Originally published in Allstream Mindshift.
Every business depends on its ability to do at least three things: find prospective customers, turn them into actual customers and keep them satisfied as customers.
That’s why customer relationship management principles and practices permeate today’s business. They help business leaders design strategy, act on that strategy and gather information that tells them how they did.
But customer relationship management is not a destination. It’s a never-ending voyage, and the information gathered serves as the compass towards more profitable relationships with their customers.
To succeed, businesses must not only have the best available compass, but should understand which direction to take and how to plot the right course. That is why many clients choose Allstream as they embrace Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems in their quest for favourable trade winds and more profitable sailing.
Implicit in the system, but not always explicit in a business, is the direction in which the compass should point. True north has little to do with products, services, or the company that offers them. Rather, the needle must show what customers want. With that, a chart can be drawn for the course that products, services, and the company should take.
That course involves developing a strategy to steer people, processes and resources towards both desired outcomes and actionable business intelligence. That intelligence then leads to better business strategy and iterative improvement in customer relationship management. Iteratively – that is how successful organizations manage the relationships it enjoys with its customers.
Allstream offers several courses to CRM success. Should a firm choose to own a CRM system in-house, Allstream can implement stand-alone systems like Oracle. If a customer prefers to outsource this systems, it can take advantage of Allstream’s Microsoft hosted CRM solution, part of Allstream Collaboration Suite, a complete collaboration-enhancing solution that helps firms meet customer needs at previously unimagined speeds.
The route to improved customer relationships and the riches they provide can be fraught with difficulty. Let Allstream help you chart the most profitable course.