CRM software: is yours a cash cow or a white elephant?

CRM software: is yours a cash cow or a white elephant?
IN THE realm of business software, few — if any — class of product is as criminally under-utilized as customer service management solutions.

A properly integrated CRM system should be able to:
– Track and organize existing client and customer contacts, as well as prospective clients and customers;
– Provide information about customer and client interactions;
– Improve services provided to clients customers;
– Track client contacts as they move jobs, with a view to leveraging new business from existing relationships; and
– Provide information to inform targeted marketing campaigns.

Why is CRM seen as glorified Rolladex?
So why is it that following CRM installation and promotion by in house stakeholders, do so many firms’ employees use it as a glorified Rolodex — if they use it at all? The answer could lie in recent Forrester research showing that “organizational cooperation and coordination remains a major impediment to the success of CRM initiatives”.

In 79 per cent of companies that have reported a negative return on their CRM investments, cultural issues within the enterprise are cited as the cause, the report reveals. CRM guru is needed to drive customer relations ?The study concludes that to execute a CRM strategy effectively, businesses must appoint a senior-level CRM guru who coordinates all CRM activities and reports to the CEO.

But there are further barriers to CRM uptake. In traditional vertical corporate structures - typically where line managers lead teams - the guru approach could work well. But in sectors where the senior employees are partners rather than managers, even a dedicated guru is unlikely to shake firms free of CRM inertia.

Partners in CRM crime
The reason is the partner model is a flat corporate structure; partners co-own the firm, and enjoy equal status. In such an environment, a CRM guru would find him or herself answering not to a CEO able to drive CRM measures through the chain of command, but a panel of 50 partners — all acutely mindful of their time and all ferociously protective of their contacts.

But this partner structure, and the partner mentality, is damaging the profitability of tens of thousands of companies worldwide.

Andy Haven is a US-based legal marketing consultant, and a former chief marketing officer for a major corporate law firm, and has watched CRMs withering on the vine in the legal sector.

“CRM for lawyers and law firms shouldn’t be different than for other businesses. In fact, CRM for lawyers should be easier, as I don’t know of a single one who doesn’t track their time by quarters or tenths of hours in order to be able to bill.”

Partner-owned firms missing out on CRM benefits
Although each day a torrent of valuable CRM information flows through partner-owned firms, partners are disinclined to use this to their firm’s advantage.

“They could provide truly rich data about what kinds of work is producing the most profit, the most referrals and the least amount of administrative waste,” says Havens. In so doing, he points out, such firms could identify the most efficient and effective areas for business development.

Customer Service is the Start of Success

Customer Service is the Start of Success
Participant in the major and proactive forums. Obviously, there are many resources stating that participating in the forums is a great way to generate free traffic to your website. However, with this affiliate marketing ideas, I highly recommend you to choose the forums before joining those forums; even they are free to join.
There are some factors for your concerns when you join the community. For example, a number of members in the forums, how active forums are, and what kind of topics there are in those forums. My experiences show that you have to be in the active forums along with the proactive members and a great discussion. With those stuffs, you are in a great position to be socialising with them and ensure that the opportunities to generate more traffic are opened. The great place to start joining is the Warrior forums. There are a lot of proactive members and great discussion over there.
Everybody dreams to make some easy money just working in the comfort of their own home. Affiliate marketing is literally the easiest way to make that possible, being one of the best methods to make money on the internet.

Although some marketing informational programs try to make you think you’re going to start earning money the minute you get involved in this kind of industry, it’s going to take time and work until you’ll start earning some serious cash.

The fact that anyone can be an affiliate marketer has made affiliate marketing one of the fastest growing industries today. Just by promoting a product that can be bought on the internet you can get a commission from that sale.

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) partners with Sistema Tele

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) partners with Sistema Tele
Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) a part of Hinduja Group, announced a strategic partnership with Sistema Shyam TeleServices for managing the Telecom Service Provider’s operations. Under this partnership HGSL will manage the customer care operations of their MTS brand in Chennai.
Initially, HGSL’s customer care center in the city would cater to the prepaid customers of MTS both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he added.

