How to properly manage customers leading to strengthening sales force?

In order to increase sales of a company, it is necessary to identify customer needs and provide products and services according to those needs. Furthermore, if you build a good relationship with your customers, you can expect continued purchase and use. The important thing here is customer management.

Customer management refers not only to the act of recording and managing customer information, but also to maintaining customer engagement so that products and services are continuously purchased. In other words, the main purpose of customer management is to maximize the customer’s LTV (Life Time Value).

In addition, if you collect and manage various customer information in one place, you can expect to reduce costs while increasing customer response.

The items you need to know for customer management are as follows.

＜Main items of customers and consumers you want to manage＞

• Attributes of customers and consumers: contact information, company name, title, age, etc.
• Customer/Consumer Taste: Reason for purchase, purchase intention, lifestyle, etc.
• Product and service purchase history: purchased product/service name, price, number of purchases, etc.
• Profitability: cumulative sales of customers, average purchase price, etc.
• Contact history: number of consultations and meetings, number of visits to website, number of visits, etc.
• Others: trouble history, claim history, etc.

The cost of acquiring new customers has increased significantly compared to the past. The reasons for this include the saturation of the domestic market and the limiting of customer population figures. In addition, with the spread of the Internet, product and service comparisons have become simpler, and the “eyes” of customers have become stricter.

For this reason, these days we are more focused on retaining our existing customers. In other words, the importance of customer management of “recording and managing customer information so far” is growing.

Also, in the process of customer management, past customers begin to see things like “why did they turn around” and “how can I get them back”. Reaching out to returning customers creates the potential to turn them back into your own customers.

In addition, it is possible to develop services according to consumer needs through appropriate customer management. By delivering DMs and coupons tailored to each consumer’s needs, promotions can be carried out efficiently.

There is an increasing number of opinions that customers and consumers also want the information to be properly shared within the company through reliable customer management.

Salesforce.com surveyed more than 8,000 consumers and corporate buyers worldwide in April 2019.

According to the survey, 78% of customers said, “We expect that problems addressed to one person in charge will be shared with other staff members so that even complex issues across departments can be resolved with a single consultation.” In addition, in a survey of more than 6,700 people around the world from March to April 2018, 79% of customers said, “I would be happy to share their information if they recognize and understand me right away, and if a response is made that meets their needs” Answered. In other words, customers want their information to be properly managed and to receive appropriate services. Conversely, if customer management is not done properly, the trust and expectations of the company will decrease. Ultimately, we come to the conclusion that it is essential to build a system that manages and shares various customer information in one place.

There are several tools for customer management. Choose the tools you want to deploy to fit your goals, goals, and challenges.

Below, we introduce the advantages and disadvantages of each tool.

If you’re a small business that doesn’t have many customers yet, you can manage customers using Excel or Google Sheets. There’s no need to invest in a new tool, as most businesses have already adopted Excel or have a Google Account of Sheets available for free. And because it’s an application that many employees already use at work, there’s no cost to training on how to use it.

However, in Excel, it is not easy to go back to find the past history when the figures or information are updated. That makes it difficult to compare with the past after renewal. In addition, compared to the tool, it takes time to update, so it is difficult to understand the situation until the person in charge updates the progress or numerical value. As a result, there is a possibility that the decision of the manager may be delayed.

When it comes to customer management, many people think of CRM tools.

Since CRM is a tool specialized for customer management, it has the necessary functions from the beginning. In addition, since customer information owned by a company can be shared within the company or across departments, information management that has been divided by department can be centralized in one place. Furthermore, if customer information is used effectively, sales and sales performance will improve.

On the other hand, when a new tool is introduced, new information must be entered, which has a disadvantage in that it takes time to start operation. It also incurs costs for staff training as they have to learn new ways to use them.

SFA enables you to visualize the progress of your sales activities, so you can record the customer information of the consultant (starting with basic information, purchasing-related roles, budget, items to be purchased, timing of purchases and appointments, etc.). In addition, by linking the contact information with the company information, it is also possible to automatically link the company information to the agenda information. By managing customers at SFA, you can share sales know-how and knowledge and aim to increase sales.

However, the initial investment may be high, depending on the tool to be introduced. Also, as with CRM, there is a cost to training your employees to use the tool.

It is convenient to use a marketing automation tool if you are a customer management who considers marketing activities as the main body. Marketing automation tool, MA, can record not only basic customer information, but also reaction history of magazines sent by e-mail, website browsing history, event participation status such as seminars and exhibitions, and marketing activities. In addition, by analyzing the characteristics of potential customers, the degree of interest in products and services, and behavioral histories, we can automatically send e-mail magazines and DMs tailored to their needs.

As a disadvantage, in some cases, it requires a lot of work until operation start, such as creating new content and setting tools, and it takes a certain amount of time to start operation after establishing a transmission scenario.

In the case of simple customer information management, it is possible other than the tools introduced so far. For example, customer management of business card information is possible with the business card management tool, and customer management according to purchase history such as sales and transaction amount is also possible with the accounting tool.

However, these tools are limited to simple management because customer management is not the main function.

Customer management tools can be broadly divided into “on-premises type” where tools are installed on the company’s server, and “cloud type” using the Internet.

Compared to the cloud, the on-premises type has the advantage of being freely customizable. On the other hand, there is a disadvantage that introduction and operation costs are incurred. Customer management in the cloud has the advantage that there is no need to set up a server in-house and the user does not need to update tools. In addition, the adoption rate is fast compared to the on-premises type.

Once in the past, there has been a cloud-type security problem that deals with important customer information on the Internet. However, recently, there are cloud-type tools with improved stability that have obtained third-party certification regarding security and stability. So now you don’t have to worry about cloud-type security.

First of all, you need to think about “what is the purpose of customer management”. Then, put together “what indicators would you like to improve” and “how can you achieve your goals”. For example, when you need to understand in-depth and detailed data such as marketing activities and sales activities, it is wrong to manage customers in an accounting tool that identifies quantitative data.

If you are already in customer management, be clear about where the problem is with customer management.

After introducing the customer management tool, it is the field staff who enter the information. Here, refer to the computer usage ability of employees, etc., and judge whether customer management can be realized continuously.

For example, rather than abruptly deploying the entire company, one way is to start small in some departments first, then introduce a customer management tool to simulate how much support is needed until settling.

The future development of a company can depend on how to properly manage and utilize customer information. If customer management is done properly, products and services that meet customer needs can be provided and suggested according to the appropriate target and timing of the customer. As a result, efficient sales activities are possible, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and sales.

Clarify the purpose of customer management, apply the appropriate tool and format for the company, and perform proficient customer management.