Julie Galla is public relations manager with Vancouver-based Pivotal Software, which develops and markets integrated-application software products for customer relationship management.
The difference between a business that turns a profit and one that merely breaks even can often be summed up in one word: relationships.
It’s amazing how many business owners are stumped when asked to name their most valuable customers, or to find specific information about a customer’s history – like the last sales transaction, or the last time a call was logged.
The best way for a company to ensure that everyone involved in servicing that customer has the relevant information at their fingertips is to centralize the material in a single database – a customer relationship management (CRM) solution.
The fast-growing market for CRM software reflects a realization by many organizations of the need to create an unbroken flow of customer information between the sales, marketing and customer service departments.
A CRM system provides for company-wide access to timely and accurate customer information. As with any other technology, however, the effectiveness of a CRM solution depends heavily on proper implementation.
So what is the formula for successful CRM implementation?
The key steps include: building a dedicated team consisting of senior executives and representatives from all departments; getting users involved in planning and customizing the solution; marketing the solution internally to raise awareness levels, set expectations and get people excited; and mapping out a phased implementation process that includes thorough employee training.
First on the agenda is to coordinate a team of employees representing all levels of the organization.
Doing this is important for a number of reasons – not least because it helps you develop a vision for the solution that is complementary to your corporate vision, and will give users a sense of ownership.
As you’re building the team, make certain that you’ve got commitment from senior management. Developing an effective CRM solution takes time and resources. Without buy-in at the senior levels, the whole implementation process will begin on an unstable footing.
Once the implementation team has been assembled, they will launch into a series of brainstorming sessions designed to evaluate your company’s business process, and develop a vision for the end solution. It’s a chance for people to look at which aspects of the process work and which don’t – and to avoid perpetuating the ones that don’t.
Developing a vision simply means determining how you see the CRM system working in conjunction with your company’s business process. This will take some time, since it requires mapping out that process, and determining whether or not it’s efficient.
It is important to develop a unique solution for each department. Although the end goal is to have all of the departments working together cohesively to service the customer, each department has its own particular challenges and style of working – and each will want to see the CRM application customized to reflect its needs. An effective CRM software solution should be fully capable of customization on a departmental level, but be seamlessly integrated on an enterprise level.
It is also extremely important to implement a CRM solution in phases. Phasing the implementation on a departmental or geographical basis, for example, will allow your company to realize results in a shorter time frame.
Rolling out the solution in shorter phases gives you the chance to see some tangible benefit or measurable return on investment (ROI) in fairly short order, and to communicate that to the rest of the company. This, in turn, will help you gain end-user buy-in more quickly – a key factor, since a CRM system is only as good as the information people are willing to provide.
Once you are ready to roll out the CRM solution to the company, it is important to train users on the initial setup. In addition, you should give serious thought to establishing an ongoing training program. This will enable you to update employees on new features as they are added, and to make sure that your people are getting the most out of the CRM solution.
Training should be used as an opportunity not just to show users how to use the features, but also to illustrate how this tool will affect their jobs on a day-to-day basis. A typical introductory training session involves a ‘day in the life’ demonstration, which walks users through a typical day on the job and outlines the features of the CRM solution that will help them work more efficiently.
A truly effective CRM solution will incorporate the needs of individual departments – sales, marketing and customer support – into an enterprise-wide, integrated application. Customized departmental solutions will help users do their jobs better, while also helping them develop a broader picture of the customer base, the company’s products and the entire business process.
Ultimately, you want your customers to be satisfied. The right CRM solution could just be the tool your company needs to take business performance to the next level of success.
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– Webmaster is ‘human nucleus’ of a company site: Wills: Role is crucial, says Molson’s Web custodian p.22
– EDI in media sales industry: working the bugs out p.25
