| CRM, Customer Relationship
Management, and more particularly the
technologies involved in delivering it has
caused more confusion than any other
technology that has been available in the
market for so long. Survey after survey
shows that for the majority of
companies, the awareness of the
technology exists but the confusion
persists as to how precisely it benefits
the user and his or her customer.
But the truth is that the benefits of these solutions are not
hard to understand and reasonably easy to realise. Indeed
those that have worked with a successful CRM installation
are usually converts that find it very difficult to work without
one when moving to another company and are keen to
bring a solution with them. So what is it that they are so
keen to take with them?
This short guide is intended to explain the jargon-free
business benefits that a modest investment in CRM will
bring. And we use the term CRM to describe an umbrella
of tools, techniques and technologies that deal with the
interactions of a company and its customers and how
these interactions are dealt with internally.
The systems available for the smallest company to the
largest are now extremely good, robust, and mature if
delivered by the right people with the right skills and with
the correct level of engagement by the purchasing
company. It is important to point out that not all CRM
systems will contain all of the following features; depending
on which elements are most important to your situation it is
important to engage with a vendor or partner company to
get the right system and deploy it the right way.
Sage CRM Can Help Your Company to:
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Work as a Team - The first benefit that many companies realise is the level of coordination
that introducing a universal customer management system
affords. For managers there is a view of the activity of their whole
group and the ability to drill into the activities of teams and individuals.
For those individuals there is the ability to view the activities of
colleagues.
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Putting a Structure on the Working World - CRM offers the opportunity to bring a common workflow and order of
activity to bear. This does not have to stifle the individual but it does
bring a structure. So, for example, one might build in a six-stage sales
process and enforce rules that have to be complied with in order to
progress a sales opportunity.
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Improving an Individual’s Productivity - A new system is only useful if there are perceived benefits for the
individual actually using it. The opposite is also true. A system
introduced by diktat where the perception is that this is only useful for
collective benefits but actually adds a bureaucratic layer for the
individual will fail.
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