UNIT 1

What Is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is often referred to as a process, strategy, or software/technology that enables organizations to manage relationships with their customers, vendors, and suppliers.

What Does Electronic Customer Relationship Management Mean?

Electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) is the application of Internet-based technologies such as emails, websites, chat rooms, forums and other channels to achieve CRM objectives. It is a well-structured and coordinated process of CRM that automates the processes in marketing, sales and customer service.

An effective E-CRM increases the efficiency of the processes as well as improves the interactions with customers and enables businesses to customize products and services that meet the customers’ individual needs.

Vikatu- Explains Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Electronic customer relationship management provides an avenue for interactions between a business, its customers and its employees through Web-based technologies. The process combines software, hardware, processes and management’s commitments geared toward supporting enterprise-wide CRM business strategies.

Electronic customer relationship management is motivated by easy Internet access through various platforms and devices such as laptops, mobile devices, desktop PCs and TV sets. It is not software, however, but rather the utilization of Web-based technologies to interact, understand and ensure customer satisfaction.

An effective E-CRM system tracks a customer’s history through multiple channels in real time, creates and maintains an analytical database, and optimizes a customer’s relation in the three aspects of attraction, expansion and maintenance.

A typical E-CRM strategy involves collecting customer information, transaction history and product information, click stream and contents information. It then analyzes the customer characteristics to give a transactional analysis consisting of the customer’s profile and transactional history, and an activity analysis consisting of exploratory activities showing the customer’s navigation, shopping cart, shopping pattern and more.

The benefits of E-CRM include the following:

Improved customer relations, service and support
Matching the customers’ behavior with suitable offers
Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
Greater efficiency and cost reduction
Increased business revenue

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Top CRM Software

SALE FORCE
ORACLE NETSUITE
THRYV

What is 'Customer'?

Customer
A client is a person or business that buys something from a third party. The main goal of a business is to get a group of customers who buy from them again and again, bringing in money. As the customer is responsible for the inflow of money, in India many traders and businessmen refer to the customer as God.

Who is a customer?

Customer definition: A customer is a person or business that buys goods or services from another business. Customers are crucial because they generate revenue. Without them, businesses would go out of business. Every business fights to get customers by advertising their products heavily, cutting costs to get more customers, or making unique products and experiences that people love. Some examples are Apple, Tesla, Google.

Recognizing Customers

Businesses often follow the saying "the customer is always right" because customers are more likely to come back to businesses that meet or exceed their needs. As a result, many businesses closely watch how their customers talk to each other to get ideas for improving their product lines. There are many ways to group customers. Customers are usually either outside or inside the company.

Internal customers are people or groups part of a company's daily operations. They are usually employees or other functional groups. External clients are different from the company's internal operations, and they are usually the people who want to buy a company's final products and services.

Clients versus Consumers

People often use the words "customer" and "consumer" interchangeably, almost the same thing. But there is a small difference. Consumers are people or businesses that use or use up goods and services. Customers are the economic buyers who buy goods and services. Customers can also be consumers, but they can also be customers on their own.

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E-Customer (Electronic Customer): This term generally refers to customers who engage in electronic or online transactions. It could involve online shopping, digital services, or any other form of electronic interaction between a customer and a business.

E-Customer Service: This relates to customer service provided through electronic channels, such as email, chat, social media, or dedicated customer service portals. Many businesses leverage electronic means to offer efficient and timely customer support.

E-Customer Relationship Management (E-CRM): This involves managing and maintaining customer relationships through electronic channels. This could include the use of customer databases, online communication tools, and other technologies to enhance customer interactions and satisfaction.

What Is the Ultimate Goal of CRM?

The ultimate goal of the discipline of customer relationship management, and associated CRM systems, is efficiently managing and improving business relationships. There are stages in creating and leveraging customer relationships that break down the entire relationship lifecycle into phases with distinct goals. Each of these five stages plays an integral role in the development of effective sales, service, and marketing goals:

Customer Acquisition – Targeting your most profitable customers

Customer Retention – Keeping customers interested by offering exceptional products and outstanding customer service

Customer Development – Up-selling, cross-selling, and cross channel product development

Customer Consultation – Using customer feedback to improve product and operations

Customer Conversion – Converting your highest value customers to brand advocates

Since each customer relationship can evolve through each of these stages, it may also be necessary to modify individual sales and customer engagement plans over time. With a CRM software solution, you can achieve greater visibility into your customer behaviours, sales activities, and supporting processes.

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The difference between CRM and ECRM

What does CRM stand for? If you are familiar with the concept of CRM, you will know that this term hides a double meaning:

on the one hand, customer relationship management,
on the other hand, customer relationship management software, or CRM software.

ECRM is defined as a “subcategory” of customer relationship management: CRM relies on multi-channel marketing while ECRM focuses on all web channels.

The difference between CRM and ECRM lies in the communication channels. CRM interacts with customers via phone, distribution channels, or fax. On the other hand, E-CRM contacts customers through the Internet, e-mail, and the latest technologies.

1. Contact Management

The primary goal of ECRM is maintaining effective interaction with customers. ECRM software can assist organizations in collecting and analysing data. This data will enable the organization in effective decision-making regarding marketing, sales, and elevating customer experience.

2. Automate Marketing Campaigns

Marketing automation in ECRM allows targeting customers with personalized campaigns by leveraging data. With the availability of such features, organizations can conduct marketing campaigns via email or social media platforms in a streamlined manner that leads to high customer engagement and eventually generates more revenue.

3. Sales Tracking

Sales tracking enables organizations to gain a 360-degree view of sales in various channels through sales tools. Also, it is feasible for organizations to get real-time insights and identify the flaws in the sales strategy. In addition, sales reps’ performance can be evaluated. Detailed analysis of the strategies applied can be gained, which will be assistive in improving the conversion rate and forecasting sales future.

4. Case Management

Case management refers to solving issues or inquiries raised by a customer. ECRM pulls customer inquiries or complaints to a centralized database, enabling the customer service department to manage such cases effectively. The main benefits of its implementation are increased customer satisfaction and a quicker resolution process.

5. Analytics and Reporting

There are advanced analytics features in ECRM that provide precise insights on data for aspects like customer behavior, campaign performance, sales reports, customer query resolution, etc. This assists the organizations in decision-making and bringing necessary changes to benefit the business in the long run.

6. Effective Integration

ECRM can be integrated with other platforms to automate operations. This will streamline the processes and reduce time wastage. For example, ERP integrated with ECRM increases precision in deriving quotes, and data entry systems can also be automated. There are many other processes with which ECRM can be integrated to optimize the organization’s operability.

