SigmaWay Blog

Business intelligence (BI) tools, used to prepare, present and analyze data are now transforming the small businesses. The chief role of BI is to convert tons of raw data into useful information that the business executives can use. Small businesses will grow if and only if it can break down and analyze the information available on its server. BI tools help businesses make smarter decisions and also in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Businesses must always find ways to understand their customers better. This is where BI solutions like YellowFin and Looker play a massive role.BI tools also help in boosting data governance and compliance. Thus BI helps small business owners avoid mistakes by keeping data accurate and up to date.Read more at: https://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/how-business-intelligence-tools-are-transforming-small-businesses-02208030

The internet makes the world a small place. It brings everybody and everything closer and helps in communication. Customer Relationship Management or CRM as we call it is getting revolutionized by the Internet of Things (IoT). They are now being able to access data from IoT to enhance customer experience and improve services. Companies are able to shift strategies, change decisions in a flick of a second, because all information is now available at the tip of their finger. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/crm-joins-the-internet-of-things-73690

Nowadays, organizations are gathering data by integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools with business intelligence (BI) platforms. The difference between CRM and BI is that CRM is a customer database to store information on interactions and sales history while BI provides strategic solutions for overall business functioning, and not just customer sales. But, now the question is how to integrate CRM and BI platforms. Annie Bustos (a valued contributor to Business 2 Community) writes in this article link about some best practices to ensure a smooth integration between these two powerful tools. They are: Understand what you are looking for, populate CRM with good data, create a real-time transfer of data, refine customer segmentations, leverage the data for testing and always ask for help.  

Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/business-intelligence/6-tips-integrating-business-intelligence-solutions-crm-01541585#yZlXhSkAZwpT5ewK.97

In this digital world at every touch point huge amount of data is being created in seconds that tells us about the needs & wants of consumer. The capability to extract valuable insights from the huge data poses a critical challenge for any modern organization. It has become an more & more important to efficiently & effectively ( both in terms time & labor) to  conduct data mining and extract valuable information out of big data to meet the strategic objective of an organization. In this paper MAS (multiple agent system) concept is being introduced to extract value data from CRM aspect. It also gives us a 3 point model to extract out potential valuable data to manage CRM optimally.Read full article at =_blankhttp://www.csroc.org.tw/journal/JOC26_4/JOC26-4-7.pdf

Enterprise cloud computing provides a clear path to CRM success. Today, however there are at least two major problems in operating with highly data-driven intelligence. Firstly, CRM databases start empty and secondly it isn't very intelligent. It is therefore time to re-imagine how businesses operate. In a world where we have lot of data points, outcomes should be accurately predicted. The next generation of CRM should monitor website updates, news, public filings, social networks, technology vendors, job openings and new hires. To know more, go through Jamie Grenney (Vice President of Marketing at Infer)'s article link: http://gigaom.com/2013/09/02/what-will-crm-look-like-in-2015/

In the world where responding to customers online promptly has become so important having a successful social CRM has become compulsory way of business.

According to Meg Bar, a comprehensive platform which comprises of rich listening, monitoring and engaging capabilities integrated with sales, marketing, service and commerce is a priority.

According to Justyn Howard, an unequipped social medium where social help requests are mismanaged can be a reason of frustration for customers. Only putting marketing and PR professionals behind the wheel is never an efficient solution.

As Katya Constantine says social media tools like Simply Measured or Peak Analytics links the brand to the most loyal users and builds a managed relationship with them. Further, retaining those customers through client loyalty code, a prospect discount code, positive feedback notes and snail-mailed brand goodies is also important according to Stacey Acevero. Moreover, using list and group features like Clients, Prospects who have considered us, positive feedback from clients and desired client or influencers for engaging each segment is also a good idea.

Having a two way conversation with consumers instead of just pushing information to them and realising the importance of feedback by engaging customers as fast as possible is also necessary as according to Constantine and Brian Coughlin.

