Posts Tagged ‘CRM’

Until about a year ago, IES had been managing most parts of its operations via Excel spreadsheets, Cichelli says, and as a small business with a desire to turn around service jobs on time and improve customer satisfaction, they knew that simply tracking customers and prospect data online wasn't going to be enough to justify a CRM investment.

IES needed to improve its overall customer experience, and as the company's operations manager, Cicchelli knew that a better customer experience meant going beyond sales and marketing to track the performance of service jobs from start to finish, bringing in departments and steps behind the scenes that run the risk of falling through the cracks, leading to unexpected delays and dissatisfied customers.

IES needed more than CRM – they needed a solution that could boost their performance along the full range of operations, from quoting new business to gathering customer information, tracking orders from suppliers, tracking service jobs, and managing customer service communication.

For IES, a Dynamics CRM solution that could model the tasks of various departments as well as generate alerts for Cicchelli based on key performance indicators opened up a new world of operational efficiency. As Cichelli explains, he already knew the amount of time various parts of a customer job should take under normal circumstances, but tracking those things without a central system was nearly impossible before.

Things can go wrong in so many ways and for lots of reasons, and Cichelli says that having a tangible list of alerts for the tasks makes a world of difference.

"Alerts have definitely been worth getting and asking for" in his CRM solution, he says. IES worked with Hero Technical Solutions, a Dynamics CRM partner based in Hamilton, who developed the cross-department approach for IES. "I think it is one of those things where if I get an email and read it on my Blackberry, then by the time I get back to the office I may forget. These alerts are forcing me to keep updated on these jobs. It's increased tenfold how we've been able to improve customer service. "

Dynamics CRM creates alerts created automatically when a task slips past its allotted time, and they show up in Cicchelli's management dashboard in a list that categorizes items into critical, high, medium and low severity. Once an alert is in the system, it's Ciccelli's job to investigate the root cause, make sure his team is taking any corrective steps – including alerting the customer if needed – and remove the alert at the right time.

Every department in the 18 person company is now hooked into CRM in some way, usually with the department heads managing their teams' responsibilities like job tracking, billing, and order management.

"CRM is the hub of our business now," says Cicchelli. "We depend greatly on it. [For example,] when a part is ordered it is put into CRM – even prices paid for items."

Cicchelli sees several ways IES could improve on its CRM investment if they can find the budget, starting with getting more users hooked into the existing process. From a competitive angle, he also sees an opportunity to create some type of customer access to their jobs – perhaps with a portal solution – to boost their engagement and visibility into jobs.

Getting new customers is essential for any business. However, when you have the ability to effectively retain your customers, you reduce your customer acquisition costs and your business becomes an effective presence in the marketplace.

Once a customer is obtained, every effort should be made in order to maximize a solid relationship with them which will inevitably turn into consistent and qualified leads via referrals from your current clients.  CRM software gives you the ability to analyze, understand and correctly profile your customers which eliminates any guesswork in your endeavors.

CRM software can help you meet this objective by aiding in the interaction between a business and their customers on a more efficient and personal level.

Prior to installing your customer management software or client management software, it is highly recommended that you clearly define your goals and have a solid plan of action in place.

By preparing beforehand and making a list of the areas in your business that you want to improve, it will be easy to see the difference that CRM software can make in the productivity of your business processes.

By thoroughly understanding your customer's demographics you can easily create a sales process that is geared towards targeting your most profitable customers.  Having the ability to analyze and determine where a majority of your income originates can help you easily expand your business reach and make your business process more effective.  In fact, many companies spend far too much money trying to understand their customers when a CRM can help them perform this market research at a fraction of the cost.

Once you understand and profile your customers, you can now easily communicate and forge a solid trust based relationship by improving your communication.  Customer service is the lifeblood of any service-based business and by enhancing your ability to communicate with your current clients and target audience, your efforts will prove to be that much more successful while giving you time to concentrate on other growth factors in your Corporation.

CRM software can also help make your daily processes easier to manage which is essential for any finely tuned company.

Before you decide to invest in customer management software or client management software, it is highly recommended to investigate the best crm software that is available on the market.  Some of the most popular brands are Microsoft CRM, Goldmine CRM, and Salesforce.com.

Each of these solutions have their strengths and weaknesses and it is important for you to find the best crm software for your organization.

These CRM's have proven to help corporations enhance their customer management time and again.

Remember, customer acquisition is one thing, but making sure that your customers are happy and will refer your business to their colleagues and future business partners sets the growth rate for your Corporation heads and shoulders above companies who do not focus on their customers once they have attained them.

If your company is almost 100% sales driven, then having a CRM that can help you in the backend with retention is literally worth its weight in gold.

If you need help identifying and implementing your customer manaement strategies we can help.  To learn more, give us a call at 858-541-1820 or send us an 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

Microsoft announced the release of their "November 2011 Service Update" for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and CRM 2011 on-premise/partner-hosted deployments.

Microsoft is stressing the release of "Wave 1" of its new work on social features of the new release, including activity feeds, a new mobile activity feeds client, microblogging, and conversations.

The service update also includes a new unified platform between Dynamics CRM Online and Office 365 which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online, as well as access to Office web applications and, optionally, user licenses for Microsoft Office on the desktop. 