Hence, ECRM is an immersive platform with ample features to streamline customer interactions and improve performance through multiple digital channels.

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Lifestyle and Technological Environment

Environment and Lifestyle

First, it is important to consider how lifestyle and environment may impact business decision-making.

Demographic change

Demographic change is an important consideration for business.

Urbanisation and Migration

Usually, this means the movement of people from one country to another with the intention of settling, or temporarily settling, in the new country. An increase in migration to a country can help that country's economy grow, as the workforce increases - businesses have an increased supply of labour (more workers).

Lifestyle and Buying Behavior

Consumer lifestyles and buying behaviours also play a huge role in the external environment of the business.

Consumer lifestyles

There have been several changes in consumer lifestyles including:

Health and well-being: consumers find it increasingly important to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. This will most likely lead to increasing demands for healthy food, fitness, and exercise-related activities.
Social concerns: consumers are becoming more socially and environmentally conscious. They are more likely to take into consideration the social impact of the products and services they purchase. This means that they are more likely to purchase products that are less harmful to the environment and society, such as makeup that has not been tested on animals or electric cars.
Access to information: in the digital age consumers have almost unlimited access to information. This also results in consumers being bombarded with information on products and services, advertisements, product placement, etc. It is becoming increasingly difficult to assess what information is trustworthy.
Digitalization: a lot of consumers use digital media daily which means they are likely to make more online purchases.
Convenience products: consumers are also more likely to have busy and fast-paced lives, which results in an increased demand for 'on-demand products' that are available to a consumer almost instantly after purchasing goods and services online.
Buying Behavior
Consumers' buying behaviour has also been changing in a couple of ways:

Access to information: as a result of digital technology, consumers are better informed and it has also become much easier for them to access information. They can easily read customer reviews, recommendations and compare prices.
Distribution: consumers have control over where, when and how they buy their products. Consumers can purchase products in person or online.

Effects of Technology on the Business Environment

Technology and promoting products

Technological advancements have made it easier for businesses to sell and advertise their products.

Advantages and disadvantages of technological change

Some of the advantages of technological change are the following:

Lower costs: due to more efficient or automated processes.
Higher profit margins: due to lower costs of production.
New skills: as a result of new and changing technology.
Easier expansion: easier to diversify and expand into new markets, as more information is available.
Higher reach: businesses can reach customers they previously couldn't through digitalisation.

Some of the disadvantages of technological change include:

Higher R&D costs: it is expensive to constantly innovate and embrace new technologies.
Additional costs: it can sometimes be costly to implement new operational processes.
Mergers and takeovers: smaller firms are less likely to have sufficient funds for R&D and keeping up with larger competitors.
Unemployment: if workers are unable to learn new skills or if their jobs become obsolete.

Lifestyle and Technological Environment - Key takeaways

Social change can have a huge impact on businesses. It can lead to consumers demanding different products and services.
Social change can also influence the way businesses operate and produce goods.
Demographic changes, migration, and urbanisation are common examples of current social change.
Consumers' lifestyles and buying behaviours are changing.
Consumers are more socially conscious and have access to almost unlimited information, as a result of digitalisation.
It is also easier for consumers to make decisions about purchases as they can purchase products whenever and however they wish (online, in-person).
Technology has made it easier for companies to promote their products and make their operations more efficient.
Technological changes can increase profit margins and lower costs of production, however, they can also increase R&D costs and the risk of takeovers.

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UNIT 2

What is the CRM process?

To understand the steps in the CRM process, you have to understand the customer life cycle. It is one of the first concepts that you learn as a sales rep to understand how a person becomes a loyal customer.

The CRM cycle involves marketing, customer service and sales activities. It starts with outreach and customer acquisition and ideally leads to customer loyalty.

There are five key stages in the CRM cycle:

Reaching a potential customer
Customer acquisition
Conversion
Customer retention
Customer loyalty

What are the steps in the CRM process?

1. Generate brand awareness

Learning about your target audience:

Segmenting your target audience:

Creating marketing campaigns that speak to the target demographics:

2. Acquire leads

Introducing your brand to a potential customer is just the beginning of the CRM process. From there, you have to encourage them to learn more about your business and engage with it.

3. Convert leads into customers

You have successfully engaged with your leads and they are interested. Now it is time to turn those leads into customers.

4. Provide superior customer service

You have successfully converted your lead into a customer. Great! But the CRM process does not end when a customer converts. In order to grow as a company, you need to retain customers. How do you keep the customer coming back? With excellent service from Support.

5. Drive upsells

When we think of a returning customer, we imagine a shopper continually coming back to the same business to buy the products they know and love. But there is another key way existing customers provide value — by upgrading to more expensive products.

How do you convince customers to switch products? Personalised recommendations via email are a great place to start. You can use your CRM to organize customers into smart lists based on similar purchase histories. You can then create custom email templates that send relevant product releases to entire lists of customers at once. This way, you can be sure the promotional deals or releases you send are reaching the people most likely to buy them.

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The process of implementing and using an online CRM system involves several key steps. Here is a general outline of the typical online CRM process:

Define Objectives and Requirements:
1. Identify the specific goals and objectives you want to achieve with the CRM system.
2. Outline the features and functionalities required to meet your business needs.
Select a CRM System:
1. Research and evaluate different online CRM platforms based on your requirements and budget.
2. Consider factors such as scalability, integration capabilities, user-friendliness, and customer support.
Customization and Configuration:
1. Customize the CRM system to align with your business processes and workflows.
2. Configure user access levels and permissions to ensure data security and privacy.
Data Migration:
1. Import existing customer data from spreadsheets, databases, or other systems into the CRM platform.
2. Cleanse and validate data to ensure accuracy and completeness.
User Training:
1. Provide comprehensive training to users on how to navigate and use the CRM system effectively.
2. Train users on specific features relevant to their roles (sales, marketing, customer support, etc.).
Integration with Other Systems:
1. Integrate the CRM system with other essential business tools, such as email, marketing automation, and accounting software.
2. Ensure seamless data flow and communication between systems.
Implement Workflows:
1. Define and set up automated workflows for sales, marketing, and customer service processes.
2. Map out the customer journey and design processes to streamline operations.
Data Security and Compliance:
1. Implement security measures to protect sensitive customer data.
2. Ensure compliance with data protection regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA.
Launch and Monitor:
1. Roll out the CRM system gradually or in phases to minimize disruptions.
2. Monitor user adoption and address any issues that may arise during the initial implementation.
Continuous Improvement:
1. Gather feedback from users to identify areas for improvement.
2. Regularly review and update CRM processes and configurations based on changing business needs.
Analytics and Reporting:
1. Utilize the reporting and analytics features of the CRM system to gain insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and other key metrics.
2. Use this data to make informed business decisions and optimize processes.
Customer Support:
1. Provide ongoing customer support to address user queries, issues, and system updates.
2. Stay informed about updates and new features released by the CRM provider.

