Saturday, May 10, 2008

Is CRM Suitable only for LARGE Enterprises ?

Not at all... CRM can be implimented even in a small organisation with 2 member team.

So What is CRM for Small Organisations ?
CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management" whether it is a large organisation or Small one. As the word clearly mentions, CRM is completely related to
Customers and their needs,
Customers and their profitablity,
Customers and their advocacy,
Customers and their choice of products or services,
Customers and their satisfaction,
Customers and their behaviour ..... it goes on ..you can guess how many more points can be added along with this.

CRM is been misintrepreted by many, as a technology, where once implimented the same, we will achieve our goal. Its completely wrong. CRM should be considered as a stragegy implimented for a purpose. In general, the purpose will be to improve the Customer satisfaction through effective Relationship management therey by adding numbers to the organisation's profitability.

I have a small organisation, and where should i start if i want to impliment CRM in my organisation ?
1. First draft a document or a one line objective of why you need CRM to be implemneted and what you are expecting out of it.
Dont start the process of CRM for the sake of implementing CRM. There should be a clear cut objective and a Goal to be achived.

Eg: Objective is to increase the Customer Retention rate.
Goal is to attain 90% customer retention over the next 2 year.

2. A firm commitment from the top officials / Managment is a Must for a succesfull CRM.
Its the owners who has to sponsor the program, not the employees. It clearly tell us the importance of CRM in the their business process. Obviously, its the parents who want their kids to lead a quality life.

3. Define a well drafted process to full fill the objective.
If there is a process which is been implimented through out the organisation, its better to guage the result. The process can be implemented with the help of technology. You can find many orgnaisations giving CRM technology. Be cautious in selecting the technology vendor.

Technology will help you to alaign the process of the 3 important sections of CRM.
Sales Force - The most important customer touch points in any organistion
Marketing - The power house of any organisation, which study and frame the most effective method of promoting a product / service
Support - One of the strategic department in any organisation dealing with customers and their issues / queries.

4. Analyse the results frequently to know wheter you are in correct path to achieve your goal. If needed rearrange the process.
Analysing the result in a regular intervel is the biggest challenge in implementing CRM. Keep a frequency for review and analysis - minimum of Once in a month.

Taking the sugestions of the persons involved will help you in a good way to achive your target.

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