CRM - Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle

Relationships... Money... Health..The Past...Failure..Mental and Spiritual Battles..Time Constraints...Professional pressures..

Relationships... Money... Health..The Past...Failure..Mental and Spiritual Battles..Time Constraints...Professional pressures..

At any given moment you, your clients, and employees are dealing with one or the other of these challenges in life. No one has escaped from this life untouched by problems, both big and small. No matter how people may appear on the outside, they battle with some problem that is unmanageable on the inside. The clearer this is to us the easier it is to be extrodinarily kind to others.

But if we are also suffering how is it possible to do this? It is not easy, it is a learned skill. It needs to be taught to all your employees. It must be practiced and practiced until it becomes habit. This habit needs to be policy and employees need to be encouraged daily until the habit is developed.

Customer Relationships are built on this knowledge. Why people act a certain way is always based on their level of life challenges at a given moment. This includes both employees and customers.

We cannot solve all their problems nor should we, but the fact that a person might be struggling in their personal or professional life needs to in the back of our mind whenever we deal with people.

There is nothing as memorable as a person's kindness when we are in a difficult situation.

Help your clients to solve their immediate problems (pertaining to your business!)and they will be satisfied. Give them reason to smile and they will be impressed. Do it every time they contact you and they will never leave you. Client loyalty is a reflection of the level of care they preceive they are getting from a business. This does not mean we sacrifice our profits and productivity. It means that we increase our profits and productivity. Happy employees work better and exhibit higher levels of company loyalty when dealing with customers and happy customers will return and tell their friends.

No matter what you sell or manufacture; from fertilizer to real estate, from preschools to restaurants, you are first in the business of providing solutions for people. These solutions need to include how the person feels when they walk out the door, and you must always keep that in mind.

Owner Lasting Impressions 2 - Custom Business gift baskets, greeting cards, Customer Service Tips
www.lastingimpressions2.com

Microsoft CRM Integration with Microsoft Retail Management System (RMS) overview

Microsoft Client Relation Management system (Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft RMS are both Microsoft SQL Server based applications, however historically Microsoft was purchasing industry leading software applications, such as QuickSell which is now Microsoft RMS.  So, RMS design fundamentals were minted a long time before Microsoft CRM.  But, still integration between the two is straightforward and what you need is consultant, who is familiar with both systems structures and customization scenarios

Microsoft Client Relation Management system (Microsoft CRM) and Microsoft RMS are both Microsoft SQL Server based applications, however historically Microsoft was purchasing industry leading software applications, such as QuickSell which is now Microsoft RMS.  So, RMS design fundamentals were minted a long time before Microsoft CRM.  But, still integration between the two is straightforward and what you need is consultant, who is familiar with both systems structures and customization scenarios

Microsoft CRM is currently integrated with Microsoft Great Plains and will be integrated with Microsoft Navision in the close future, RMS integration is not planned to our knowledge, so you should seek third party solutions or create your own integration.  We see the need for such the integration when you sell on account in RMS and have customer support call center automated with Microsoft CRM.  Let us give you highlights:

• Microsoft CRM custom lookup.  More likely you will nee lookup to your RMS headquarters or store records for the customer transactions from Account screen.  Microsoft CRM allows you to have custom navigation bar on Account screen by clicking on this bar you could call your custom web .Net application, which will call Microsoft RMS database and return you the grid of customer transactions
  
• RMS architecture excurse.  Microsoft RMS has Headquarters and Store databases.  The exchange between the two types of databases uses worksheet mechanism.  Most of the transaction types are initiated on the store level and transferred to the Headquarters database (with some global data exception, global customers for example are handled on HQ level and then propagated down to the stores). 
  
