Archive for the ‘GoldMine Software’ Category

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can greatly benefit an organization if it is used properly.

In this article we will list a number of benefits that CRM workflow can help bring to your organization.

CRM is now becoming the main focus of many organizations who are beginning to realize that it is much cheaper to keep a current customer and make sure that they are satisfied rather than continuously burning through customers and not focusing on efficient customer service.

One of the most under utilized (and most powerful) capabilities or any CRM system is workflow that is correctly implemented.

When workflow is properly implemented it changes your CRM from being a passive glorified rolodex into a proactive revenue generator that automates your business's best practices..

A good example of workflow is a lead nurturing campaign. Usually when a salesperson works with a prospect that is not going to be making a purchase for at least 3 to 6 months the salesperson makes that prospect a very low priority even if that is not really their intention. When this happens the prospective buyer often goes elsewhere when they are ready to make a purchase.

What if your CRM were able to send a pre-written set of communications to the prospect automatically over say the next year with the goal of the communications being to educate and move that person along in the sales cycle without requiring any direct involvement by the salesperson?

What would happen is that you would have more prospects think of your organization when they are ready to buy and studies have shown that at least 55% of prospects will make a purchase in the next 12 to 18 months.

What if you automated exactly how you wanted to treat your new clients during the first 90 days and automated the steps you were confident that they would all be done with EVERY new client?

Workflow can also be used in the customer service department to automate any open customer service incidents that have not been resolved in say 2 or 3 days.

All of this and much more is possible through the use of workflow.

The results of workflow can be increased revenue through a better follow up of leads that are not ready to buy today, a better experience for new clients and a better experience for those clients who have customer service issues therby reducing customer attrition rate with the system doing a lot of the work automatically.

CRM workflow on this level gives you a transparent view into all these processes so you can easily see any recurring patterns in your business that are causing your organization not to run as efficiently as it should..

CRM workflow can also give you extensive data reporting on your customer inquiries. For example, if there is a specific question that your customer service team repeatedly has to answer, you can cut down on your CSR cost by implementing a FAQ sheet with your product.

Customer service data reporting will also help you improve on your product by being able to provide data on any complaints. Understanding customer inquiries and being able to predict what issues you might have post-sale will also help you tailor and customize your customer service training in a more effective way. Uncovering small problems in your business can help you make decisions that can have immediate impact on the profitability in your company.

Customer relationship management software can also automate administrative tasks such as sending e-mails and status notifications. It is very important that you automate as many processes in your business as you possibly can in order to improve the productivity and profitability of your organization.

Taking the time to implement CRM work in this area will prove to be a very strategic decision.

Need help automating your best business practices into CRM workflow? We can help, for more information give us a call at 858-541-1820 or by email at info@rbdata.com

Relationship managment marketing (RMM) is a rather complex promotional approach that differs greatly from other forms of promotion that companies utilize. Some people believe that relationship management marketing is the same as customer relationship management (CRM) but although the two are closely connected, they refer to different strategies and techniques.

Relationship management marketing aims to improve customer satisfaction and to build long-lasting relationships between a corporation and its clients.  This approach is subtle, unlike the promotions that are carried out to maximize sales. Corporate website development, PR and the usage of online channels are all important parts of RMM efforts.

This form of marketing is more complex, going beyond the simple interactions that involve selling and buying goods and services.  Multiple channels can be utilized to establish relationships.  Internet and social networks in particular play an important role.

Customer relationship management solutions such as Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com and GoldMine CRM can be utilized to maximize the results of relationship building campaigns. The two aspects of the process are, however, quite different.

CRM was defined in the late 1990s.  This business process is heavily reliant on technological developments.  It is a much more encompassing marketing strategy, managing and affecting all relations between a company and its customers.

Technological innovations are used to better organize, promote and coordinate the advertising efforts of a business, regardless of the aim or the specifics of the campaign. CRM is broader and much more complex than the single marketing effort that strives building better ties with potential and current clients.

CRM has several main goals. It establishes relations with new clients. It also maintains good ties to the people who have already tried the services and products of a company.  One of CRM's important goals is to win back old clients that have decided to purchase somebody else's products. Overall, CRM strives to minimize marketing costs and to manage all processes connected to a company's relationship with its clients.

CRM can be seen as a large scale business strategy.  Marketing that focuses on relationships is a part of this strategy but its magnitude is smaller and the campaign is concentrated inside a single promotional niche.

A definition that distinguishes the two terms can easily be given. While CRM is concerned with the creation of strategies, RMM is the manner in which these business plans concerning company-customer relationship get implemented.

In today's world, CRM is of exceptional importance for every company.  The fact that it is so crucial for success has led to the development of numerous customer relationship management hi-tech solutions. All of these minimize the chance of human error and make planning, sorting and analyzing information much easier.

