CRM & Help Desk Software Blog

This article is supported by Web-Based-Software.com a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Marketplace. Find hundreds of 100% web-based crm software and help desk software.

Zappos – the world’s largest online shoe store, is a company that is built on positive customer experience and a strong customer relationship. Over 75% of the sales are from repeat customers and that is an awesome metric for a consumer brand. In this post, I will cover the lessons we can all learn from Zappos on building a great customer experience.

1. Make customer experience as a mission that everybody takes into their heart seriously. Zappos’ mission statement reads: “Our goal is to position Zappos as the online service leader. If we can get customers to associate the Zappos brand with the absolute best service, then we can expand into other product categories beyond shoes.”   Without a serious commitment to customer experience, it is very hard to achieve it. Make it a mission to create an awesome experience.
2. Create a core value system that details what you care about the most and make customer service a core value. For Zappos, the values start with “wowing the customer” and includes “open and transparent communication”.
3. Create a happy environment  for employees in the company. No amount of branding campaigns will help if your workers are disgruntled and start bad-mouthing you, outside. Company culture is very important and employees are the biggest brand ambassadors. However, in many big corporations not much is emphasized on keeping the employees happy. Happy and loyal employees help keep your customers happy.
4. Make it super easy for customers to reach you. Zappos have their 1-800 number and contact details in every page. By proactively reaching out to the customer, you have an opportunity to handle support before the customers go and vent their grievances in public. Include live chats, and other contact points and waste no time in assisting your customers.
5. Make your response super fast. How often have you called a customer service number and waited 10 minutes or more on the line to get to the operator? These insane waiting lines are very infuriating and demeaning for the customer. Many businesses seem to think that by making the customer wait long enough, the customer would would go off and they could go back to their work. That is a slippery rope that will kill your company faster than anything.
6. Staff your customer support desk with quality workers. In most companies, the help desk is usually staffed with junior workers who have less clue about the company. However, it is hard to wow your customers, when you less caliber and less experienced workers manning an important position.
7. Give lots of room for your customer reps to work with. Once you populate your help desk with good hands, trust their judgment and given hem lots of room to work with. In many cases, Zappos customer support has given the customers over & beyond what was promised without getting explicit approval from the upper layers.
8. Reward loyal customers. Once you have identified the loyal customers (using the CRM) work hard to wow them to the next level. For instance, Zappos sends them expedited shipping even when they have paid for regular shipping. The loyal customers are the most important assets for a company and they will not hesitate to spread the word around.
9. Document and create stories of how your service has touched people. Listen to your user’s stories and collect the interesting ones. Business communication is best effective when done in the form of stories and by spreading real stories about your customer desk’s effectiveness, you become an instant hit in the social media.
10. Make it very easy for customer to return your product. It is better to have a returned product in your inventory than at the hands of a disgruntled customer. By making the return policy very simple (365 days no-hassle return with free two-way shipping) Zappos is easily able to convince its customers to shop without worries. However, many companies make it too hard to return and force the customers too think about their purchase too hard.

This article is supported by Web-Based-Software.com a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Marketplace. Find hundreds of 100% web-based crm software and help desk software.

There are many benefits that can be obtained from a properly maintained and managed CRM system. No wonder, such solutions have created a buzz in the modern business community. A business can stand to gain from using a CRM program, in terms of delivery and of gaining from them.

Here are five of the most notable advantages of installing and using a CRM system at any business. These benefits can bring about better overall positioning to the venture.

Better customer service

A CRM system can help personalize a company’s relationship with its customers. The program usually comes with a repository that can keep customer profiles, treating every client individually instead of collectively. Thus, your customer support staff would be better informed about every customer’s transaction profile and specific needs in no time. Thus, the level of service can be adjusted based on customer’s status or importance.

Better customer service can be achieved through improved understanding and responsiveness, which in turn can be the outcome of the use of a CRM system. This can help build customer loyalty and reduce/eliminate customer agitation. The business can also benefit from the continuous feedback from its customers.

Increased customer revenues

CRM can help facilitate customer retention through introduction and implementation of loyalty programs that are based on the customers’ needs and preferences. Marketing campaigns can then be coordinated effectively to ensure that promotions are not targeting those who have already bought the product or service promoted.