“Currently we have around 98 agents on this project. However, we have planned to employ over 400 people during the next 24 months,” he explained.

HGSL currently had over 9,500 employees in the country out of which 2,500 constitute in Chennai facility, he said.

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd customer care center in Chennai will cater to MTS’ prepaid customers offering inbound and outbound support activities including welcome calls and customer support services 24×7. The number of agents will be based on the call volumes projected by MTS based on HGSL’s scalable delivery model.

The estimates are that on an average about 100 agents will be hired and this will be scaled up to 300 in the next 24 months. HGSL’s customer service representatives will cater to English, Malayalam and Tamil speaking customers. This will help generate employment amongst the semi urban and rural population Said Mr. Partha De Sarkar, CEO, “Our rich experience in and the telecom industry and commitment to deliver greater value to clients is evidenced in Sistema Shyam TeleServices decision to partner with HGSL. We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship”.

About Hinduja Global Solutions:

Hinduja Global Solutions, part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate, Hinduja Group excels in providing outsourcing solutions that include Back Office Processing and Contact Centre services to its global clientele comprising several Fortune 500 Companies. The Global Services Magazine, in association with Neo IT, in January ‘07, has ranked HGSL the Best Performing Call Centre worldwide. Hinduja Global Solutions’ BPO domain expertise is in the areas of Banking & Financial services, Consumer Electronics, Insurance, Telecom etc. Hinduja Global Solutions has marketing offices in North America & UK and 21 delivery centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Mysore in India, El Paso, Lyndhurst, Peoria, St Louis and Waterloo in the United States, Montreal in Canada, Cyber City in Mauritius and Manila in Philippines. The Company has world-class infrastructure in line with global standards and employs over 14,500 people worldwide. Hinduja Global Solutions is amongst the few BPO business leaders that have implemented six sigma standards to its processes, is HIPAA compliant and has BS 7799 & ISO 9001:2000 quality certifications.

Potential of an exquisite logo in business

Potential of an exquisite logo in business
In the era of globalization, many entrepreneurs have entered the business world. The globalization has made it feasible for these marketers to promote their businesses at the worldwide level. This has given rise to competition in the marketplace. Marketers employ various innovative ways to gain recognition in the competitive world. For this purpose, they utilize many branding elements. Creating a logo for a company is one of the ways to display inimitable and artistic pursuits of an organization. The main aim of creating an elusive logo is to not only convey the message or include the initials of a company in a fashionable style. A striking logo also aims at leaving an everlasting and positive impression on the minds of the prospective customers.A designer can create a unique logo in a number of ways. One should design a trademark for the company in a way so that it elicits immediate recognition of an organization. In other words, a designer should design a logo that reflects the nature and vision of a company. For instance, a company that deals with ice cream and ice cream related products should not have a logo that relates to apparel or shoe manufacturing industry. Therefore, a company should design a logo that reflects the business with which it deals. A trademark should convey the personality, attitude, character, goal and belief of an organization. A designer should design a company’s graphic symbol in an attractive manner so that a potential customer can associate his feelings with the product. In other words, a customer should have a feeling of familiarity with the product. A designer should design a logo in a way so that the product appears authentic and credible. You can make the product appear authentic by creating a logo that appears completely original. Creation of a trademark involves creating and using designs or graphics that does not have even minute resemble with any other company’s logo. You should avoid using lavish designs in a logo. Simple appearance of a logo can render elegance and magnetic appeal.

There are many logo design services offering logo services to many companies. Before selecting any service, you should find out about the working process of a company. You should also find out about the company’s credentials and certification before making a final selection.

Overview of Metal Inert Gas (MIG) Welding

Overview of Metal Inert Gas (MIG) Welding
There are many types of welding that are available to learn today and MIG is one of those types. This type of welding dates back to 1940s when it was discovered to weld aluminum and other types of non-ferrous metals.Many people refer to MIG welding as GMAW or gas metal arc welding. Often these two terms are used interchangeably. This type of welding is considered to be automatic or semi-automatic because it happens quickly. The process works to join two pieces of metal by continuously passing a wire through a welding gun. The wire is connected to a direct current and then passed through the gun with an inert gas like Argon.

