> SALES PITCH
One of the key considerations for companies looking to invest in cloud-based CRM is how the total cost measures against that of non-cloud solutions’
sales and marketing functions of all customer-centric organisa- tions. It is set to become a key tool in the battle to both win new customers and retain existing ones and, therefore, must be incor- porated into all CRM strategies for the future. CRM has traditionally covered four main areas – sales, market- ing, customer support and contact centre – all of which impact on margins and profitability. The meaning of the term has changed somewhat over the years, according to Gartner VP, Ed Thompson. When first introduced in the early 1980s, CRM encompassed everything and everyone involved in the customer- facing side of the business. Later, the definition narrowed and it became the IT tool for dealing with customers. “Now it has gone full circle and once again refers to all the sys- tems, processes and people involved in building and maintaining customer relationships,” he explains. “However, the key role that CRM can play in driving sales, particularly e-sales, in addition to boosting cross-selling and marketing campaign effectiveness, has not been lost on most businesses, with system sales cur- rently bucking software trends in Europe and continuing to show strong year-on-year growth despite the prevailing economic cli- mate and the relative maturity of the market.”
Benefits of systems From an internal point of view, the main benefit of CRM systems is the automation of customer-facing business processes, which should significantly improve efficiency by reducing customer order and invoice management costs. Ideally, a CRM system should give a single version of the truth, or a 360-degree view of a com- pany’s customer base, according to Alys Woodward, research manager, IDC.
“This also helps to improve transparency and is good for both buyer and seller alike as it helps to build trust between partners. It also makes it easier to monitor performance and measure suc- cess,” she points out. “Another important internal benefit of CRM is that it facilitates real-time sharing of information between func- tions, thereby reducing instances of ‘silos’ where separate sys- tems often operate alongside one another without any meaning- ful or timely sharing of critical data. “A good example of this is the real-time connection of the sales and invoicing and payments functions which should deter sales staff from selling to customers who might be having difficulty in
56 Marketing Age Volume 4 Issue 4 2010
paying. CRM also reduces a company’s dependence on individ- ual salespeople and their relationships with customers, as that information is captured in the system rather than existing in peo- ple’s heads.”
Trends in CRM There are a number of important trends impacting the CRM process at present, including social web, mobile web, cloud com- puting and open source software. The most important of these is the continuing growth in social web. “In a way, social web exem- plifies the challenges that all organisations face today, which is how to make sense of and act upon information,” Woodward continues.
“Just as organisations were struggling to make sense of their
internal data, social web has generated a whole new wave of information to deal with. With consumers all over the world now sharing information, good and bad, about a huge range of prod- ucts via social networking sites, blogs, online news sources and independent review sites, it is important for all companies to access this information quickly and try to influence outcomes in real-time. Sometimes merely being there and just listening to and responding to complaints can actually be enough to avert disaster.” Here she cites the example of the ‘United Breaks Guitars’ viral which found its way onto YouTube last year following one musi- cian’s less than satisfactory experience with United Airlines and its response to his guitar having been damaged in transit. “Much of the fall-out and bad publicity associated with this incident could have been avoided if the company had responded immediately, but it certainly confirms the huge impact that social media can have on customer relations and brand reputation,” she adds. There are a number of social platform software packages on the market which can be used to monitor all relevant social and other media sources, collate data and measure whether com- ments are positive, neutral or negative. This information is then aggregated to give an overall indicator of real-time sentiment. These packages can also support a social media strategy and can mostly be integrated with existing CRM systems to bring social media within the sphere of day to day customer relation- ship management strategy. The latest versions of many ‘tradi- tional’ CRM solutions now also include social media manage-
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