As business owners, these are the types of questions we need to consider as we look to create long term, sustainable growth. The market changes, which means the needs of our customers change. If the customer is not the focal point of your business, you may find yourself taking unnecessary risk.
This is the backdrop and the reason why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) needs to be a critical part of your business. Wikpedia‘s definition is accurate, as it emphasizes the importance of managing your company's interaction with current AND future customers.
Once your business starts to generate a customer base, you should consider implementing CRM processes by doing the following:
- Identify all of your customer touch points
- Identify opportunities to gather customer data at each touch point - some of these touchpoints will require changes to your website, other changes may require your employees to explicitly ask customers questions during face-to-face interaction
- Develop a process, train your staff, and focus on simplicity and consistency
- Always ask for feedback from your customers, and prioritize those data points when introducing new products, services or features
As with all technical solutions, without an appropriate process in place, a CRM system will not be effective. Reference this article form Forbes for a list of leading CRM systems.
We are looking for black owned firms that offer CRM consulting. If you work in this field, or know of a firm, please add the business to our site.