What Not To Do: Random horror stories from the trenches.
My "CRM Metrics" post brought up the word "actionable". It means either something you can use to take positive action on, or something you can be sued for. Which brought to mind a tip for you...
A wise company will carefully NOT have a place in the application for call center reps to enter private comments about the callers; because no matter how private it is supposed to be, this information is “discoverable” in litigation. I know some horror stories in this area, but I shall demure listing their details; they are probably no worse than those your fevered imagination can come up with.
Suffice to say there are some words that just never belong anywhere in a CRM system’s data, including “snotty”, “stupid”, and “liar” (as well as most swear words).
Friday, February 13
Tuesday, February 10
CRM Metrics
What the heck are CRM Metrics? Let’s start with some classic ones:
1. Coverage / frequency of sales force visit, by customer, by quarter
2. Complaints by Product, by month
3. Web site visits by referrer, by campaign
Each of these has a time component and an outcome component, and each is incomplete in its own way. Let’s try it again:
1. Coverage / frequency of sales force visit, by customer, by quarter. Put one version in order by customer sales volume, and another in order by customer profitability per unit sold.
2. Complaints by Product, by month. Trend this year over year (seasonal adjustments), and note times of new advertising campaigns and new product launches.
3. Web site visits by referrer, by campaign. See which sources of contact led to new purchases or new inquiries.
This is closer to something “actionable”. (The word in legal circles means something you can be sued for, but in CRM terms it’s data you use to can take useful actions.)
So now we might get answers we can do something with. Each of the insights below is based on actual results I’ve seen over my 20 years in CRM.
1. a) Acme & Sons doesn’t buy that much but they pay full price, a slight volume increase there would help a lot.
1. b) Beta Co. is our fourth-largest customer when you add all our product lines they buy. Each of the three sales reps we have calling on them thought they were a smaller customer, and didn’t know about the other reps.
1. c) Beauty Supply has low volume and low profits; the scantily-clad receptionist is not a valid reason to visit them every week!
2. a) Complaints about leaking bottles doubled in the past quarter. See if there is something wrong with the bottle-making process. Did we outsource something that we need to inspect better?
2. b) We had several dozen new “I love it” calls on the new Autumn Spice fragrance. Should we do a Christmas fragrance? Or continue this all year long?
2. c) All three members of the Flea and Cockroach Anti-defamation League call us each day, complaining about our advertising. Report on this separately so we can ignore it.
3. a) We got 17,000 visits from BigSite.com, average stay at our site, 5 seconds, 22 purchases. We got 150 visits from FocusedSite.com, average stay 7 minutes, 18 purchases. See if we can find more focused sites to advertise on!
Two related points to keep in mind: You can’t report on something if you don’t collect the data. But if you start always collecting extra data “just in case” you will do nothing but annoy your employees and customers. If you need that extra data only sometimes, do surveys. The amount of time you expect to take on a survey is different, and the chance of annoying the customer is less.
So, collect the bare minimum data to start; keep your interactions as smooth and quick as you can. Add questions (also known as ‘data fields in your CRM system’ and ‘friction between you and your customers’) only when you need to; make sure every additional question / time spent pays for itself.
1. Coverage / frequency of sales force visit, by customer, by quarter
2. Complaints by Product, by month
3. Web site visits by referrer, by campaign
Each of these has a time component and an outcome component, and each is incomplete in its own way. Let’s try it again:
1. Coverage / frequency of sales force visit, by customer, by quarter. Put one version in order by customer sales volume, and another in order by customer profitability per unit sold.
2. Complaints by Product, by month. Trend this year over year (seasonal adjustments), and note times of new advertising campaigns and new product launches.
3. Web site visits by referrer, by campaign. See which sources of contact led to new purchases or new inquiries.
This is closer to something “actionable”. (The word in legal circles means something you can be sued for, but in CRM terms it’s data you use to can take useful actions.)
So now we might get answers we can do something with. Each of the insights below is based on actual results I’ve seen over my 20 years in CRM.
1. a) Acme & Sons doesn’t buy that much but they pay full price, a slight volume increase there would help a lot.
1. b) Beta Co. is our fourth-largest customer when you add all our product lines they buy. Each of the three sales reps we have calling on them thought they were a smaller customer, and didn’t know about the other reps.
1. c) Beauty Supply has low volume and low profits; the scantily-clad receptionist is not a valid reason to visit them every week!
