Customer Relationship Management solutions come in all sizes and shapes.
Managing contact information requires a structured approach.
In this customer-driven economy, the way a business relates to its customers and partners is a key to success. One of the best ways to build customer loyalty is effective marketing where every customer contact enhances the brand. Good Contact Management is at the foundation not only of personalized marketing communications but also of rewarding service experiences and easy purchases. Enhancing each customer experience can be significantly enhanced by the way in which a company manages information about each contact.
- Planning how to manage your customer and prospect contact information
- Developing privacy policies for the organization
- Designing contact management solutions including database layout
- Personalizing ACT! Contact Management software to support your business or organization
It all starts with knowing what you want to do with the CRM solution.
- Are you just trying to send simple e-mails to a list of prospects?
- Are you trying to learn more about the requirements of your customers, prospects or business partners?
- Do you want to ensure your marketing communications are properly targeted so each person gets the most appropriate messages?
- Is the contact you have in your financial records the right person for making decisions about future use of your products or services?
- Is your goal to make your service organization more efficient by providing known information about recent orders to the service representative?
- Are you trying to identify your highest value customers or most productive partners?
Knowing what you want to archive will determine what information you collect, and how you make it available for use. A customer service person may need to know information about past purchases but does not need access to a person's social security number. Simi;Similarly,, the account receivable representative may only need access to financial information. It is always a good rule that if you don't know how you will use specific information, then don't collect it. There is little need to collect a person's mailing information if the person only wants you to communicate using e-mail. Collecting unnecessary information is a quick way to diminish a person's trust in your organization. Ewing Consulting can use its experience to help your organization articulate how it wants to utilize contact information, what specific information should be collected to support those needs, and how that data will be organized.
Your company's privacy policies will be the basis for articulating how data is protected and utilized. Some of the things these policies will address are
- how you notify people about the information you are collecting
- how people can choose to have data about themselves used (opt-in / opt-out)
- what types of information is collected,
- who has access to what information,
- who can make changes to that information,
- with whom the information will be shared outside your organization.,
- how you plan to manage the integrity of the data in your files,
- how you ensure the security of the information, and
- how you will communicate your policies throughout your organization
Every organization, whether big or small, should at least be thinking about these topics. The larger or more complex the organization, the more important it is to document the privacy policies. Ewing Consulting can help you audit your current policies, identify areas that need improvement and develop enhanced policies.
How the data is organized and stored is often determined by how it will be used. A small organization might store their list of e-mail addresses might be stored with your e-mail client . A more sophisticated solution could include online access by many people at distributed call centers and sales offices. We have helped to develop solutions from very small organizations to very large ones. We are ready to apply that experience to help you.
Get Started. Contact us today so we can get started developing a solution for your organization.