Technology has revolutionized how we do business. Yet despite easy and quick access to information, your customers often remain frustrated by holes in the reseller and customer relationship cycle. We’ve all experienced it, and even more so with use of technology such as
Telecommunication and the Web to aid in your customer service. Websites neglecting to state how to contact someone with questions; self-service phone prompts without an option for an immediate operator to address your needs; or incorrect information filed in a data storage
system that remains unchanged despite repeated requests to update it, are unacceptable outcomes.
This business disconnect partly lies in our incomplete understanding of “service.” However, each of us and our staff can serve our customers well if we each imagine ourselves as the “customer” in order to understand the unique opportunities for service that is desired,
and that technology allows.
Defining Customer Service
True customer service involves ongoing activities designed to help customers feel their expectations are being met, point blank. This means providing services before, during, and after a sale.
Top-notch service staff understand this as an ongoing, circular activity.
The Service Cycle:
- Take note of needs and give people helpful information to ease their pain (they may develop an interest in you and buy or refer your products and services).
- Deliver what you promise and meet customers’ stated expectations. Touch base regularly to make sure products & services continue to satisfy evolving needs.
- Understand changes as they develop. In needs and new supplies/services available.
- Suggest how you can help clients with present challenges and those on the horizon. Be proactive and ask questions that lead to results.
- Evaluate your success often. Retention of customers is validation.
- Repeat…repeat…repeat.
Everyone benefits from the advanced services that technology offers: online access to supplies ordering or inventory updates, personalized lists referencing customer shopping histories that spot target use or needs, and yes, even self-service scanning at the grocery store
which is catching on everywhere; these are but a few. Of course electronic document management capabilities let companies gather mission-critical information from diverse sources, pooling info into one place, making retrieval service easier and more secure. For keeping tabs
on your office supplies business you will find lots of options for streamlining your business and growing your margins by use of today’s more cost-effective technology. Learn who the players are and what you can do.
Today’s “E-world” offers diverse electronic communication options, many you can do yourself or with the help of some industry gurus, associations, vendors, or targeted marketing programs, including ramped up email campaigns, customized e-newsletters, e-(maga)zines,
targeted webinars or spot videos, digital or “virtual” forums, self-service Internet sites, and more. ‘E-fficiency” has been redefined — but if you still assume these tools will diminish “personal contact” and focus elsewhere and not include “E-methods,” you will fail in
growing the relationships you need to sustain business or the ensuing loyalty that builds company brands from regular “E-use.”
Letting Your Light Shine
What characterizes good service in its most basic form? The relationships you develop with your clients. Today’s E-tools will give you fast, accurate information via your desktop, laptop, PDA, and other devices with a few keystrokes. This added efficiency gives you the
gift of time to develop relationships built on customer interest and trust.
As an office supply, equipment, or software dealer, there are many opportunities for building effective relationships that lead to long-term business. You not only can solve existing problems, you can use questioning skills to discover the next anticipated challenges and
develop strategic plans for the future. The key to business success is not so much in promoting excellent products as asking the right questions on a regular basis — before, during, and after a sale — so you can provide optimal solutions and services as your clients’
businesses grow and change.
Questions to Ask
To ensure you deliver products and services that meet real needs, you should ask your customers these questions:
- Which routine business challenges keep you from delivering the quality of service you would like to give your clients?
- What new business challenges are you facing?
- What future challenges do you anticipate?
- How can I help your business to be more successful?
- If there were one product or service you would like to have, but know you can’t adopt right now, what would it be? And why?
How can I help you to attract more business? (You probably interact with a variety of organizations, and can recommend their company to other clients when it’s appropriate.)
If you could have one thing I could offer you (a product or service you don’t offer), what would it be? Whether it generates business for you is irrelevant; they’ll remember you as genuinely interested in the success of their business; this immediately creates a bond of
trust.
What You CAN Do
Here are a few ways to improve your service:
- Create a customer service policy. Define what you mean by superior service. Set expectations high.
