Types/variations
[edit] Sales Force Automation
As its name implies, a sales force automation (SFA) system provides an array of capabilities to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that reps need to spend on manual data entry and administration. This allows them to successfully pursue more customers in a shorter amount of time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective customer, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include features for opportunity management, territory management, sales forecasting and pipeline, workflow automation, quote generation, and product knowledge. Newly-emerged priorities are modules for Web 2.0 e-commerce and pricing management.[1]
[edit] Marketing
Systems for marketing (also known as marketing automation) help the enterprise identify and target its best customers and generate qualified leads for the sales team.[4] A key marketing capability is managing and measuring multichannel campaigns, including email, search, social media, and direct mail. Metrics monitored include clicks, responses, leads, deals, and revenue. Marketing automation also encompasses capabilities for managing customer loyalty, lists, collateral, and internal marketing resources.
As marketing departments are increasingly obliged to demonstrate revenue impact, today’s systems typically include performance management features for measuring the ROI of campaigns.[1]
[edit] Customer Service and Support
Recognizing that customer service is an important differentiator, organizations are increasingly turning to technology platforms to help them improve their customers’ experience while increasing efficiency and keeping a lid on costs.[5] Even so, a 2009 study revealed that only 39% of corporate executives believe their employees have the right tools and authority to solve customer problems.“.[6]
The core for customer service has been and still is comprehensive call center management, including such features as intelligent call routing, computer telephone integration (CTI), and escalation capabilities. More recently, e-service capabilities—Web self-service, knowledge management, email response management, Web chat, collaborative browsing and virtual assistants—are gaining in importance.[1] In fact, today’s profusion of customer service channels has prompted many companies to deploy integrated support applications that deliver knowledge-enabled solutions across all of them.
Another key trend is the increasing popularity of SaaS platforms for customer service, owing to their rapid deployment, low initial cost, and now-established efficacy for large and complex contact centers.[1]
[edit] Analytics
Relevant analytics capabilities are often interwoven into applications for sales, marketing, and customer service. These features can be complemented and augmented with links to separate, purpose-built applications for analytics and business intelligence.
Sales analytics let companies monitor and understand customer actions and preferences, through sales forecasting, data quality management, and dashboards that graphically display key performance indicators (KPIs).
Marketing applications generally come with predictive analytics to improve customer segmentation and targeting, and features for measuring the effectiveness of online, offline, and search marketing campaign[1] Web analytics have evolved significantly from their starting point of merely tracking mouse clicks on Web sites. By evaluating customer “buy signals,” marketers can see which prospects are most likely to transact and also identify those who are bogged down in a sales process and need assistance.[5] Marketing and finance personnel also use analytics to assess the value of multi-faceted programs as a whole.
Customer service analytics are increasing in popularity as companies demand greater visibility into the performance of call centers and other support channels,[5] in order to correct problems before they affect customer satisfaction levels. Support-focused applications typically include dashboards similar to those for sales, plus capabilities to measure and analyze response times, service quality, agent performance, and the frequency of various customer issues.
[edit] Integrated/Collaborative
Departments within enterprises—especially large enterprises—tend to function in their own little worlds.[7] Traditionally, inter-departmental interaction and collaboration have been infrequent and rivalries not uncommon.
More recently, the development and adoption of the tools and services has fostered greater fluidity and cooperation among sales, customer service, and marketing. This finds expression in the concept of collaborative customer relationship management, which uses technology to build bridges between departments. The objective is sharing and harnessing information from all quarters to improve the quality of customer service, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty[7] as a result.
For example, feedback from a technical support center can enlighten marketers about specific services and product features customers are asking for. Similarly, demand generation strategies need to marry marketing programs with structured sales processes[citation needed] —that is, campaign-engendered leads must be quickly and efficiently funneled to sales. Reps, in their turn, want to be able to pursue these opportunities without the time-wasting burden of re-entering records and contact data into a separate SFA system. Conversely, lack of integration can have negative consequences: If a sales force automation or customer relationship management system isn’t adopted and integrated among all departments, several sources might contact the same customers for an identical purpose.[citation needed]
Owing to these and related factors, many of the top-rated and most popular products come as integrated suites.
Despite all this, many companies are still not fully leveraging these tools and services to align marketing, sales, and service to best serve the enterprise and its customers.[8] Often, implementations are fragmented; isolated initiatives by individual departments to address their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: Siloed thinking and decision processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, an incomplete customer view, and dysfunctional processes.
Saturday
CRM's Benefits
Benefits
Customer relationship management tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:[3]
Streamlined sales and marketing processes
Higher sales productivity
Added cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Improved customer service, loyalty, and retention
Increased call center efficiency
Higher close rates
Better customer profiling and targeting
Reduced expenses
Increased market share
Higher overall profitability
Marginal costing
[edit] Challenges
Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. While some companies report great success, initiatives have also been known to fail—mainly owing to poor planning, a mismatch between software tools and company needs, roadblocks to collaboration between departments, and a lack of workforce buy-in and adoption.[citation needed]
Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications with customers. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking and the management of accounts, territories, opportunities, and—at the managerial level—the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other customer-facing business functions, as described below.
Customer relationship management technology has been, and still is, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with conventional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; neither must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on. In 2009, SaaS represented approximately 20% of all customer relationship management spending, and continues its trajectory of outselling on-premises software by a ratio of 3-to-1.[1]
[edit] Types/variations
[edit] Sales Force Automation
As its name implies, a sales force automation (SFA) system provides an array of capabilities to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that reps need to spend on manual data entry and administration. This allows them to successfully pursue more customers in a shorter amount of time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective customer, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include features for opportunity management, territory management, sales forecasting and pipeline, workflow automation, quote generation, and product knowledge. Newly-emerged priorities are modules for Web 2.0 e-commerce and pricing management.[1]
Customer relationship management tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:[3]
Streamlined sales and marketing processes
Higher sales productivity
Added cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
Improved customer service, loyalty, and retention
Increased call center efficiency
Higher close rates
Better customer profiling and targeting
Reduced expenses
Increased market share
Higher overall profitability
Marginal costing
[edit] Challenges
Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. While some companies report great success, initiatives have also been known to fail—mainly owing to poor planning, a mismatch between software tools and company needs, roadblocks to collaboration between departments, and a lack of workforce buy-in and adoption.[citation needed]
Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications with customers. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking and the management of accounts, territories, opportunities, and—at the managerial level—the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other customer-facing business functions, as described below.
Customer relationship management technology has been, and still is, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Perhaps the most notable trend has been the growth of tools delivered via the Web, also known as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). In contrast with conventional on-premises software, cloud-computing applications are sold by subscription, accessed via a secure Internet connection, and displayed on a Web browser. Companies don’t incur the initial capital expense of purchasing software; neither must they buy and maintain IT hardware to run it on. In 2009, SaaS represented approximately 20% of all customer relationship management spending, and continues its trajectory of outselling on-premises software by a ratio of 3-to-1.[1]
[edit] Types/variations
[edit] Sales Force Automation
As its name implies, a sales force automation (SFA) system provides an array of capabilities to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that reps need to spend on manual data entry and administration. This allows them to successfully pursue more customers in a shorter amount of time than would otherwise be possible. At the heart of SFA is a contact management system for tracking and recording every stage in the sales process for each prospective customer, from initial contact to final disposition. Many SFA applications also include features for opportunity management, territory management, sales forecasting and pipeline, workflow automation, quote generation, and product knowledge. Newly-emerged priorities are modules for Web 2.0 e-commerce and pricing management.[1]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
