Whitepaper
Not investing in CRM is more expensive than implementing it!
Are you wondering if investing in a CRM solution is a wise
decision? Let's look at how popular it is - worldwide CRM revenues
touched $9.14 billion in 2008 and the total software revenue growth
for CRM software in 2010 was 14.2%, returning to the double-digit
growth trajectories observed from 2004 through 2008. Weaker growth
of 1.3% in 2009 reflects tighter budgets during the economic
downturn, resulting in sharp declines for new license revenue among
many vendors (source: Gartner).
Let us begin by exploring what are the common reasons companies
often site for not investing in a CRM -
- We already have some single-problem solutions
- We are not in the business to use CRM
- We're too busy with other initiatives
- We think it is too expensive to implement a CRM
- We think it will take too long before results are seen
- Isn't CRM for bigger organisations?
- Isn't CRM for call centers?
Not Investing is More Expensive
Until a serious CRM initiative is underway, the primary source
of customer intelligence in an organization remains the finance
department. No wonder so many decisions go wrong!
In absence of a comprehensive CRM solution, businesses often
spend up to 70% of their time on non-core activities - valuable
time lost that lowers productivity. This means that when companies
look to do more, it is natural for them to look at adding more
people, hence directly inflating fixed cost. Is there a smarter way
to do more with less? To answer this, let us begin by exploring
what causes productivity to be drained and the associated cost
implications.
As most organizations grow, seldom do they change the way they do
business with their customers. This means doing more of the same in
larger volumes rather than optimizing the way itself. Let us
examine some of the top ways that productivity is drained -
Struggle for information
Does your team have access to unified customer data on a single
click? Often teams spend a lot of their time trying to collate data
from various systems or departments to create their version of the
truth. As companies grow, the struggle deepens, resulting in a
further dip in efficiency.
Interdepartmental coordination
You know that your customer needs certain things done in a hurry.
However, fulfilment often spans multiple departments, each with its
own priorities and problems. Hence, valuable time is lost in
chasing various departments to ensure work is done within the
expected time-frame. Worse, it is often impossible to get accurate
status visibility across departmental walls, directly compromising
the team's abilities.
Effort duplication
A lot of time is spent chasing similar accounts across
departments, building individual bridges, attending to duplicate
leads or services requests across channels, etc. This drives up
transaction costs and inversely impacts team productivity.
Impact of attrition
With attrition companies often lose visibility into sales
pipelines, contacts, prospects and deal navigation strategies.
While some of it can be salvaged, in absence of a process, data is
seldom available. It is estimated that more than 81% of pipeline
momentum is lost, as new account managers struggle to reclaim
control.
Relationship rebuilding
In absence of CRM, there is no common platform to keep structured
relationship information like interaction history, key contacts,
account insights, preferences etc. Hence, years spent in building
relationship are either not leveraged by other departments or lost
to attrition.
Non-correlated reporting
Due to a mix of excel reporting and various systems it is often
impossible to correlate reports. Hence, visits can't be accounted
for, claims can't be verified and false movement is hard to detect!
This directly impacts the ability of the management to do
mid-course correction for strategies.
Investing in CRM
After analysing how crippling it is without a CRM, let us look
at some of its advantages -
Reduce wastage, improve process
efficiency
CRM empowers organizations to become more customer-centric by
streamlining processes and practices. In the areas of marketing,
sales, servicing and delivery it reduces cycle times
considerably.
Pipeline visibility for mid-course
corrections
Sales managers and representatives get an end-to-end visibility
into their pipeline due to sophisticated organizational tools - a
key to take decisive course correction actions.
Improve satisfaction and build customer
loyalty
By offering reliability and consistency, CRM software paves a
concrete path towards living up to your brand promise and improving
customer loyalty plus strengthening relationships.
Make call centers more efficient
Speed up information dissemination with consistency and accuracy
by giving employees all the information they need within their
capacity.
Increase cross-sell and up-sell
With the advantage of having a full 360° view of customers,
employees can easily cross-sell and up-sell to customers based on
their buying patterns and profiles.
Identify new customers
Identify new customers by running marketing campaigns that ensure
promotions do not target customers who have already purchased that
particular product. Employ selective targeting of potential
customers based on the buying patterns of existing customers.
Simplify Processes and Procedures
Allow sales reps to concentrate on their primary activities,
making them devoid of data integrity checks, timely escalations,
inter-departmental flow routing, etc.
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