Monday, December 24, 2007

In depth analysis of a CRM solution

The ideal CRM solution is the one that leverages your existing technology, can be upgraded with ease and keeps your Cost of ownership within acceptable limits. At the same time, it should minimize risks and drive profits.
Does your CRM solution do all this? No? Then maybe you need to reconsider your business plan.

The 360 degree view

I cannot emphasize on the importance of getting a 360 degree view of the customer. This 360 degree view should be available across all departments in the organization. Believe me; this is not as easy as it sounds.
The 360 degree view should show you complete information about all past customer interactions in a graphical interface. You can start off with the most important departments that need customer data and then add other departments subsequently. The CRM should have multi department and multi channel capabilities.

Room for Improvement

The needs and demands of the customer are constantly changing and the smart business will change and adapt with it. Your CRM should offer you a platform to automate critical customer tasks and also analyze these processes for their effectiveness. If they fail to deliver, you should always be able to modify them with ease. Once again a cross departmental system is needed to maximize its effectiveness.

Your employees

When you are constantly thinking in terms of your customers, spare a thought for your employees. It is these guys who run your business. They need a CRM system that they can easily adapt to. A certain level of personalization must be allowed within the system so that they can get it to work the way they want to. Automation of tasks that are performed commonly is a great addition. In addition to the above, employees should have access to effective support material .

Apart from the above mentioned traits, your IT requirements are something that you need to consider.

1 comment:

Phyllis Stoffel said...

Even micro-enterprises and SMEs should practice contact relationship management, don't you think? With the many available CRM solutions out there, they shouldn't find it hard to look for the appropriate one. But they should never adjust to the small business CRM product they use. What they should do is the other way around: look for the CRM product that will fit their special needs. There's a CRM solution for every small business! IT consulting should also be taken into account, but they should deal with things one step at a time. All businesses start with baby steps, anyway.