Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM/SFA) and Sales Force Automation in the broadest definition manages the customers interaction and business with the company – including processes to improve customer service. CRM/SFA is no longer a one way proposition looking from the inside out, but from the outside in as well – - examining the relationship from the customers view; is the customer happy with the relationship, does the customer get orders on time, is customer service responsive, does the purchasing experience meet the customers’ expectation.

Implemented properly and scaled to the needs and embrace of the organization, a good CRM/SFA will allow a business to: acquire customers, service the customer, increase the value of the customer to the company, retain good customers, and determine which customers can be retained or given a higher level of service.

A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating communication in several ways. Some of those ways are:

• Through the website making available product information, use information, and technical assistance.

• By treating each customer like they were the only customer – learning how the customer defines quality then assembling a strategy to service the customer based on their requirements.

• Automating the process of customer follow-up scheduling calls to learn about things like repurchase probability, and frequency.

• Putting in place an automated function that tracks all contact between the company and the customer – integrating the data and presenting it to a CRM/SFA portal in a single view so everyone gets the same information (reducing confusion).