• Data Inquiry and Update.  The MS RMS architecture suggests you to query primarily Headquarters database and do not change data in HQ database.  If you need to change data on the store level from Microsoft CRM custom screen you should consider placing web service on the SQL Server hardware in the store to deal with the store-initiated transaction
  
• Microsoft CRM programming.  Microsoft CRM has MS CRM SDK (Software Development Kit).  This is open source tool, you can download it from Microsoft site and it is description of Microsoft CRM classes and methods with sample codes in C# and VB.Net.  Microsoft technical support encourages you to use Microsoft CRM SDK objects and discourages you from direct SQL server programming.  If you need to query MS CRM database you should create your custom database and place your objects: SQL views and stored procedures there.  Do not place custom object into MS CRM databases

Do your homework in integration and if you have issues or concerns we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients  in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

 

Customer Relationship Management System

Customer Relationship Management Systems is a tactical and strategic tool. If used correctly, this tool can forecast trends and help a company with the top and bottom lines. Today, many businesses do not look the same as they may have many years ago. They have definitely left their core competency to move onto something more profitable. The internet and information technology have made that possible.

General Motors and eBay are two companies who have reduced focus from their original purpose to reflect financing. They have both learned that keeping the customer in debt through interest bearing finance for longer periods of time is more beneficial to the business. Another example is from the best seller Good to Great. This book lists Kimberly Clark as a successful company that thrived in a dying industry. This company moved from being a supplier of coated paper to consumer goods like Huggies and Kleenex.

How did these companies transform to this kind of success? I believe it was from a keen insight into customer relationship management. Even at its primitive form, before current software availability, the astute business leaders recognized the trend in the market place. It wasn?t hard for the visionaries at places like GM, eBay and Kimberly-Clark to see the potential for huge profits. Like many explorers and adventurers, each of the CEOs and other leaders received harsh criticism and ne?er do wells from peers and medial alike. Many engrained in tradition expressed disappointment. The leaders were left with dreams, plans, execution and the true possibilities displayed in sales history, demographics, profiles, and shifts in buying trends.

This CRM uses sales force automation to expedite sales and assist the sales force, customer service and support to align sales with suppliers, and marketing management and analysis to find the market. These interact to align the business with customers? needs and meeting them more promptly at the point of sale.

With evolving technology and high tech consumers, we can expect many more companies to leave their original core competencies to ones that earn them more money with fewer costs. Much business is growing on-line. Without the proper risk of visionaries, and data used properly from CRM a company may die in its antiquity.

Jeffrey W. Bennett is the Founder and director of LayMentor Ministries. This ministry is dedicated to training church and other volunteer leaders to be more effective. Jeff speaks and writes on similar concepts taught in most MBA courses and makes it easy to adapt to all leadership levels. The volunteer drives our churches and communities and the impact can be amazing. For PowerPoint presentations of this article, visit http://www.jeffreywbennett.com/index_files/resources.htm He is also the author of the Missionary/Adventure novel Under the Lontar Palm available on line at http://www.jeffreywbennett.com or in major and online bookstores.

The Reality About Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

While Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology has promised much, the reality for many has been disappointing. Industry analysts estimate 50-60% of implementations fail, or produce marginal return on investment. Our exposure to small and medium enterprises (SME) suggests that this rate may well be significantly higher. The irony is that the problem lies less with the technology itself (though that may receive much of the blame), but in much more easily addressed flaws in the way that organizations approach and implement CRM projects.

CRM technology should help organizations generate more leads, convert a higher

proportion of them, and retain customers longer through enhanced service, and more profitably through the more effective promotion of additional products and services.

CRM technology is a unifying technology supporting the operational needs of ?front-office? departments such as sales, marketing, and customer support, sharing a single database of information about customers, prospective customers, channel partners, suppliers, competitors etc. The CRM database works as a central repository of data typically integrated into other key systems such as finance. The system is designed to be accessed remotely to meet the needs of organizations spread across multiple locations, and staff who may not be office based. Typically this unifying CRM technology aims to benefit marketing, sales and service departments.

Successful CRM isn?t that difficult, but there?s more complexity involved, and more commitment required than many organizations had envisaged. With greater levels of planning, executive support, and awareness of the challenges surrounding user adoption, organizations can effectively drive CRM technology to deliver the promised vision. With so many struggling to get it right, the rewards for those that do will remain very high.

