Guidance for businesses that install air conditioning, boilers, kitchens, mining equipment, landscaping, or any other type of equipment on-site. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 7 Tips for Construction & Installation Businesses CRM guidance presented by:
1 Know your customer touch points Businesses like yours that carry out on-site surveying and installations have different customer touch points to other types of business focused on by most CRM system providers. Your customer touch points may include: Concept design Detailed design and specification Co-ordinating site activity Site visits, at all project stages Asset servicing Administration To give an example: If you develop custom designs in collaboration with your customer then this may be an important factor contributing to your sales success, and the quality of your overall relationship with the customer. So ensure your CRM system can encompass this.
2 a new CRM system Identify the reasons why you think your business would benefit from a new CRM solution. Clearly express the business case, and describe the areas you want to improve in. Some reasons that businesses like yours adopt CRM include: To ensure happy customers and thus encourage repeat business (and have existing customers pass on recommendations by word of mouth). Your business has grown to the point where information about your customers would be more effectively shared through a computer system. You want to use CRM technology to drive sales and help identify potential prospects, nurture them, and close the business. You want to use CRM to help make your business processes both in the office and out on site more lean and efficient. You need to keep up with competitors who are using CRM to develop strong relationships with customers and prospects, and drive operational efficiencies.
3 Focus on your users Identify all users of the system. Think through their primary roles, and responsibilities. Identify and involve any expert users who are well versed in computerbased CRM systems, and who know your business thoroughly. Be clear on what are the overlaps and distinctions for each type of system user with other types of system users. Since a tradesman on site will interact with the system very differently from a sales person based in the office, or a project manager, it is highly desirable that each user has a dedicated interface with the core functions that they will need to access easily. Don't clutter up the interface with functions users won't need. Keep things as simple and uncluttered as possible for each user. Use a "day in the life of" narration to help articulate the concerns and activities of each user.
Understand your own business processes CRM offers many opportunities to gain new efficiencies. 4 If you have adopted continuous improvement methodologies such as LEAN or ISO9000, use those methodologies to understand how your processes will change. Ensure they are changing for the better, and that you don t throw the baby out with the bath water. (For example, don t replace a face-toface interaction that customers clearly value, with an automated email interaction.) Try to keep the bigger picture in mind rather than become overburdened with short-term demands from all of the staff who will use the system. Always be conscious (particularly if you are adopting a CRM system from a large vendor who may advocate you change internal business processes to fit their software) of how the technology will impact on the experience of your customers. As regards functional features, it is advisable to start small and add new functions regularly.
5 Should you choose a large vendor or a boutique service provider? It is desirable to be able to make changes to the software that you use, and change it in the way you want to. Keep in mind that a large vendor often looks for a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone except the biggest companies who use their software. Also keep in mind that large vendors add and remove features and functionality according to their own imperatives, and that they have a lot of power over whether certain key features should command higher prices. They may try and shoe-horn you into solutions not built around your precise business requirements. Finally, if you are a SMB, keep in mind that senior staff of large CRM vendors often become less available once the main system installation is complete, leaving you to deal with more junior technical staff who have lower business awareness. Finding a CRM genuine partner, someone who really understands your business, will pay you back in spades.
6 Customising your CRM solution Choose a CRM system that is flexible and scalable. Keep in mind that configuring software is inherently limiting. Often, the optimum solution to your specific business requirement will be best implemented through writing code. Ask your provider about libraries of pre-existing functions they have developed that might fit your present and future needs. (Often they will have modules and other units of code that come close to what you need, and can be modified to your exact requirements.) Choose a CRM partner who has a deep understanding of your business requirements and has the technical skills to choose an appropriate set of concepts and structures to support them. Ask about the underlying database design of the system. How well can it model the real world activities of your business? Implementing software is an involved social challenge, with people sharing complex ideas and opinions. That is challenging enough without adding barriers of culture, language and lack of business experience.
7 Integrating with other software Software applications such as accounts software and payroll software have become standard in most businesses. Some businesses may have made substantial investments in 'Enterprise Resource Management' (ERP) software (or if their business involves manufacturing processes, in 'Material Requirements Planning' (MRP) software, or supply chain management, and so on). More recently, with the advent of 'software as a service', many providers have focused on one particular niche business problem, dedicating themselves to solving that problem better than anyone else. So, you need to make sure your CRM software can talk with your other software. Modern integration techniques and standards like REST facilitate the retrieval and sending of data from and to other systems. Ask your CRM provider about their software s capability in this. Identify existing standards for data exchange within your industry.
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