The Not-So-Secret Secret to Excellent Customer Relationship Management

Excellent customer relationship management (CRM) has always been important, but it has gotten even more so over the past few years. Today, your customers have many choices of goods and service providers, and many avenues for finding and spreading information about your products and your company (for example, social media). CRM is a growing industry, especially as more tech companies are getting into the game and producing more sophisticated CRM software products with an ever-growing list of functions and features.
But as the field expands and more tools become available, too many businesses are focusing so narrowly on the management aspect that they are losing track of what is at the heart of customer relationship management: relationships with customers. The secret to excellent CRM is really just excellent customer relationships. CRM software can automate and streamline the management part of the process so that you and your employees can concentrate on what’s really important.

Image courtesy of Jeroen van Oostrom at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here are 10 tips for how to use CRM software to build and improve customer relationships.

1. Track everything
   CRM software is commonly used to house contact information and to track contact history, sales history, and so on. But real customer relationships are based on more than just who bought what and when. Use your system to also track personal information about your customers, such as their birthdays, hobbies and interests, and so on—anything that might give you further insight into your customers as individuals. You can consider conducting an online survey to obtain information that falls outside of your sales process.
2. Identify your top customers
   All of your customers are important, and they all deserve excellent customer service. But remember the Pareto principle (aka the 80:20 rule): 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. CRM software provides analytical tools that can help you identify that vital 20%. It can also help you identify the 20% of customers who are taking up 80% of your agents’ time—they likely aren’t the same 20%! Using this information, you can better manage workflow and allocate resources to make sure that your top customers are getting the very best service from your organization.
3. Schedule regular customer contacts
   Use your CRM system to make sure no customers get left behind. As you no doubt know, keeping your existing customers is far more profitable over the long term than constantly having to search for new ones. Make your customers feel valued by scheduling regular contacts including thank-yous, service follow-ups, and other check-ins.
4. Contact customers using their preferred channels
   Some customers like email, others engage with your company primarily via Twitter, and still others prefer the good old fashioned phone call. Knowing how your customers prefer to interact, and respecting their preferences, makes them feel valued by your organization. Not only that, but many customers often ignore messages that don’t come in via their preferred channels.
5. Respond more quickly to customer questions and complaints
   These days, if it takes you longer than a few hours to acknowledge a customer’s question or complaint, chances are it’s too late—that customer has probably already posted something on Facebook, Twitter, or Yelp about your poor customer service. CRM software can help you monitor the social networks for problems. Since all of the customer’s data is housed within the software, it can also help you respond to that problem as fast as possible, which will leave your customers with a good impression. It doesn’t take very many bad reviews to irreparably damage your reputation. The flip side is that positive reviews and referrals can quickly bring you new customers.
6. Provide offsite access to customer information
   Your employees don’t interact with customers only when they’re sitting at their desk. They may also have contact with them during on-site sales pitches, at trade shows, and (for sales reps) even on their mobile phones during off-hours. In today’s instant gratification world, customers certainly don’t want to wait until your employees can get back to their computers to have their questions answered and issues resolved. CRM software that supports remote and mobile access puts relevant information at your employees’ fingertips so that customers always receive the same high-quality service, regardless of whether they are calling in to the help line or talking with your company’s representatives at an industry event.
7. Make sure your CRM system is fully integrated
   Most CRM software can be integrated with other data tracking systems, and they should be. Full integration allows each employee who deals with a specific account to have a complete picture of the customer and the customer’s history with the organization. For example, this knowledge can come in handy when identifying untapped sales opportunities and when dealing with questions and complaints—customers don’t want to have to explain their problem more than once.
8. Offer a more consistent, streamlined experience
   What is the typical process by which customers interact with your company? Do you have certain salespeople and customer service agents assigned to each account, or do your customer interactions operate on more of a first come, first serve basis? Customer relationships don’t move down a one-way street—many clients prefer to deal with the same employees each time because they feel those employees best understand their particular requirements. CRM software allows managers to delegate tasks and manage workflow in a way that provides customers with a more consistent, streamlined experience every time they contact the company.
9. Identify upselling opportunities
   The more you know about your current customers, the more you will be able to make recommendations about additional products and services to meet their needs. You might even help them identify needs they didn’t know they had and that your products can solve. CRM software gives you the ability not only to get to know your customers on a more personal level, but also to analyze their buying patterns so you can get the most benefit out of your sales opportunities with each and every customer.
10. Personalize your marketing campaigns
    One of the most powerful, and most underused, functions of CRM software is the ability to target marketing campaigns to specific customers. By combining data about customers’ purchases with information about the customers themselves, you can develop personalized marketing campaigns that have a much greater rate of return than campaigns that take a shotgun approach.
 
About the Author: Sameer Bhatia is founder & CEO of ProProfs, a leading provider of online learning tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge. ProProfs Knowledge Base Software is used to create highly-searchable online FAQ’s to improve customer service and reduce tickets. It helps centralize access to organizational files, documents and how-to articles ensuring they can be accessed across multiple devices and platforms.
Sameer founded ProProfs based on the vision that knowledge should be freely available to people from all walks of life. The site hosts 1,000,000+ pieces of content in 90+ languages, and is a leading platform for online training and assessment with the world’s largest library of professional tests & quizzes. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) and is an ed-tech industry veteran. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter.