'Net Features : customer relationship management

The CRM Starter Guide for Merchants

Michael Garrity — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Web professionals really love their customer relationship management (CRM) software, as it allows them to compile all of the information they gather about customers and/or leads in a single platform that will organize, automate and synchronize various aspects of their business operations.

For the most part, it is an enterprise's sales team that utilizes CRM software like SugarCRM, Salesforce, Zoho or one of the many other solutions available to manage the various leads they accrue over time. However, many of the same principles can be applied to online merchants, a group that (traditionally) isn’t as familiar with the benefits of a CRM solution.

By using CRM software to collect and manage information about their customers from their websites and accounting systems, merchants can maintain a single database that allows them to make rapid updates to their CRM, accounting systems and websites in one fell swoop. In this regard, everything from a customer’s address to the price of a product can be altered across systems instantaneously.

Moreover, CRM solutions allow online retailers to offer more personalized site experiences for each of their returning customers based on information like their purchase or account histories, allowing the merchants to offer supplementary products, special deals or discounts for future purchases. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the ability of a CRM solution to help bridge the gap between a merchant’s brick-and-mortar stores with their e-commerce websites.

Manage the Customer Experience
For merchants, the primary purpose of using a CRM tool should be to learn more about the customer experience and use that information to improve it for all of their customers. In particular, integrating a CRM system with an e-commerce solution can provide detailed and actionable information about customer behavior on a site; this information is what allows merchants to personalize the shopping experience for each of their customers over time.

Important Information (or What to Look For)
No matter how powerful a CRM system may be, it’s going to be kind of useless if an online retailer isn’t gathering the right kind of information about his or her customers. Of course, it should go without saying that they will want to get all of the essential bits of information about the customers, such as their names, addresses, email addresses and other contact information, as well as things like their job titles and the organizations they work for, especially if this data affects the way that you will market to them.

However, between a CRM system and e-commerce solution, merchants should also gather crucial behavioral data about each of their customers, such as their buying habits (e.g. the types of products they tend to buy), payment methods and shopping cart abandonment rates. Using this data allows merchants to make certain adjustments to their site as a whole that will improve the experience for all customers.

Gathering the Data
There are many ways to go about getting customers' crucial contact information that can be inserted into a CRM system. For retailers with a brick-and-mortar location, they can gather the information from customers as they’re checking out, or offer a form for them to fill out in the store (maybe for some sort of discount or coupon in return). When it comes to online customers, forms also typically work best, and merchants can simply integrate free HTML form builders like JotForm, reformed or Accessify into their websites to collect information from their visitors. In addition, they can also include some sort of form section as part of their checkout process (although this doesn’t work with a guest checkout option), which will also collect any information that the merchants deem “necessary” when a customer registers with the site and signs up for an account.

Additional Benefits
While the biggest perk for merchants using CRM systems is the ability to optimize the customer experience and provide personalized options for individual customers, they can also take advantage of the more traditional uses of CRM solutions, including the ability to automate and streamline everyday business processes, such as quote and order management, pricing and contracts. CRM solutions will also (usually) provide detailed analytics with insights into business trends and general customer behaviors, and social CRM tools allow merchants to keep an eye on what their customers are saying about them, and turn that information into actionable strategies that will improve the overall customer experience.

Campaigner Hits the CRM Trail

Michael Garrity — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:48:00 GMT

Campaigner has long offered one of the more robust email marketing platforms for small- to medium-sized businesses, and after a while, the company began to notice that many of their customers were having trouble with their customer relationship management (CRM) services, particularly when it came to integrating their email marketing or other business-oriented solutions into the platform.

So the next logical step for Campaigner was to build its own CRM platform that would better address the concerns of its customers. The result is CampaignerCRM, an easy-to-use solution with a fully integrated suite of tools and email marketing functionality; but it’s also more than that, because Campaigner crafted the solution to help its customers sell more, meaning it’s not simply a CRM solution that just records information, but actually uses the data to help customers understand their return on investment (ROI) and make decisions that will improve their bottom line.

Still, the most notable aspect of CampaignerCRM is its backend technology integration with the company’s existing email marketing product to let customers draft, schedule and send email marketing campaigns. Before, customers would have to use two separate standalone products and attempt to make them work together, which could be difficult and frustrating. But CampaignerCRM allows users to trigger automated emails as either drip marketing campaigns or based on user actions from within the CRM.

Users can also use the service to extract customers’ names to build email lists that can be either simple (i.e. location based) or more complex (i.e. based on specific triggers, such as opens or ignores). CampaignerCRM customers can use more than 300 professional-grade templates or copy their own HTML to create their emails. Eventually, Campaigner hopes to have a completely seamless integration between its email marketing and CRM products.

