UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

Why implementing a CRM system? How does it differ from the traditional business management?

The main purpose of the customer relationship management is to increase the income of a company by selling more or better or by saving money thanks to a better organization of the sales process.

The company must place its customers at the center of its concerns.

What are the differences between the front office and the back-office?

The front office is the interface with the users. It is the visible part of the system. On the contrary, the back office performs the calculations from the data stored in databases.

What are the characteristics of an EMA solution?

What is a software package SFA?

SFA, which stands for Sales Force Automation, includes all the tools needed to manage commercial activities. The proposed functions include: managing contacts and calendars, the configuration of complex products, the share of information and the automatic creation of proposal documents from the selected data.

Why do we talk about automation and not about management in EMA and SFA?

To increase productivity some processes that were previously managed manually by the marketing and commercial centers must be automated. It includes replacing the paper document flows by an electronic workflow. For example, the targeted email is sent every week according to custom settings. The software then takes over the return of the campaign and distributes them to the right people based on their content, while recording accounting information in the database.

What is the difference between a contact center and a call center?

The customer service receives phone calls from the client through a call center. As part of a contact center, customers can use other channels to join the company: telephone, fax, email, form on the website of the company, mail, etc.).

Therefore, people in charge of the customer service solutions must direct requests based on the customer's request on the telephone keypad. The queues are processed in case of congestion.

Is it the reason why we talk about multi-channel in CRM?

A contact center is multi-channel by definition. Indeed, its role is to support all the means available for the client to contact the company. Its aim is also to give a comprehensive view of interactions with the customers.

The e-CRM is the Internet channel, that is to say email and forms. It is also the management of the customer relations through the website. For an e-commerce website, the interface will be customized according to the profile of the customer.

How is integration at the center of all concerns in the management of the customer relationship?

The integration and the configuration of the business indicators are two things essential in the implementation of a CRM solution. Several levels of integration are possible. All channels of information which help produce clients’ profile type, as well as all data used to calculate indicators and all systems that use the following data, must be integrated.

A business located in a regional agency shall be notified promptly if a fault occurs on the hotline in order to offer a substitute quickly. To do this, the data must have traveled along a processing chain and must have been included at each stage of the chain. This process sometimes requires transformations from one format to another.

Why does a CRM project that hadn’t taken human factors into account fail?

The problem of the human factor concerns mainly the front office. Indeed, it is mainly the users that can prevent the system from being built by refusing to give their information for example. A good analytical CRM system should be able to detect this.

In parallel, the establishment of a system for managing customer relationship is sometimes a problem when the different operational teams of the firm (services, departments, agencies ...) have their own habits and way of seeing the client. The client can no longer be at the center of the concerns of the firm.

Finally, to overcome these pitfalls, choosing a good tool is not always enough. Training and seminars in case of lack ergonomic may be required.

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