Nearly all firms keep customer details on computer. The delivery department maintain names and delivery addresses, the accounts department maintain records of addresses for invoices and also keep records of great and bad payers, the marketing department keep records of regular clients, salespeople keep records of personal likes and dislikes of the buyers they see, and so forth.
In reality, an individual consumer might feature in several databases within the exact same supplier's systems, with each department keeping the information it regards as relevant and helpful.
Sometimes this is done in the name of confidentiality: a customer's payment record may be regarded as something that should be kept secret from the warehouse staff, for example. More often, though, it is easy territoriality - people are reluctant to let other departments in on their unique information.
Carphone Warehouse is one of Britain's biggest retailers of cellphones and peripherals. Their customer-facing staff (the individuals in the shops and in the end of the telephone) are trained in consultative selling, in which they find out the customer's needs and then work out which of the products on offer would come closest to meeting those needs.
They also needed to troubleshoot consumer problems in the event of a complaint, but they lacked the essential background knowledge to do this.
What was needed was an integrated consumer relationship management system. The business installed Trillium software to integrate all of the data on customers into a single database. Interestingly, this showed that some clients appeared in the company's databases more than once, maybe under a slightly various version of their names (for instance, Alan Smith might be recorded as A. Smith), so effort was being wasted on contacting the same individual more than once.
The new, combined database was cleaned (old addresses removed) and de-duped (duplicate consumer records removed). As a outcome, Carphone Warehouse staff now have an up-to-date, accurate, and comprehensive view of each customer accessible in real time, if essential while the consumer is in the retailer. This enables the staff to identify opportunities for cross-selling, and also to identify customer need more accurately.
Find out what information exists on your customers, regardless of whether it's on computer or not. Combine the databases and remove any duplications or obsolete addresses. Make certain that confidential information is only accessible to those who really need it by password-protecting those components of the database.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Articleinput.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
Note: This article was sent to us by: Benjamin Flynn at 01212011
1. What are gaps and distribution chains
All articles are property of their respective authors. Please read our Privacy Policy!
© 2009 ArticleInput.com.
Partners: Damenmode