Current trends in CRM today include a drive towards end-to-end system unity, and this aligns with the Forrester prediction that companies will prefer to get more out of their existing systems than to purchase completely new systems.
“Today’s technology vendors are circling their
development, service and support organizations – all the teams involved
in delivering elements of the ownership experience – around three core
principles: Lower the customer’s total cost of ownership, accelerate
the business benefit of the product and build valuable new product
features that were not part of the original product purchase.” – Service & Support Professionals Association
All of the above could be said of Dovetail’s
development strategy. This kind of value is exactly what we bring to
the enterprise that requires adrenalized performance out of its legacy
Clarify™ system.
CRM in general
has long focused on sales and customer acquisition, despite the
universal advice of marketing consultants and analysts to focus on
customer retention. Retention is less glamorous and harder to
denominate as revenue, and frankly hinges on walking the walk that
Sales talked up at the front end.
Customer retention
derives out of Customer Service and Support (CS&S), which you hear
us talk about so often at Dovetail, because it’s our focus. And we see
that when today’s enterprise looks at getting the most out of its CRM
investment, it usually finds it worthwhile to integrate the front end
of sales and analytics with the back end of support, fulfillment, and
general service.
“When it comes to CRM, many companies tend to focus on the front aspects of business…They invest in CRM
for sales or customer support but don’t tie the systems together with
areas like fulfillment, product development, or vendor
selection…
”People are beginning to look for that kind of integration,
and stitch things together. They’re understanding the value of
end-to-end processes.”
“For example, if an order is placed, the CRM
system can not only make sure the right product is in inventory, but
also create a shipping record that can be given to the customer and
also tied in to the supplier. A spike in demand might cause a supplier
to change shipping schedules or notice buying trends based on industry
or geography.” – “Going End-To-End with CRM“
What’s excellent about Dovetail CRM
is the deep functionality it gives to customer support operations, as
well as to the host of other business functions: Engineering Defect
Tracking, Problem Solutions, Inventory Management, Field Operations,
Order Operations and customer Self Service. And Dovetail’s system
includes all the administrative tools necessary for efficient system
management, all accessed through a browser.
Even in sales
the value is seen for dispersing knowledge uniformly throughout the
enterprise. This recommendation is worth repeating:
“Service employees, whether in a call center or
providing support at a customer location, can be invaluable for sales,
Fioretti believes. ‘Sometimes, the sales department gets blindsided by
a service request,’ he says. ‘Create a cross-functional team and you
can drive revenue in aftermarket parts as well as have more informed
sales reps.’” – “10 Tips To Help New Reps Increase Sales with CRM“