In summary, CRM technology should help organizations generate more leads, convert a higher proportion of them, and retain customers longer through enhanced service, and more profitably through the more effective promotion of additional products and services. Our ?Vision and Reality? white paper sets out our views on why this has happened, and outlines strategies for minimizing the risks and maximizing the returns from CRM.

Read more about why the current approach to CRM - Customer Relationship Management is marginalizing returns on investment and why you should work with an independent CRM consultant at http://www.mareeba.co.uk

Improving Your Customer Relationship Management With Blogging Technology

Before I address the following questions: What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?, let me pose a few "What if . . ." questions to you.

Keeping in mind that before your prospects and customers buy from you, they need to know you, like you, and trust you. In other words, they need to know, whether overtly or covertly, that they have a trusting and ongoing relationship with you. What better way to accomplish for them to get to know you, trust you, and like you than with a blog?

Now, here are my "What if . . ." questions:

* What if less than two minutes after creating and publishing your blog, it were to be promoted to thousands of prospects without any extra effort or cost on your part?

* What if your blog gave you immediate access to hundreds of international prospects?

* What if you had immediate access to hundreds of prospects in your city, state, or country who had interests and hobbies similar to yours?

* What if every time someone clicks on a hyperlinked keyword in your Profile that describes your hobbies, occupation, industry, favorite books, movies, music, or artist, your blog pops up?

* What if every time you left a comment on someone elses blog, you could leave a hyperlink to your website, blog, or email? (a mini no-cost commercial!)

* What if whenever someone enters your name or business name (completely or partially) into a major search engine, your website or blog pops up in their search results?

* What if every time you post content on your blog, it would bypass the spam filters and instantaneously appear on your subscribers desktop without any extra effort or cost on your part? (- an excellent opportunity to get your sales, special messages, or time-sensitive announcements into their hands, or actually in front of their eyes!)

* What if your satisfied customers had the opportunity to place their self-generated testimonies on your blog? (Although some will take the initiative to do so, others might need encouragement. That's all right. Just make an incentive opportunity of it! Offer some incentive for their efforts.)

By now you should be beginning to see the powerful marketing potential a blog offers you. These are just some of the powerful customer relationship management features a blog offers you.

But wait! There's yet more!

* What if you were to combine these powerful features with other online and offline efforts such as a blogathon, teleseminar, webinar, online articles, and others?

* What if doing so would enhance your customer relationship management?

* What if doing so would decrease returns and refunds?

* What if doing so would increase sales?

Think about it! I realize that successful marketing and sales are still high-touch entities; however, I also realize that when you combine your high-tech efforts with your high-touch efforts, you're bound to be successful!!!

Now to answer the original questions, What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?:

A blog, short of web log, is an interactive web-based journal that encourages participation from viewers. It looks like and does everything a website does and more! A blog serves as an excellent supplement to your website and other marketing efforts. Entries, called posts, are published by date on the page according to your predetermined quantity and are archived in the margin according to your predetermined frequency.

A blog offers your business countless marketing options. Specifically, a blog:

* gives viewers, prospects, customers, and subscribers who might have had difficulty in the past immediate access to you.

* helps to reduce your time spend distributing emails and other messages.

* improves your content delivery rates by 100%.

* improves your search engine rankings.

* publishes constantly fresh content.

* bypasses spam filters completely.

* improves your online visibility.

* enhances your web presence.

* generates more visitors.

and more . . .

So, if you don't already have a blog, I only have one question for you: What are you waiting for? !?

Don't let this cutting-edge technology, this powerful marketing tool, pass you by. Online companies are popping up all over the internet offering you free blogs. My recommendation is that you grab one, or two or more! Most, if not all, are extremely easy to create, but may be time-consuming, according to your already hectic schedule, to maintain.

If that's the case in your situation, you might want to call in outside help. Consider the high school computer techie next door, or the college-age computer-major son or daughter of a friend who could always use a few extra bucks.

