Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

Customer Retention… How to Bring Back the Lost Sheep?

Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

 

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What? You lost a customer? Well that is a real disappointment for your business. You know customers are valuable but failing to attend to customer relationship is devastation. Didn’t you put up any strategy for your customers retention? Oh you did. But you didn’t truly understand the implication. Hold on! Don’t worry I will be guiding you about the most provoking strategies of customer retention.

Extraordinary Customer Service 

  • Have you responded your customer immediately?
  • Are you delivering what you have promised?

Well dedication to customer’s satisfaction is one of the key factors for your business fortune. With a promising pursuit of excellence to keep customers so happy that they become your fans and convince others that how doing business with you is a blessing. Having an error free customer service process and delivering extraordinary services higher than the expected level of the customers is defiantly a very plus point for the rapid growth of your business.

Service Integrity

“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” Douglas Adams

Listen! Taking ethical shortcuts will never bring you customer retention and long term success. Service integrity determines how you handle your service consistently according to the customers’ expectations.  The quality, design, functionality and of your product or service must be of the standard of customer’s hopes.

Frequent Communication

Yes! It is necessary. You must need to keep in touch with your customers to avoid losing them and try to build a close relationship. Program a sequence of phone calls, emails, letters, special offers, and member ship cards and follow ups that come in pre-sale and post-sale process. It is acknowledged by the customers and keeps them updated and informed and remove their post purchase worries and doubts as they feel important and valued. Your regular communication will reinforce the reason to come back to you again and again.

Lifetime Values

Customer Retention... How to Bring Back the Lost Sheep

Usually business people think that one-off profit average sale is a loss but ignores the bigger picture of the total aggregate profit your customer can give you for the lifetime of their relationship with your business. So don’t be upset and just think for the collective benefits and profits the customer is going to give you by purchasing again and again over the time. You will later come to know the importance of taking good care of them and your effort and expenses in retaining that customer is somehow less than your marketing expenditure.

Complaint is the Key

They just walk off and you never know why. This is because most of the unhappy and dissatisfied people do not complain they simply switch to other services. But the customers who are willing to go for your services will make a complaint. Complaints give you an opportunity to return them to satisfaction and make them happy to gain their loyalty. So instead of being bothered take their complaints as gift and try to resolve their issue as soon as possible to have their faith in your services.

Hope my simple but acute tips of customer retention will help you to bring back the lost sheep. Have a good day!

Why Use A Customized CRM

Monday, September 19th, 2016

 

cfo-viewing-crmCustomized CRM can be a vital tool for your business.  You should know a customized CRM is a powerful competitive advantage against your competitors. A CRM fit for your business can help you acquire more customers to grow your small business. Today I am going to tell you four great reasons a customized CRM is superior to off-the-shelf options.

  1. Data Modeling

The data model of your business depicts the structure of your business data along and how it stored and accessed along with the link of the data tables. If you don’t have a customized CRM you need to make concessions in your business tracking to reflect inadequate default CRM data models.  But in the customized CRM, the data model is designed exactly according to your business needs. A good data model consists of end-to end-business functions that segregate your business from the other competitors. Your data remains coherent, logical and well organized in a highly accessible way to revolutionize your real time environment.

  1. Integrated Workflows

Many default prescribed workflows don’t integrate all the upstream and downstream of your business processes and often lead you to take steps which are not necessary for your small business, wasting time. A customized CRM matches your workflows to streamline and integrate the work for your team members and save time.

  1. Automation Levels

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At some point, automation will step in your business process outright or behind the scenes. Automation like email alerts, compliance checks, authentication and verification of tasks increase productivity in an ideal manner and save time.  No doubt automation is cool as you just have to click the button and system will complete the task by itself. How would you like to use this awesome capability now?

A customized CRM can automate the processes in your workflow that are time-consuming and allow you to focus on more important things.

  1. Improved Analytics

A CRM generating customized reports is more informative than traditional dashboards and flashy graphics to measure the success of your business plan. Your customized dashboard depicts your workforce more appropriately than prescribed ones. Through the improved analytics you are able to make decisions you need to outperform and take lead among your competitors.

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How Does A Customer Relationship Management System Give You A Competitive Edge?

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

Customer relationship managementThere was time when sales people had to put in countless hours to hold their customers and the individual reps were expected to manage all the customers’ data and build long-term relationships. However, the invention of Customer’s relationship management (CRM) Systems are there to handle everything related to customers, making such inefficiencies a thing of the past..

Customer Relationship Management systems give customer insights which enable your marketing sector to design and apply intellectual promotions for the most suitable customers.  Customer analytics is integral for gaining a competitive edge and can assist you in optimizing customer interaction and to improve your customer’s satisfactions at higher level.

Just a few benefits of having a CRM:.

1-Track and analyze the customers

You don’t have time to track your customers? Don’t worry. Customer relationship management systems will let you track and analyze the buying habits and preferences of your customers. The beauty of CRM is that you have automatic access to the analytics of your product and services that are selling and to whom. This centralized system gives powerful tools for analysis and reporting. You can monitor the sales pipeline with a clear picture that how it is working and where snags are arising.

