Your small business has a potential gold mine of customer data. It is probably located in multiple disparate places within the company; such as in the sales, marketing and finance departments. As a business do you know the value of this information? Do your staff regularly update the information? Do you have the means to collect and use this vital information?
Every time your company has contact with a customer this represents an opportunity to learn more not only to ensure you provide first-class customer service but also enhance the profit gained from each customer. As a business you must take advantage of this opportunity or a competitor will.
Central collection and analysis of this vital data can help you keep ahead of your competitors but there are other benefits too such as:
- Cross-selling opportunities at lower costs
- Improved customer satisfaction and retention
- Identifying best and most profitable clients
- Enhance company marketing and sales practices
Maximising profits from your customers need not be a monumental task. Being able to pulling this information together in one place would simplify the task. However, start small and build momentum.
Review your in-house IT strategy to make sure you have the best solution possible for your business. It is possible that your current systems don’t talk to one another and are unable to provide a cohesive view of your customer. If this is the case, look in the marketplace for a solution that will enable you to start small and build that momentum; one that offers the ability to start with a customer relations management (CRM) solution and then expand into something that offers a 360O view of not only your customer but also your business.
What is key is that this data is regularly maintained and used to its full extent. With the advent of cloud solutions it is easier to enable sales people on the road to access in-house information and to add data from the road.
Adding CRM software has been said to be like adding another employee without the cost while increasing company productivity and sales. What could be better?