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Use CRM to Keep Customers Coming Back for More

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Julie Stankey

In his recent article, “Improving Customer Experiences – Is It Still Important or is Price the Only Thing That Matters?” Scott Glatstein counters the popular beliefs that in times of recession price is the only motivating factor and that customers will accept a bad experience to get a good deal.  He uses the results of a Harris Interactive Customer Experience Impact survey to back up his assertions.  The survey revealed that:

• 87% of respondents stopped doing business with an organization or company because of a negative customer experience. That’s up from 68% reported just two years ago.
• 58% of consumers polled said they will pay more for a better customer experience during a down economy.
• Consumers stated that the most important thing companies could do to encourage them to spend more is to improve the overall customer experience.

Since it costs five times more to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing customer, it is in every organization’s best interest to ensure that the experiences they are delivering to their customers are the highest quality possible.  A great CRM solution can be key to delivering the kind of experience that will keep your customers coming back to you for more. 

In our post on www.crmsoftwareblog.com we discussed the “10 Ways Microsoft Dynamics CRM Helps You Enhance Customer Experiences.” 

SageCRM also boasts 7 excellent tools to help improve communications, manage expectations, and clarify responsibilities between businesses and their customers and build the foundations for a win-win relationship.

1. Workflow capabilities in SageCRM ensure that the exceptional customer service levels which are expected in the post-recession climate are consistently met every time.
2. Triggers and alarms allow customer service teams to ensure that queries are followed up in a timely manner so that issues don’t get ‘lost between the cracks’ and that demanding customers are served efficiently and effectively.
3. Knowledge management capabilities make it easier to capture remedies related to specific issues which may recur over time, enabling users to find information quickly and easily, ultimately resulting in improved customer care.
4. Integrated with Sage ERP systems, SageCRM provides customer service agents with complete customer information enabling them to answer customer queries confidently and accurately.
5. Real-time monitoring of SLAs ensures that customer service cases are progressed in accordance with SLA requirements, driving customer satisfaction and retention.
6. Self-service capabilities empower customers to securely access CRM data over the web in a convenient manner, enabling customers to services their own information requirements while reducing the resource overhead to the business.
7. SageCRM reports and dashboards provide detailed analysis on metrics such as call volume, case resolution times, communications, follow-up statistics and escalations; enabling management to quantify the performance of their agents – a key requirement for companies entering the recovery with fewer staff on board.

Sage highlights these and other features of SageCRM that can help you thrive throughout the current economic changes in their whitepaper:  “Accelerate out of the Downturn with SageCRM”.