To see a video that goes into the new enhancements, click

Last month, we talked about CRM Business Intelligence and since there was so much interest in that topic, let's go a bit deeper.

So many companies do a great job of capturing information in their Microsoft CRM system but are awful at being able to use that information to make better decisions faster.

What about you?

Are you quickly able to quickly segment your data base to execute a new marketing campaign so that it is targetted just those customers who have purchased a certain product in the last 18 months?

Are you able to identify the characteristics of your most profitable customers such as

* SIC Code
* Zipcode
* Company Size
* Position of purchaser
* Is company in growth mode or decline

* Etc

so that you can intelligently purchase a new list of prospects?

Do you know what the average lifetime value of a customer is along with the margin rate?

Do you understand the behavior of a customer who is growing discontent with your product or service BEFORE they stop being a customer?

If you use your website to either conduct sales or generate leads do you know things like:

* How many unique website visitors it takes to generate a lead
* How many leads it takes to set an appointment
* How many appointments it takes to generate a sale?

The point is to be able to successfully grow your business you must know your numbers (commonly called metrics).  If you do, then you are in a position to make better decisions faster.

To help you get started, we are offering you a free 60 minute Business Intelligence Quickstart consultation.  This offer is valued at $250, is limited to the first 8 companies that request it and expires on July 8, 2011.  Sorry, but this offer is limited to US based companies who have over 25 employees.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please contact us at 858-431-1820 or by email at info@rbdata.com and we will set up a mutually convenient time for your free Business Intelligence Quickstart consulation.

According to this Gartner Report, software as a service (SaaS) drives customer relationship management (CRM) market growth despite leaner budgets, while the competitive environment intensifies. Worldwide SaaS revenue within the enterprise application software market reached $9.2 billion in 2010, up 15.7 percent from 2009 revenue of $7.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.  

The market is projected for stronger growth in 2011 with worldwide SaaS revenue totaling $10.7 billion, a 16.2 percent increase from 2010 revenue.

Putting your Microsoft Dynamics CRM "in the cloud" may just be the answer for your business. Download this PDF

to learn more about adopting the cloud with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Efficiency. Seems simple enough right? If you look up the definition you may get 3 different explanations:

    1.       The state or quality of being efficient.

    2.       Accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.

    3.       Effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost (as in energy, time, and money.)

The ratio of the useful energy delivered by a dynamic system to the energy supplied to it.

Does it still seem simple enough?
    

Perhaps not, but it is a word that we hear every day in our businesses and impress upon our employees that they need to be efficient. 

How do you know if you are efficient within your company?

If you think you are efficient because your revenue is good, you may be mistaken.  It's definitely a benefit if you have good revenue, but you may still have inefficiencies which are hindering an even larger revenue potential. 

If you are struggling to hit your revenue goals, then this is a telltale sign that you can be more efficient in your operations.
 

As a business operates we need to look at our efficiencies on a daily basis to measure our successes.

Take some time to review your current software, reports, processes, cross-department communications and workflows to see if they still make sense in your business.  You may quickly find out where you can redefine your business to become more efficient.

For more information on how RB Data Services can make your  organization more efficient, contact us today at
858-541-1820 or at info@rbdata.com. 

The recent release of Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 for On-Premise installations complements the latest version of the online customer relationship management (CRM) version as a powerful successor in the Microsoft Dynamics® CRM platform. The new versions have been designed together to provide a seamless experience for users regardless of how it is deployed. 

With new software releases there are always two questions that can cause concern within an organization: 1. “How will I be able to grow with this platform?” and 2. “How easily will the end users adapt to the new interface?” Here are the answers to help alleviate those concerns:

1.     Scalability is always a concern and this version delivers the ability to have up to 150,000 concurrent users on a single instance while still delivering response times of less than a second.  This just goes to show just how well designed this solution is!

2.       Ease of use is achieved through a familiar Microsoft Outlook like interface, guided dialog, and point and click configuration through the web interface. End users can easily customize dashboards and personalize the interface to provide the information that is relevant to the decisions they need to make.

Read the full press release from Microsoft for more information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Contact us today at 888-685-6370 (toll free) or at info@rbdata.com  to discuss how we can design a solution around this powerful new platform that will help your business experience the Power of Productivity.

The challenges healthcare providers endure on a daily basis are overwhelming. Many of you are dealing with outdated and unconnected technology that greatly limits the amount of proactive care you can provide. 

You may have heard of Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, but it is commonly thought of as a solution for customer service. After all, CRM does stand for "customer relationship management". With that said the same scenarios apply to patient relationship management and Microsoft Dynamics CRM can and does alleviate the pains of the healthcare industry as well. Here are a few ways it helps to increase your patient satisfaction:

You can coordinate delivery of patient care throughout the organization with easy access to all patient records.

You can develop more efficient and effective case management.You can increase time spent on patient-focused activities.  

You can increase time spent on patient-focused activities.

You can deliver better coordinated outreach and educational activities that target specific communities or populations.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives you better insight into your patient records, making it possible to take that proactive approach you've always wanted. Download this informative healthcare whitepaper to learn more: Patient Relationship Management: An Approach that Improves Patient Satisfaction and Health.