01 Feb Using CRM for Returning Customers

Today, it is no secret whatsoever that it is always much more expensive to take on new customers than it is to convince existing customers to stay with your company. This has resulted in customer retention being the main focus of many CRM systems. CRM applications offer numerous service function, however, many companies are unaware of how they can be used to help you keep your best customers and protect future revenues. Here are tips for using CRM technology to keep customers coming back for more. 1. Within the system, integrate scheduled tasks that pertain to customer service and customer response in an effort to proactively follow up with customers. 2. In order to prevent losing any customer details, a CRM system allows you to create a CRM workflow that alerts you if an account is neglected. 3. Anything that is time sensitive, such as membership information should have activities scheduled around it that will send communications aiming to increase renewal rates. 4. Apply profiles and categories to customer records, so that the users within your company can see the worth of each account. 5. Segment active and high value customers using CRM groups or lists to keep these accounts visible to everyone. 6. In order for an effective retention strategy, you should aim to integrate your CRM system with your accounting department. As well as improving order processing and nullifying the possibility of double entry, your staff who are constantly corresponding with the customers now have the ability to easily check the order history on each account in order to predict their future requirements and make recommendations. 7. Share CRM with customer facing teams wherever people work via mobile, web browser or desktop PC in order to provide every member of your team with a comprehensive overview of account details. 8. Workflow automation can be used in order to make note of customer complaints in order to achieve clarity with any complications. 9. Advanced options within the CRM system allow you to apply alerts to any account or case when it has been newly opened, shut down or updated, which results in everybody being kept up to speed. 10. CRM reports are incredibly valuable, and will help you to develop staff incentive schemes that reward users for outstanding performance in key areas, such as the number of accounts they service within a month, or number of cases per week.