Of course, no solution is complete without a variety of social media tools, and when more than 50 percent of Campaigner’s customers said they use social media to better understand their customers every week, the company knew that social was going to be a major part of its new CRM solution. This includes a new Like-to-lead tool with Facebook, which gives customers an HTML snippet that opens a pop-up box to get contact information from users who click the “Like” button on their Web properties, as well as deep integration with LinkedIn that allows users to pull and save information from a contact’s LinkedIn profile.

CampaignerCRM gives users a sales checklist feature that lets customers define their own sales processes to follow leads through different checkpoints to track their results. The ability to define these processes means that companies can replicate the practices of their best/most accomplished sales representatives to sell more (and larger) deals even faster. This can even happen on the go, as the CRM tool also comes with a mobile app that lets users update leads, contact information and more to ensure that they’re always dealing with accurate data.

These charts can be easily accessed from the CampaignerCRM dashboard, and leads can easily be found thanks to MyList, a dynamic query engine that allows customers to create customized lists for easy access. MyList is one of the software’s core product structures. It comes with a set of pre-made generic lists, but customers can create their own based on the lead types or opportunities they want to segment, and then edit its name and define its criteria. They can also easily export the lists to Microsoft Excel or a PDF document and send them to others through email or SFTP access. MyList reports can be one-time or scheduled as recurring reports run on a regular basis.

In addition to all of these helpful features, CampaignerCRM comes with visual reporting and charting functionality that helps managers anticipate trends and support salespeople, as well as Quicken and Quickbooks integration that allows users to record and close deals within the CRM and then have them automatically updated in the accounting software.

CampaignerCRM is generally available at $29.99 a month.

Building the Best Brand Advocate

Michael Garrity — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:00:00 GMT

As Web workers, we all strive to provide experiences for our customers that ultimately transform them into loyal and lifelong brand advocates.

But the truth is that the majority of customers don’t think much about the companies from which they purchase product, outside of the transaction cycle. In fact, for smaller and medium-sized businesses, finding meaningful support from customers can be a difficult task.

There are, however, some best practices that brands can follow to turn certain website visitors into their most valued customers.

Here are four that you should know:

Market, market, market
Success starts with getting your brand recognized – so market it. The best way to reel in those potentially permanent customers is to keep getting the word out about your business, casting a net wide enough to pull in as many people as possible.

This also means giving them a reason to notice you in the first place. Create promotions that incentivize their patronage, which can mean discounts, deals for a quantity of items purchased or additional accessories/items when customers buy a complementary product.

Evaluate interest
You may have many customers that stand out based on the number of orders they place, but there is always more to it than meets the eye. If these customers have a habit of buying only through promotions, or are only purchasing outlet items, they are probably not in line to become your top revenue generators.

That isn’t to say they don’t have value, nor that you shouldn’t continue to try to cultivate relationships with them. But they may never grow to become your most profitable customers, so instead focus on users who are always coming to your site to shop – not just when you are offering incentives.

Build relationships
The cornerstone of a good business is good customer service. If you want to create the perfect customer, it has to be a two-way street. This requires addressing any issues that your customers may have in a timely and efficient manner, always offering useful information and always being available as a resource whenever the customer may need you.

Brands are expected to take a more active role in giving customers personalized experiences that are relevant to their wants and needs. A little analysis goes a long way, and simply paying close attention to a user’s purchasing behavior should provide great baseline insights.

If you’re really interested in optimizing your connections and generally streamlining the process, try using a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. There are a number of worthwhile options out there, including Salesforce.com, Fiitfu and NetSuite CRM+, plus many others.

Show your appreciation
When it’s all said and done, the trick to creating a true brand advocate is to remember that people like to feel appreciated. This is especially true of your premier customers, as they’ve invested a lot in your business.

Once you’ve defined this top-tier segment of your audience, establish loyalty programs with them specifically in mind. Not only will they feel as if they are getting rewarded for being such dependable customers, but it will likely also increase repeat purchases.

Spring Cleaning for Aplicor Cloud Software

Michael Garrity — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Cloud business software company Aplicor is seeking to streamline traditional business management techniques with a spring update of its Aplicor Cloud Suite.

The cloud-based business management solution was built to deliver customer relationship management (CRM) practices and comes with integrated financial and account management so that companies can manage every aspect of their businesses using a single application. This end-to-end focus helps diminish (or eliminate entirely) the costs and complexity involved in integrating CRM, ERP and financial management applications.

Aplicor also offers a customizable view of the business to help organization’s offer improved customer experiences.

In addition to the spring update, Aplicor is also expanding its cloud CRM software with two new product editions that provide solutions for sales and marketing automation, as well as greater flexibility for companies to match their functionality needs with their desired price point.