I leave you with this wish: May you always be successful in looking for and using new and creative ways to maximize your earning potential.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, we all win! When you don't, we all lose.
Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, and workshops, and writes articles about helping you maximize your potential for individuals, schools, small businesses, non-profit organizations. Reach him at http://www.MasterBlogBuilder.com.

How to Build Great Customer Relationships Via Phone

Business is about creating and maintaining customer relationships.
But what is a relationship? It means communication. If you ask
people in a work setting, "What would improve work, profits and
customer service the most where you work?" the answer is almost
always "Better communication!" Communication plays a vital part
in success or failure of any business.

But what communication tool is used most frequently in the world?
Internet, e-mail, TV, radio? Definitely not! The most essential
communication tool is a phone and hardly any business works
without a phone. And whenever you are in contact with people by
a phone regarding your business, it is also a representation of
your business.

Sounds good, huh? But the important question occurs,
"What is the effective way to improve communication via a phone?"
The computer-based answer (I am a programmer, not a psychologist)
is personalization of your customer with call center.

Learn Something New about Your Customer Constantly.
A successful marketing campaign starts with a keen understanding
of your customers. When you are curious (not snoopy!) about the
people who call you, you are giving them respect. People love to
be respected! Find out how their family is doing, or more about
their favor hobby. If you know your customers more personally
than employees of your competitor know their customers, it's
easier to delight them.

Build a Customer Database.
A centralized database is essential to delivering a unified view
of customers and contacts. That is goal number one. Create a
personal data warehouse about your customers on your PC. Keep
track of your contacts made with customers via a phone. If you
know when your customers called and what information they
searched for or how many times they've called about a particular
product, that lets you track customer behavior. If you know this,
you can respond to your customers effectively and efficiently.

Transmute Your Computer and Phone into Call Center.
Have you ever heard about call center?
I suppose you automatically think that it is something extra
expensive and complicated. And it is just for the "big boys"
like Sony, SAP, Dell and other Fortune 100 companies. But what
is a call center (I prefer the term "contact center")? As a rule
this service includes contact management tools, telephony
integration and tools personalizing every customer interaction.
Great! You have the same: a phone, a customer database and
contact manager software (see below). What hinders you to make
your own small contact center right now, which is increasingly
at the heart of your company's day-to-day interface with its
customers. By recording and analyzing the calls and other
interactions between your contact center and its' customers you
can listen to and act on customer feedback to improve you skills
and business processes, leading to improved customer service -
and hence customer loyalty.

Discovering Value Hidden in Your Data.
Effective customer experience management solutions must capture,
store and replay all live interactions between the customer and
your contact center. Capturing this live information and
embedding it within your customer database gives you the
opportunity to share the information collected in the contact
center with other parts of your business. If you fail to do this
you are missing out on a big opportunity to make every profitable
customer feel that you care about them personally and help
establish a new business relationship with them.

Finding the Right Software.
What difficulties are in selection of the right software for your
small business call center?
The biggest one is chaos. Obtaining a complete understanding of a
company's customer requires the ability to store and manage a
myriad of different information from a variety of sources. In
addition your demands to kept data level can be varied from day
to day. Yesterday you were satisfied if your customer database
stored their names, phone numbers, addresses, birthdays. Today's
demand is to keep customers' emails, webs, credit cards. Tomorrow
you maybe wish to store in the database data about customers' cars,
their favorite colors or birthday of their grandmothers.
But as a rule similar contact management software have only
strictly fixed (structured) numbers of fields in their databases.
If your selected computer application is too small and simple it
will not be enough for you. Or these data fields will not be used
completely if an application is too big and complicated
(and expensive!).

iReferent - Aim to End Result.
iReferent is an contact solution for small and home business that
decide the foregoing problems. It provides a strong feature set
that stands up well against other similar programs on the market.
However, iReferent's real achievement is its unique database
structure: at any time you can input into the database any (!)
number of the description fields, from name of your customers to
their car marks. But for all that you might fill only those
specific fields in every record, which are really necessary. Also
this contact manager gives you the opportunity to keep the detail
phone call history.

