Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing
CRM leverages and amplifies customer base of an organization through efficacious and efficient marketing. In fact CRM has brought up new dimensions in the field of marketing by significantly improving marketing functioning and execution. Intuitive CRM associated marketing strategies like direct marketing, web marketing, e-mail marketing etc. have been matured during the recent past. These […]
Why Do Brands Have Extensions?
As the business environment is changing, the profile of the organizations as well as the way of conducting business is changing too. Use of technology and globalization has changed everything about business. Marketing is no longer what it used to be. Online marketing has changed the face of conventional marketing and both are incomparable by […]
Advocacy Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
We have seen how corporations need to embrace CSR as a paradigm if the challenges of the 21st century have to be met. We have also examined the role of the media in championing CSR. In this article, we look at how Advocacy Groups and Pressure Groups like Greenpeace and Media Lens along with other […]
Techniques of Survey Method
There are mainly 4 methods by which we can collect data through the Survey Method Telephonic Interview Personal Interview Mail Interview Electronic Interview Telephonic Interview Telephone Interviewing stands out as the best method for gathering quickly needed information. Responses are collected from the respondents by the researcher on telephone. Advantages of Telephonic Interview It is […]
Utilizing Affiliate Marketers in Your Business
As a merchant, using affiliate marketers is your business is a difficult task. This is because affiliate marketers are themselves individual businesses. They need to be motivated and rewarded. It is the duty of the merchant or of the affiliate network to ensure that the affiliates are well paid. In this article, we will discuss […]
Irrespective of whether you are in the commercial sector or the not-for-profit sector you need to effectively manage your customers or constituents. In the matter of automation of this function there is hardly anything to match the dominance of Salesforce. The company, operating online through its website salesforce.com is pretty much the industry leader due to its simplicity of use and the configuration tools that are really simple.
Realizing the huge potential savings in time and effort of CRM implementation, more and more organizations are opting to implement Salesforce at the earliest. However, in the rush to save time through quick implementation there is a tendency to commit strategic mistakes that can hinder the successful implementation of the CRM package.
Since Salesforce has acquired close to legendary status for its simplicity of use, there are many organizations that try to just log into the website and try implementing it without paying attention to the need of planning the many elements that are required for successful implementation. Any business intending to implement a CRM package should first decide what information should reside in the system and how should it be structured besides addressing the question of who should have permission to access the information. Unless these basic issues are thought about intensively and decided it is likely that the CRM implementation may go haywire.
It is important for businesses intending to implement Salesforce to compile a document that basically describes what is needed and how the entire information fits the business requirement. The mapping process of Salesforce continuous integration should be done so that the business is able to chalk out its future growth path.
A mistake that businesses often make is to sweep all the data they encounter into the Salesforce package even if they cannot quite figure out whether they have any requirement for it. Unplanned data acquisition only bloats the package making it difficult for managers to make it more consistent and reliable. The reporting requirement should in fact be the building block for all data input. What it really means that if a report is to be generated then the package should contain all the data that is pertinent.
A good way for planning is to figure out what sort of reports the management would want and then work backwards to make sure that these reports can be generated with the data provided. Keeping this in mind is a good way of streamlining the CRM architecture and also to train end-users. Businesses also need to keep in mind the nature of the data required to ensure that they are in a position to nurture and grow relationships with customers.
Many organizations make the mistake of designing the package architecture with only the inputs of the top management and then instructing the end-users on how to use it. Many glitches are revealed at this juncture that could entail an expensive and time-consuming system redesign. To prevent this from happening businesses should take them into confidence at an early stage and ask them for the inputs on making an effective organization. Not only will businesses be able to operate more effectively but will also have inculcated a spirit of cooperation and teamwork into its employees.
Make sure that the message goes out that the CRM package is being implemented to make the lives of the end-users easier and more productive and not to feed the unseen top-management fancy reports and numbers nobody really cares about. The creation of a win-win situation for all participants will also ensure that the CRM package has the necessary support of all.
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