First, let’s define what a CRM is: The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a system that connects different parts of a company through the thread of customer relationships. Sales, Marketing, Accounting and Customer Service can all be tied together with a powerful, centralized CRM software made to retain customer loyalty, increase revenue, deliver consistent and efficient customer service, and finally, evaluate which customers to focus on.

Basically, every company has customers, and every company should maintain some basic information about those customers such as names, addresses, purchases, contracts, invoices, etc. Therefore every company should have at least some basic "CRM Technology" to track and serve their customers. Even small businesses use Outlook, Quicken or other applications for this purpose. 

If you use Microsoft Outlook for your daily communications, calendaring, tasks and appointments and need a way to track sales leads and opportunities, to share data across sales representatives, to improve the understanding of your sales process, to communicate with a broad groups of people on a one to one basis, to improve your business process in the most important area – sales, and need a reporting system that beats multiple excel spreadsheets, then you need a complete CRM solution. 

Why ? Because a CRM software can increase profitability for your business by reducing current operating costs, usually in the call center or distribution system, and by increasing customer value through smarter marketing using customer data to increase customer profitability.  

Can you do it without a CRM ?  Probably, but not as  efficiently because only a CRM is built to take care of Customer personal needs “centrally”, meaning that by using a single software, all the employees of  the same company can access an organised database via Internet, where sales, customer service and management have access to the same customer data using tools such as “Sales Force Automation” (provides Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account and Contact Management, Reports and Dashboards specifically useful for your organization's sales team), “Customer Support and Services” (provides Ticket Management, Knowledge Base, E-mail Notifications specifically useful for your organization's customer support team.),  “Marketing Automation” (provides Lead Management, Mailing Lists, E-mail/Mail Merge templates, Product Management, specifically useful for your organization's marketing team.), “Inventory Management” (provides Products, Price Books, Vendors, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Invoices specifically useful for integrating your organization's sales, inventory, and accounting processes and enhance the sales effectiveness.) , providing a complete integration between pre-sales, post-sales, procurement, fulfillment, and other business processes within your organization. 

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As the Internet becomes an increasing part of our lives there are a growing number of web sites which are run for dissatisfied customers to publicly air their complaints about bad service. See your name posted on these sites or get contacted by them and you know you have a problem!

How can you prevent your business from becoming ‘feature of the week’? Of all the skills small business owners need these days, the one least practiced is the ability to step back and look at your business from the customer’s perspective.

Having an effective complaint handling process is important but that is the equivalent of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted – it’s too late, your customer has already suffered.

It’s more effective to know what your customers could potentially complaint about and put it right before it happens.

So what are the common reasons for customer complaints? Mark Bradley of Customer Service Network (www.customernet.com), which facilitates in benchmarking, improving processes and implementing improvements to help reduce customer complaints, says,

“Financial loss is the obvious reason but the rest can be split into operational and emotional reasons.”

In this article we will look at some of the operational and emotional or human issues within your business which could give your customers cause to complain. Take a look at these and examine each part of your business. How do you stand up?

“You didn’t do what you promised.” 

When did you last review your advertising material or web site? Do they contain service promises which sounded great at the time but have since been forgotten? For example, do you promise to deliver within 24 hours but changes in processes have meant that is no longer possible? No one may have complained yet but sooner or later someone will.

 “Your product didn’t do what it’s supposed to do.” 

When did you last undertake a quality check of your product? Random checks can help weed out poor quality workmanship before a customer spots it. 

When buying your stock or finished item do you test it?

 “You’re never open when I need you.” 

9 to 5, 5 days a week may have been acceptable when you first started out, but is this still what the customer wants? Check with your customers – they may want you to open later and close later.

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Whatever happened to the adage "The customer is king or queen"? or the customer is always right.  Not anymore. Company’s representatives seem to delight in arguing with and stone-walling customers and some even brag on their blogs about early morning and late evening calling just to upset customers to set them up for their day.  

What kind of individual gets kicks from this kind of behavior? Do they even think before they call the reaction of the customer they call and whom they might come in contact with that day? Is this kind of action possibly more legal liability just waiting to happen?

Road Rage is so common in our society now... what’s next- Telephone Tantrum? Will this also be a psychiatric diagnosis and a legally defendable offense? I would almost bet on it!

Credit card companies are the amongst some of the worst offenders and now, if one is a good, pay your bills on time and in full customer they don’t want you and in fact, are considering penalizing the "good customer" by charging them an annual fee to use their card.  Seriously?

It truly amazes and stuns me how deplorable customer service has become. It‘s such an oxymoron... customer and service don’t go together anymore; there is no service for the customer it is all about the company’s way to make money, more profit. 

Don’t companies care anymore about the way that they are perceived? The only power and voice the customer has left is not to be a company’s customer anymore and when that happens there will be no need for the bottom-line, making money/profit, customer service or the CEO; therefore no more company.

