Customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions are in danger of becoming commodity offerings. Why? Perhaps because the term is used too loosely to describe applications that do little more than record data or perhaps it is because so many applications out there promise to do the same things. And, does plug-in-play really mean that it [...]

Training new customer service reps to use a CRM system quickly is crucial not just to a contact center or customer service effort, but to the entire company, as well. Often, a service rep is the first contact for new customers, or for existing customers who have problems with a product or service. Having a [...]

Getting a CRM business case approved can be a tough challenge. Gary Smith has put together a free three page white paper explaining how to define the benefits, business capabilities and scope of the CRM project in a way that will withstand executive scrutiny and present a compelling reason to invest. You can download the [...]

Gene Marks from The Marks Group wrote about Seven Ways to Make Money From Your CRM System. The article talks more about how guys like "Don" or "Harry" are able to keep better track of their quotes or sales leads using a CRM System instead of ways to really increase revenue using CRM. It’s a [...]

It’s widely known that many CRM initiatives fail, but the major reason for that glitch might be a bit of a bombshell. In the quest for CRM initiatives, which the business world realizes have the means to spin client/prospect management straw into gold, the breakdown generally starts at the executive level–failure rolls downhill.

Kirstin Johnson was up against more than the average IT director. Johnson, less than a year out of college, had accepted a job in 2004 from Wallace Welch and Willingham (WWW), a Florida insurance company. That summer Johnson’s boss asked her to purchase a CRM system that the company’s two sales teams could work with [...]

Many companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and multiple years on CRM deployment projects, only to find they made a bad choice and must start over. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you calculate the true cost of the project, recognize the cost and time issues involved in ongoing customization, be [...]

An effective plan for entering, cleaning and updating the data for your salesforce.com (SFDC) system is critical for achieving success with SFDC. According to industry experts poor planning for managing the data entry/data quality issue has historically been one of the largest reasons for failure with CRM systems.

“Every company’s greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company,” –Erwin Frand During our recent weakened economy, many businesses have seen declining revenues and declining budgets. Declining budgets often lead to reduced staff levels and diminished services. To me, this does not make sense. I believe that it is during the [...]

Remember the 80:20 rule? You may not get everything perfectly right, but getting most right will be much, much better than the majority of your competition. These Top Ten Tips for Customer Service will get you well on the way.