2-Focused Marketing

Customer relationship management systems allows you to target customers with the greatest potential for upcoming sales. It guides you to focus and fine-tune your marketing plans to make your efforts more productive.  Decision making tools of CRM will let you record and link the data to make best sense of it. CRM solutions are used to synthesize, interlink and display data in visual demonstration to identify, flow, pattern, and link for new sales decisions.

3-Rationalized Customer Experience

Today’s customers expect streamlined and modernized experience with fewer hindrances. A CRM system will let you profile your customer to quickly identify them, address their actual needs, and provide them additional services that match their profiles. It provides the ability not to mess up with the record of your customer and recognize them on the very time to come to know who are you dealing with. And your customers will thank you for your efficient service by being loyal.

4-Improved Coordination

Instead of having separate system functionality and access portals for the information there is a common CRM platform for sales, marketing and customer service. This system will manage your complete day to day tasks regarding administration, planning, appointments schedule, follow up— in fact all the important tasks of your sales team.

Why you need to identify your customers NOW

Friday, September 2nd, 2016

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It’s easier to love a brand when the brand loves you back. – Seth Godin

Successful businesses are those who identify their valuable customers, build strong, long-term relations with them, and follow through with them properly. The more you know about your customers, the easier it becomes to have the opportunity to sell them new promotions and offers. Identifying those who are best fit for your business priorities will give you a clear picture of your most valuable customers.

This blog outlines that how you should identify your most valuable customers and how to attract new customers by providing value-added services to the on-board customers.

Customers Persona

Customer’s persona is the illustration of your ideal valuable customers with their demographic data and psychological motivations; basically, a complete profile of the person. It helps you to understand the needs, behavior, concerns, likes, dislikes, preferences and expectations of the customer. After which you can tailor your messages, content and services to their specific interests.

Profiling your customers will give you an idea that how to make new valuable customers with similar profiles.

Type of Customer

How big is their operation?

What is his industry about?

For whom does he work for?

Sorting out the type of the customer is important. Type will vary according to the profile of the customer. Customer can be an individual, a group, a new startup, a small enterprise or maybe a big one. Specifying the type will let you more organized and prepared about the demands and expectations of your valuable customers.

Detailed Feedback

You should try to figure out what they think about your product and services. It’s worth getting a feedback from them on regular basis. By obtaining their reviews you can get an idea that how to improve your existing product and how to come up with your next product which can appeal them. James Cash Penney says

“The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts.”

User feedback and reviews can increase conversions. They can remove doubts your other potential valuable customers may have about your product and guide in making a selection among your products as customers believe other customers more than the sales or marketing reps.

Helping Return Benefits

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They DO expect you to fix things when they go wrong. – Donald Porter

It’s not enough that you sold your item and the business is done. You have to make sure that your product is functioning right after the purchase. If they are still not satisfied, replacing it with a new one may remove their doubts. Be always ready to help your customers and to resolve their issues immediately. Do more than what is required of you and your customers will feel valuable and will come to you again and again.

The Importance of a Strong Mission Statement

Friday, September 2nd, 2016
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“Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” Zig Ziglar

Your mission statement is a one sentence that tells the world what is exactly in the core of the company. Remember it’s about “What you exactly do”, and it’s NOT about, “How you do it”.

Tell the world the reason of your existence let them know the reason behind what you do your values and aspirations, a clear expression of your mission is necessary.

Your team looks at your mission statement as a guideline for Business strategy and long term planning to accomplish your goals.

People don’t trust companies; they trust people.”― Stan Slap

For example: Google’s mission statement is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

In this clause, Google is not talking about search, or maps, or Gmail, they are talking about what exactly they want to do, and other things are tools what they have created to get to what they want to do.

The primary things that should be included in your mission statement are

  1. Who are you?
  2. What is your plan?

Answering these two questions provides an ample overview as to why are you establishing this enterprise. In your mission statement you can also give a strong differentiation from similar companies. Through the tangible facts of your vision and principles, you can give a better idea of your identity.

4 ways your mission statement effects internal organization:

1-Operation Strategy

Your mission statement has a long-term effect to define and develop the firm’s key operations. There is a high-concept of compatibility between company resources and its business strategy. You need to address questions on how you will configure resources to achieve the corporation’s business objectives.  These long term decisions are in relevance with your location, Volume, Procedures, Timing and Technology.

2-Dedicated Team

Let me tell you a secret: your team is the dynamic key to your mission. Conversely, your MISSION is what gives your team motivation to move forward.

3-Success Factors  

Success factors are strategic element to determine the firm’s competitive abilities. Success factors are required to conclude that what resources and competitive abilities the firm needs in order to attain a sustainable competitive lead. These factors are generally related to operations, technology, marketing, distribution or firm’s capabilities.

4-Flexibility

The firm must include in their mission statement their flexibility regarding the services or products. Embracing new changes and needs you can offer benefit to your customers. By absorbing fluctuations in demands and expectations the firm can  grab more attention than those who work rigidly according to their pre-defined standards.

Bottom Line

It is important to understand your values and pen down your mission in a convincing manner with strong conviction. Embellish it with inspiration, commitment and hope.

Check out our mission statement MiSoft Solutions