Improving Your Customer Relationship Management With Blogging Technology

Before I address the following questions: What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?, let me pose a few "What if . . ." questions to you.

Keeping in mind that before your prospects and customers buy from you, they need to know you, like you, and trust you. In other words, they need to know, whether overtly or covertly, that they have a trusting and ongoing relationship with you. What better way to accomplish for them to get to know you, trust you, and like you than with a blog?

Now, here are my "What if . . ." questions:

* What if less than two minutes after creating and publishing your blog, it were to be promoted to thousands of prospects without any extra effort or cost on your part?

* What if your blog gave you immediate access to hundreds of international prospects?

* What if you had immediate access to hundreds of prospects in your city, state, or country who had interests and hobbies similar to yours?

* What if every time someone clicks on a hyperlinked keyword in your Profile that describes your hobbies, occupation, industry, favorite books, movies, music, or artist, your blog pops up?

* What if every time you left a comment on someone elses blog, you could leave a hyperlink to your website, blog, or email? (a mini no-cost commercial!)

* What if whenever someone enters your name or business name (completely or partially) into a major search engine, your website or blog pops up in their search results?

* What if every time you post content on your blog, it would bypass the spam filters and instantaneously appear on your subscribers desktop without any extra effort or cost on your part? (- an excellent opportunity to get your sales, special messages, or time-sensitive announcements into their hands, or actually in front of their eyes!)

* What if your satisfied customers had the opportunity to place their self-generated testimonies on your blog? (Although some will take the initiative to do so, others might need encouragement. That's all right. Just make an incentive opportunity of it! Offer some incentive for their efforts.)

By now you should be beginning to see the powerful marketing potential a blog offers you. These are just some of the powerful customer relationship management features a blog offers you.

But wait! There's yet more!

* What if you were to combine these powerful features with other online and offline efforts such as a blogathon, teleseminar, webinar, online articles, and others?

* What if doing so would enhance your customer relationship management?

* What if doing so would decrease returns and refunds?

* What if doing so would increase sales?

Think about it! I realize that successful marketing and sales are still high-touch entities; however, I also realize that when you combine your high-tech efforts with your high-touch efforts, you're bound to be successful!!!

Now to answer the original questions, What is a blog? and What can a blog do for your business?:

A blog, short of web log, is an interactive web-based journal that encourages participation from viewers. It looks like and does everything a website does and more! A blog serves as an excellent supplement to your website and other marketing efforts. Entries, called posts, are published by date on the page according to your predetermined quantity and are archived in the margin according to your predetermined frequency.

A blog offers your business countless marketing options. Specifically, a blog:

* gives viewers, prospects, customers, and subscribers who might have had difficulty in the past immediate access to you.

* helps to reduce your time spend distributing emails and other messages.

* improves your content delivery rates by 100%.

* improves your search engine rankings.

* publishes constantly fresh content.

* bypasses spam filters completely.

* improves your online visibility.

* enhances your web presence.

* generates more visitors.

and more . . .

So, if you don't already have a blog, I only have one question for you: What are you waiting for?!?

Don't let this cutting-edge technology, this powerful marketing tool, pass you by. Online companies are popping up all over the internet offering you free blogs. My recommendation is that you grab one, or two or more! Most, if not all, are extremely easy to create, but may be time-consuming, according to your already hectic schedule, to maintain.

If that's the case in your situation, you might want to call in outside help. Consider the high school computer techie next door, or the college-age computer-major son or daughter of a friend who could always use a few extra bucks.

I leave you with this wish: May you always be successful in looking for and using new and creative ways to maximize your earning potential.

Remember: When you maximize your potential, we all win! When you dont, we all lose.

Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, and workshops, and writes articles on: ... helping you maximize your potential for individuals, schools, small businesses, and non-profit organizations, Reach him at http://www.MasterBlogBuilder.com/

What is CRM, Customer Relationship Management?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

It’s hard to find a definitive definition of what CRM means. So I’ll outline the broad meaning and then give some examples.

You may have heard of the terms CRM and Customer Relationship Management in regards to software. Well CRM is not just a piece of software. It’s more than that.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management software is a vital component, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM Customer Relationship Management in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM Customer Relationship Management work.

An effective CRM Customer Relationship Management will include methodologies, strategies, software, and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Customer Relationship Management?