2. a) Complaints about leaking bottles doubled in the past quarter. See if there is something wrong with the bottle-making process. Did we outsource something that we need to inspect better?
2. b) We had several dozen new “I love it” calls on the new Autumn Spice fragrance. Should we do a Christmas fragrance? Or continue this all year long?
2. c) All three members of the Flea and Cockroach Anti-defamation League call us each day, complaining about our advertising. Report on this separately so we can ignore it.
3. a) We got 17,000 visits from BigSite.com, average stay at our site, 5 seconds, 22 purchases. We got 150 visits from FocusedSite.com, average stay 7 minutes, 18 purchases. See if we can find more focused sites to advertise on!
Two related points to keep in mind: You can’t report on something if you don’t collect the data. But if you start always collecting extra data “just in case” you will do nothing but annoy your employees and customers. If you need that extra data only sometimes, do surveys. The amount of time you expect to take on a survey is different, and the chance of annoying the customer is less.
So, collect the bare minimum data to start; keep your interactions as smooth and quick as you can. Add questions (also known as ‘data fields in your CRM system’ and ‘friction between you and your customers’) only when you need to; make sure every additional question / time spent pays for itself.
Tuesday, February 3
How do you manage relationships with customers?
So how do you manage relations with customers? (Biff, get your mind out of the gutter! :-)
First, listen. Mostly, people want to talk to you; people love to be heard, and make a difference. The absolute easiest thing to do is to ignore people, especially those you think have nothing to do with your product. You can’t do this in the age of the internet!
Second, be responsive. Even “No, sorry, we can’t do that (but here’s what we can do)” is much better than silence.
Third, be fair. Most people have an innate sense of fairness - they recognize when they have been wronged and deserve compensation, but they also know that business can’t give away the store and expect to survive. On the sales side, people all want the best price but will recognize that long-term contracts and volume buying will change prices.
This is all very high-level and rah-rah. So how do you actually do it?
For the past 25 or 30 years, part of the answer has been a CRM System, a computer application to help capture data and report on that data. For all the advances in technology, the basics haven’t changed. Each time your employees interact with a customer, capture the information. Whether it's an inbound telephone or field salesperson visiting a customer, you go through the same basic process.
• Name / Address / Phone. (See if there are prior contacts with them first.)
• Role - who are they?
• Why are you talking to them, and what are you saying? (Complaints / suggestions? Selling something? And did they reach out to you, or did you contact them?)
• What product are you talking about?
• What are the next steps you should take?
A good salesman or call center rep will do this sort of thing on their own. And until the advent of cheap computers in the 1980s, that was as far as it went. But computers added data entry efficiency and most importantly, reporting. A recurring complaint can be trended, and corrective action taken. Sales effort can be compared to results. There is a large, fertile field of CRM Metrics (see my next post), and properly done, collecting and acting on the metrics will change your business for the better.
First, listen. Mostly, people want to talk to you; people love to be heard, and make a difference. The absolute easiest thing to do is to ignore people, especially those you think have nothing to do with your product. You can’t do this in the age of the internet!
Second, be responsive. Even “No, sorry, we can’t do that (but here’s what we can do)” is much better than silence.
Third, be fair. Most people have an innate sense of fairness - they recognize when they have been wronged and deserve compensation, but they also know that business can’t give away the store and expect to survive. On the sales side, people all want the best price but will recognize that long-term contracts and volume buying will change prices.
This is all very high-level and rah-rah. So how do you actually do it?
For the past 25 or 30 years, part of the answer has been a CRM System, a computer application to help capture data and report on that data. For all the advances in technology, the basics haven’t changed. Each time your employees interact with a customer, capture the information. Whether it's an inbound telephone or field salesperson visiting a customer, you go through the same basic process.
• Name / Address / Phone. (See if there are prior contacts with them first.)
• Role - who are they?
• Why are you talking to them, and what are you saying? (Complaints / suggestions? Selling something? And did they reach out to you, or did you contact them?)
• What product are you talking about?
• What are the next steps you should take?
A good salesman or call center rep will do this sort of thing on their own. And until the advent of cheap computers in the 1980s, that was as far as it went. But computers added data entry efficiency and most importantly, reporting. A recurring complaint can be trended, and corrective action taken. Sales effort can be compared to results. There is a large, fertile field of CRM Metrics (see my next post), and properly done, collecting and acting on the metrics will change your business for the better.
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