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How Customer
Friendly is Your Business? Three Ways to Use the Web to Improve
Customer Relations, Part 3
By Tom Swanson
In the last installment of this series, I talked about the second major
step for improving customer relations, which involves using incentive
programs to collect current and potential customer data, reward current
customers, and encourage new patronage. In this, the third and final
installment of this series, I’ll talk about some of the tools that are
available for you to utilize when implementing your customer-service
programs.
Often, business owners looking to boost their customer relations have
good ideas about what programs they would like to implement, but they’re
not aware of the tools that are available for them to utilize to make
those programs a reality.
Step Three: Choosing the Right Tools to Support Your Customer Service
Efforts
The third major step to improving your customer relations is choosing
which tools you’ll use to bolster your efforts. Communication with
customers is the most important element in any customer-service program,
and there are several tools that are tailored to facilitate this
communication. I’ll discuss some of those tools here.
Customer-Relations Management Tool
A customer-relations management (CRM) tool is essentially a turnkey
system for managing all aspects of your customer relations. The term
“customer-relations management” can mean several things, including
generating leads, planning marketing campaigns, and communicating with
prospective and current customers. Overall, though, CRM is a process by
which a company develops long-lasting and mutually beneficial
relationships with its customers.
Specifically, for the purposes of this article, a CRM tool refers to
software or web browser-based programs that assist businesses in their
customer-relations management. Having a good CRM tool is integral to
the success of your customer-relations programs and your business in
general. A “good” CRM tool is kind of a relative term, so you’ll have
to select one that best fits your needs.
However, most credible CRM tools should include basic features like data
storage and management, marketing campaign management, and tools to stay
in contact customers. The more elaborate your CRM needs, the more
robust you’ll need your tool to be. Some popular browser-based CRM
tools include InfusionSoft’s ManagePro (http://www.infusionsoft.com/products/manageprocrm/)
and Salesforce (http://www.salesforce.com/products/).
Most of the CRM tools on the market cost money to use, but you can find
a good, free, all-purpose CRM tool at BoldCenter (http://www.boldcenter.com/)
if you want to test the water and see what they’re all about.
Email
Email has become the most common way that businesses communicate with
their customers. It’s easily the most cost-effective, efficient, and
convenient way to keep existing and potential customers abreast of the
latest news and offers, and to facilitate other important aspects of
CRM, like customer service and support. There are several applications
for using email to communicate to your customers, and many CRM tools
include these applications as part of their suite of features.
E-Newsletters - Once you’ve collected current and potential customer
data, you have to be able to communicate with those customers – and not
just to try to get them to purchase your latest offer. The whole reason
that you want to implement CRM into your business is to build
relationships with your customers, and e-newsletters are a great way to
do just that.
E-newsletters are simply electronic versions of hardcopy newsletters,
and they serve the same function that traditional, hardcopy newsletters
do – keeping customers abreast of the latest news and anything else that
might be of interest to them. Smart businesses make sure that their
newsletters also include how-to articles, free resources, reference
materials, and other items of interest for their recipients.
Most CRM tools have email-communication capabilities built in, and some
even have template-building tools for e-newsletters, but if you have a
basic CRM tool, you might need to look elsewhere for some e-newsletter
software. One of my favorites is Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com).
It’s robust enough to handle most any e-newsletter needs, and it’s
simple enough to use that just about anyone can make a go of it. Plus
they offer a free trial period, so you can test it out to see if you
like it before you commit to anything.
Special Offer & New Product Notifications – If you’re doing a good job
of establishing mutually beneficial relationships with your customers
via your e-newsletter, it’s completely okay to send out email
notifications that are more sales oriented. Two common types of these
notifications are for special offers and new products. A special offer
might be an upcoming sale or a discount on an item you’re trying to
liquidate – whatever you deem appropriate enough to dub “special.”
Obviously, a new product notification is just what it sounds like. When
you get a new product in, why not notify your customers? If they took
the initiative to sign up for your newsletter, it’s a good bet that
they’re interested in your products, especially if you’ve done a good
job of building rapport with them. And, if you’re diligent about
tracking what kind of purchases your customers make, you can even target
certain segments of your customer list to notify certain customers about
products that are similar to what they’ve purchased in the past.
One-to-One Customer Service Chat
Another great tool for CRM that you can utilize on the web is one-to-one
customer service chat. These chatting programs are just like
conventional instant messenger applications – essentially a two-way,
real time chat that occurs over the Internet. Here’s how it works:
you’d place an icon that’s provided to you from your customer service
chat provider in a conspicuous place on your web site. This icon
contains a hyperlink that, when clicked on, will notify one of your
customer service reps (CSRs) that there’s someone on your site that has
a question or needs assistance in some way.
The whole thing functions through an internet-based interface that your
CSRs access. The interested party can ask the CSR questions about your
products, the ordering process, billing, updates, and other information
and get answers right on the spot. This is one advance in technology
that has greatly improved business’ CRM abilities by offering immediate
access to real, live customer service personnel. A good
customer-service chat resource that you can check out for free is
BoldCenter’s BoldChat (http://www.boldchatplus.com/).
In a day and age when lack of customer service is the norm and not the
exception, it’s more important than ever for you to make sure that you
have a customer-service relations plan of action in place for your
business. More and more consumers cite customer service as a primary
factor in whether or not they’ll patronize a business again. Are you
providing your customers with satisfactory service? How will your
customer relations set you apart from the competition and ensure that
your clientele will be loyal patrons for years to come? If you don’t
know the answers to these questions, then it’s time to start on your
customer relations strategy right away, and integrating the tips and
tools that I’ve covered in this series is a great place to start.
Author: Tom Swanson
Web Site:
http://www.lowhangingfruit.com
Email:
tom@itimeinc.com
Phone: 563-323-4609
Tom Swanson’s experience in sales, marketing, copywriting, multi-media
advertising, and publishing have given him incredible insight into the
world of marketing both online and off. Tom writes articles to help
local businesses learn to strategically leverage their Internet presence
and capture easy online profits. His articles include thoughtful,
down-to-earth explanations of various marketing media and philosophies,
and local businesses can take away simple tools, ideas, and techniques
that they can implement to shape their local Internet marketing efforts.
© 2005 Low-Hanging Fruit
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