5 Rules for Customer Management

Are you looking to grow your business? With growth comes more customers and yes, more responsibility. One factor you have to consider when you expand is how you are going to manage all of your new customers. After all, proper customer management is critical to the success of a business.

Investing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an excellent way to maintain the same quality of service while serving a larger audience. It makes customer management easy, while also increasing sales and productivity.

Businesses that leverage CRM software sees sales increase by 29 percent, sales productivity increase by 34 percent, and sales forecast accuracy increase by 42 percent.

Despite the clear benefits of a CRM system, 40 percent of salespeople still use informal methods like spreadsheets and email programs to store customer data, and 22 percent of people in sales still don’t know what CRM is at all — which is problematic.

Once you decide on a CRM software for your business, it’s time to focus on perfecting your customer management.

Here are some rules to ensure that you are managing customers like a pro.

Customer Management Rule #1: Nurture your relationship with customers.

Sometimes good business relationships require getting personal. You should always take the time to learn about your customers, understand their needs, and identify their pain points. This will help you provide better, more useful customer service.

When you interact with customers, remember the details of the last conversation you had with them and the information they’ve taken the time to share with you. Be sure to make note of their name, phone number, email, as well as other data. You can pull this information up during your next interaction to create a more personalized experience.

Make sure that you communicate with customers in a way that’s genuine and natural to you. Customers can sense when you’re being fake. In other words, try to build rapport and establish a relationship.

Customer Management Rule #2: Listen to your customer’s needs, address their concerns, and provide useful information.

Customers turn to businesses to provide the information that they don’t currently have. This can be a specific kind of expertise, a particular type of service, directions, or a simple solution. In other words, they want knowledge.

Instead only focusing on selling customers, you should also prioritize informing them. Provide useful information so that they can make informed purchasing decisions. Consider every touchpoint an opportunity to bring something of value to them by providing accurate and helpful information.

Try to offer real solutions to their problems and be transparent, honest, and communicative. This is especially true for timelines, budgets, and additional fees or hidden costs. Your job is more than selling customers, it is also to be helpful and provide customers with the best and most accurate information.

Customer Management Rule #3: Synchronize all customer information across all channels.

Once your customer provides information to your business whether it’s to an employee, chatbot, email, or via some other channel, you should not have to ask them to repeat it. The data should be stored for future use. Being organized is key.

About 74 percent of users said their CRM system gave them improved access to valuable customer data. If you already have their information, there is no need to have them repeat themselves and request it again. This data should be automatically synchronized across all channels to streamline the process.

For a CRM system to be effective, it needs to bring together all your active channels of communication. These channels need to be synchronized and accessible to give your customers a seamless experience.

A great way to ensure that your customer data gets synchronized is by using a cloud-based CRM system.

Customer Management Rule #4: Never try to sell something to a customer if you know it’s not right for them.

Customer management is all about building long-lasting relationships, which sometimes can be tough, especially when you are tempted by easier shortcuts. However, it's not worth it. Selling a customer is a big win, but only if it's done right. If you try to sell a customer on something that's wrong for them, you will lose out on repeat business and risk tarnishing your brand's name.

Yes, we all love receiving credit and praise for closing sales, but it should never come at the expense of a customer relationship. Keep in mind that the better service you provide — even if it requires more time, work, and effort — the better results you will have in the end.

Customer Management Rule #5: Make communicating easy and convenient.

Allow customers to reach out to you on their native device: Their mobile phone. Every great CRM solution has mobile capabilities. Communicating through SMS text messages improves customer experience because it’s easy, quick, and convenient. Your customers can communicate with you on the go and when and where it’s convenient for them. This will lead to high levels of engagement.

You can include CTA’s or tap to call buttons in text messages as well to direct customers back to your website or a customer service representative if needed.

Take Customer Management to the Next Level

Your business should strive to have a clear, organized, and effective strategy to manage key interactions with your customers. When you work to provide your customers with better service, provide open communication, and add value to every interaction, you build healthier and stronger relationships. And that’s better for your customers, your business and your bottom line.

If you are interested in learning more about how to manage your customers successfully, GoSite is here to help. GoSite’s CRM tool provides you with a complete CRM system as well as a centralized contact hub to take control of all your customer interactions and deliver higher satisfaction with more effective and personalized customer experiences.