1. Orchestrating Your Customer Information: CRM Symphony
Dears.
In any CRM implementation customer view point is essential. Therefore it becomes perfunctory
that the necessary information regarding their profiles, behaviors, likes and dislikes are
orchestrated together. Aside from its absolute necessity for the implementation of CRM, the
collation of customer information is essential to an organization. It is only with respect to this that
most organization decisions are made and therefore the assembling of this data is vitally essential.
Why collect Customer Information?
New Products
New products and services can sometimes be the result of customer surveys. When customers
actually suggest new ideas and they prove to be rewarding companies sometimes take them up on
their suggestions and innovate new products. This information can also be obtained from customer
feedback
Room for Improvement
Organizations can spot opportunities for improvement when they listen intently to what the
customer has to say. In CRM customer view is the most important one and should be paid attention
to.
Customer Retention
Learning the customer, what is most important to him and catering to his needs goes a long way in
maintaining customer retention.
Gaining old Customers
Lost customers can be recovered and sales thus boosted as a direct consequence of gaining
information about why they left in the first place.
Customer Information can be collected from sources like:
Information collected from other companies
An organization can opt for interviewing competitors customers to get additional
information on what they can do to improve their products.
Information collected from sister concerns or parent companies as a result of the
customer's interaction with them.
Information colleted over the phone, emails or even snail mail
It is crucially important to gather information that has already been obtained within the
organization and give it to the concerned employees
Customer information can be obtained from the internet
Rather than opting for paper or electronic surveys it is often better to use direct interviews
as direct interaction always enables the gaining of more information from the right source
Information that is collected from application forms, customer surveys, sweepstakes
coupon entries, stores etc.
Information collected when the company website is visited
Here's what you can do to orchestrate 'more effective' customer information:

2. Listen to the Customer
It is imperative to create an atmosphere wherein the employee ensures that he listens to the
customer. Valuable information is gained this way. A viable atmosphere wherein even negative
feedback should be encouraged is essential if the company hopes to gain valuable customer
suggestions. It is most important to listen to the people who are closest to the products and
services. Doing this provides a powerful tool to collect information on customer likes and dislikes.
Logical Thinking
It is important to think logically and use the primary resources in the areas that are most important
to CRM to listen effectively to the customer in order to avoid wastage of resources.
Put yourself in the Customers Shoes
When a company looks at things from a customer's perspective, it will see the difficulties a
customer often faces with the concerned products. It is essential to focus more on this than the
companies own perspective. This is essential as companies obtain an understanding of the
customer's use of the product, collect the required information and translate it into what is
required for betterment.
Take the Good with the Bad
Most customers will be reluctant to reveal information that they are not happy with. Addressing
direct questions is essential and needs to be done in order to find exactly what the problems are
that customers face.
An organization can opt for any of the above methods or all of them. Depending on the resources an
organization possesses it can decide. It is important to focus on the CRM customer view throughout
the implementation of CRM and indulge in the usage of the collated customer data, effectively and
efficiently.