CRM Can Help Keep Customers Happy
There is one thing that is true about me, and that is the fact that I have never won anything in any sort of giveaway, sweepstake or raffle –yet.
Once, I attended an art exhibit along with four other people, and every single one of them won a prize in a raffle except for me, of course.
Nonetheless, I have not given up! Just the other day I entered an online raffle to win two airline tickets to Switzerland sponsored by SwissAir.
Three ways a business can integrate their CRM or customer relationship management is through social, mobile and traditional CRM.
Leverage Social CRM
All you had to do is like their page on Facebook, fill out a short form - making me a lead in their database, and give an explanation why I wanted to win the prize. All of this is easily trackable by today's CRM software. The cost effectiveness of this approach to your sales process has been proven by all types of businesses.
Improve the Buyer's Journey
Because such actions can be tracked and actioned using a CRM system, you can design a content driven buyer's journey through your sales funnel, that performs better than any other approach - and measure every step of the process.
Monitor Real Time Key Performance Indicators
A system like Hubspot CRM, which provides a marketing and sales platform that is fully integrated with social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, allow you to define and track KPIs that indicate how your business is doing, in real time. So, for instance, a KPI for this type of campaign would most likely include the number of people who submitted an answer to the question of why they wanted to win, and who subsequently bought something.
Provide an Improved Customer Experience
Just as I am writing this, my favorite swimsuit brand posted on Facebook a chance for Instagram users to win a new suit by following them, reposting their picture, and tagging the photo with their hashtag brand name. For a small business, this can be a great tactic to improve their customer engagement metrics. It can also be a great way of increasing customer retention and customer loyalty as well as improving customer satisfaction metrics, such as NPS. After all, happy customers who are willing to post something about their favorite swimsuit is of tremendous value to any brand.
Boost Sales Efficiency With the Right Metrics
Not only can you provide an improved customer experience, you can radically boost your sales efficiency by measuring every step your potential buyer takes. This will pinpoint those points in your sales funnel where you should concentrate your efforts, which should allow you to improve your marketing efforts with cost effective approaches driven by the data.
We shall see if my losing streak will live on!
The fact of the matter is that these are two fantastic customer relationship marketing examples of how businesses are currently engaging their current customers, and simultaneously gaining new ones. Even more importantly, it shows how existing customers can help drive new customer acquisition, at greatly reduced cost.
Evolving Customer Relationships
It is very apparent how customer relationship management has evolved through the years as the marketing trend has leaned towards social and mobile platforms.
Fortunately, businesses now have three great ways to integrate their customer relationship marketing within their marketing plans. Each of these can go a long ways toward providing customer experiences your customers will cherish.
The Social Route:
Since social media has become a standard in an average consumer's life, CRM integration within social outlets online need to become a standard for every business as well.
Social Cross-Selling Opportunities
The beauty of social CRM is that it is built within a community mind-set that can be easily shared and viewed by the public. Smart algorithms are able to leverage knowledge about what one person likes and make intelligent product recommendations to their friends.
Drive Brand Loyalty
A business needs to think about how they can encourage loyalty to their brand once they confirm a customer’s social media engagement and support through Facebook, Instagram or another social media site.
Of course there are many clever and creative ways a business can promote their brand while establishing benefits for their customer base.
Use Innovative and Unique Customer Loyalty Tactics
This can be done through reward programs and online coupons as well as giveaways and contests like SwissAir’s airline ticket contest and my favorite swimsuit line bathing suit giveaway promoted through Facebook.
The Mobile Route:
Right Time Messaging
Businesses can now engage their customers on the go via their mobile devices through SMS, MMS, push notifications, and geolocation technologies. With immediate notifications sent to a mobile phone or tablet, a business can possibly get instant sales and interactions they are aiming for.
These days, I can’t tell whether or not the sounds coming from my iPhone are actual phone calls, texts, or notifications from one of my many mobile apps.
Many of the mobile applications I use such as Living Social and Fab.com constantly keep me updated via my phone with special deals of the day or coupons for local businesses.
The Traditional Route:
The older methods of customer relationship management should still be incorporated with a business’s current marketing tactics and CRM tools.
Some of what can be described as more traditional customer relationship management tools include direct mail and email campaigns.
Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns
While all consumers are still checking their mailboxes and inboxes online, successful business development effort may still require businesses to send out promotional items, coupons, and updates to keep their customers engaged and promote their marketing campaigns to make sure they are utilizing all marketing venues to their maximum value.
Value of the Brand Must Relate to Perceived Benefits
When it comes down to it, a customer will maintain their brand loyalty to a business if the benefits are there whether it is through social, mobile or traditional CRM.