CRM Customer Relationship Management is used to help businesses (a.) understand their customer, and (b.) understand their customers’ wants and needs and (c.) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let’s talk about these three different areas.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to understand the customer

In a CRM Customer Relationship Management application and approach a user will collect as much information about a customer that they can. They’ll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children etc. A CRM Customer Relationship Management process does this to, amongst other things; help ‘classify’ their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Customer Relationship Management system is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer ‘types’ are best they can then market to them in a ‘personal’ way – using the information gained about them.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to understand the customers wants and needs

As information is collected about the customers’ personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Customer Relationship Management software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM Customer Relationship Management can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM Customer Relationship Management information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying ‘red apples’ in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it’s something they like to do at that time of year, and you’re offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

CRM Customer Relationship Management is useful to also target new customers

Information gathered in the CRM Customer Relationship Management will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using CRM Customer Relationship Management software could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM Customer Relationship Management, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing towards them.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to help efficiency and effectiveness of business

A good CRM Customer Relationship Management application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customers file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM Customer Relationship Management saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Customer Relationship Management software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a ‘cold’ list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Customer Relationship Management is.

On this website you’ll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM Customer Relationship Management for your business.

Copyright © 2005 by Casey Gollan. All Rights Reserved

Casey A Gollan, The Business Growth Specialist for CRM Software Center - CRM Software Center- All the general information and resources for everything CRM - Customer Relationship Management. Visit http://www.crmsoftwarecenter.com for more articles and info on CRM.

How Can Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Programs Help a Small Business

In this highly competitive world, medium and small business groups struggle for survival. As they established with small capital investments, these organizations usually will not have enough money to overcome the massive promotional campaigns by their large counterparts. Thus the most effective solution they got to keep their customers and to attract new clients is to enhance customer satisfaction through better customer service methods. The mouth publicity by the satisfied customers is the most useful advertising tool for these companies. Offering some great benefits to good customers and creating new plans for infrequent customers can boost the company turnover.

Today, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs have become the most effective tools for all marketing and service providing companies to enhance their customer satisfaction. Now, there are so many CRM vendors who offer different customized customer relationship management solutions according to business needs. You can purchase a standard pre-customized CRM solution or an open source CRM solution, or can hire a hosted/on demand CRM solution. The choice mainly depends on your business structure and volume.

Customer relationship management programs enhance the customer-friendly services by automating all proceedings and procedures in a company. All CRM systems are primarily large customer databases capable of storing all customer information such as customer’s name, address, customer contacting method, ability to spend money on products, money spending per visit etc. The specific programs built in these systems integrate the stored data on demand to identify good customers and help to create better service plans for them.

CRM software systems are capable of automating every thing involved in a small business. The main features of a CRM solution include sales force automation, data tracking, data migration, data integration, contact management, account management, opportunity management, customer service training, custom reporting, product management, lead routing, lead assignment, task management, calendaring, quota management, territory management, partner tracing, sales forecasting, customization analytics, sales analytics, trouble shooting, etc.

For small sized companies, there are two popular CRM options as open source CRM and hosted or on-demand CRM. Open source CRM software programs are customizable CRM programs. These programs are available in standard formats, which can be customized according to the company needs. But the requirement with these CRM solutions is your company must have enough technical knowledge to customize the program. Also there are some pre-customized CRM versions available today.

Hosted CRM or on demand CRM is a web-based application provided by an ASP (Application Service Provider), is an example of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). In this type of CRM solution, all your CRM needs are satisfied by a distant CRM provider. The CRM provider or host will automate all proceedings including data tracking, data integration and data migration. The provider will offer the CRM solutions on your demand and will charge a monthly fee for that. Benefits of on demand CRM include reduction in the initial cost essential for installing a CRM system and accessibility from any part of the world at any time. But before signing a contract with any on demand CRM provider, make sure that he uses special data encryption techniques for securing your data. Also check the data integration capacity of the provider.

Today an another alternative, namely open source hosted CRM, which combines the merits of both open source and hosted CRM is becoming rapidly popular. This CRM solution is proven effective in tackling specific situations. For all CRM types, most providers now offer 30 days free trail, making use of these offers can help you to find a good CRM solution for your company.

This article has been published by eSalesTrack.com, US based provider of on-demand CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and other application software such as Sales Force Automation. To learn more about CRM visit CRM Articles.

The Inbound Call Center and Customer Relationship Management

Call centers are created by organizations to receive inbound calls for varied day-to-day business reasons. Since companies invest tremendous amounts of money into customer- care relationships, they carefully monitor customer perceptions of their efforts to serve them. There’s a growing awareness in the business community that customers are unhappy dealing with computerized message delivery systems. Callers tend to perceive interactive voice response systems (IVR), voicemail, and even a standalone answering machine as too formal and not user friendly. Call centers and answering services that feature live phone operators are viewed much more positively by callers, and give companies a more personal, caring and relaxed image.

Inbound calls to any organization generally fall into one or more categories; calls are placed to obtain information, report a problem or error, or ask for assistance. This is different than outbound calls placed by a sales agent with the purpose of selling a product. This practice is known as telemarketing, which entails a different set of methods and requirements for successful operation. Inbound call centers can be expensive to run, but they are invaluable to today’s businesses.

