Enhance business processes and customer relationships in a new world

Given how the world changed overnight, future-proofed and flexible business processes are more important than ever before. As a result of the current global status, your organization may have had to shift the way it does business, either by adopting mobile delivery models, accommodating staff with children at home, or finally fully embracing remote work as the new normal.

This may mean you have to transform the way you manage your customer relationships as well.

We have an expression/motto in our own company: “If it is not in our customer relationship management (CRM) system it didn’t happen!”

It really works for us—it allows us to see at a glance when a customer was last spoken to and reminds us to reach out to the customer if we have not been in touch over a given period.

Details are important in managing your clients and customers, as they want a personalized experience with trusted, stable partners. Needless to say, keeping up with how they are managing during a world crisis is a given to enhancing your customer relationships.

If there was ever a time that CRM as a concept is critical running a daily business, it is through a pandemic as we are currently experiencing it. With our shifting physical working landscape and the realities of a reduced workforce,  a good CRM policy is necessary and should be adhered to by all staff.

Future-proofing your customer relationship management practices

Some companies are now forced to facilitate their staff working from home, but perhaps in all the craziness, some real-life lessons were learned that will have a long serving impact on how business is done:

• It makes sense for a business to facilitate staff working from home or remotely. According to Gallup, three in five U.S. workers who have been doing their jobs from home during the coronavirus pandemic would prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible. Not only is it almost a requirement for public health concerns, it helps address employee concerns of work-life balance long after the pandemic ends.
• Face to face limitations shouldn’t limit cross-departmental collaborations. It is crucial that staff have a central repository for files, history of client interactions and a means of communication internally across teams. A centralized, cloud-enabled location means that instant knowledge share is facilitated, with the added benefit of reducing customer wait times.
• Business disruptions like the current pandemic often present challenges that require more effective leadership. It may now be necessary to review a scope of work completed without direct, in person supervision – and this requires more transparent communication of expectations and trust between you and your staff.

How your customers benefit

Technology enabled-remote work means that your customer won’t miss a beat just because your staff can’t make it to the office.

With a good CRM system in place and appropriate processes, any colleague will be able to pick up the relationship thread with the customer easily, because you have their history logged into the system, with all details quickly accessible to anyone in your organization.

All they need is an internet connection on a smart device or desktop to access notifications and pipelines.

Sage CRM offers more flexibility for your workforce and more benefits for your customers, specifically it:

1. Enables more informed communication between your staff and customers based upon a knowledge of their history with your organization
2. Allows for successful collection of information about customers, which streamlines a better understanding of their needs now and what they may ask for in the future
3. Eases efficient handling of tasks in-line with overall company goals or objectives
4. Provides seamless analytics and reporting on outputs or campaigns

Plus, Sage CRM’s benefits are ready for the post-pandemic business world, too. When people get back on the road, their Sage CRM now can go with them. Mobile CRM access not only increases use of the software, but also the productivity of the workforce. Statistics from Forester have shown that 50% of teams improved their productivity by using a mobile CRM.

Sage offers the full technology package, from the back-office accounting and front office customer management tools, like Sage CRM. As we head into the new working normal, strengthening and adding flexibility to the way your business operates will empower your organization and people to better serve your customers no matter what.

This article is a part of our Sage CRM series. Sage CRM extends Sage 50, Sage 100 and Sage 300 with CRM capability for sales, marketing and customer service functions in thousands of business’ around the globe.