Aina Neva Fiati

Aina Neva Fiati

ThinkAboutCRM.com
Aina Neva Fiati is the founder of www.ThinkAboutCRM.com, a customer relationship management (CRM) resources site.
  • 0 comments 1,383 reads
    Posted on 2011-05-14

    A new marketing concept is conquering the Internet World right now. “CRM” is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management. That means a company can organize the clients relation service in a new way targeting as a goal to know more about the client’s needs and to act more to satisfy them.

    For a specific company, to apply the Social CRM concept is to build first a special data base containing various information extracted from the conversations with the clients. This is a sophisticated process having as primary input data phone calls, feedback from forms, emails and letter complaints colligated with a distilled content from social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogs, message boards and even news channels on the Net or print papers. It’s a hard work to do but is only the first step. The complete algorithm is composed from four terms defining four stages: Listen, Analyze, Relate and Act, the last being decizional.

  • 0 comments 2,565 reads
    Posted on 2010-09-06

    Do you know what social media is? Technically, it is any media that is distributed or circulated via social groups, where people interact socially. This can apply to blogging, micro-blogging, social network platforms, and the like. CRM, or customer relationship management, is maintaining customer relationships with a company. Marrying the two is an essential part of any company’s successful CRM plan today. Here are some ways in which to implement social media CRM right away.

    Set the Plan
    Sit down with your managers – IT, sales, customer service, and marketing –to discuss your options. Think about the image you want to project. Use this as a guide to direct any future movements in social media CRM implementation.

    Choose a Platform
    With so many social networking platforms available, which do you choose? Take a look at them and decide which is most well-suited for your business’ industry. Depending on the audience and the nature of your company, you will...

  • 0 comments 1,198 reads
    Posted on 2010-05-18

    There’s no getting around it, social media is changing CRM in big ways. Social media allows consumers to spread their thoughts about different companies, their products, and their customer experiences. Whether it’s a blog, a tweet, or a message on a FaceBook wall, consumers are making their voices heard – louder and faster than ever before.

    Consumers are no more vocal than they were a decade ago, but their reach goes out much farther with the dozens of social networks available to them. So, business owners must listen. Gone are the days of only focus groups, sales data, and surveys. Sure, those things are still integral parts of successful CRM, but so is social media. It’s opened up a whole new dialogue for CRM professionals.

    Social media has thrust companies’ focus back onto pure customer relations. It allows consumers to convey their thoughts and feelings immediately and without any filtering. Smart business owners are using these expressions to swiftly...

  • 0 comments 1,339 reads
    Posted on 2009-07-08

    A business, especially if it is an online one, can benefit tremendously from focusing on the long tail in its product portfolio. In any product line there is a certain number of blockbuster products that are the major contributors to your top line. These are few in number and are what you can term as “running items”. However, there is a large number of products that do not move that quickly because they are niche products within a given niche or for any other reason.

    Unlike a bricks and mortar store that has space constraints an online store has unlimited storage space as well as display area. In an online store, drop shipments are carried out directly from the wholesaler to the customer. To make use of the long tail effect, you need to have an easy to use navigation system on your site that leads visitors to pages that display the long tail items. Also, the search box should be prominently displayed to aid product searches. Look up niche requirement customers and solicit...

  • 0 comments 2,121 reads
    Posted on 2008-09-30

    CRM software is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg that is customer relationship management. The basics of CRM do not change. The human angle to it is all important and it is these good old-fashioned virtues that decide the success of your CRM initiative.

    Whether you run a mom-and-pop store or a multinational there are some facts that are common to all forms of business. Remember to treat your customer as you would want to be treated if you were a customer. A smile to welcome a customer is the best way to make him feel relaxed; it gets him to open up. A happy shopping experience with smooth transactions invariably leads to repeat business. Friendly conduct and attentive customer service can make a customer’s day.

    As a business owner, it is imperative that you practice the customer care mantras that you preach to your staff. Customer concerns should be addressed immediately with minimum discomfort to the customer, ideally you should absorb the transaction costs of...

  • 0 comments 2,475 reads
    Posted on 2008-07-30

    So you run a business and you wish to select a CRM solution that is a perfect fit for your company. There is a plethora of CRM alternatives out there, you need to select the best based on a few criteria. You have to be in a position to ask the right questions so that you can get the required information about software capabilities and vendor appropriateness.

    Consider the following points:

    * What are your prime requirements; targeted marketing, customer retention, adding to the customer base, business intelligence, or a combination of these

    * Is your staff prepared to move on to a CRM system and work on the deployment

    * Do you have the IT strength to run and maintain a CRM deployment

    * What is your financial capacity to endure a sustained deployment process

    * Is your business better suited to SaaS or an on-premise CRM deployment

    * What is the extent of database integration that is required

    * Will your legacy systems work with...

  • 1 comments 2,799 reads
    Posted on 2008-06-20

    Relationship building is the central theme of CRM. It lays the foundation for building a loyal clientele. Retaining an existing customer always works out cheaper than adding new customers to the existing customer base. Customer loyalty is nurtured over a period of time by making intelligent and sensitive use of data generated from your CRM systems.

    It pays to remember that customers are individuals with distinct needs, customization of products and personalization of service goes a long way in winning the customer’s hearts. Simple acts like discussing their requirements, communicating regularly with them, maintaining contact lists will not only keep you in your customer’s mind frame but also involve them in the communication process. These interactions eventually lead to a burgeoning sense of loyalty and finally more sales.

    Customers that offer their loyalty will usually go that extra mile to do business with you, they may be fine with traveling a little more and...

  • 0 comments 4,241 reads
    Posted on 2008-05-09

    Web-based CRM has come on very strongly as a viable alternative to on-premise CRM. This is great news for SMBs who earlier could not afford on-premise CRM because of its prohibitive costs.

    Some of the advantages of a web-based CRM system for an SMB include:

    - A tremendous cost saving as you pay only for what you use besides you are not required to maintain an IT team, you can also free precious real estate which would otherwise be used for placing servers and other hardware

    - A great opportunity for SMBs to test the CRM waters before adding more functionalities and modules. SMBs can explore business ideas that they were earlier unable to execute because of poor information on sales and marketing opportunities

    - Greater scope to close deals and resolve customer queries by the field staff that remains connected to the database via the internet

    - Smooth and inexpensive integration of a lot of customer-data that hitherto had been lying in discrete...

  • 0 comments 2,426 reads
    Posted on 2008-04-17

    There are some strict no-no’s that you should be aware of with reference to offering customer service. The key is to keep the negatives out and accentuate the positive. Remember never say “we never”, “we don’t”, “we can’t”, “you’re wrong” or other such phrases.

    It’s all about the customer’s comfort and well-being and not about operational efficiency and protocol. There will always be situations when the customer demands a little bit extra, for example a refund without a purchase receipt. You would be within your rights to refuse but try and put a positive spin to the situation. Offer alternatives like the current sales price of the article in question or bonus loyalty points if you are running some kind of a scheme.

    Make good a promise and deliver on what you say. The easiest way to put off a customer and ruin a lot of good marketing effort is to not deliver on time or worse, renege on a promise. Keep your end of the deal if you wish to see the customer again. A lot...