Companies increasingly outsource their call center needs to large call center companies located in India, The Philippines and some parts of Latin America where there is a large population of professionals who are fluent English speakers. Overseas outsourcing isn’t always necessary. There are many call centers located throughout the United States that large and small companies utilize for inbound customer service and sales calls.

The definition of routine business is constantly expanding to include transactions that used to be handled on site, in person. Call centers offer more to inbound callers than simple message taking, order taking and the like. Call centers are quickly growing to meet the needs of retailers, taking orders for fast-food giants and local restaurants. The agents are taking orders for flowers, gourmet food items, direct-to-video DVDs and just about any other product that’s sold on the open market. Some large call center companies are broadening their range of offerings by increasingly dealing in complicated solutions aimed at low-cost service enhancements. Bundled with automatic services, live inbound call centers thrive all over the globe.

Ira Spere is a writer for EFLS . com where you will discover a wealth of resources on inbound call centers and other related information.

Customer Relationship Management – 2 Secrets Every Small Business Owner Should Know!

When was the last time you received some form of communication, such as a postcard, phone call, or email, from a business asking how satisfied you were with their products and services? If you're like me, you may not be able to remember the last time because it has been so long (almost three years for me).

When was the last time you received some form of communication from a business to thank you for using their products or services or to simply maintain friendly contact with you? Once again, if you're like me, it has been a very long time.

In fact, the last time a business did that with me was almost seven years ago. I had spent several nights at a Bed & Breakfast in Colorado during the summer of 1999, and I received a Christmas card from the owners that Christmas with a picture of their house during one of Colorado's famous blizzards.

It was a nice follow-up on their part. When I received the card, it brought back the memory of the great experience and fun that I had while staying there. It also made a very nice impression on me that they had taken the time and effort to send me such a nice Christmas card (in reality, there wasn't much effort involved on their part, but recipients of this type of communication always magnify the effort in their minds).

This type of follow-up is one area in which almost all businesses fail miserably. Customer relationships are the life force of every business, yet business owners continually neglect these relationships. And it costs them dearly.

Think about all the money that a business may spend on advertising to bring in new customers. Think about all the money that a business may spend on creating a high-quality experience for their customers. Now think about how much most businesses spend to cultivate and reinforce their relationships with current customers.

How about your business? What do you, as a business owner, do to cultivate your relationships with your current customers? A current satisfied customer is your greatest asset. Not only are they already predisposed to continue doing business with you, but they are one of the absolute best sources of new customers through the power of "word-of-mouth" advertising.

Sure, your paid advertising promotes your business as being "the best". But paid advertising is almost never viewed as being objective. After all, everybody's paid advertising promotes their business as being "the best".

On the other hand, when a customer who has no profit motive enthusiastically recommends your business, that recommendation is worth its' weight in gold. People will trust the independent recommendations of others. That's just one of the many reasons why you should always take good care of your customers.

Okay, so how can you cultivate a high-quality relationship with your customers? Let's start by developing a simple action plan that you can begin to use immediately.

First, you need to collect contact information for your customers. Ideally, you should choose a method of contact that fits your type of business. In my example above, the postcard with a picture of the Bed & Breakfast was a great method of contact for that particular type of business. It was personal and effective. If you sell very expensive items, then you may want to consider a personal phone call. For many businesses, email contact may be the best method.

Whatever method of contact you choose, just be sure to let your customers know that you value their privacy and will not disclose their contact information to anyone else (trust is a huge part of any relationship). In some cases, you may even have to offer a little something to encourage your customers to provide their contact information. If necessary, do so.

Second, follow-up with your customers on a regular basis. You will need to decide what that regular basis should be based on the type of business you own. If you own a dress shop, then you may want to contact your customers and let them know that you just received a new inventory of the very latest fashions from one of your best suppliers. In this particular case, email or possibly snail mail will be your best method of contact.

If you own a boat dealership, then you may want to send recent boat buyers a note letting them know that you just received a new shipment of accessories that they may be interested in seeing. You may want to send less recent customers a note telling them about the new boat models you now have in stock and the incredible trade-in program you are currently running. Or maybe you can tell them about a "Customer Appreciation Sale" that you are having.

Perhaps you can contact your customers and offer them a special deal that will allow you to smooth a seasonal demand that your business may have. If you operate a small engine or lawnmower repair shop, then March and April are going to be pretty busy months for you. Why not send a note to your customers in January offering a special discount on lawnmower maintenance if they act by February 15th? That will allow you to level your workload and avoid the huge peaks and valleys in demand that you would normally have to deal with.

I do have one word of caution though; be very careful with the content of your communication with your customers. Always try to provide some value whenever you contact your customers so that they don't just view your contact as nothing more than a cheap and poorly conceived sales pitch.

If you do a good job of cultivating your relationships with your customers, then your business will reap the rewards. So don't delay. Use what you have learned in this article to begin building a strong and lasting relationship with your customers. You'll be glad you did.

