Commentary

It Starts With Employees

by Dan Roche , August 6, 2013

I have written several CRM articles detailing technologies and strategies for improving customer relationship management (CRM) including the use of webcasting, ways to improve your brand website and conference presentations. However, it may be important to take a step back, and address the fact that CRM really begins with your employees.

Many people say a business is only as good as its employees, and this is particularly true in terms of CRM. Employee engagement, support and appreciation all trickle down to customer relationships, so it’s crucial for businesses to foster strong employee relationships in order to be successful.

Here are three ways to improve CRM through enhanced employee engagement/development:

1. Training and Education – Standardizing resources and offering opportunities for advancement and growth are definitely factors that are important to many employees. Learning new skills can help employees stay motivated and improve job performance, which will ultimately benefit the client. For example, if an employee learns how to use a new software program or can introduce a new marketing concept, these skills and ideas can be applied to enhance a client’s business. Additionally, new-hire training can benefit customer relationships. If employees are thoroughly trained from the start, clients will experience less of an adjustment period when someone new joins their account team.

2. Communication – Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said, “Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customer.” Therefore, how you communicate and interact with your employees should be just as friendly, respectful and supportive as you would act toward a client.

We always want our customers to know we are there for them, to answer questions, offer assistance and to help them succeed. The same should be true for your employees. Keep the lines of communication open between you and your employees, encourage feedback and hold regular meetings or check-ins. Just like you pour over customer analytics and ask your clients how you can better meet their needs, the same should hold true for your employees. This will help improve operations/processes and relationships internally that affect your external customer relationships.

3. Appreciation – Who doesn’t love a freebie or special perk? Who doesn’t like to make the workday a little more fun? Who doesn’t want more flexibility and convenience in their lives? Okay, you get the point. Find ways to bring enjoyment to the office, boost morale and keep your employees motivated. Our office has the occasional “Beer Friday,” quirky office contests and lunch ordered in on special days. We’re also pretty flexible about appointments during the workday and working from home, if necessary.

If your employees are happy and enjoy coming to work, this will be apparent in their client interactions (e.g., they’ll be more likely and willing to help, develop new initiatives and speak positively about work, etc.). If employees are unhappy, it may become noticeable to customers, and I certainly wouldn’t want to work with a company with that.

If an organization can’t make their employees happy, how can they make their customers happy and effectively handle clients’ businesses?

Bottom line: If employees are acknowledged for a job well done and feel valued, they are not only much more likely to stay at a company, but they are more likely to provide important contributions to their team and go out of their way for clients.

So, next time you are investigating CRM software options, you may want to invest some of that budget in your employees.

crm

4 comments about "It Starts With Employees ".

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Brad Hodson from JobNimbus, August 8, 2013 at 12:48 a.m.
One other aspect of employee participation in order to achieve greater success with CRM is actually having employees participate in the decision phase even before the CRM is chosen.
If you don't poll those who will be using the system, you'll likely be setting yourself up for failure. You'll choose whatever system looks and works right for you, but you're probably not going to be using the system on a day-to-day basis like other team members. They are the ones who need to like the software and know how it works well enough to almost enjoy it.
This can be more cut and dry, say if you were looking at a Salesforce compared to a simpler CRM like JobNimbus (http://jobnimbus.com), you could know a little more easily how your employees might take the transition, but getting their opinion on the possible choices is going to be critical in having higher user adoption.
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Daniel Kim from GreenRope, August 8, 2013 at 3:30 p.m.

Thanks for the insightful tips, Dan! I agree that the success of a company's social CRM requires the full participation of their employees. From client services to the sales staff, a business must have an effective ability to communicate internally and externally. However, for this to occur there must be a top-down commitment to SCRM that starts from the CEO/leader, that will influence the preferences to utilize the software on a daily basis. With the availability of business suites like GreenRope, attaining SCRM success has become easy to achieve. The consolidation of necessary platforms into a single package, creates a user-friendly interface that will allow a company to allocate the necessary resources to the appropriate departments. In today's technologically progressive environment, an intelligent SCRM is a requirement for any business that wishes to maintain its competitive edge.

Shep Hyken from Shepard Presentations, August 11, 2013 at 10:51 p.m.

The greatest technology in the world hasn’t replaced the ultimate relationship building tool between a customer and a business; the human touch.

Mike Richardson from Maximizer, August 19, 2013 at 11:57 a.m.

I completely agree with this article and would like to emphasise that successful CRM is not about software but a proactive attitude in meeting customers’ needs, which relies on accuracy of the tools your team is provided with. An easy-to-use, adaptable solution that is capable of intelligent data interpretation and facilitating internal and external communications can help your staff save time and be more agile in managing customer relations. Choosing the right vendor for your business also means receiving continued support and training that enables staff to take full advantage of the software and, in turn, maximizse ROI.
One thing that I would like to add is that investing in a cutting-edge CRM solution is, in fact, investing in your employees, as the right system will undoubtedly contribute to the levels of their satisfaction. For example, Maximizer Software CRM is available on most mobile devices, effectively untying releasing staff from their desks. They can stay productive wherever they are and, thanks to real time reporting, their supervisors can still accurately measure their work progress and provide them with feedback. A CRM system can solve many problems any business is likely to struggle with at some point of its development: from retaining customers andtoo acquiring new ones, through business intelligence, to the levels of staff satisfaction – so choosing the right solution is like killing multiple birds with one stone. To help prospective customers decide what is right for them, we have compiled a guide, Ensuring you CRM delivers, which provides a great roadmap for anyone looking to acquire or upgrade a CRM system. (It can be downloaded at the Maximizer website.)

Mike Richardson, Managing Director – EMEA, Maximizer Software