By following these steps, businesses can successfully implement and leverage an online CRM system to enhance customer relationships, streamline processes, and drive overall business growth.

4C's of crm process

Customer experience: people love to talk about your service and your products. it is the key driver of the consumer conversations. the basis of positive conversation about your company is very simple: offer strong products and a decent customer service, these two drive conversations. if you do them well: conversation will boost the business, if your performing just a little below expectations, conversations will decrease the business. it is foundation of a conversation company.

The conversation company believes in a total philosophy towards customer experience. the role of social media within this philosophy is to react in real time to people's problems and complaints. companies like klm and best buy demonstrate perfectly how this pillar fits in to overall picture. other companies such as dell build mission control centers. these centres are manned 24/7 staff who answer the online questions put by customers and prospects. no single conversation is left without response; everyone is helped.

Conversation: the story of my previous book, the conversation manager. it is the goal to converse and not communicate. listen, ask question, facilitate the conversation and actively take part in them.

the conversation company manages the online conversations in three stages: observing, facilitating and participating. they start simply by listening to consumer conversations, adding a few relevant comments where necessary. at the same time, the company prepares its content in such a way that it can easily be shared with other interested parties. clever companies combine these online conversations with their offline activities the heineken champions league stunt make clear that effect of small offline events can magnified many times by social media. heineken facilitated this process by providing the right content in the room right form. some time ago karft had the idea of integrating customer tweets into its offline advertisements. people quickly caught on to this idea and were super-keen to get their quotes in the adverts. as a result, more than 1.5 million tweets were sent to kraft in the course of the campaign.

Content: give people stuff to talk about, but do it in an authentic, positive and relevant way.

companies should no longer be concerned with the planning of one-off advertising campaigns, but with the global planning and management of their content. your company must learn to think like the publisher of a newspaper. the paper with the most interesting content is the paper that is read the most. good content is the ideal way to increase your reach.

Collaboration: Involve customers in everything your company does. let them be part of your boardroom and let them be involved in your decision-making processes.

the conversation company collaborated structurally with its customers. this increase the average level of consumer commitment. it is possible to be fairly creative within this pillar. food, a successful hamburger outlet in Manhattan, draws up a new menu very day with the help of its own customers. using s series of tables left on the tables. the diners can put together their own recipe for the perfect? hamburger. very new concept put on display for the other customers and the best-sellling burger are promoted via twitter and facebook. for each burger sold, the recipe-maker recives 25%. in a similar vein, proctor and gamble has developed vocalpoint, community in which 35,00 mothers help to develop new product ideas for PandG brand. these mother are also the first user of new products during the development phase, so that they can provide feedback with regard to possible prooblems/weaknesses before the product is finally launched on the market.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plays a crucial role in defining your company’s growth and enhancing customer relationships. Different CRM Modules constitute this capability.

These modules work together to ensure seamless sales and marketing operations. Along with this, it produces a workflow that is applauded by both customers as well as critics.

So let us understand CRM software and its modules in detail.

What is CRM Software?

Customer Relationship Management Software encompasses different modules that help in streamlining the sales process in an organization. With different nurturing and engaging inputs, CRM software draws in the attention of your prospects and enables you to cultivate long-lasting customer relationships.

For salespeople, the software serves as an asset by transforming your sales cycle into a smooth and conversion-centric approach. On top of it, not only it bridges the gap between your sales and marketing teams, but it also ensures that all teams focus on a unifying goal.

Let’s find out what modules should a sound CRM system include to lead a company to success.

6 CRM Modules for Robust Customer Relationships

CRM Module 1: Leads

Customers are the most valuable assets for your business. Here, the lead module keeps data of all the customers organized. Whenever you capture a lead from your marketing channels, the software stores all their data in one place.

Furthermore, this CRM module offers smart views to evaluate the present status of the leads. When all of this data is accumulated in one place, any sales manager can quickly analyze sales operations currently going on and how it can be modified further.

Additionally, there are different options to manage leads, activities, task, and lists, that empowers every salesperson to make the most out of their efforts.

CRM Module 2: Marketing

Marketing module stages conclusive details of all your email marketing campaigns and more. It displays the names of the marketing campaigns with the present status.

In addition to that, the marketing module also displays the results of your email marketing campaigns with respective click-through rates and more. This helps you to get a gist of how fruitful your email marketing campaigns have been. And how you can improve it further.

Also, the marketing module allows you to create new email campaigns after analyzing the response of the previous. Additionally, this CRM module showcases the details of landing pages that you have created. It puts together all data regarding views, conversion rate, present status, and more.

Last but not least, the Marketing Module of CRM creates and furnishes the details of all website widgets, their types, and their status. Additionally, it also provides you a way to check the conversion rate of these widgets by generating individual reports for every one of them.

CRM Module 3: Workflows

The workflow module helps you to automate your sales process. For example, when a new lead flows into the system. You can set-up automation to assign it to a salesperson that can cater to your lead’s interest.

Following that, you can create an if/else condition. Suppose, if the lead does not pick up your follow up call, you can set a task to call after three days. Conversely, if they pick up and show interest in your product, you can engage them with email, highlighting the details of the product.

The workflow module of CRM helps you to gather all the workflows in one place and analyze the number of triggers, etc.

Moving on, the CRM module also delivers a process designer. It allows you to create process after identifying relevant triggers. For example, if a prospect is inclined to make a purchase, the process designer will convert their lead stage into opportunity.

CRM Module 4: Apps Marketplace

The Apps Marketplace module of CRM provides options of different apps with which the CRM software can integrate through connectors. For example, Facebook Lead Ads connector, marketplace (Justdial, Sulekha, etc.) connector and more.

This Module of CRM enables you to transfer data (leads from different applications) to CRM, allowing you to collect all leads in one platform. It enables you to nurture and engage them efficiently, based on the channel from where they came in.

CRM Module 5: Reports

Reports module of the CRM software gathers reports of different categories and presents them in one place. These reports include administrative reports, field sales reports, customer analytics, and many more.

