Years ago, I started using a SaaS based legal practice management software and immediately saw how much benefit the firm derived from it. I continued to demo many more LPM softwares and eventually lectured on them for the state bar association. I even beta tested one and made suggestions for how to improve it, which were then implemented. I eventually moved on from legal to general business customer relationship management softwares and was thrilled at the possibilities of what could be accomplished when they are set up properly.
Is it possible to be passionate about CRM? Absolutely! If you are passionate about good customer relationships and wanting to learn and retain the information gleaned from conversations with clients or customers a CRM can be very exciting. Years ago, Dale Carnegie in his How To Win Friends and Influence People, wrote that being a good listener makes you a good conversationalist and he himself was in the habit of writing down information about the people he spoke with in order to remember it later. Back in the 1930’s CRM did not exist, but I think Carnegie would have shared my excitement.
Another example of good use of business intelligence is in the film The Devil Wears Prada where the first assistant Emily is tasked with memorizing the names and business of people with whom Miranda Priestly was going to meet at a charity gala. The assistant was to whisper the information into the bosses’ ear so that she would seem to remember the people and that they would feel that she cared! In that case Emily came down with a cold and did not remember clearly so the second assistant, Andy, stepped in. With a CRM that is set up properly, all information is able to be used for any number of scenarios and employee illness does not factor in.
CRM makes it easier than ever before to make use of all gathered intelligence. It can be used for reporting, prospecting, follow ups, and selecting customers or clients for special treatment or certain marketing campaigns. The data can be manipulated any number of ways to help strategize, however it must be set up properly to maximize your ROI. You need to know what you want to do with it, and which information you want. Typically, the employees who are speaking with the customer or client on a regular basis will have the ability to document with great detail in the CRM assuming they have the right fields. Once collected in the appropriate fields, the data can be used by both the collector and others in the organization to make informed decisions.
Most importantly, when clients or customers interact with the company, they feel that the company knows them and what they need. Whoever answers an inquiry doesn’t need to make the customer tell the whole story again. The best CRM’s have the ability to integrate other apps and use AI so that the front line employees can spend more time on high level problem solving - minimizing repetitive tasks.
Overall, there is a lot to love about CRM!
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