Want to know more? Visit our web site at
http://www.sitex.com.ua/en/products/iReferent or contact me via
e-mail to sergkruts@yahoo.com.
You can also download your personal Call Center from here
http://sitex.com.ua/download/CallCenter_e.zip
(file size is 981 Kb, 30 days free trial) and estimate it
yourself.
But what is a relationship? It means communication. If you ask
people in a work setting, "What would improve work, profits and
customer service the most where you work?" the answer is almost
always "Better communication!" Communication plays a vital part
in success or failure of any business.

But what communication tool is used most frequently in the world?
Internet, e-mail, TV, radio? Definitely not! The most essential
communication tool is a phone and hardly any business works
without a phone. And whenever you are in contact with people by
a phone regarding your business, it is also a representation of
your business.

Sounds good, huh? But the important question occurs,
"What is the effective way to improve communication via a phone?"
The computer-based answer (I am a programmer, not a psychologist)
is personalization of your customer with call center.

Learn Something New about Your Customer Constantly.
A successful marketing campaign starts with a keen understanding
of your customers. When you are curious (not snoopy!) about the
people who call you, you are giving them respect. People love to
be respected! Find out how their family is doing, or more about
their favor hobby. If you know your customers more personally
than employees of your competitor know their customers, it's
easier to delight them.

Build a Customer Database.
A centralized database is essential to delivering a unified view
of customers and contacts. That is goal number one. Create a
personal data warehouse about your customers on your PC. Keep
track of your contacts made with customers via a phone. If you
know when your customers called and what information they
searched for or how many times they've called about a particular
product, that lets you track customer behavior. If you know this,
you can respond to your customers effectively and efficiently.

Transmute Your Computer and Phone into Call Center.
Have you ever heard about call center?
I suppose you automatically think that it is something extra
expensive and complicated. And it is just for the "big boys"
like Sony, SAP, Dell and other Fortune 100 companies. But what
is a call center (I prefer the term "contact center")? As a rule
this service includes contact management tools, telephony
integration and tools personalizing every customer interaction.
Great! You have the same: a phone, a customer database and
contact manager software (see below). What hinders you to make
your own small contact center right now, which is increasingly
at the heart of your company's day-to-day interface with its
customers. By recording and analyzing the calls and other
interactions between your contact center and its' customers you
can listen to and act on customer feedback to improve you skills
and business processes, leading to improved customer service -
and hence customer loyalty.

Discovering Value Hidden in Your Data.
Effective customer experience management solutions must capture,
store and replay all live interactions between the customer and
your contact center. Capturing this live information and
embedding it within your customer database gives you the
opportunity to share the information collected in the contact
center with other parts of your business. If you fail to do this
you are missing out on a big opportunity to make every profitable
customer feel that you care about them personally and help
establish a new business relationship with them.

Finding the Right Software.
What difficulties are in selection of the right software for your
small business call center?
The biggest one is chaos. Obtaining a complete understanding of a
company's customer requires the ability to store and manage a
myriad of different information from a variety of sources. In
addition your demands to kept data level can be varied from day
to day. Yesterday you were satisfied if your customer database
stored their names, phone numbers, addresses, birthdays. Today's
demand is to keep customers' emails, webs, credit cards. Tomorrow
you maybe wish to store in the database data about customers' cars,
their favorite colors or birthday of their grandmothers.
But as a rule similar contact management software have only
strictly fixed (structured) numbers of fields in their databases.
If your selected computer application is too small and simple it
will not be enough for you. Or these data fields will not be used
completely if an application is too big and complicated
(and expensive!).

iReferent - Aim to End Result.
iReferent is an contact solution for small and home business that
decide the foregoing problems. It provides a strong feature set
that stands up well against other similar programs on the market.
However, iReferent's real achievement is its unique database
structure: at any time you can input into the database any (!)
number of the description fields, from name of your customers to
their car marks. But for all that you might fill only those
specific fields in every record, which are really necessary. Also
this contact manager gives you the opportunity to keep the detail
phone call history.

