Collaborative CRM – Meaning and Advantages

Collaborative CRM deals with synchronization and integration of customer interaction and channels of communications like phone, email, fax, web etc. with the intent of referencing the customers a consistent and systematic way. The idea is not only enhancing the interactions but also to increase and improve customer retention and liberty.

Collaborative CRM entangles various departments of organization like sales, marketing, finance and service and shares the customer information among them to highlight better understanding of customers.

For example, the information of preferred products could be shared with marketing department so that analysis can be performed in this aspect to provide preferred products to customers.

The information regarding varied cost or price of a particular product in market defined by customers can be delivered to finance department so that strategies could be created to match the product cost with similar products in market and after analysis bring an affordable and efficient product in market.

The information regarding a specific service which is not installed in the company’s environment and intimated by the customers can be transferred to service department to improve or install that particular service in-house. All this is done efficaciously within the range of channels so that the process automates the needs and minimal time is required for fulfilling these needs.

Collaborative CRM can be broadly identified by two aspects:

1. Interaction Management- This management process deals with designing the communication or interaction channel process within an organization which is specific to customer interaction and finally enhancing the extent of communication between both the parties.

   The communication channel depends on the customers’ preference on how they require the interaction to be dealt with. Some customers prefer to be contacted via phone and email because of more comfort ability or non availability of manual interaction due to no time or unavailability of resources.

   Some of them prefer to have live online meeting or web meeting to reduce the travel time and lack of time or may be they prefer more clarified real time environment by sitting at desk and transact.

   Some of the customers insist for agent conducted services which is often face-to-face interaction as they believe that this way is more efficient and conclusive.

   Depending on these channels of interaction it is very important for organization to fulfill these needs of customers and gather information from them and implementing it into the CRM before interacting to enhance the interaction power.

2. Channel Management- After analyzing and implementing the interaction medium it’s important to enhance the power of channels through which the customers are interacted.

   By using latest technological aspects for improving channel interaction could help to contact customers in an efficient way and gather information from them to help organization to understand the customers. Hence it is important for an organization to clearly arrange the channel responsibilities and duties.

Below are advantages of Collaborative CRM:

• Enables valued customer interaction across the channels.
• Entangles web or online collaboration to cut down service cost of customers.
• Integrates customer interaction with call centers to enable multi-channel interaction with customers and helps them make understand the overall process vales.
• Describes a view of integrated customer’s details during interaction to server them in a better way.

This CRM solution brings customers, process and strategies and data together so that organizations could serve and retain customers more efficiently.