Based on your usage pattern, this CRM module collects frequently used reports in one section. It enables you to access them effortlessly. Also, the module allows users to create customized reports in no time.

Reports Module of CRM provides the ease of analyzing all data related to sales and marketing. With this, it helps you to optimize your process to grow in your industry.

CRM Module 6: Content Repository

The content repository module of the CRM software gathers all images and documents. It makes them easily accessible whenever you need them.

Through content repository, all your creatives and images can be accessed by your team members. When in need, it saves time by eliminating the confusion of searching for data stored in different silos.

CRM FOR DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a crucial tool for organizations across various industries to manage their interactions with current and potential customers. Different organizations may have unique needs and requirements, leading to the adoption of specialized CRM solutions. Here's how CRM can be tailored for different types of organizations:

Sales-focused Organizations:

Lead Management: Efficient tracking and management of leads through the sales pipeline.
Opportunity Management: Detailed tracking of sales opportunities, including potential revenue, probability of closure, and key milestones.
Sales Forecasting: Utilizing historical data and current pipeline information for accurate sales forecasting.
Integration with Sales Tools: Seamless integration with tools like email, calendar, and sales analytics.

Service-oriented Organizations:

Case Management: Efficient tracking and resolution of customer issues or service requests.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Monitoring and meeting service level commitments through automated alerts and escalations.
Knowledge Base Integration: A repository of solutions to common issues, providing self-service options for customers.
Customer Feedback and Surveys: Integration of feedback mechanisms to continuously improve service quality.

E-commerce Businesses:

Order and Inventory Management: Tracking customer orders and managing real-time inventory levels.
Customer Segmentation: Targeted marketing based on customer preferences and purchase history.
Cart Abandonment Tracking: Identifying and addressing reasons for abandoned shopping carts.
Integration with E-commerce Platforms: Seamless integration with platforms like Shopify, Magento, or WooCommerce.

Nonprofits and NGOs:

Donor Management: Tracking and engaging with donors, managing donation campaigns.
Volunteer Management: Coordination and tracking of volunteer activities and contributions.
Grant Management: Tracking grants and ensuring compliance with funding requirements.
Communication and Outreach: Tools for effective communication with supporters, donors, and the community.

Healthcare Organizations:

Patient Relationship Management: Tracking patient interactions, appointments, and medical history.
Appointment Scheduling: Streamlining the scheduling process for patients and healthcare providers.
HIPAA Compliance: Ensuring that the CRM system adheres to healthcare data protection standards.
Referral Tracking: Managing and tracking patient referrals between healthcare providers.

Manufacturing Companies:

Supply Chain Integration: Coordinating with suppliers and distributors to streamline the supply chain.
Product Lifecycle Management: Tracking product development and managing different stages of a product's life.
Warranty and Service Management: Handling customer service requests and warranty claims.

Customizing CRM for different organizations involves understanding the unique workflows, priorities, and challenges within each industry and tailoring the CRM system accordingly. It often requires integrations with other tools and systems to create a comprehensive solution that meets the specific needs of the organization.

UNIT 3

10 CRM Strategies to Improve Your Business

What Is a CRM Strategy?

A CRM strategy defines goals and practices that a company will use to manage and improve its interactions with customers via a CRM system. In other words, it’s a plan to build stronger relationships with existing customers and generate more leads among prospective customers. Effective CRM strategies enable sales, marketing and customer service teams to tailor their interactions with prospects and customers using data-driven insights on customer behaviors, needs and preferences. These tailored interactions, delivered consistently, create truly customer-centric journeys that catalyze customer loyalty and, ultimately, business growth.

CRM strategies spring from the overarching goals that a company has for its customer relationships. Examples of CRM strategy goals include increasing customer satisfaction, improving customer experience and streamlining the sales process. These goals establish the priorities for a CRM implementation, setting the stage to design CRM practices, which are the specific actions and business processes used by the CRM system. Together, the goals and practices comprise the CRM strategy. Businesses can deploy multiple CRM strategies, and strategy prioritization will help sequence the CRM implementation so that it builds success over time.

CRM helps businesses better understand and track customer needs and preferences, leading to improved customer experiences and higher levels of satisfaction.
A CRM strategy provides sales, customer service and marketing teams with valuable insights into customer behavior and buying preferences, enabling them to develop more effective practices for customer interactions that drive increased revenue.
Data accuracy and consistency is significantly improved by using a CRM system as the central repository for storing and managing customer data, delivering a holistic view of the customer.
By streamlining processes, improving customer engagement and leveraging data insights, a well-implemented CRM strategy can lead to increased sales, higher customer retention and lower costs.

While a business’s primary internal stakeholders for customer engagement are within marketing, sales and customer service teams, CRM strategies promote collaboration company-wide because they aggregate (often scattered) customer data to improve customer interactions. CRM strategies equip the entire business to leverage customer data in feedback loops to inform product and service offerings, including data from sales, customer service interactions and marketing campaigns. These data insights can also inform the methods, content and timing for customer communications. All of this is made possible by CRM strategies and the software tools that help achieve them.

Take, for example, XYZ Cleaning Co., a (fictional) local cleaning firm servicing both residential and commercial customers. Company managers notice that customer satisfaction has declined and the business’s growth has slowed. After conducting market research, the company realizes that its competitors are getting high grades for their personalized and efficient service. Recognizing that XYZ doesn’t have a way to track detailed information about customers, its managers decided to implement a CRM system to store information specific to customer preferences and behaviors, such as referrals, schedule constraints and specific cleaning demands. Easily accessed via CRM reporting features, these customer preferences would guide XYZ’s employee actions, such as proactively rescheduling cleaning dates that fall on holidays or sending thank-you gifts to referring customers. XYZ’s CRM system implementation incorporates the goals and practices of its CRM strategy.

CRM Strategies to Improve Your Business

1. Define Goals for Your CRM

The first step in any CRM strategy is to define goals based on a clear picture of where the business stands and where it needs to improve. At a high level, define what exactly the business will achieve when it comes to customer relationship management. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound — the acronym for which is SMART. Some example of SMART goals might be to increase sales by 10% in the next quarter, improve customer retention by 5% year-over-year (YOY), or raise customer satisfaction scores by 12%.

Importantly, such business goals should map to CRM strategy goals and their accompanying system practices. The goal to increase sales, for example, may be supported by CRM system practices that improve visibility of customer data that fuel more targeted selling approaches. The customer retention goal could be supported by a CRM system practice of building better customer profiles, i.e., profiles that provide insights into individual customer needs and preferences with which the company can tailor customer interactions. And the customer satisfaction goal could be supported by CRM system practices to cut down resolution times for customer issues.