Want to know more? Visit our web site at
http://www.sitex.com.ua/en/products/iReferent or contact me via
e-mail to sergkruts@yahoo.com.
You can also download your personal Call Center from here
http://sitex.com.ua/download/CallCenter_e.zip
(file size is 981 Kb, 30 days free trial) and estimate it
yourself.

 

Improving Your Sales Force's Effectiveness Through Automation

 

Many smaller businesses have advanced beyond back office automation using PCs and client-server IS platforms. More owners are looking at advanced sales automation software as a way of improving the productivity of their sales force as well as customer satisfaction. Salespeople are often more resistant to using PCs compared with those working in finance, logistics, materials management and other functions. Thus, business owners need to sell the benefits of automation to both their sales managers and reps. Sales has long been considered more of an art than a science, which explains part of the resistance. Also, some businesses find themselves with older reps who, though they have critical industry knowledge, did not grow up with computers. You could just load up each rep with a laptop and all the accoutrements:
? sales management software, including automated fax and e-mail capabilities
? groupware for proposal and contact information sharing
? templates for contact reports and follow-up letters
? product, price and delivery information that can be called up via an intranet link.
Why not let them discover the value for themselves? There's a good reason: Throwing sales automation software at the reps is no guarantee it will be used. Sales automation software has been growing of late, with close to $300 million a year in revenues. There's a reason: improved functionality and user-friendly features geared to what the reps consider their priority needs are the reasons behind the recent spurt in sales. Before pushing sales automation on your reps and territory managers, conduct an audit within the company. Here are some key steps to take:
? Ask your reps what they consider to be their three priority tasks in the field. Ask for their recommendations on how to improve their productivity. For example, which tasks are taking longer than they would like, or what are the bottlenecks they face in getting prompt and accurate information to prospective as well as current customers.
? Involve all of your key functional managers in a discussion of the order management and order fulfillment processes. Although sales force automation can begin with discrete tools such as contact management software, your business may really need a more integrated and more robust information systems architecture that will improve the entire order-to-delivery process chain in the company.
? Decide whether you should try to improve sales productivity as a single function or carry out a more extensive overhaul of your business' IS platform.
? When you survey vendor offerings, involve end-users in the discussion and trial testing of the software. Many off-the-shelf products allow sufficient customization for your needs. Some of the tools have more open-ended integration capabilities with other IS tools, and it is important to know how much integration is possible. You want to avoid investing in another legacy system that could end up walling sales off from other business functions. Finally, even when software tools and other IS enhancements are the right solution for boosting sales productivity and customer satisfaction, that is no guarantee you will get buy-in from the sales force. You need to motivate use and experimentation. Besides involving end-users in the discussion and evaluation of software choices before you commit to a vendor, there are three other steps you can take to assure that your reps accept the new system: 1. Assure the sales force that the time required for getting up to speed on the software will not reduce their income if they fail to make their sales numbers at the customary level. However, set a fixed period of time for the conversion to the new system. 2. Monitor the productivity payoff among the committed users, with before and after comparisons of their sales productivity. Productivity measures should not just focus on goods or services sold but include discrete task productivity, at least initially. For example, the time it takes to get letters written, or get correct pricing information out to customers. Then, communicate the benefits throughout the sales organization. 3. Go with a software vendor or systems integrator that will stay on board well beyond the installation to provide additional customization of the tool and training if needed.

Ph.D. and MA, Kent State University Kent ,Ohio BA, Eureka College, with honors Eureka, IL. Training Programs Quality Analysis and Quality Training, 2000-2004.

Dr. James A. McCain is a Management Consultant in Rexford, New York and may be reached at Business Works, 518-383-3337, or through his web site at http://www.bizdrsolution.com