You know the old saying, “There’s no I in TEAM”, meaning that when a group of people are working toward a common goal, success is achieved by working together, not alone.
Well friends, there’s also no “I” in CRM. The entire concept of Customer Relationship Management is so very much about the TEAM.
In a sole proprietorship, where the team consists of “me, myself and I”, the owner might use an email client (like Microsoft’s Outlook) to manage the business rather than a CRM system. However, that in itself is precarious, because finding historical data and client messages can be difficult when they are buried in a crowded email inbox.
Even in the smallest of organizations, where multiple players are involved, there is a team of people – all of whom interact with the customer in different ways. And not only the customer, but prospects, vendors, suppliers, and many other company relationship-based contacts. If everyone in your company is relying on only their email inbox to manage these pertinent emails & documents, your customers should be worried.
Outlook is a fantastic email client with nice features, but many company communications require something more centralized. Not just a folder or repository, but an organized, permanent historical record – that can be accessible company-wide or to select users only.
What happens when an employee leaves, resigns or is fired? Imagine the hassle of having to dig through and retrieve the email of every terminated employee. Or even worse, imagine the loss of the entire history of communications with all of those precious business contacts.
In a competitive world where every experience and interaction must exceed the expectations of the customer, businesses must focus on knowledge access, customer engagement and retention. This cannot be done without CRM. A centralized Business Relationship Management (BRM) or CRM solution enables the entire team to collaborate and work more efficiently in their various positions.
CRM can also be thought of in more general terms, as an Information Management System. Information is essential to learn more about your contacts and manage those relationships. Your internal (and sometimes external) team members collect and contribute this information into a centralized system so all that data can be reviewed and acted upon. If the information is used effectively, it promotes continuous improvement and streamlining of processes which benefit the entire team.
The more your team is working in harmony at each individual touch point with potential business contacts, the happier your clients and prospects will be.