you have of your customer is always accurate. Distribution
lists allow you to select the right approach; for example, mailing lists for
specific products, cross-selling campaigns, invitation lists for in-house
exhibitions and Christmas card lists. These approaches are used to plan and
continuously optimize multi-phase campaigns. The advantage: through well
coordinated campaigns, using e-mail and other means of communication, your sales
promotions will be significantly more effective.
Step 6: Discover other potential through analytical CRM
Analytical CRM offers huge potential for many small and medium-sized
enterprises. Without much effort or expense, CRM enables you to make
well-informed decisions on new products, services and marketing campaigns.
Analytical CRM accesses your well-maintained customer database and brings
transparency to your business: records correlations and identifies sales
opportunities.
The result: more success through customer orientation
Deploying CRM in small and medium-sized enterprises is challenging but
manageable, because as you optimize your operative and analytical business
processes step by step, the degree of customer orientation increases and with
your company's success. Those who decide on CRM require a flexible software
solution designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, which they can start
using quickly.
© CAS Software AG
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