Growth pains. You hear about manufacturers who have them, and perhaps you even dream of the day your own company will actually experience them. While growth is certainly a good thing and should be the goal of all businesses, rapid growth can often bring many problems as well—problems that may, in the long run, result in a reversal of growth fortunes.

Perhaps, the biggest issue looming over rapid growth is the diminishment of customer service. When sales are up and profits strong, with margins widening little bit by little bit, quality customer maintenance is sometimes a notion that is considered far too late in the growth equation because it requires investment with a more ambiguous ROI than something like a new lathe or forklift.

However, without strategic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that anticipates rapid growth (or even steady growth) scenarios effective and responsive customer support gets lost. CRM is designed to coordinate multiple channels of support for the customer in ensuring problems, questions, and feedback are continuously administered. When a customer needs help, a customer needs help quickly. Knowing customer profiles, history, and preferences is a best business practice that confirms for both the loyal and new customer that their supplier cares about them. And, of course, the idea of customer care is at the very heart of the concept of relationship management.

To this end, a strategic CRM approach involves collaboration between company departments to facilitate an ongoing real time customer information flow. Sales management, technical support, and the marketing department must share the information they gather during the various opportunities they engage customers.

This is vital to maintaining the communication/feedback model of progressive CRM vital in today’s hyper-competitive environment—particularly as it is informed by globalization. Knowledge is power, and customer knowledge is everything in terms of building the quality relationships necessary to enhance brand loyalty and extend lifetime customer values.

Strategic CRM must begin at the sales force level, and sales force automation within a sophisticated enterprise resource planning software (ERP) is a good place to start. A good ERP CRM module will be designed around the idea that communication is paramount, and the connectivity necessary to ensure this must be strong. The flow of CRM work, the storage of the information, the tools of communication, and the ROI of the CRM are all features that must be considered when looking to employ sales force automation in a strategic CRM application.

Ultimately, what you know about both loyal and prospective customers is the essence of doing business in the Information Age we are all a part of. All things considered, what you do with that knowledge, once discovered, is the strategic plan that makes CRM the difference between successful companies, and those less so.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under CRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.