CRM Goals Need to Be Clear
Set Clear Goals and Objectives
A business needs to make sure that all three ways of customer engagement are congruent with their marketing goals and objectives and the customer is gaining the benefits needed to nurture the CRM relationship.
Key CRM Goals and Performance Objectives
While we've discussed a lot in this blog, I think you should keep the following CRM Performance Goals in mind:
Customer Turnover Metric
The customer turnover metric helps you track the number of customers you have lost in a given time period and is also sometimes called customer churn. This metric enables you to measure and analyze your customer retention and churn rate.
Customer Acquisition Cost
The cost of customer acquisition is one of the most important metrics you need to be aware of. It simply helps you measure your total costs divided by the number of new customers you acquired.
A low customer acquisition cost will let you acquire more customers and increase your revenue.
Won Lead Index
This metric can be calculated by dividing the total number of leads you get in a month by how many sales you've generated.
This metric helps you determine how effective your CRM goals are. For example, if your CRM goal is to generate 100 leads and you make only 20 sales, that's a Won Lead Index of 5.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
This metric is used to measure your customer loyalty. Your NPS score can be calculated by subtracting your percentage of detractors from your percentage of promoters.
The calculation is:
NPS Score = % of Promoters – % of Detractors
A high NPS score will help you improve your customer loyalty.
This is how you calculate your NPS score:
Promoters = % of Customers who are very likely to recommend your products or services to others Detractors = % of Customers who are likely to stop purchasing your products or services. For Hubspot Enterprise Suite customers, there is a built in NPS measurement capability which you should definitely take advantage of.
Customer Effort Score (CES)
This metric measures the customer’s experience in getting their queries answered or issues resolved. A high CES will help you improve your customer satisfaction and customer relationships. For those Hubspot customers who also use the Hubspot Service Hub, you will have both the tool to deliver outstanding customer service as well as a system to measure and improve it.
Rate of Renewal
This is a relatively easy metric to calculate. It involves calculating the number of customers who renew a service or product. Then you divide this by the number of customers you have in total.
For major contracts and paid services, it’s best to take the average rate of renewal.
Expansion Revenue
This metric refers to the amount of revenue a company generates from existing customers through upselling and cross-selling. To find this metric, you will need to calculate the number of opportunities created by existing customers. Then you will need to calculate the total revenue generated from those opportunities.
First Contact Resolution Rate (FCR)
This metric measures the percentage of customer issues that are resolved with the very first contact. Knowing and using this metric can help you improve your customer support and identify which customers are having issues. Right after resolving their issues, you should follow up with them to help them get back on track.
CRM Systems Provide a Single Source of the Truth
The ultimate goal of the discipline of customer relationship management, and associated CRM Systems, is efficiently managing and improving business relationships. By tracking every customer interaction across the full customer engagement lifecycle, you have a system that provides a single source of the truth, no matter who in the organization is looking.
Analytical CRM Capabilities
While having a single source of the truth is essential to successfully using a CRM system, getting agreement on what the 'truth' is, can be challenging. That's why analytical CRM capabilities must be integral to your CRM system. Not an external add-on.
Get Everyone in the Organization on the Same Page
One of the key benefits of having a cloud based, CRM marketing, sales and service platform, fully integrated with all of the other business systems your organizations uses, is that everyone is on the same page. From the executive suite to the warehouse dock worker, as well as business partners external to the organization, a properly designed and implemented CRM system means your customer will hear from the right person, at the right time, with the right message. Now that music to my ears.
Help Your Sales Team Increase Sales
With the right CRM system coupled with the right CRM goals, you have the foundation in place to drive much higher sales performance. When your SMART business goals are set up within your CRM system, you can actually reduce cost while focusing on the highest priority deals. Your system can help your sales teams do the right thing at the right time.
Easy CRM Implementation
While CRM implementations used to take months or years, the Hubspot CRM system can be turned on in a few seconds. While there are a number of 'must do' steps, such as identifying the various user roles, and configuration of your product and service catalog, in reality, we can get most clients 'live' in a day. Then it is a matter of perfecting your setup, which can be done rapidly.
Ideal CRM Strategy
Your CRM Strategy should be an ever-evolving process, with your objectives adapting over time as your business grows. No matter your size or the results you achieve, your success will always depend on giving your customers the best possible experience.
Inbound Marketing Agency
Sometimes it is hard to get going on a new marketing platform such as mobile marketing, check out my blog for 5 Logical Reasons for Hiring A Mobile Marketing Agency.
Beginners Guide to CRM
For those that want a simple CRM or just need to know more about how CRM might be able to help them you might benefit from our "Beginners Guide to CRM".
Until Next Time...
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