A CRM system can offer sustained support in the framework of all these sales processes.
Back office and field service: always up-to-date
Knowledge gaps, wasted time and effort, lost potential – Impact of inadequate communication between back office and field service.
Therefore a rapid, complete internal communication is of central importance. The back office staff is dependent on receiving complete information from the field service employees in a timely manner. Locally stored documents to which the back office employees have no access, countless e-mails that eventually will be deleted and then become unavailable, information that will be forwarded late for the back office – this is reality in companies. But, it does not have to be that way.
A CRM system supports the interdepartmental communication and improves the processes for both field service and back office. Time-consuming lists and documents elaborated by the field service staff and sent per e-mail to the back office employees belong to the past with the CRM implementation. Indeed, the field service employees can store all relevant information directly in the CRM system. Visit reports can for instance be recorded directly after a customer or prospective customer visit using a mobile CRM even on the go.
This way, the back office is timely informed on everything important – without waiting time and in just a few clicks. If additional documents are created, they can also be directly stored in the corresponding customer file in a CRM system. This ensures a structured document storage accessible to all employees at all times. If the CRM system has an interface to a document management system, then all demanding requirements such as document control and multi-level approval processes are covered. If the employees write quotations, contracts, etc. directly from the CRM system, then these are automatically stored in the customer history and therefore fully archived. Complex e-mail correspondence can be replaced in the CRM system by tasks for follow-up actions.
Addresses: precisely qualified
Another flaw of sales work: sales employees do not know under certain circumstances which sales leads or which customers represent a real potential and for which a particularly intensive care will pay off. This is why all customers and prospective customers are treated with the same commitment. Valuable potential can therefore be lost. A CRM system reveals this potential since it enables an extensive qualification of the contacts. Moreover, it provides an overview of the customers’ sales figures using up-to-date analyses. Having the appropriate functionalities, it becomes visible with one click which customer makes which turnover, who bought which product – and therefore which customer is a top client.
Employees: always prepared
A CRM system provides something extremely valuable: knowledge on your customers. Und this in a few clicks. Thus, no more field service employee drives unprepared to a customer or a prospective customer. The CRM software delivers all important data, from the master data to the entire activity history, to the employees at a glance – and this way enables an individual competent care and short reaction time on enquiries.
The visit planning can also be managed by an appropriate CRM solution. “Forgetting” and not having contact with prospective customers or customers over a long period of time are prevented by the CRM software. Thus, adjustable visit frequency and automatically generated visit reminders guarantee for instance the contact or the desired contact frequency.
CRM: full support
All these functions of a CRM system allow two significant advantages: firstly, the work processes of the sales employees becomes more structured, transparent and often not as time-consuming. The potential of the leads is also better exploited. It guarantees sustained sales support from new customer acquisition to customer care, with which the targets set by sales management can be met more easily and targeted customer acquisition optimized. On the other hand, customers feel better looked after, their satisfaction increases. In the best case, turnover can increase due to cross-selling.
CRM in sales eventually means a significant optimization: of the processes, of the communication, the acquisition of new customers and the customer care.
