> SPOTLIGHT
Karl O’Leary, business manager, Dynamics, Microsoft Ireland
Systems control
A newsurvey reveals some changing trends in Irish SME use of CRM
‘
tomers for business growth’ – of more than 400 Irish businesses was conducted in the lead up to the launch of the company’s Dynamics CRM Online 2011 in January. It follows a similar one just over five years ago to coincide with the initial launch of the pack- age. A key finding of the latest survey is that more than 87pc of com-
A
panies reported having some form of CRM system, up from just 48pc in 2005. Interestingly, the survey found that nearly a third of companies said they use Microsoft Office productivity software (Excel and Access) as their tools tomanage customer interactions. “We are finding that there is a greater understanding by busi- nesses of the need to have in place a relationship management
62 Marketing Age Volume 5 Issue 1 2011
n increasing focus on customers - and the growing emphasis on hanging on to the ones you already have – is reflected in the fact that 57pc of Irish busi- nesses have invested in a customer relationship (CRM) system over the last three years, while four out of five have done so in the last five years, according to a recent survey.
Carried out by Microsoft, the survey – ‘Managing your cus-
system in order to not only retain current customers and deliver a better quality and faster service, but also to grow and compete more effectively,” says Karl O’Leary, business manager, Dynamics, Microsoft Ireland. However, both O’Leary and Yvonne McGarry, SME marketing
manager, Microsoft, agree that the fact that 25pc of companies are using Excel and 7pc are using Access to manage their cus- tomer relationships indicates a mixed view of what CRM actually is.
“For some people, CRM is actually just tracking your contacts
on a database,” saysMcGarry. “CRMtome is a strategy. It’s about how you manage your customers across every interaction you have with them. It’s having every employee in the company think- ing about that and not just the salespeople.” “If you’re practising great CRM then you’re actually practising
great customer service, fromwhen you’re looking for customers to when you’re delivering again to customers,” says O’Leary. “To do that, you need a single view of all your interactions with that cus- tomer. An accountmanager going into an existing customer needs to know if there have been any issues logged, any complaints or
If you’re practising great CRMthen you’re actually practising great customer service, fromwhen you’re looking for customers to when you’re delivering again to customers’
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