Friday, August 21, 2009

CRM Systems Thrive with Five Kinds of Data

First-time buyers of CRM systems often wonder what makes customer relationship management software tick. Effective CRM tools go beyond lists of names and addresses. They collect and help teams interpret five critical types of data:

Transactional DataThe most common kind of data found in CRM systems, transactional data includes information about completed sales or service requests. Customers provide personal information willingly during the ordering and shipping process, offering the purest data stream possible. However, this data stream can only be initiated or maintained when customers make regular interactions with customer service teams.

Prospect Data“Warm leads” refers to prospective customers who have specifically requested to learn more about a company’s offerings. These days, most warm leads get into CRM systems from websites, often in exchange for access to special deals or targeted information. Warm leads can also include existing customers who want to make additional purchases or reactive inactive accounts. “Cold leads” refers to prospects whose information has been borrowed, bartered, or bought for import into a CRM system.

Supply Chain DataInformation from warehouses, shippers, and suppliers enters CRM systems more often than ever. Direct fulfillment data matched up to customer orders assures buyers of consistent delivery. Third party service professionals add their own appointment confirmations and discovery details to catalog the results of maintenance or support sessions. CRM software data feeds back into the supply chain, dictating vendor orders and triggering inventory movements at warehouses.

Analytical DataThe most robust CRM software on the market can combine information about customers, prospects, and supply chains to build predictive analysis. For instance, retailers can discover hot neighborhoods for future store locations. Fulfillment managers can learn the most strategic locations for warehouses. Using data from CRM systems, analytical modules can build strong guesses about the success or failure of project proposals.

Social DataIncreasingly, CRM software informs executive decision-making by merging publicly available information with proprietary data. For instance, a marketer can use social data to determine which of its existing customers carries the heaviest online influence. CRM systems that analyze blog posts and social media updates can help companies save money on crisis management by identifying online trends that haven’t yet been tracked by formal call centers.

Of course, gathering and maintaining this data does no business any good without the ability to leverage customer relationships. Strong CRM systems put information into the right context for decision makers and strategy experts.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Can Cash for Clunkers Spur a Boom in the Automotive CRM Software Sector?

Pundits may still be arguing about whether the Obama Administration's "Cash for Clunkers" stimulus program is working too well. However, auto dealers across the country know that the program has brought buyers out to their lots in numbers not seen for years. Savvy car sales managers have prepared for this moment by deploying the next generation of auto industry CRM systems.

Long time dealers know the frustration of seeing poor returns on major media advertising buys. In a down economy, fewer Americans have the disposable income to purchase or lease new vehicles. That makes reducing customer churn the number one concern of sales managers. Automotive CRM systems help retain dealer customers by automating messages and activities that build loyalty and maintain dealers' relationships with customers.

As more customers look for new car deals online, "Internet Sales Departments" have evolved from small desks on the fringe of a dealer office to a central hub for new buyer leads. Sales managers can filter leads cultivated by manufacturer websites, dealer sites, or third-party promotions. Traditional dealers can use web-generated surveys and CRM software profiles to determine the best negotiating strategy. More modern dealerships can track the websites used by prospective buyers to offer no-haggle prices that compete with the best deals found online.

More importantly, CRM software allows dealers to invite customers back for service appointments and for special events. Instead of filling dealerships with prospects during community fundraisers, dealers can preview new models and stage special community events for their most valuable customers. CRM software identifies the drivers most likely to upgrade their vehicles within a specific model year, so marketing teams can pinpoint prospects instead of blasting their budgets on big media buys.

Cash for Clunkers is already driving some of the hardest-to-reach customers back into dealerships, especially Americans who don't purchase new cars as often as average drivers. Dealers hope that their investment in CRM software can pay off by converting those frugal shoppers into regular service bay visitors and referral sources.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

What Happens When Your CRM Software Crashes?

If your business depends on Twitter for any part of its customer relationship management strategy, this morning probably felt a little quiet. The popular social networking platform experienced a brief outage today, apparently due to a denial of service attack powered by an army of compromised PCs.

Of course, the same thing can happen to just about any part of your customer communication platform:

  • Your e-mail server can crash, backing up incoming and outgoing messages into a queue.
  • The trunk line to your call center can get severed, leaving call center agents unable to receive phone calls or connect to networked CRM systems.
  • A denial of service attack, like the one targeting Twitter, can hit the servers that host your own CRM applications.

As a customer service professional, I've experienced combinations of all three. (Imagine the horror of a client discovering that a gas company crew has run a backhoe through a phone company data cable on the morning of a huge product launch. I lived that!) That's why your CRM software strategy should include some fallback plans, anticipating some typical worst case scenarios.

  • Have "downtime forms" pre-printed on paper that allow customer service agents to collect key information that can be scanned or manually entered into CRM systems once normal service has been restored.
  • Maintain a clear communication strategy for emergencies or service outages. Many companies use Twitter to alert customers when phone or website service becomes sluggish or unavailable. If your company relies heavily on e-mail, Twitter, or web forms, have a plan in place to deploy an overflow call center to handle heightened call volume during on Internet interruption.
  • If your CRM software integrates with multiple messaging sources, consider automating some common requests using web forms or e-mail. On a normal day, this can help your team serve customers more efficiently. When dealing with a crisis or a partial outage, promoting automated tools can help customers choose the most efficient way to get their needs met.

As Seth Godin recently wrote, there's really no such thing as a "perfect storm" that can excuse a failure to provide customer service. Training your team to manage CRM systems through extraordinary events can communicate to customers that you're there for them when the chips are down.