Sales usage and/ or compliance of a CRM system can vary widely for many reasons. Some sales talent believe that they personally own the account contacts and are a conduit to the relationship. Some posture and pontificate on compliance and then do not lead by example. Some just don’t like…
Category: CRM
Sales Pipeline process changes…
In my experience, pipeline/forecast is one area of a CRM system that seems to change frequently. I have seen this both from the consulting side and as a user. Not going to comment on whether it is right or wrong, just that it happens, often, as a matter of fact…
It is not about the technology…
Customers Want Productivity, Not Products Solid article by Jessica Tsai detailing the recent Microsoft Convergence conference. I have always has success tying productivity solutions to technology, so that customers are now vocalizing this need does not come as a surprise.
Integration requirements for CRM, CTI
CTI integration with CRM systems is typically limited to Sales and Support offerings. Since phone systems change less often than other pieces of technology, these integrations have been “set and forget” when properly scoped. I have clients that have not touched the CTI integrations of deployments ever. These integrations are…
Doing more with less
Increases in customers means increases in customer support. An effective tactic when starting a self-service initiative is to reassure Customer Support that the organization has to do more with less. Not less people, more support with the same number of people. During the bubble, it was because businesses would not…
More on Self-Service
If there is one constant driver for customer service, it is contact reduction. Every customer service group wants less contacts. Rarely is the solution obvious and customer service representatives (CSR) in good times and bad always seem fearful of their jobs. The idea or notion of self-service to improve the…
Self-Service Success?
Many years ago, a client had recently deployed a self-service initiative that was hearlded as a great success. The project that I was working on was going to be held to that standard. I decided that I need to talk to a few CSRs at the client to understand what…
Self-Serivce
Growth Through Self-Service Online self-service portals can become high-performance growth engines amid challenging economic times. This post on self-service in CRM has me reflecting on my past experiences with self-service. Too much for a single post, so this week will be dedicated to CRM self-service opportunities and challenges.
Thoughts on Project Success
I had a conversation recently with a friend and former colleague on the state of IT. A common theme was that for all the advances in technology, projects still fail at an alarming rate. This got me to think about two clients of mine. Both were large enterprise software companies…
Integration requirements for CRM, Challenges and opportunities
Challenges and opportunities Integration outside the enterprise firewall needs to encompass the capabilities of the organization. Larger enterprises have investments in SOA and ESB providing them with new capabilities that can be utilized. Many organizations without these capabilities will find that standard point to point integration will more than meet…