CRM and RM are very much connected and the two cannot exist without each other.  CRM is the set of tools and technological innovations that facilitate the strategic process. RMM on the other hand is the specific campaign, the manner in which a company strives to establish long-term relationships with its clients.

Some people use the terms CRM and RMM to refer to the same things but a major difference does exist. Each one of these is important for the successful marketing of a company but the strategic approach happens to be quite different.

For more help implementing CRM and Relationship Management Marketing strategies in your organization contact us at 858-541-1820 or by email at info@rbdata.com

If you're here, you realize very well that selection of the best customer relationship management software is critical to your business' image as well as continuity.

I'd like to give you an experience based Microsoft CRM vs Goldmine CRM review, so that you can match up the right platform with your requirements.

We'll first go over a brief overview of the CRM software provided by both Microsoft as well as Goldmine and then proceed to compare them on the basis of their utilities and what you need.

Onward…

# 1 : The Microsoft CRM Platform

With it's service intensive "Dynamnics" CRM, Microsoft has tried to segment your marketing efforts into targeted groups of your consumer base. The idea being that it's easier to stear your sales funnels to a targeted group with a common set of needs, when the same effort is accounted for the same consumers in your customer service.

Ultimately, your lists of leads and continuity customers, along with their service history and analytics, can be ported into multiple formats that will be used in different formats of sales accounts, workflows and moving sales plans (hence the name "dynamics").

These will be used by your customer service team to form important cases and feed them into your consumer knowledgebase. It also allows you to manage several contracts and updates on them, all integrated into one complex byt powerful platform!

That's a pretty strong usage strategy for a CRM, I'd say.

Microsoft CRM uses .NETAJAX technology, which makes using it comparable to using a seperate client program. Easy to use SQL data.

With experience of having worked on it in different firms, what I've seen is that people use the Microsoft CRM due to it's tight integration with Outlook, Word & Excel and the user interface. Also,firms that had their data on Exchange and SQL preferred it.

The only places where the team didn't choose Microsoft was because they avoided everything from Microsoft and it was just a general negative feeling that would often lead to many problems.

Long run Cost:

Per user – Moderate
For large lists – Moderate
For multiple service divisions – Moderate

Positives:

> Excellent Remote Access
> Intuitive interface
> MS product compatibility
> High level of customizability
> Easy extensions with the API
> Strong data structures with lower coupling

Negatives:

> Still a lot of clicking to get tasks done
> Restricted web interface

# 2 : The Goldmine CRM Software Package

This platform too focuses on list division, but the primary and stronger focus is on sales-automation and project scheduling. It's intensive. Even the calls monitored will have their own clocking module running separately with respect to project progress and consumer queries!

Though an advantage, many have found that for smaller servicing requirements, going over the entire reporting and synchronization process a number of times can, and does, get cumbersome. For bigger projects and a large number of customers for every product/service, it can work wonders.

Since this is again Windows based, some firms like to have it sitting right next to their Informix and Oracle databases. It gets easy to work with their tables when modifying them in windows with Goldmine.

Long run Cost:

Per User – Moderate to Slightly High
For Large Lists – Moderate
For multiple service divisions – High

Positives:

> Many 3rd party tools and add-ons
> Lots of features and modular orientation
> What it does it tends to do well

Negatives:

> User interface is complicated and overloaded
> Bad usability
> Not as customizable as Microsoft CRM

A FAIR COMPARISON:

With the servicing part known to you, let's compare these on a technical basis, something many people writing a Microsoft CRM vs Goldmine CRM review goof-up with bias when giving their opinion. So hang tight…

# 1 : Ease of Use

Goldmine = BAD
Microsoft = EXCELLENT

# 2 : Ability to customize

Goldmine = Moderate, can add custom fields and views
Microsoft = Excellent, as it is really a development platform that you can add custom fields, views, tables and integrate it with your other key business applications

# 3 : Interface

Goldmine = Client platform on windows and has been improved with Premium Edition
Microsoft = Web based (better networking utlization)

# 4 : Software Complexity

Goldmine = MODERATE with a somewhat convoluted data structure
Microsoft = EXCELLENT

# 5 : Training

Goldmine = Needs tough training
Microsoft = Needs less training effort as it has Office look and feel

That said, I would finally give you my ideal choice. I have used both extensively and am truly better off with the Microsoft CRM. But again, that's my experience saying.

Your performance needs and target market will ultimately dictate what you'll love.

Both solutions offer free 30 day trial version so I would suggest that you try both and see which product you prefer.

Virtually all of our clients depend on their CRM application to run their business.  Many of them make the mistake (more…)