Creating loyal customers should be an important part of your
business’ strategy and can help increase profitability. An
effective customer relationship management (CRM) system can help
you collect and analyze data about customers. CRM best practices
are being used successfully by a variety of companies to
acquire, retain and develop new customers. ???In fact, companies
worldwide spent more than $3 billion on new CRM software
licenses in 2005, according to Forrester Research Inc.
Managing Vendor Relationships? CRM best practices include
building strong executive sponsorship of the program, having
units implement CRM with support from IT, emphasizing
accountability and decision making, and having clearly defined
objectives and processes before applying the technology. Other
CRM best practices involve making sure software is
user-friendly, having defined data requirements, and actively
managing vendor relationships.
What Do Your Customers Need?? A CRM system helps you stay in
touch with your customers' needs. CRM best practices should help
you stay in tune with those needs and measure customer
satisfaction. But customer loyalty and customer retention is not
the same thing. Truly loyal customers are committed customers
who believe that your company is the best supplier in your
field. Surveys have found that in many cases, no more than 10%
of customers are actually committed to their suppliers,
according to the Leadership Factor, which specializes in
satisfaction and loyalty research. But the longer they are
committed to a company, the more value they add by buying a
wider variety of products more often; they also are less
sensitive to prices.
Customer Feedback? Listening to customers is crucial to a CRM
strategy. While many businesses view customer complaints as a
nuisance, they should be treated as important feedback that will
help to improve your products and services. CRM best practices
help resolve complaints in a way that provides solutions for
your business and customers.
CRM Best Practices for the Long Haul? Ultimately, CRM should be
viewed as a long-term strategy and not just a short-term
project. CRM best practices should help you maintain strong
relationships with your customers and encourage them to spread
positive news about your business.
Source: Francine L. Huff
link
Contact us for a free sales and marketing consultation on the effectiveness of your current go-to-market strategies and to discuss how our RevGen
Sales Systems can improve your bottom line.