 I have always been a positive person and I try to look at both sides of every situation. Do I have suggestions and offer solutions. ABSOLUTELY! When I have had an excellent experience with customer service I tell them so and thank them as well as telling everyone that I come in contact with what a great company, service or product they have.   Lately, I have been silent... wonder why?

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You probably won't have been in business too long before you get your first complaint. It just can't help but happen: low-end customers pay nothing and expect the Earth, while high-end ones pay a lot but expect an inhuman effort in return. You just can't please all of the people all of the time, even if you run yourself ragged trying -- there will always be someone who's not happy with what you've done. So what can you do about it?

Don't Be Rude or Dismissive.

The customer's complaint might seem stupid to you, or even insulting -- but that doesn't mean that you can respond in kind. 

You must treat every customer complaint seriously, and always act as if it is 100% your fault that things weren't to their satisfaction. 

Remember that every unhappy customer will talk about their experience to your potential customers (research varies, but some say that they might tell as many as 20). Those potential customers won't get to hear your side of the story. Going the extra mile to keep unreasonable customers happy is, above all else, a defensive technique to prevent them from damaging your business. 

Don't be scared of complaints: you should, instead, be actively soliciting them, to give you a chance to put things right before they tell anyone.

Write a Letter of Apology.

People will really appreciate the effort you've gone to if you take the time to write them a formal letter of apology, and say that you're sorry things weren't to their satisfaction and you appreciate them taking the time to tell you so that you can improve. For example:

'Dear Sir,

It has come to my attention that you weren't happy with the service you received from my company in respect of the delivery of items to your home. We have now contacted our delivery service and fixed the issue, although I understand that this came too late to avoid inconveniencing you.

I would like to sincerely apologise to you for the bad experience you have had with my company, and hope that this will not harm our chances of doing business together again in the future.'

Make sure you sign the letter yourself, in pen. People hate seeing letters with printed signatures on.

Offer a Partial Refund.

The closing part of your letter should offer a refund of as much as you can afford to give -- in this scenario, for example, where there was a problem with delivery, you should offer to refund the full cost of delivery, plus a little extra to cover the inconvenience. 

In this way, you can turn your dissatisfied customers into some of your most satisfied ones. 

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We all know that good customer service is paramount to growing a business and increasing profitability.  What many managers are failing to realize, however, is that rapid changes in technology have lead to equally rapid changes in the delivery of quality customer service.

In addition to the basics we all have heard time and again, there are five new areas of customer service that should be addressed to keep customers happy.  

What do customers say? 

1) Preserve me from auto-attendant hell! 

Customers are becoming increasingly annoyed and frustrated with having to sift through a multitude of options and press numerous buttons – only to be told that the desired service is only available through the company’s website.  Worse is when the auto-attendant uses voice recognition – but doesn’t ‘recognize’ your voice.  

It’s understandable that companies want to reduce costs by using attendants and, there’s no question that these are valuable tools.  Yet, people want to connect with human beings; they don’t want to listen to a long list of prompts – especially not if they are having a problem (and let’s face it, that’s what usually triggers the call in the first place).  To keep customers happy, here are few simple tips:

• Always make it easy for customers to reach a human being.

• Give people the option of voice prompt or touch prompt.

• If you do use an auto-attendant, limit the number of menus to two rounds of choices before the customer reaches a human being.

• If you have asked the customer to key in account information, transfer the profile along with the call.

• If the call has been answered by a company rep, and needs to transfer the call to another department, do not put the customer back into a long queue.  Instead, let your customer service rep be able to jump the front of the line, and get them to stay on the call with the client until the next person has picked up.  Once this happens, the first rep should introduce the caller and give rep #2 a précis of the situation so the customer doesn’t feel like he or she is having to start all over again.

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In these days of competitive markets, the business that excels at customer service is the one that will not only maintain their position, but grow.  You could answer the question "What is Customer service" by saying that it is about "exceeding" the expectations of the client, not just "satisfying" them.  This is not just about the product or service that you are selling; it's about looking after the people buying them from you too.

Having a great product must be the first step.  Everybody likes quality, even more if it is competitively priced with other similar products.  

If you make the product yourself, see what you can do to enhance how it performs, what it's made from, how it compares with others.  If you can make the product the best there is within the price range, customers will not only buy from you, but they will recommend others to buy from you too.

So, you have a great product and your client base is growing - how is your pre and after sales service doing?  Not many people think about how they sell the product, but it is still literally serving the customer. How many of us have put the phone down on someone who has been given the unenviable task of cold calling clients to try and sell goods? 

Cold calling and pressure sales are two areas that have managed to give selling a bad name, particularly if they are persistent, repetitive and quite obviously so desperate to make a sale that they become aggressive. This is most definitely not what is customer service.  Most of us would prefer to do our own market research when looking to buy something and the Internet has made it all so much easier.   

