My company has about 600 active clients using customer relationship management (CRM) systems and generally, they fall into three categories. About 20% of them use it no more than a glorified rolodex. 60% of them use it mostly for contact management. And the remaining 20% really take advantage of the advanced sales, marketing and service features and use their systems well. The good news is that all of them get value from their systems (albeit some get more value than others) mainly because they’re all, at the very least, taking advantage of a few key features that we work hard to train them on.
1 – Lists and views.
A CRM system is nothing more than a database. And nowadays, that database is more than likely in the cloud. So instead of everyone having their own individual list of contacts in their email system or a spreadsheet, they now share this list in the company’s system. All of our clients keep data about anyone that touches their business in their systems – prospects, customers, vendors, partners, etc. At minimum, they maintain contact information (address, e-mail, etc.) and maybe a few other bits of data such as the products they purchased or whether or not they get a holiday card at the end of the year. From this data, lists and views are created, printed and sometimes exported to a spreadsheet.
2 – Shared e-mail.
In a traditional email system everyone’s on their own island. Sure, messages can be saved in an e-mail server. But seeing the communications of others isn’t really possible. But good CRM systems integrate with popular e-mail applications. This means that every e-mail that’s sent is stored in a shared database so that everyone else can (to the extent they’re allowed through security) view the communications going back and forth with anyone in the outside world can be viewed by anyone internally too. All of our clients have their e-mail systems integrated with their CRM systems and, even though many not be doing much else, they’re at least getting value from a combined place to view messages.
3 – Shared calendar.
Usually, when e-mail is shared, so are calendar activities. This way not only appointments but actions, calls and other follow-ups are scheduled and then viewed by the entire workgroup. This way when a customer or prospect calls, anyone who picks up the phone knows if anyone else in the company has an open item due for that client. Managers and supervisors can look at their teams’ calendars and even make remarks where necessary like “hey why are you wasting time meeting with that deadbeat prospect next when you could be meeting with this more valuable company instead?” Combine this with a few pop-up reminders or alerts and you’ve got a good method for making sure nothing falls through the cracks.
4 – Shared history and notes.
Completing these activities and then taking notes is not as easy as it sounds. It takes an extra step or two and a lot of people don’t want to spend time on something that was already done. But most of our clients get the importance of this once they start doing it. And they realize the value of having a database of historical items. This way they don’t have to remember the details of a call from two months ago or a whether or not a customer is a Patriots fan or not (let’s hope not). If the effort is made, everyone can see what’s going on, and more importantly what happened within their organization using their shared CRM database as the central place for data.
These are the basics. This is high school CRM. But, like high school, it’s an important foundation for advanced work. Yes, I’ll admit that most of my clients don’t make it to that college level – marketing campaigns, service management, website integration, workflows and reports. But a high school degree still has some value. And for many, that value can exceed the investment made.
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About the Author: Gene Marks is a small business owner, technology expert, author and columnist. He writes regularly for leading US media outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. He has authored five books on business management and appears regularly on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC and CNBC. Gene runs a ten-person CRM and technology consulting firm outside of Philadelphia. Learn more at genemarks.com
