Many companies go through a natural evolution as they
incorporate their contact management solutions throughout the
organization. Indeed, one distinction between a narrowly-defined
contact management solution and a more comprehensive customer
relationship management (CRM) approach is the extent to which
every aspect of the customer relationship can be managed via the
same system.
The first step to integrating a contact management solution more
actively throughout an organization is through salesforce
automation (SFA). An SFA program represents the beginning of the
transition from the phase where activity drives the system--a
sales person makes a contact and then reports it--to a phase
where the system helps drive activity--prompting sales contacts
and guiding sales protocols. This principle of using the CRM
system to help drive activity can move beyond SFA to other
aspects of the organization as well, including
marketing/eCommerce, operations, and accounting.
CRM and Marketing/eCommerce? Marketing and sales should be
closely coordinated, so using CRM as a marketing resource should
be a natural extension of SFA. Customer information can be used
to analyze buying habits and prompt targeted follow-up mailers
and special offers.
Increasingly, marketing activity should be centered on
eCommerce. A CRM system can help stimulate eCommerce activity by
targeting and delivering e-mail campaigns with highly-customized
content, as well as sending messages to prompt customer visits
to the company Web site.
This relationship between the CRM system and eCommerce can flow
both ways, with Web site offers used to solicit new visitor
information that can help stock the CRM database. In this way, a
casual visitor to a Web site can become an identifiable contact
for regular follow-up.
CRM and Operations? Moving away from the natural customer
interfaces of sales and marketing, a CRM system can also be used
to guide more nuts-and-bolts areas of the organization, such as
operations and accounting.
For example, as sales people enter customer orders on the CRM
system, operations can immediately beginning processing those
orders. The CRM system can also be used more broadly for
supply-chain management, to anticipate and coordinate vendor
ordering needs.
CRM and Accounting? If accounting information is integrated into
the CRM system, it can become a tool for financial management.
For instance, customers can be analyzed and prioritized
according to profitability. Also, customer sales and cost trends
can be used for budgeting purposes.
In short, the possibilities beyond sales force automation are
extensive. Different CRM systems offer different capabilities,
so buyers should research and compare features from leading
vendors to find the best fit.
Source: Richard Barrington
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