If you want to build your client base, having a website is now essential rather than an optional extra.  Customers can look at the product, find out more about it and then contact you if they are interested.  If they register with your site, you are able to build a list of potential customers too, to contact them again at a later date.

It might seem, from what is written above, that there is no place for person to person selling any more.  Quite the opposite is the case, from the research I have done, it would appear that most customers would welcome speaking to someone who is knowledgeable about the product (that's the important bit!) and is able to resolve any problems quickly.  

Call centres in India might be cheaper to run than local ones, but do the operators understand what the product is, do they even want to? 

With the best will in the world, things can go wrong.  For example, there could be a faulty batch manufactured, or if you are offering a service someone fails to turn up to an appointment.  Complaints start coming in and you can either stick your head in the sand and ignore it or you can admit the mistake and try and rectify the situation to everyone's satisfaction.  

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Do you get frustrated calling a hot line for many times and still no answer whatsoever?  Do you hate bringing your machine to the store and waiting for days for the service?  Do you want quick response and assistance from product manufacturers?  The answer is the modern 247 support service.

Many companies, especially the more established once provide 24-7-365 support service to their clients.  What does this mean?

24-7-365 Support Service

This means that manufacturers or support service provides 24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days in a year support service.  It literally means there is support anytime, anywhere, any season.

How it works?

This is because product manufacturers outsource their service support with competent 24-7 support provider.

The 24-7 support provider hires skilled, competent, and well-trained staff to attend to the needs of customers, clients and they have enough knowledge of variety of products.

This ensures that if you are the customer of a product they serve, you will be taken cared of properly.

What are the services available from a 24-7 support service?

• Voice support – you have a warm body attending to you for your inquiries.  Many consumers prefer this type of support service.  However, if you are an irate consumer and you deal with voice support, you may not control your anger and some people regret this later on.

• Non-voice support – This is an email support where consumers can send their requests for support and receive response direct to their inbox.  This enables the support and the consumer to get fast response and interaction.

• Live chat support – this is one of the most preferred support services.  You chat with the support operator and get the response quick.  If there is no operator available, then an automated response is provided to you.

24-7 support is a benefit of the ecommerce advent.  It is therefore easy to communicate to manufacturers and your problems get attention immediately.

Finally, 24-7 support is difficult if a manufacturer is doing it on his own.  It is therefore necessary that you outsource your 24-7 support service if you want to ensure that you are really serving your clients 24-7.

Avoid promising a 24-7 support if you are not outsourcing your support service.  The reason is that if you are doing the support within your entity and your operators are not trained well, you may not be able to assist your customers as promised.  

Now, if you outsource your 24-7 support, then you are surely backed by experienced and well-trained 24-7 customer support.  You can brag about it and your customers will be able to enjoy it as well.

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About once a week I grab my laptop and head to a café to work, brainstorm, and map out business plans.  I usually enjoy a latté, cappuccino, or green tea while I work and I’ve found the change of scenery ignites my creativity and jump starts my productivity. For years I’ve gone to the same café on Yale Avenue for my weekly ritual, but last week I stopped into a Barnes & Noble Cafe. I approached the counter to purchase a latté and the sales person immediately responded with an “up selling” offer. 

She asked, “Can I get you a slice of cheesecake to go with your Caramel Macchiato?“ 

I wasn’t even thinking about dessert, yet I somehow let the unexpected query: “Can I get you a slice of cheesecake to go with your Caramel Macchiato?“ entice me into accepting a rich slice of cheesecake. 

The lady at the Barnes & Noble Café flawlessly executed the “up-selling” technique and without any hesitation I accepted. Not once in the three years of my attending my usual café has anyone tried to upsell me. 

As I enjoyed each delectable bite of the cheesecake I wondered, “What would it mean to Barnes & Noble’s  bottom line if every salesperson in the Café attempted to upsell beverage seekers? What would it mean to the bottom line if just 2% of customers everyday were upsold?” What would it mean to your bottom line if every one of your employees flawlessly upsold your customers? 

In my experience both as a consumer and as a Business Growth Strategist, I have discovered that many businesses avoid up-selling because they're concerned that the customer may feel irritated or pressured, and often customer service professionals are reluctant to upsell because they’re uncomfortable with a “selling” role. But here’s the thing: If you don’t try to upell you are 

1) Leaving money on the table and 

2) Withholding value-added services from your customers. When done right, upselling offers translate into sales 5-20% of the time. And research shows that most customers appreciate up-selling when they are offered additional benefits that are relevant to their needs.  

Read on to get 5 tips to help you confidently and successfully upservice your customers. 

 Think of upserving as “Up-Servicing”  -  When done right, upselling is simply offering a “suggestion” to an already receptive buyer to enhance the value of her service. This is exactly what I experienced at Barnes & Noble Cafe. I was already a receptive buyer and the cheesecake most definitely enhance the value of my experience. When viewed as truly upservicing as opposed to upselling, selling doesn’t feel so overwhelming. 

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