Additionally, since no CRM program can succeed without widespread adoption of the CRM system, a key goal focused on the CRM system itself should address employee training. The sales and marketing teams will need to adopt the new CRM, so they must understand the system’s functionality and how the new technology will benefit the organization. Effective training will promote adoption of the CRM and integration of the CRM with existing processes.

2. Perform a Business Audit

A business audit can help organizations identify gaps in their current workflows, leading to better alignment with customer needs and improved customer experiences once a CRM system is implemented. Business audit results can lead organizations to streamline their operations and eliminate redundancies, thus increasing the business’s efficiency and productivity. The audit should review sales, marketing, customer service and data management processes, looking for bottlenecks or inefficiencies to prioritize for improvement, such as slow customer response times or lengthy sales cycles that can be shortened.

Include in the audit a review of business goals that your CRM strategy would support, such as increasing sales, market share or customer retention. Your analysis of how the business operates today, how improvements could enhance customer experience and the review of specific goals to aim for should all factor into the design and implementation of a CRM system.

3. Understand the Customer Journey

By understanding the customer journey, businesses can better visualize what customers are thinking, feeling and doing as they work their way through the purchase process. Gathering insights on customer behavior and what they need, when, is key to identifying how your business’s strengths and shortcomings shape customer experience — and defining actions for improvement.

It’s important to map out the different touchpoints that a customer may have with a company or brand in each stage of the buying process (awareness, consideration, purchase and post-purchase). By analyzing customer behavior, feedback and data at each touchpoint, businesses gain insights into their customers’ needs, pain points and decision-making processes. With those insights, companies can, for example, build marketing automation programs that deliver content to answer customer questions, timed for just when those questions begin to arise in customers’ minds.

Customer segmentation can enhance a company’s understanding of customer journeys and, therefore, its marketing automation programs. Because CRM strategy depends on capturing and leveraging customer data, most CRM strategies incorporate customer segmentation — i.e., grouping customers into categories based on common characteristics, such as demographics, preferences or behaviors. In customer segmentation strategies, these groups are often referred to as a “buyer persona.” By creating different customer personas, marketing content can be tuned for each persona, becoming more targeted and, therefore, more effective.

Customer segmentation empowers businesses to tailor their interactions with each buyer persona in ways that are more specific to that group’s needs or preferences, creating the personalization that drives positive customer experience. Buyer personas enable companies to understand variations in the journeys of their different types of customers, getting them closer to the overall goals of CRM strategies — namely, to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, generate revenue and build long-term customer loyalty.

4. Study the Market

Understanding customers and internal processes is imperative for developing successful CRM strategies and systems, but so is studying competitors. Businesses need a strong understanding of the market they operate in and where they fit compared with the competition — i.e., their strengths and weaknesses right alongside those of their competitors. For example, by analyzing competitors’ offerings, a company can gain insights into the needs and preferences of its own target customers. By studying competitors’ customer service practices, a company can identify ways to improve its own customer service experience. Companies can use all this information to differentiate themselves from competitors and identify opportunities for growth.

In addition to informing business strategy, competitive market information can be used to enhance a company’s CRM solution. For example, consider a clothing retailer that conducts competitive market research including online surveys of customers, analysis of competitor websites and marketing materials and interviews with prospects and customers. The data it gathers identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor in terms of the quality of its customer service, the range of products it offers and the convenience of its online shopping experience. The retailer can then use this information to improve its own CRM strategy. If the competition has a strong online shopping experience, the retailer might focus on improving its own website and making it easier to shop and engage with its brand.

5. Use Automation and AI

Automation and AI can improve the efficiency and productivity of a CRM strategy by automating tedious and repetitive tasks, such as data entry. Marketing automation through a CRM system can trigger personalized emails, schedule social media posts or follow up on leads. AI can refine customer segments for more personalized messages, predict which customers are more likely to churn so the company can take preemptive action, and equip chat bots with answers to common customer questions. Additionally, AI analysis of customer data can provide insights that improve customer engagement, predict customer behavior and better target marketing efforts. It can analyze customer behavior and preferences to make highly personalized product recommendations, improving the likelihood of a purchase.

Overall, the use of automation and AI in a CRM strategy can help a business save time, money and resources, freeing up time for sales, marketing and customer service teams to focus on other duties — all while improving customer engagement and satisfaction.

6. Deliver Personalized Experiences

By providing users with content that is tailored to their specific interests and needs, businesses can create a more engaging and effective user experience. Such personalization is crucial for building relationships with customers, and customers expect it nowadays. According to a McKinsey report, 76% of consumers become frustrated when a business shows or recommends things that aren’t relevant to them. There is no denying that the closer a company gets to their customer, the bigger the potential rewards it can reap. By having a clear picture of a customer and then delivering personalized experiences, brands can make customers feel valued and increase the likelihood of them making a purchase. This can be done through a variety of techniques, such as the use of cookies, user profiling and machine learning algorithms. For example, data can be used to recommend products or services based on a customer’s previous purchase history, or to change a web page’s calls-to-action or link-button text based on customer segment.

The goal of personalization is to make any interaction more relevant to that individual customer, thereby raising engagement — and conversion.

7. Improve Marketing With CRM Data

CRM data offers marketers valuable insights into customer behavior patterns, such as how customers respond to marketing campaigns, which marketing campaigns had the most effective offers and which marketing channels generated the best customer response. For example, customers dislike impersonal marketing messages, especially when they know a company has their personal information already. Marketers can pull information from their CRM software to create communications that are individualized for each customer, addressing them by name, title or job function and including their company name as well. (But don’t forget, customers really dislike it when any of that information is wrong, which is why clean data is so important!)

8. Track Performance

Tracking performance metrics lets a business analyze how well its CRM strategies are working and identify those that need improvement. Thinking long-term, regularly tracking CRM KPIs gives businesses the information they need to continually improve. That’s crucial, because what works today might not be effective a few months, or even weeks, in the future. Tracking performance in this way requires businesses to set up a tracking and reporting system capable of delivering metrics in real-time.

9. Create Value-Added Content

Providing valuable, educational content that addresses customer needs and pain points establishes a business as an expert in the industry it serves and builds customer loyalty and trust. Such customer-centric content could include blog posts, ebooks, webinars and podcasts — or any other type of content, as long as it provides genuine value to customers and prospects.