The wire acts as an electrode and the inert gas acts as a shield as the welding is performed. This means that contaminates are air borne instead of being put into the weld zone.

An MIG welder will use this method to meld metal quicker than regular stick welding especially when they want to weld soft metals like aluminum. When this method was first started the inert gas was too expensive to do the process all the time. Today, carbon dioxide can be used instead of the more expensive gases and makes this method more cost effective.

Advantages of MIG Welding

There are several advantages of MIG welders:

* It is faster than traditional methods of welding and it produces longer, continuous welds. * It produces a cleaner weld with less splatter. * It can be used with a wide variety of alloys and metals which makes it a versatile elder process.

Disadvantages of MIG Welding:

Although this is a very specialized process that works efficiently for many projects there are a few disadvantages that include:

* The welding equipment is complex and bulky to use. * The equipment needs a source of continuous current and a constant feeding of the wire through the gun. * It is a very different process than traditional welding so there is a learning curve for all welders who use this technique. * Because of the inert gas, MIG welding cannot be used an open area because the wind would cause the gas to cause more problems for the MIG welder.

MIG welding has become very important in many industries because of its ability to weld metals quickly. You will see this type of welding done in many industries that include automobile industry and nuclear industries

Boutique Staff Sales Contest

Boutique Staff Sales Contest
Having a sales contest for employees can help motivate them to sell. Having a little competition between employees can improve morale, help them to avoid boredom, and also help you to identify weaknesses and strengths in your staff. Train your staff to help them be successful. Use their customer interactions as coaching moments to improve the level of customer service that your employees provide.First, get your employees interested in seeing the business succeed. Let them come up with promotional ideas, window displays, and have input in what inventory you sell. Not only will you benefit from the new ideas, but your employees will feel involved and start to see how their hand in the business is paying off.

Once they care about the business, explain how the success of the business is dependent on the customer experience. Providing customer service that exceeds expectations will ensure that the customer raves about your boutique to friends. Word of mouth is most definitely your most effective form of advertising. You can’t pay for a customer’s respect, you have to earn it. Once you have it, you could have a customer for life, plus a walking, talking, texting, advertising machine.

Teach your employees some basic ways to exceed customer’s expectations. Never point out where something is if a customer asks. Always say something to the effect of, “Let me show you where that is.” Never brush off a customer and say, “It’s over there by the shoes.” When you’re helping a customer, avoid distractions and store responsibilities. The display that you were straightening will be there when you’re done.

Give your staff selling tips or special deals to offer your customers. Once they are helping a customer, they can engage in conversation. Your staff could find out that this is the customer’s first visit and then inform them that if they provide their e-mail address at check out, they can receive 10% off of their entire purchase. When a customer feels like a deal is being made specifically for them, they are way more likely to purchase.

Reward employees for providing this type of service by incenting them. You could say that whoever accumulates the most e-mail addresses of first time customers in a month’s time wins $100 bonus. The extra sales, customers, and good customer experiences that you create in that month should far exceed the bonus money that you pay out.

Another way to improve the customer experience is to have your staff constantly move around the store. They can straighten and restock your displays and garment racks instead of looking bored at the register. Customers hesitate to “disturb” the staff if they look bored or involved in conversations with one another. Your employees should always approach customers and offer help. Moving around the store, managing clothing racks and displays, and offering help will further ensure that your customer’s every need is met.

HOW TO DEAL WITH ISSUES IN THE CORPORATE WORLD

HOW TO DEAL WITH ISSUES IN THE CORPORATE WORLD
We often come across issues in our day- to- day lives, which are related to our professional environment and our personal lives. A practical and strategic outlook is imperative while coming up with a methodology which is best suited in resolving an issue. I have given a practical example from my work life in order to demonstrate how an issue can be resolved with minimum fuss and without pressing the panic button.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION AND RESOLUTION OF AN ISSUE IN A CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT. 1. Identify the problem. 2. Brainstorm along with the departments which are directly affected by the problem. 3. Find the various processes and solutions that can help resolve the problem. 4. Which is the most effective and efficient method of resolving the problem. 5. Applying the process to the problem 6. Assessing the degree to which the problem has been resolved 7. If the problem has not been resolved, the process has to be followed again.