The system can facilitate cross-selling and up-selling. In cross-selling, customers are offered complimentary products based on recent purchases, whereas in up-selling, customers are offered premium products within the same category. CRM system can help a business understand its customers better and anticipate their possible purchases.

Faster sales processes

A business can benefit from the faster closing processes of deals. CRM can make it happen through speedier and more efficient response to customer information and leads. Turnaround time can drastically decrease if a business is successful in implementing CRM systems effectively.

At the same time, a CRM solution can help a business develop and implement better communication channels. Many of such programs enable customers to choose an option about how they prefer their communication with the business to be.

More efficient and effective call center

A business call center can benefit from the faster solutions CRM systems bring about. As customer support and call center agents gain access to customers’ order histories and details in a much faster manner, targeting of clients can be much easier. Customer satisfaction can also be achievable.

The business’ staff can determine ways to effectively deal with every customer depending on his/her records available through CRM. Such information can also be instantly accessed by anyone and from anywhere within the organization.

Discovering new customers

Logically, a CRM system can help any business identify its potential customers. The program can keep track of profiles and details of existing clients. This can be helpful in formulating strategies that would determine the type of consumers the business should pursue or target for maximum returns.

Most businesses have an heterogeneous clientele with the needs and value of each customer being different. For instance your customers might include seniors with little idea of technology, teens with very little attention spans and executives with very little time to spare. How do you manage all those different needs and succeed in retaining your high-value customers and growing your high-potential customers? The answer is customer segmentation.

Customer segmentation is the process of bucketing customers into different categories and tailoring your marketing campaigns, customer support and product features for each category. This is an essential part of CRM and helps you allocate your marketing and customer support resources effectively.

There are three main motivations for customer segmentation:

1. Deepening the connections with your customers – by tailoring your products and messaging for each group, you have a better chance of connecting with them.
2. Developing the right products – by knowing the size of each customer group and their needs you can make the right decisions in your product development or service offering.
3. Improving operational efficiency – by differentiating your customers, you can focus more time on growing the high-value and high-potential customers.

Although most entrepreneurs have an intuitive sense of segmentation, it is essential to define segmentation as precisely as possible and integrated with your CRM tools and overall business strategy.

There are three main ways to segment customers:

1. Value based segmentation – In this strategy, you separate your customers based on their dollar worth to the company. The exact amount varies with industries and growth stage of the companies. The value could be determined based on the total lifetime value of a customer, or the immediate past history of purchases or a predictive model for future purchases. Regardless of what value measurement you use, you could put them in 4 buckets:

• Most valuable customers – decided on the dollars they bring in and the marginal profits. The tactic should be to work hard in retaining them.
• Most growable customers – these are accounts who bring less dollars now, but has a huge potential to grow. For instance, this could be an account of a major bank who are just testing your services. The tactic should be to find ways to impress them and add value to enable you to get most future dollars out of them.
• Regular customers – these are customers with moderate value and growth potential.
• Zero-value customers – these are customers who bring you 0 or negative profits. Unless you see growth potential, look to get rid of them in a polite manner.

2. Needs based segmentation – In this strategy, you segment consumers based on:

• Demographic profiles (based on marital status, age, gender, occupation, education)
• Geography (West coast vs. east coast, North vs. South, Europe vs. Asia, rural vs. urban, small town vs. metro)
• Behavior (geeks vs. artists, angry vs. refined, workers vs. executives etc.).

If you are dealing with businesses you can segment based on the company size, sector, development stage of the company, etc.

3. Strategic segmentation – This is a hybrid segmentation used for long term business strategy. Tracking specific segments might prove crucial for your business survival and mission. For instance, airlines have a frequent-flyer category that rewards the constant travelers. A mobile phone company could have a “pre-paid” segment to focus on a particular segment that might prove crucial for its differentiation. In travel industry, your could have “budget traveler” segment and “seasonal traveler” segment.

It is essential to clearly define the segmentation in your organization and setup the systems to classify your customers appropriately. Correct grouping of customers will enable you to better prioritization your operations, improve differentiation your products and boost satisfaction among your customers.