What is a Customer Service Management Strategy (CRM)

What was once the traditional buyer-seller model has shifted from transactions to more customer focused. Customer relationships today need higher levels of maintenance, which is why businesses now have entire CRM strategies dedicated to managing them.

A Customer Service Relationship Management strategy is a plan to grow sales and improve customer service through a combination of processes, actions, and technology. It typically involves the sales, marketing, and customer service functions of a business.

One reason is consumers have larger expectations than ever when it comes to customer service. They’re not going to think twice about going elsewhere if your customer service isn’t up to their standards.

We are inclined to think about CRM software when we hear the words 'CRM Strategy'. Software is one piece of a much larger strategy.

The best Customer Relationship Management strategy incorporates both people and software.

A good CRM strategy will help you with the following:

• Give an enjoyable customer experience at all points of the customer's journey with your business.

• Strengthen co action between sales, marketing, and customer service teams.

• Quickly and clearly identify the most worthwhile leads and opportunities.

• Keep track of your leads and customers.

• Carry out targeted marketing campaigns.

• Produce data insights to inform and guide your potential business strategies.

There are a couple of essential steps you want to follow when creating a successful CRM strategy.

Define your CRM strategy vision and goals

The first thing to do before creating a CRM strategy is to revisit your overall business strategy and business goals.

Create a vision of what you want to achieve from the CRM strategy. Defining a clear purpose from the beginning is key.

Think about how you want to contribute to the success of your business. A few common CRM strategy goals are:

• Increased customer satisfaction

• Higher productivity and efficiency

• Decreasing customer complaints rates

Remember, your CRM strategy is not an end in itself. It exists to drive business goals. You will need to integrate it into the overall strategy of the business in order for it to be effective

Define your target customer

You need to understand who is purchasing from you and how to support strong customer relationships and attract quality leads. Having a clear and defined buyer profile is essential to becoming a customer-centric business. It’s key to ensuring your teams are focused on the true needs and expectations of your customers.

Try creating a detailed buyer persona that represents your ideal customer. Include information such as demographic and behavioral characteristics, as well as interests, challenges, and aspirations.

Some research methods you may want to use are:

• Interview your sales and customer service teams

• Study different customer profiles and interview customers directly

• Send customer surveys

Knowing exactly who to target will make sure your sales and marketing don’t waste time on irrelevant leads.

Define your customer journey

To master customer relationship management, you need to know every step of the customer journey. Then you need to ensure a superior customer experience at each of those touchpoints. Map out every interaction with the customer from the moment of first contact with your business.

When mapping each stage of the buyer journey, ask yourself:

• Which team/process is interacting with the customer at that moment?

• How can these interactions be improved?

• Based on what you know about your customer, are these his or her preferred means of communication? Could there be a more effective way to get your message across?

• What is the customer trying to achieve?

• What challenges does the customer face? How can you offer better support?

• What content is the customer coming into contact with?

Highlight areas for improvement and set up who handles what.

Establish the processes for a 360° customer experience

Ask yourself, do you have the resources in place to offer a 360-degree customer experience?

Do an audit of roles and responsibilities to check all the necessary bases are being covered.

Examples of areas to optimize the processes are:

• Pre-sales: How are you doing when it comes to analyzing customer needs, gathering information, and putting together business cases?

• Sales operation: What sales tasks can be automated to increase efficiency?

• Customer relationship management: Are you tailoring to your customers’ needs? Are your communications personalized and pertinent?

• After-sales: Have you got the necessary support systems in place to resolve customer problems prompt manner? What feedback do you receive on the quality of your customer service?

In short, ask yourself ‘How can I do it better?’ Then make the necessary changes within your organization.

Study the market and know your positioning

It’s always a good idea to look to the competitive landscape for inspiration when developing CRM strategies.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Where does your company fit into the market?

• What is your unique selling proposition, what makes you different from others?

• How do your competitors separate themselves?

• What opportunities exist?

• Can you learn anything about how your competitors handle customer relationships?

• What are the trends in your industry right now?

The answers should offer a better understanding of the landscape you are competing in.

Knowing your product or service

Familiarize yourself with the products or services you offer. Revise and develop your product and service narrative and elaborate your value proposition. Ask yourself. What are the messages you want to send? What benefits do you want to highlight? Why should a customer choose you over your competitors?

Communicate this new narrative internally and carry out employee training if necessary. Everyone needs to be on the same page, relaying the same message. Consistency is key when speaking to customers. This is a good opportunity to define your brand tone of voice as well. Put in place best practice guidelines for communicating with customers. Every customer should be getting the same information.

Invest in CRM software that best suits your business needs

Investing in a CRM software for your business is great for collaborating between teams, storing customer data and keeping track of all interactions between you.

When looking for the right software for your business, define your CRM software needs by evaluating your existing business processes and getting input from teams. The main factors to be considered when choosing a CRM software are price, capabilities, and ease of use. It’s also important that your CRM can integrate with your existing tools.

Once you have the software, you need to define rules for using it. Appoint an admin to manage user access. When and how will your teams use this software?

You should define what makes up a lead, prospect, or opportunity. Consider putting in place a pilot committee that’ll be responsible for training people how to use the CRM software.

Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

For strategic actions to be effective they need to be backed up by figures and data – and your CRM strategy is no exception. You need to be able to measure its progress. You want to give your team some concrete targets to work towards using the outline you previously created.

When setting objectives for your teams consider the acronym S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound).

Examples of performance metrics you may want to include are:

• Customer satisfaction

• Customer retention

• Customer turnaround or when a customer leaves the company

• Profits (overall total, totals per customer/account)

The success of your CRM strategy depends on the levels of engagement and collaboration of your teams. Get your employees on board from the beginning. Keep them informed, educated, and up to date on all aspects of your CRM strategy.