Customer Service Software

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Will Your Customer Service Headaches Be Solved By A CRM Application?

***tier3square.shtml***Here we go again. Customer Service Software is being touted as something that will solve your company's losing battle with customer loyalty.

Software companies have no problem taking advantage of the fact that the mentality that creates the GRQ (get rich quick) urge will get a significant portion of corporate consumers to convince themselves that a product, or CRM application, can solve a problem that involves interactions dominated by people.

• Do you really understand what customer service is?
  
• Have you come to understand that customer loyalty is really the only differentiator left for business' to maintain a competitive edge?
  

If a CRM application is capable of solving your customer loyalty problems, and if everybody rushes to purchase and install this software, then how will that help you? Every company's loyalty levels should wash each other out. Therefore no gains.

The truth is that it takes hard work and an internal review of your specific situation to understand what your customers want, and what you need to do or change to give that to them. There is no customer service software on the market that has been tuned to your particular situation. Even companies in highly competitive markets, where you might think they'd doing things in similar ways, will see different opportunities and different hurdles because they are simply different companies! The have different histories, different cultures, different workflows, different process and different leadership. So what might be a factor for one company might not be for another.

Proceed Carefully With Customer Service Software

I talk about developing a CRM strategy just about every chance I get. But before you can do that, you really need to understand where your problems (and opportunities) are hiding within your business and customer relations. It's not always easy to see these when you are embroiled in the day to day operations of your business.

You need to quickly get to a place where you can work on your business instead of working in your business. I'm sure many of you think that you are. Yet you're here reading this. So I'll bet a few of you, at least, are wondering what you can do to understand your customer loyalty opportunities better while still dealing with your day to day stuff.

Let me outline your options

Hire an Outside Consultant - There are a number of excellent consulting firms that based their business on realigning companies to centralize the operations around the customer experience. The best ones are definitely not your big accounting firm consultancies or the other firms that throw blue suits and peach fuzz at you. We're talking about some serious outside the box thinking. Simple stuff like putting the customer first. How do you do that and what needs to change? Well, a firm like this can help you with that and believe me, it will pay off for you. I recommend someone like High Yield Methods founded by one of the most respected voices in customer-centric thinking, Dick Lee.

Take a Simpler More Scientific Approach - Another option for you is to use a survey based analysis engine which takes responses from internal staff and customers and highlights areas of variance. Using a tool like this will give you a great starting point for doing more of the change work internally because you'll know what to focus, and why. You can read more about this at the following links:

• Where you can improve the effectiveness of your marketing, sales and customer service operations. Read more about our Customer Lifecycle Management Assessment (CLMA)
• Whether you're interacting with your customers in a way that's positively affecting their satisfaction and behavior. Read more about our Customer Focus Assessment (CFA)
• Whether your employees have a positive attitude, highly motivated and happy with their jobs. Read more about our Employee Insight Survey (EIS)
• What your customers expect from you and whether you're building a loyal base of customers. Read more about our Customer Insight Survey (CIS)

The Bottom Line in Customer Service Software

Before you run out and start buying customer service software, make sure you have identified which parts of your plan will be supported by which features of the software. You may not need all the bells and whistles you've been promised once you truly understand where your customer loyalty opportunities are hidden.

Software is simply a tool and should never be confused with a solution. Solutions are generally plans for tackling a problem and I'm still looking for that CRM application that has a plan behind it that will work for every company.

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