Build a Customer Relationship Management Strategy
Understand CRM best practices and create a strategy for success.
- Organizations of all sizes need a solution that will give them a unified view of their customers across the three major interaction domains: marketing, sales, and customer service.
- Despite the importance of creating a “single face” for the customer, efforts in the three domains are rarely harmonized. Integration is critical across process domains. Social media is a particular pain point: marketing often leads social initiatives, but neglects to involve stakeholders in sales and customer service.
- Most large enterprises understand the need to have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite in place, but the adoption scenario has become complicated by a rising number of best-of-breed point solutions in the three domains. Integrating across disparate systems is painful – an integrated suite addresses the customer lifecycle the best. The larger the enterprise and the more complex the needs, the more this value proposition resonates.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- The importance of social media integration and mobile access (either through HTML5 or a dedicated application) cannot be overstated. Mobile support has significantly improved over the course of 2012, but you’ll still need to watch the mobile features to ensure a proper selection. The vast majority of CRM vendors continue to lag in social media features.
- Augment the CRM suite with the best available point solutions where necessary. Strengthen the CRM ecosystem with integrated point-solutions, such as a Social Media Management Platform (SMMP) or a Field Service Automation suite to turbocharge functionality.
- Taking a structured approach to implementation is paramount. Assemble a deployment team with the right skills and representation from stakeholders in the business.
Impact and Result
- Understand the benefits of using a CRM suite, as well as identify best practices for a successful CRM implementation.
- Plan for and select a CRM suite that supports your business’s domains, customer segments, and channel strategy.
- Save time and money by using Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscapes to compare and contrast the major CRM vendors, and then create a shortlist of the most appropriate vendors.
- Gather vendor and product information, objectively score the responses, and conduct vendor demonstrations, in order to select the right product.
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