For example, take the local cleaning service discussed earlier. Let’s say a potential customer is researching new cleaning services in their area and follows a search link to a case study from a satisfied customer on ABC Cleaning’s website. The prospect fills out a short form to download the case study and, in so doing, becomes a lead in the company’s CRM system. The customer in the case study describes the challenges and pain points they were having with scheduling, reliability and thoroughness that ABC Cleaning resolved for them — all of which resonates with the prospect. The same customer also gave a video interview expressing their satisfaction with the cleaning service. With the new-prospect lead in hand, ABC Cleaning can nurture the lead with an automated email containing the video interview. Subsequently, a salesperson can call with a specific offer for that prospect.

10. Reward Customer Loyalty

Many businesses have loyalty programs that reward customers for repeat business, giving them incentives to keep coming back. These types of programs lead to customer-brand advocacy, which translates into more referrals, increased sales, and improved customer retention. Two popular approaches businesses can take to build loyalty and repeat purchases are points-based and tiered programs:

What is service quality?

Simply put, it’s how your business’s customer service measures up to your customers’ expectations.

People enter a store or purchase with an expectation of service, though it varies by industry and other factors. For example, expectations for service from a high-end furniture store differ significantly from what customers expect from shopping at a discounted outlet store.

Suppose your marketing or brand positioning promises quality customer service, but your business typically delivers below-par service. In that case, your customers might feel disappointed, and that’s bad news for your company.

Providing a customer experience that meets or exceeds expectations increases customer loyalty and satisfaction. Service quality is essential to the overall customer experience, so knowing how to measure your service quality is vital.

Five dimensions of service quality

Tangibility
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy

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What is customer communication management?

Customer communication management (CCM) refers to a business' outbound strategy to communicate with its customers. In most cases, CCM is executed through a tool or software that localizes conversations into a central location. Ultimately, this helps marketing, sales, and service teams optimize customer engagement.

CCM and Outbound Communication

Outbound communication comes in two forms:

Live interactions, like a phone call or in-person conversation.
Or digital interactions conducted through a written medium.

Key Benefits of Effective CCM

1. Increased Personalization

2. Enhanced Engagement Tracking

3. Improved Customer Experiences

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Customer support methodology refers to the systematic approach and set of practices that businesses use to address customer inquiries, issues, and concerns. An effective customer support methodology aims to enhance customer satisfaction, build loyalty, and resolve problems efficiently. Here are key components of a customer support methodology:

Customer-Centric Approach: Prioritize the needs and preferences of customers. Understand customer expectations and tailor support services accordingly.

Multichannel Support: Offer support through various channels such as phone, email, chat, social media, and self-service options. Ensure consistency and coherence across different channels.

Responsive Communication: Respond promptly to customer queries and issues. Set clear expectations for response times and adhere to them.

Knowledge Management: Maintain a well-organized knowledge base with frequently asked questions (FAQs) and detailed product/service information. Equip support agents with the necessary training and resources to access and update information.

Empathy and Professionalism: Train support agents to show empathy towards customers. Maintain a professional and positive tone in all interactions.

Problem Resolution: Implement effective issue tracking and resolution processes. Strive for first-contact resolution to minimize customer effort and frustration.

Feedback Mechanism: Collect customer feedback to gauge satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. Act on feedback to enhance products, services, and support processes.

Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and analyze customer support performance. Identify trends, recurring issues, and areas for improvement, and implement changes accordingly. Automation and AI Integration: Use automation and artificial intelligence to streamline routine tasks and provide quicker responses. Implement chatbots for initial interactions and issue resolution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Foster collaboration between customer support and other departments. Share customer insights with product development, marketing, and sales teams to improve overall customer experience.

Monitoring and Reporting: Utilize metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of customer support. Generate reports to track trends and identify opportunities for improvement.

Customer Education: Provide educational resources to help customers make the most of your products or services. Proactively share updates, tips, and best practices. By adopting a comprehensive customer support methodology, businesses can not only address customer issues effectively but also build lasting relationships that contribute to overall business success.

UNIT 4

How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Business

Choosing the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for your business can feel pretty overwhelming. With so many options to choose from, each with a different array of tools and features, how can you possibly identify the right one for your business?

1. Identify Your Goals

It is important that you understand what problem you are trying to solve with a CRM. Put the following goals in order of importance to your business to determine which CRM tool will be the most effective:

Track Leads and Lead Activity
Track Customer Base
Track Opportunities and Closing Rates
Offer Connectivity Between Teams
Manage Relationships
Generate Customized Reporting
Organize Business Operations
Increase Profitability
Increase Productivity

2. Understand the Implementation

This component is key. Any time you are changing or introducing new software, there is going to be a period of implementation. In some cases, you may need an outside consultant or a staff person who is heading up the deployment. In either case, there is going to be a period of training and testing where the system bugs will be worked out and best practices will be established.

3. Prepare For User Adoption

No matter which system you choose, there will be members of your team who resist the change. In some cases, your sales team may feel threatened. This is a common complaint among salespeople, as they believe that by giving up their customers’ contact information, they are putting their positions at risk.

5. Layout Your Processes

CRM tools are created with a multitude of business processes in mind. Everyone’s processes are different. That is not a bad thing; this is what differentiates you from your competitors. It is important that your CRM is flexible enough to handle your processes. Likewise, you want a CRM that will grow with your business and adapt to your changing processes without having to be replaced.

6. Review Compatibility With Current Software

While compatibility with multiple systems is becoming less of an issue as more and more applications are connected through APIs, you still want to check to ensure that the CRM system you choose can interface with other applications you already have in place. If you need help connecting all of your systems through APIs, look for a third-party platform that can integrate your systems to streamline your data organization.

7. Dig Into the Product Demo

Make sure that you get to access a product demonstration and, most importantly, that you use the demo. Try to break the demo. This is your chance to really test the system and see its strengths and weaknesses for your business’s needs. Too many times, people will request a product demo only to give it a brief glance before assuming it will work. Taking a little extra time at this point will save you time in the long run.

8. Ask About Reporting Capabilities

While all the functionality of a CRM is nice, it is the product’s reporting capabilities that can really help you surpass your competition. The ability to customize reports based on your unique data will showcase your wins, losses, and opportunities for improvement. You may think your processes are effective, but your data may show you otherwise. Ensuring your sales team is not afraid to input correct customer data becomes very powerful in determining the proper products, services, pricing, and delivery requirements for your business.

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What is the CRM implementation process?

CRM implementation refers to the process of deploying a CRM software either from scratch or by integrating it into existing systems to help manage communication with the customers seamlessly

Successful CRM implementation can help provide a centralized management system and ease of access to customer information.

