Customer Relationship Management

Do you know your customers’ name? The importance of identifying and segmenting your customer contacts

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Does your “contact” list have the contact name that you think it has? Are you sending product sales information to the Accounting Department contact instead of the President of the company? Do you invest marketing funds, sales efforts and any effort at all, reaching out to people who are no longer with a firm or just non-contacts for the purpose of your efforts?

Do you know who your customer really is?

Does your current customer contact software allow you to store different names of important people within your customers’ organization?

Do you know who the buyer is? The buyer is the gatekeeper to your product within your clients’ organization. Make sure you know whom she is because she can block you from ever selling to her company again.

Do you know who the user is? The user of your product or service is the one who enjoys the benefits of what you sold. Keep this person happy and you make the company happy, and you keep future sales flowing. This person can also refer new customers to you, both within and outside of their organization.

Do you know the users’ boss? The users’ boss is usually the person who approves the budget for your product or service. Also, the happiness and productivity of their employee affects their whole department.

Do you know who the accounting person is? It might be important to know the person who handles the accounts payables, don’t you think?

Is this info integrated throughout all your touch points?

In the real-time world in which we live, you need the ability to make instant decisions. If a customer service emergency escalates up to you, can you access all this information through your smart phone so you can get an instant view of your customer’s history?

Do you have everybody’s email address so you can continue to market to them?

Do you have access to all their social profiles? Many customers prefer to communicate via Twitter or Facebook. These tools can also provide valuable background information for research purposes.

Your software should integrate your customers’ information through multiple touch points. If your customer contact software doesn’t allow you to identify your customers’ names, and allow you to integrate all your touch points and their social profiles, you should consider moving the money you currently invest in advertising to managing your existing clients instead.

Tags: crm, customer relationship management
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Why Your Existing Customers Are More Important than New Customers

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

We’ve all heard the saying “it’s more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep your current customers,” or some variation of the same.

Well it’s true.

Your relationship with your existing customers is your most valued asset. Ongoing sales, repeat business, relationships, references – everything a “book of business” represents creates the value, the stability and the ongoing success that your company deserves.

So, why be haphazard about this most important part of your business life? Why continue the quest for and expense of acquiring new customers when nurturing and valuing your existing base will produce far better results?

Over the next few weeks we will be blogging about the importance of your existing customer base, and how to manage your customers better, easier, and with greater results.

So stay tuned…

Tags: current customers, references, repeast customes
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