With 2011 well underway, businesses of all sizes are working in
overtime in attempt to achieve their New Year's resolutions.
Whether a business is striving to increase revenue, inbound
leads or response time, their ability to achieve any one of
these goals depends on one crucial element-their customers.
As the focal point of any business, customers impact every
component of a company, from product development to content in
marketing campaigns to procedures in support programs. All
companies can attest to the fact that having a specific target
market and knowing everything about that market, plays a key
role in their success or failure. I therefore recommend that
before any company begins to tackle any one of their new goals,
they ask themselves, do I have a 360 degree view of my
customers?
What does a 360 degree view contain?
A 360 degree customer view includes the capturing of customer
values, behaviors, demographics and all information pertaining
to their accounts and interactions with an organization. In
essence, this view provides a holistic approach for
understanding who your customers are and how they prefer to be
served.
What are the benefits of having this view?
In having this all-encompassing view of your customers,
businesses can effectively enhance customer relationships and
improve each department's interaction with customers. From a
marketing standpoint, having a detailed customer data repository
serves a vital role in segmentation and the development of
targeted marketing campaigns that can be accurately measured.
Sales can greatly benefit by being able to provide more personal
and proactive customer service and also to gauge who their most
profitable customers are. Customer service departments can use
the detailed customer data to develop a strategic service
program and to identify the most valuable customers who require
extra support.
The overall impact of having a 360 degree view of your customers
is to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and
ultimately to do business better.
How can I gain this view?
So how can an organization begin to develop and employ a 360
degree view of their customers? In my opinion, one of the
simplest and most cost-effective methods is using a CRM
solution. Not only does CRM software offer the ability to manage
a robust contact database, but it provides advanced features to
include specific fields, detailed comments, association with
opportunities and closed business and chronological organization
of all communication between the customer and the company. CRM
solutions also provide superior reporting functions to slice and
dice customer data for segmentation purposes and to analyze the
effectiveness of marketing, sales and customer support efforts.
In essence, CRM solutions provide the tools companies need to
capture extensive customer data and optimize it for the overall
improvement of customer satisfaction and business success. Once
CRM is implemented, the company must commit to continually
update and maintain their database and also to integrate this
data across all departments in their organization.
Gaining a 360 degree view of each customer with CRM can and will
improve a company's ability to satisfy and retain customers.
Adopting a CRM solution is one method of obtaining this
comprehensive view in a cost-effective, simple and timely
manner. So before tackling your 2011 goals, consider whether
your company truly understands your customers inside and out and
if not, CRM might be your best solution.
By: Corie Kaftalovich
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