The seven steps for a successful CRM implementation can be separated into three phases, and they are:

Before Implementation:

Assess the CRM needs and set goals
Choose the correct CRM application
Build an implementation team
Create a change management plan
Plan your CRM implementation budget

CRM Implementation:

Prep for Go-live

Post Implementation:

Continuous Evaluation

1. Assess the CRM needs and set goals

The first and foremost step in CRM implementation is to assess the needs for a CRM and set out the goals & objectives to achieve the same without any hiccups. According to a report in CIO magazine, around one-third (33%) of all Customer Relationship Management (CRM) projects fail.

2. Choose the correct CRM application

The next important step is choosing the right CRM that suits the needs of your enterprise. CRM solutions might bundle in many features, and businesses must set clear goals to plan what features need to be in their CRM.

You must compare the different features offered, support, and service the vendors provide. Also, remember that the solutions offered should be able to be easily integrated with other departments in your organization.

For example, the Sales team should be able to share its reports with other teams within the company. So, do your research well before buying a CRM product!

3. Build an implementation team

Once the CRM software has been decided, and goals are set, the next step is to build your CRM implementation team. This team will be responsible for taking part in every stage of the implementation process.

4. Create a change management plan

After creating the team, the next focus should be making the perfect Change Management Plan (CMP). For several reasons, your employees can resist the new system, so having a CMP can help you engage employees and ensure a seamless transition.

5. Plan your CRM implementation budget

Planning a budget for CRM implementation is crucial as it can help plan and reduce unnecessary costs. Before planning the budget, ensure that every expense is included—plan for everything before the go-live period.

Five Phases of CRM Projects

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) evolved out of material requirements planning (MRP), which was a way for manufacturers to understand and manage all the resources needed to operate a successful business. ERP serves as a shared database to all the parts of an organization. At its core, this means finances, including the general ledger (GL), accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and financial reporting.

But ERP also extends to inventory management, order management, supply chain management and data related to services organizations. ERP touches on procurement, production, distribution and fulfillment as well. Some ERP systems also offer Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), CRM and ecommerce.

What is the Difference Between CRM and ERP?

While the entire organization will come to rely on both ERP and CRM systems, the fundamental difference between ERP and CRM is that ERP is primarily for financial data and the finance department, while CRM is customer data used by the sales and customer service departments. The former is commonly referred to as the back office, and the latter is the front office.

Some ERP systems include a CRM component, while others do not, but CRM software systems do not include ERP components. For example, Salesforce.com is not an ERP system because it does not handle transactional data. It may access order history or invoices, but that data is brought in through an integration with the ERP system.

What is an ERP system?

How can these solutions manage organizations day-to-day business activities, such as accounting, finance, procurement, project management, supply chain, and manufacturing.

Enterprise resource planning systems are complete, integrated platforms, either on-premises or in the cloud, managing all aspects of a production-based or distribution business. Furthermore, ERP systems support all aspects of financial management, human resources, supply chain management, and manufacturing with your core accounting function.

ERP systems will also provide transparency into your complete business process by tracking all aspects of production, logistics, and financials. These integrated systems act as a business's central hub for end-to-end workflow and data, allowing a variety of departments to access.

ERP Systems and software support multiple functions across the enterprise, mid-sized, or small businesses, including customizations for your industry.

UNIT 5

What are sales activities?

Sales activities are any actions you or your team take to move customers through the sales process. If a task at work relates to eventually generating a sale, it's a sales activity. This can include any preparations, sales strategies, solution implementation or sales tracking practices.

25 sales activities examples

These are some examples of sales activities you can do with your sales team:

1. Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management, also known as CRM, is any software program that helps you keep track of important information about your customers. This information includes names, contact information and basic demographics. You can use CRM to understand your current customers, determine a target audience and predict sales strategies that may appeal to them.

2. Territory management

Territory management is the process of assigning members of your sales team to different customers, depending on a set characteristic. Some characteristics you can base territories on include geographical location, the experience of the sales representative and past professional relationships with a particular customer base. Managing sales territories can help you match customers with specific need s to a qualified member of your team.

3. Planning routes

If members of your team advertise products somewhere other than your company's office, it can help to plan their route. Route planning helps you determine how to get to an area, such as a shopping mall or series of residential houses, and can provide a direct route for sales associates in advance. Creating a route for your team can save time by optimizing the route and may reduce the chances of getting lost.

4. Sales tracking

Sales tracking allows you to keep track of various aspects of your sales team's actions by monitoring the number of sales calls your department makes, the time spent on each step in the sales process and the rate of successful purchases. Tracking your sales can help give you insights into what actions your team takes to increase sales and can help you address challenges in advance. You can keep track of your sales information manually or use sales tracking software.

5. Cold calling

Cold calling is the act of contacting a person who has no known customer history with your company and performing a sales pitch. A cold caller uses a list of phone numbers and email addresses to contact people and raise awareness of the sales product. This activity can allow you to contact a large number of people over a small period.

6. Hosting conferences

Conferences are gatherings of people in a single location that talk about recent news and strategies related to their industries. A business conference is an event for members of a singular company, while a trade conference is for multiple organizations within the same field. You or your company can host a conference to discuss sales strategies, network with similar companies or raise awareness of a new product.

7. Data capture

Data capture is the method of gathering information and converting it into a format that a computer can read. This is an important sales activity because it allows you to use computer programs to read and manage sales data, which can help you make decisions about your product or potential promotions. You can capture data from mailing lists, reward membership sign-up sheets and telephone inquiries.

8. Negotiation

Negotiation is a sales activity that allows you and a client to come to an agreement for the purchase of making a sale. You can discuss with a customer alternatives to the stated price, which can encourage a customer to purchase a product they may not have bought otherwise. Aspects of negotiation may include altering the price, adding additional features or including a different product alongside the purchased one.

9. Presentations

Presentations are speeches that a person performs about a specific business topic. You can use a presentation as a sales activity by presenting new sales strategies, product ideas or data about your sales in the previous quarter. This is a flexible activity that you can use for multiple different audience types, such as supervisors, team members and customers.

10. Cross-selling

Cross-selling is a sales strategy that advertises additional complementary products to an existing customer. When someone purchases a product, you or a team member can mention another product from your company that serves a function similar to that product. For example, if you sell a client 30 candles, you may ask them if they also want to purchase matches or an electrical candle lighter from your company.