- Lead by example. Live your commitment to service. Don’t rely on your E-world tools alone. Build relationships that foster trust. You will benefit from customer loyalty and long-term business relationships.
- Be genuine. All the right questions will bring little if you aren’t genuinely interested in helping your customers succeed.
- Be professional. Make sure your personal service is as consistently professional as the E-tools you employ.
- Make sure your staff embraces your customer service policy. It takes a long time to build trust, but almost no time to erode and destroy it.
- Be patient. Customers typically want to believe they have discovered and selected the right solution, rather than being ‘sold’ by you.
What NOT to do
- Don’t use mass communications as your only means of communication. Although e-newsletters and email blasts are great tools, people do business with people, and they want to be treated as individuals. Even a personal note introducing your
newsletter, pointing out something of interest to that particular reader, shows you pay attention to your customers’ unique needs.
- Don’t wait for customers to tell you about their problems, or assume no news means good news. When solutions go awry, people may not call you until a problem is severe or beyond repair. Make contact regularly, offering helpful tidbits for their
business and asking questions that unmask evolving challenges. Just as regular medical checkups maintain a pulse on your health, keep a regular pulse on your clients and their businesses so you can help them as needs change.
- Don’t be pushy. People like to be guided, but they don’t like pressure. If you are a helpful and trusted resource, your clients will value and turn to you for advice. Give sound advice, often. Become a trusted resource, and your business will
benefit long-term.
Although there are many excellent customer relationship management tools in the marketplace to help you deliver high-quality service, a software application alone isn’t enough. Customer service involves the right attitude and commitment while electronic efficiency gives
you the extra time you need to go the extra mile in customer service.
CRM & EDM: Managing Customer Data
Managing the documents and processes that define client relationships can be daunting. From initial contact through purchase, account servicing, support, and archiving files as documents of record, there are multiple documents to manage.
Just as the brain has two sides with completely different functions that complement each other, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Electronic Document Management software (EDM) have different—yet compatible—purposes. Together, they manage customer
information and activity throughout the business relationship. By understanding how CRM and EDM work together, you can help your clients’ customer service to thrive.
CRM vs. EDM
CRM applications are excellent for tracking and organizing customer contacts. However, CRM search tools are typically inadequate. Also, CRM houses critical information, but it isn’t designed to leverage it for everyday processes that depend upon stored documents &
transactions.
EDM software provides a central, searchable repository for all of your client’s business information. When integrated with CRM and configured to authorize appropriate file access, workers can catalog, view, search, annotate, and act upon files stored within the CRM system
and beyond it. Customer emails, voice messages, electronically captured faxes, images, and other files are centrally searchable from the desktop. Information in the repository can be used to launch routine processes, making it dynamic for the business. Detailed
transactional and system reports provide insights into business activity, resulting in better decisions. There’s more ‘bang’ for money already spent.
When evaluating EDM, make sure you consider:
- Integration. Your chosen EDM solution should integrate with your CRM software and other line-of-business systems to maximize the use of data stored in diverse places.
- Indexing. Your solution should let you catalog documents in multiple ways to enable successful retrieval by diverse users. These capabilities must be matched by powerful enterprise search methods that find what clients need based on indexing values
and document content.
- Business process management/workflow. Data stored in CRM and other applications can trigger and execute business processes, following pre-set rules. BPM makes use of stored data, dramatically accelerating turnaround times and improving service.
- Web-based access. Web-based ECM enables easy system administration and secure end-user access to documents and processes from any location, 24/7.
The strength of the team
CRM and EDM are two critical components for providing stellar customer service. Each is built on mature technologies and delivers measurable value to a business. Together, they are an ideal match.
Laurel B. Sanders is Director of Public Relations & Communications at
Optical Image Technology, Inc., makers of the Docfinity suite of document
management & workflow software - www.docfinity.com.
Contact Laurel at 814-238-0038 ext. 253 /
www.docfinity.com