I used to work as a Senior Customer Service Executive for a well known vending machine in India and had to resolve an issue that was affecting the profitability of the company in Pune. I applied the scientific method of resolving the problem as inspired by the “What Makes A Great Science Project Logbook” Joanne Rebbeck, Ph.D.February 24, 2005

Identifying the Problem a.A high frequency of breakdown of vending machines in clients’ site. b.Delay in registering a complaint about the break down. c.Loss to the company as we billed our client by usage. d.Delay in the time taken by the technicians in repairing the vending machines at the clients’ site.

Consequence: The problem was eating into the profits of the company, as we suffered losses on the volume of sales and our reputation also suffered because of the frequency of break down and our competitors were trying to lure our clients, who had been with our company for decades.

A national conference was immediately conducted, when I reported the issue to my immediate superior in India. The concerned departments had a brainstorming session, and various hypotheses were investigated.

Hypothesis i)The quality of the spare parts being used was not of standard quality. ii)Lack of skilled manpower had caused the delay in repair work. iii)Sabotage - by client canteen employees or our own technicians

Investigation on Various Hypotheses i)The quality of spare parts :Our national technical manager decided to conduct a surprise check on various client sites’ all over India.

ii)Lack of skilled manpower:The HR department decided to investigate on the number of site coffee boys present at one time on site and the frequency of servicing done on each department. iii)Sabotage :Number of times a vending machines broke down, against the average breakdown of machines after it has had its scheduled servicing and replacement of parts.

Conclusion of Investigations a)The National Technical Manager reported that the spare parts were of the standard quality being used our company. He also the tested the present technicians on the skill and knowledge for repairing the machines. b)An investigation by our HR departments reported that the clients were not happy about the servicing done by our coffee boys, as one coffee boy was allotted per station, by our company. There were frequent absentees and negligence in scheduled servicing. c)Vending Machine break down was 200 percent higher than the average break down as calculated by our technical department for a properly serviced machine.

I decided to investigate further into the complaints of absenteeism among the coffee boys as reported by the HR department, and the possibility of sabotage.

Further Investigations conducted on the Clients’ Site in order to gather evidence. i)I personally interviewed the sites’ canteen manager and found out that, though the sheets were filled on a timely basis, the machines were not being properly serviced and the coffee boys were often found to be missing from their stations. ii)I supervised the repair work on a vending machine and made sure that new parts were used and the coffee being prepared was of standard quality. iii)I also requested the clients’ management that a CCTV be used, to investigate the possibility of sabotage.

Conclusion on Personal Investigation a)The coffee boys were filling their sheets in advance b)The vending machine that had been serviced was not working properly again. c)One of the client canteen workers was seen tampering with our canteen machine after hours on the CCTV.

Action that was undertaken i)The station in-charge was ordered to conduct surprise visits on client sites as it was the coffee boys who were responsible for reporting, machine break downs to our technicians. ii)Errant coffee boys were sacked. iii)The client site where the damage had been reported was asked to compensate to the full cost of replacing our vending machines. iv)Their canteen department was overhauled completely and they conducted their own investigations into the sabotage.

Our final step was to speak with our client’s management about the conclusions of our investigations and reaffirm our relationship and continued business with them.

Please read How to Deal with a Difficult Customer, where the author explains how to deal in a situation when the client is at fault He says “Call Attention To A Customer’s Mistake Indirectly. If you think that your customer or client has made a mistake. Start with words like “Let’s look at this together.” Being willing to admit that you could be wrong, will make it easier for your customer to admit that he might be wrong, too. Even if you know for a certainty that he’s wrong, begin by using diplomacy so that your customer can ’save face’ if he’s proven wrong. If he feels humiliated, you’ve probably lost any chance for future business with him”. Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of besuccessfulnews.com.

This article was a true inspiration for me, on how to continue our relationship with the client. Our billing with the company has improved; we maintain a profitable business with them.