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Elect CRM for Business Success
from:2008 was a political year that will go down in history, with the help of an incredible presidential platform, grassroots appeal and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama was chosen. CRM is not just about automating call centers and sales. CRM refers to the use of software and tools that can be used in order to increase a customer's satisfaction with your product or service. Resources used in social media can be effectively used for CRM. The Obama campaign did not rely on CRM by itself either. By combing CRM with a Web centric approach the campaign was able to keep millions of voters informed, connect with the media and keep the competition off balance.
Social networking sites are ideal for businesses looking to develop their online presence. Some sites can be used free and even those sites that require users to pay a fee still offer much lower pricing than traditional methods of CRM. One of the keys to Obama's success was his use of Facebook in order to create response, get feedback and gain recognition. The forum acted as a means of attracting attention to his message, but through regular site updates and comments from viewers as new information was released his campaign remained fresh and interesting.
Not only did Facebook and similar applications promote Obama's message to users who joined his network, these users then had the power to craft responses and create messages on their own homepages and Web sites in support of the Obama campaign, instead of Obama bringing his campaign to his audience, his audience came too him! The use of services such as Facebook, also provide built in demographic information on users, which could have been used to help determine how much attention his campaign was attracting, and target messages about campaign stops to users who lived in certain areas, as well as users that represent his core demographic.
The use of CRM in any form is not going to provide business success if your company does not recognize their audience. The reason why Obama's campaign was as success was not because he used CRM and Web 2.0 resources, his campaign won him the election because he used CRM to convert new voters as well as keep loyal voters informed and involved in his campaign.
Though it is doubtful that any business can use CRM to the extent used by the Obama campaign, they are many gains companies of almost any size can make when CRM caters to the client, instead of the client catering to CRM. When used correctly CRM allows the client to achieve results in less time. For example, a customer has a complaint about your business or service, they call in to your call center and their call is picked up by several operators. Each time the customer is forced to explain the situation again before they reach the right channel.
By the time the customer finally reaches the right channel they are frustrated and angry, not only is the customer unlikely to continue supporting a product, they are likely to share their negative opinions about your customer service with other potential customers. With a CRM system in place, customers' calls would get routed to the correct department, and phone operators would have a record in front of them of each time a customer has made contact. Customers could also receive assistance through email, helpdesks and other web-based programs and systems could be put into place that companies priority customers would have their calls answered immediately and never have to wait for service.
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