Promotional events

Promotional events are physical events that a company hosts to build awareness for a brand, attract customers, introduce a new product or celebrate a company milestone. Sometimes promotional events include free items, entertainment or sales on your company's products. These events are usually open to the general public, which can allow you to interact with potential customers and may increase sales.

12. Sales meetings

Sales meetings are formal gatherings that you can hold to discuss current sales numbers, review your goals and develop new sales strategies. Many teams and companies hold sales meetings regularly so that they can periodically review their sales information and adjust for any challenges. You can hold a sales meeting with your team, your supervisors or other departments in your company.

13. Upselling

Upselling is a strategy you can use when a customer is about to purchase one of your products. Before they complete the order, you can offer a product with a similar function but at a higher price point. For example, if a customer at your restaurant orders a glass of your cheapest wine, you can ask them if they'd like a similar but more expensive wine instead. This can attract a client's attention to some of your high-profile items.

14. Needs analysis

Conducting a needs analysis can help you understand what your sales team or company needs to effectively meet its goals and may allow you to develop strategies to meet those needs. In a needs analysis, you gather information about your past success or challenges, state your goal for the future and use the information you gain to assess your needs for the future. You can perform a needs analysis yourself, ask a supervisor for one or hire a consultant to advise you.

15. Customer emails

Customer emails are a sales activity that allows you to contact people who already engage with your product. While similar to cold calling, sales representativesend customer emails based on information from email lists and membership programs. You can send customers emails to inform them of new products, mention any changes in the company and offer sales promotions.

16. Scheduling follow-ups

Many people like to think about products before buying and can come in contact with a sales representative several times before completing a purchase. If you suspect a person may want to buy your products in the future, you can schedule a follow-up with them. This allows you another chance to provide a sales pitch and may demonstrate to the customer that their patronage is important to you and your company.

17. Product training

Product training is a learning program that educates a team about the features and functions of a particular product. While this program can vary depending on the goals of the team and the specific product, common subjects taught during product training include unique features, how to use the product, the price compared to competitors and any new additions or updates your company plans to release. Understanding how a product works can increase your familiarity with it which may allow you to make more sales.

18. Post sales follow-ups

While sales representatives often follow up with people who don't make purchases, you can also schedule follow-up meetings for customers after they've already made a sale. During this meeting, you can ask them how they feel about the product, their experience with your company and if they have any additional questions about their purchase. This can help you assess customer satisfaction and may increase the chances of them purchasing something else from your company.

19. Payment processing

Payment processing describes how a company completes debit and credit card transactions. You can manage or expand your payment processing as a sales activity by buying more point of sale machines or finding alternative ways to accept credit and debit payments. Managing your payment processing may increase how a customer can make a purchase, which can increase overall sales.

20. Incident management

Incident management is a process used by IT or operations professionals to help manage any interruptions or unforeseen challenges in a company's digital services. Even a brief interruption can affect how many sales you can provide, so creating a system to prevent as many incidents as possible can positively impact your sales team.

21. Prototyping

A prototype is a functional replica of a product that your company intends to sell. Prototyping may help you gain insight into the production process, which can provide you with information that you can tell potential customers during the sales process. You can also use prototypes as visual aids during sales pitches so that a customer can see the physical appearance of the product and understand how it operates.

22. Solution designs

A solution design is a visual representation of a business or sales solution, including how to reduce cost, improve quality and implement the design. They can come in a variety of designs, including bar charts, timelines, interactive visualizations and flow charts. If your sales team comes across any unexpected situations, you can use a solution design to demonstrate to your supervisor how you plan to address the challenge.

23. Relationship building

Relationship building is a sales activity that increases the relationship between a customer, potential customer or community and your company. Improving a client's relationship with your brand can help create trust in the company and may result in customer loyalty or an increase in sales. You can build relationships by listening to your customers, addressing issues that they specifically talk about, interacting with social media and creating social outreach programs to build trust.

24. Margin calculations

Calculating sales margins can allow you to understand how much profit you're making and may help you create achievable sales goals. A sales margin is the amount of profit that your company gains during a specific period. You can calculate your sales margins by subtracting your costs from the total amount of revenue produced.

25. Customer research

Customer research helps you identify your customer's needs by identifying their needs, attitudes, motivations and buying behavior. If you understand what your customers need from your product, you can create advertising campaigns that focus on those needs which may increase overall sales. You can perform customer research by looking at existing sales data, sending out surveys to customers or hiring a customer research consultant.

Contact lead and knowledge management

What is Field Force Automation

Field force automation refers to the utilization of technology to automate and streamline the operations of a company’s field force. This encompasses a team of employees who operate outside of a conventional office environment, such as salespeople, technicians, service representatives, and other field-based personnel who engage with customers or clients.

FFA in a CRM typically includes features such as:

Mobile access: allowing field force team members to access and update customer information, schedule appointments, and perform other tasks while on the go.
GPS tracking: allowing managers to track the location of field force team members and monitor their activities in real time.
Schedule management: allowing field force team members to schedule and manage appointments, as well as to plan their routes and optimize their time.
Customer information management: allowing field force team members to access and update customer information, such as contact details, purchase history, and service requests.
Task management: allowing field force team members to create and manage tasks, such as service requests, and track the progress of those tasks.

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What is ecommerce automation?

Ecommerce automation is the process of using software, tools, and technology to automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and optimize various aspects of your online store. This can include everything from inventory management and order processing to marketing and ecommerce customer service.

Automating your ecommerce business offers a wealth of benefits that can significantly improve your operations. For starters, automation allows you to save precious time by handling repetitive tasks, giving your team the opportunity to focus on more strategic and creative work. This not only enhances efficiency and productivity but also ensures a more consistent and accurate customer experience by minimizing human errors.

Types of ecommerce automation

Ecommerce marketing automation
Ecommerce email automation
Ecommerce customer service automation

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Targeted marketing campaigns

The role of CRM in marketing is quite simple: it’s your inside man. Your CRM is constantly collecting valuable customer data through interactions online and with your sales team.

With this information, you’ve got the inside scoop on your target audience’s habits, behaviors, likes, dislikes, etc. You can create more targeted marketing campaigns with this data that better appeal to your ideal customer, resulting in higher conversion rates.

Rather than bombarding your leads and customers with generic ad and email campaigns that don’t have much flair to them, you can create and launch targeted campaigns that are personalized toward different segments of your audience.

Not only does this help your conversion rates, but it makes your customer feel valued. Even just personalizing an email ad with a person’s name can make the recipient feel as though you’re looking out for each of your customers. In turn, that person could give you unmatched brand loyalty that keeps your sales on the up and up.

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