8 Steps to Leverage a Customer Relationship Management Database Proactively with Customers - Business - Small Business

Increase Customer Satisfaction and Retention

One of the most important uses of any customer relationship management database is to proactively interact with customers to increase their satisfaction, retain their loyalty and turn them into the companys best salesmen. A high level of customer satisfaction is the key to customer retention. Most dissatisfied customers will simply leave without ever letting an organization know that their needs were not met or exceeded. If the organization leverages a customer relationship management database correctly then customer expectations can be exceeded on a regular basis. Proactive CRM is an essential method of exceeding customer expectations by reaching out to customers before they contact the company and learning what they think, need and want.

What is Proactive Customer Relationship Management?

Anticipating the concerns of the organizations customers before they become problems can often make the difference between retaining customers and loosing them to competitors. Using the companys customer relationship management database in a proactive manor can mean the difference between customers singing the organizations praises to others or never visiting the website or store again. Taking care of customer or potential customers concerns should be as immediate as possible. The longer a client has to dwell on an issue or concern, the greater the chance that they will stop being a customer.

Proactive Customer Relationship Management Database Techniques

The simplest way to correct customer concerns before they amplify into a major problem is to follow up with the customer by phone or email within 24 hours of receiving the first customer communication. Every organization no mater how small should have a consistent process for dealing with issues. Here is an example of a customer follow up process.

Step one: Assign an employee to be the main employee responsible for follow up calls and emails.

Step two: Use the customer relationship management database to detail all aspects of the situation and the communication from the customer before responding, and assign the issue a ticket number so that the customer will always feel they have been heard.

Step three: Make at least three attempts to contact the customer

Step four: Have a clear process in place to handle customers who can not be contacted

Step five: Document any issues the customer had and the possible resolutions to those issues, even if the customer can not be reached. Make this information part of the information in your customer relationship database so that other customers will benefit from the research done on every call or email.

Step Six: make the information available to the public as part of an FAQ on the organization website.

Step seven: If the employee can not resolve the issue for the customer, than proactively offer to have a manager contact the customer so that they feel connected to the organization and treated with the importance every customer deserves.

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