These new product editions include the following:

- Aplicor Cloud Sales for sales force automation with contact, account, opportunity and activity management

- Aplicor Cloud Sales Pro, which features all of the features of Cloud Sales, plus marketing automation, lead management, email and campaign management and customized dashboards and analytics

- Aplicor Cloud CRM has the same functionality of Cloud Sales Pro, with CRM features, including customer support, incident management, knowledge base, customizable workflows, partner portals and project office

- And Aplicor Cloud Business Suite, which also includes all of the above features, in addition to integrated financial management, general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, order entry, inventory, job costing and fixed assets

The Spring Update is now generally available, and all editions are offered at a single pay-as-you-go subscription price that starts a $39 per user per month.

CRM Success Tool Tracks Your Hard Work

Michael Garrity — Thu, 17 May 2012 02:00:00 GMT

Everyone likes a little validation once in a while; in fact, oftentimes the right amount of reassurance can actually improve one’s performance.

When working on the Web, many of you probably complete a variety of different tasks, big and small, throughout the day. That’s just part of working in the fast paced world of the Internet. Unfortunately, many out there probably do so much, that a lot of their hard work goes unnoticed (or unknown) to those around them.

Last week, Fiitfu CRM Solutions launched a Success Tracker tool that will show users the “successes” (as in completed tasks) that they have had. This data is less concerned with sales, instead focusing on income producing activity and productivity. With this new tool, users will be able to add accomplishments and track the success of their clients.

“We introduced the ‘Success’ element to Fiitfu so that our users can feel GOOD about what they have accomplished in a day,” says Mary-Jane Mehlenbacher, Fiitfu CEO. “Focusing on what we did accomplish is a great way to empower, motivate and keep moving someone forward in their business.”

Fiitfu is a Web-based customer relationship management (CRM) program aimed at network marketers and small business owners to help them manage their client list.

Chrome Store Adds Nimble Social CRM App

Michael Garrity — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Social business platform Nimble has added its customer relationship management (CRM) app to the Google Chrome Web Store, allowing businesses to more effectively leverage the speed and functionality of Google’s popular Web browser.

Nimble’s social CRM is built for businesses that want to transform their social media followers into lifelong customers by helping them manage all of their business contacts, email, social communications, activities and sales in a single platform.

Businesses that utilize Google Chrome can now implement Nimble functionality right into the powerful browser by downloading the app from the Chrome Web Store, installing it and adding a shortcut to their app pages.

“Our immediate availability in the Google Chrome Web Store makes it even easier for the millions of small businesses who are leveraging social media and cloud computing to more effectively engage with their customers and grow their business,” says Nimble co-founder Gilles Marchand.

CRM to Pace Software Spending in 2011

Linc Wonham — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

A Gartner survey of global technology professionals indicates that spending on customer relationship management (CRM) software is expected to see the biggest increase of all the application software markets in 2011.

In comparing this year’s budgets with those of 2010, 42 percent of the 1,500 IT executives polled said that they expect to increase spending on CRM in 2011. The second-highest response was office suites at 39 percent, and 36 percent said they would spend more this year on enterprise resource planning (ERP).

As the social Web plays an increasingly important role for online businesses, companies are spending more on technologies that encourage the development of customer communities and social networks. CRM software can help promote customer retention and enhance the customer experience, and marketing automation remains the segment with the strongest growth.

Overall, worldwide application software spending is expected to increase 31 percent this year, up 9 percent from 2010.

“The survey indicates a healthy investment trend for application software. Software application vendors should continue to build, fund and invest in software sales and marketing programs as the market is recovering, to maintain customers and expand revenue opportunities,” says Gartner analyst, Hai Hong Swineheart.

Network Hippo: Social Networking CRM

MaureenA — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:00:00 GMT

When you think of customer relationship management programs, you don’t necessarily think of social networking. Mercury Grove hopes to change that with its Network Hippo. Network Hippo is a CRM that makes each contact a personal relationship.

According to the release, the program updates users on their relationships, keeping track of the health of relationships with a rating system, and monitors how a person is using the system. Users can also import communication progress with phone and e-mail logs. It allows for more instant and detailed information about each contact such as importing a contact's avatar from LinkedIn or Twitter. You can also assign levels of relationships with each contact regarding strength, importance and opportunity. In addition, you can keep track of your contact status - when was the last time you connected with them and when's the next time you should contact them. You can add to your network of contacts with Network Hippo's integration with social networks. This is intended to allow for easier research on these sites.

One feature that might be most enticing to sales reps is that you can take all your contacts with you if you ever leave a position. Unlike other CRM programs, a profile with Network Hippo is individual to the user rather the company, according to Mercury Grove.