Benefits of CRM
CRM can:
- Develop better communication channels.
- Collect vital data, like customer details and order histories.
- Create detailed profiles such as customer preferences.
- Deliver instant, company-wide access to customer histories.
- Identify new selling opportunities.
How can you measure CRM benefits?
CRM benefits can be measured and quantified. Using CRM applications can lead to increases in revenue from:
- Reductions in operating costs - it cost around 25 USD to handle a customer call via a call center but only 2 USD via a website.
- A higher percentage of cross-selling due to offering a single point of contact with your company.
- More success in attracting new customers and closing deals faster, through quicker and more efficient responses to customer leads and customer information.
- Simplification of marketing and sales processes by understanding customer needs.
- Better customer service - through improved responsiveness and understanding that builds customer loyalty and decreases customer "churn".
Potential drawbacks of CRM
- There are several reasons why implementing a CRM solution might not have the desired results.
- There could be a lack of commitment from people within the company to the implementation of a CRM solution. Adapting to a customer-focused approach may require a cultural change. There is a danger that relationships with customers will break down somewhere along the line, unless everyone in the business is committed to viewing their operations from the customers' perspective. The result is customer dissatisfaction and eventual loss of revenue.
- Poor communication can prevent buy-in. In order to make CRM work, all the relevant people in your business must know what information you need and how to use it.
- Weak leadership could cause problems for any CRM implementation plan. The onus is on management to lead by example and push for a customer focus on every project. If a proposed plan isn't right for your customers, don't do it. Send your teams back to the drawing board to come up with a solution that will work.
- Trying to implement CRM as a complete solution in one go is a tempting but risky strategy. It is better to break your CRM project down into manageable pieces by setting up pilot programs and short-term milestones. Consider starting with a pilot project that incorporates all the necessary departments and groups but is small and flexible enough to allow adjustments along the way.
- Don't underestimate how much data you will require, and make sure that you can expand your systems if necessary. You need to carefully consider what data is collected and stored to ensure that only useful data is kept.
- You must also ensure you comply with the eight principles of the Data Protection Act that govern the processing of information on living, identifiable individuals.
- Avoid adopting rigid rules which cannot be changed. Rules should be flexible to allow the needs of individual customers to be met.