About The Author:

Gerald Cook holds a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in Business Administration, and he has extensive real-world business consulting experience. Gerald is the author of the "One book every small business owner or manager should read!" Visit http://www.discovergreatsuccess.com for more details.

Copyright 2006 – Gerald Cook. All Rights Reserved. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you keep all the links active, do not edit or modify the article in any way, properly attribute the article to the author, and follow all the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.

Knowing who's who, where, what and when - 10 Tips for Good Customer Relationship Management

I have been serving customers, guests, clients, friends and family for over 23 years. Serving customers has brought me more and more into the realm of technology where I have been blown away by what I can buy to help me "manage" those relationships better, more effectively, faster.

With new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology I can cross reference data until my imagination becomes tired, extract a myriad of reports, know in detail who is saying what to whom and when in my organization. In different organizations I have seen staff spend hours and hours typing up phone calls, meetings and other interactions - I have also seen these system unused, these entries unread. As much as organizations like to believe their CRM software will keep their staff informed in reality people like to talk to people about people. This is why I see a return to human customer relationship management, the return of the Relationship Manager - the point of contact for the customer and the organization.

23 years ago, as a student, I started out working with a famous hotel chain and they taught me something very valuable - good customer relationship management. Now this was never based on needing to know everything about the guest in fact respect for privacy was always a priority, no, good customer relationship management was about the human touch, the relationship between the customer and me.

10 Good Customer Relationship Management Tips

1. Respect your customer and that means respecting their right for you not to know everything about them.
2. Show genuine interest and learn to actively listen, aim to always help.
3. Trust is everything.
4. No surprises. Do not let your customer or client find out about something that impacts on them from another source.
5. Give notice, if something is going to change let your customer know in advance and prepare them for the change.
6. Be professional, never talk about other clients or customers to others,
7. Put the customer first; even if you do not agree actively try and come to a good solution.
8. Stay in touch.
9. Always say hello, if you are at an event or just walking down the street, always acknowledge with a smile.
10. Ah yes, always acknowledge with a smile.

For further tips on maintaining good customer relationships go to http://www.contactcenter.in/

Nic Howard is a website planner and lover of excellent customer service.

CRM 101 - The Basics of Customer Relationship Management

What is CRM?
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, can be defined as a software program, business strategy, or internet system that helps a business manage and organize its customer database. This includes contacting customers more efficiently, keeping leads hot, aiding in workplace effectiveness, and generally improving customer service and business relationships.

How Does CRM work?
Essentially, CRM works by allowing a representative or agent to access detailed customer information quickly and efficiently while the client is on the line. This means less hassle for the client and a quicker transaction.

For example, say a client contacts a company representative about possibly purchasing the company's product. With CRM, the representative would be able to see if the client had bought anything previously, and if so, what their name is, their age, how long they've used the company, what products they've bought before, how often they buy the product, and much more. This would then allow the representative to suggest and recommend the product or service option that best suits the customer in a timely manner.

Who does CRM benefit?
The beauty of CRM is that is benefits both the customer and the business or service provider. Customers receive a higher level of customer service because their needs are met and anticipated, allowing them to relax through transactions that are often much quicker than they're used to.

The business benefits via improved sales, higher customer confidence and satisfaction, and a more effective work environment. With CRM, a small business or large corporations can know what its customer wants; thus it can provide the service or product the client wants, keeping them as a repeat customer and gaining greater sales volumes.

What are some CRM applications?
CRM applications are created around the same idea as a spreadsheet, where values can be filled in and tabulated to quantify, analyze, and interpret data. A CRM application can both collect and analyze information simultaneously. This means faster, better applications and better ease of use. Clients can download, share or install these programs at their leisure via sites like Salesforce.com.

What is online CRM?
Online CRM is where a business uses an online system to manage its CRM. Straightforward and easy, online CRM is an option often taken by smaller businesses as it allows any representative to access a client's information immediately, without hours of tedious training. A example of an online CRM system might be a 24-hour call center.

What is web based CRM?
Web based CRM is where a business uses real-time updates that are integrated with their existing CRM system. This allows new information to be accessed immediately without any time lapse. It is different from a software-based Customer Relationship Management program in that it allows for live, as-it-happens updates. Thus customer information is always fresh and current.

How do CRM systems help businesses?
CRM systems help businesses by improving customer service and relationships, generating quality leads, monitoring accounts more effectively, always keeping data fresh and ready so leads don’t grow cold, allowing mobile CRM (orders through a mobile device), and managing sales.

Salesforce.com is the world's first on-demand application service and a giant in the field of CRM. With over 24,000 customers, over 500,000 subscribers, and a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Salesforce.com continues to lead their field. To find out more about them, please visit www.salesforce.com.