Further as others add that having a human touch to the conversation which follows the brand image, monitoring customer conversations for fast reply, not feeding on trolls by responding to inflammatory and controversial statements, unifying and centralizing customer related communication, posting frequently asked questions (FAQ), and giving importance to basic CRM functions is also important.

read more at : http://www.cio.com/article/2385481/customer-relationship-management/17-tips-for-achieving-social-crm-success.html 

The blend of social media and customer relationship management referred to as social CRM enhances traditional CRM and engages it with social media which tracks new leads from Twitter and Facebook into the sales funnel. According to Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble, realizing the importance of authentic and relevant human connections in business customer relationship management has become an integral part of our lives. Customers nowadays want to connect with the real people they do business with and get delighted and empowered resulting in a renaissance of customer management. Nowadays marketing has gone beyond just driving customers to get the order. Today customers have moved beyond commercials, glossy stick marketing materials and “Slick Willy” sales people. They now can have converse online and expect relevant conversations. Instead of pushing customers to just buy their products social businesses should become a part of the marketing and buyer funnel adding value to those conversations to become trust worthy. Markets are utilizing the new technology today where conversations happen already in public, private and in others various mediums. Companies instead of controlling conversations and employees they should educate and empower both employees and customers. Companies now empower their customer-facing team members to share content and engage on a worldwide basis, and they understand that they are selling to a community comprising influencers, editors, analysts, tech partners, third party developers, value-added resellers etc. empowering, educating and adding value results in success which breeds success.

read more at: http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/how-social-media-and-crm-work-together-successfully/

Cloud, social, mobile and big data technology have been primarily viewed as the drivers behind Customer Relationship Management (CRM). According to a Gartner report, they are now being joined by an emerging driver- the Internet of Things (IoT). According to Joanne M. Correia “CRM will be the heart of digital initiatives in the coming years”. In the report Gartner views that ioT, where sensors connect devices to the internet, create new services previously never considered. Gartner forecasts CRM market to reach $ 23.9 billion this year, with cloud revenue accounting for 49 percent. IoT joins cloud, social, mobile and big data to spur a critical need for more operational CRM, according to Correia. According to an article in Information Week, Gartner predicts that in 2020, there will be 7.3 billion smart phones, tablets and PCs in use- but about 26 billion IoT devices. IoT is driving CRM investments, because the use of cloud- connected intelligent devices is creating new business opportunities for marketing, sales and support executives. Read more at:

http://www.cio.com/article/2453781/big-data/big-data-as-a-driver-for-crm-investments.html

The most recently developed modern call center has emerged with so much of technology usage from cloud to Customer Relationship Management and Integrated Voice Response with new phrases catching up on people’s minds. It can be compared to an Oxford dictionary which gets 1000 new words added almost every year. There is always a need of new word to describe an innovation, idea or technology. These new words lead to puzzling communication. Thus the need of the hour is a jargon busting guide. Some examples are COLO which stands for Colocation. It refers to the service where data can be stored by a host company in a third party data center. For access to the whole guide visit: http://www.newvoicemedia.com/blog/understanding-the-modern-call-centre-our-jargon-busting-guide/#colo

Social relationship management focuses more on social media than structured data. Social CRM is people driven and creates a personalized relationship between the customer and the company. When properly used it can improve the reputation of one's brand beyond Facebook and twitter. It is mutually beneficial for both the customer and the company. Unlike traditional CRM the benefits are not only focused on the company’s side. Out of 1802 internet users 62 percent men and 71 percent females uses social networking sites. Social CRM is more popular between the age group of 18 and 29. For young consumers web is an integral part of their life. Companies need to capitalize on this popularity for social media. Customers interacting via social media spend 40 percent more and 56 percent feel a stronger bond with companies through social media. Integrating social media reduces expenses by 58 percent, increases sales by 40 percent, and improves reputation by 64 percent. Whether a company requires social CRM or not depends on the company’s size, number of competitors and whether the critical systems and operations capable of accommodating social CRM. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/using-social-crm-to-bolster-your-business-62011

One must think like a customer to make them happy. Happy customers recommend you to others and increase sales. Speedy service is a solution for perfect CRM. However recent studies show that opposite happens. Customers value their time above anything else. Your effort at listening and understanding the customer's problems is what is necessary. They appreciate the personal interest that you take. Having a personal connection is the very best way to get customers on your side. To bring the personal touch one should get rid of the automated recordings and get people to talk to customers. Adding an online video conferencing element too your online service department is helpful. Employees should be trained to take time and personal interest for dealing with customers. Customer's loyalty should be rewarded by offering them coupons and special offers. It is important to take such lessons from psychology into CRM strategies as they help improve customer experience as a whole. A positive experience makes customers feel hear and appreciated. Read more at: 

http://www.trackvia.com/blog/technology/how-to-use-behavioral-psychology-to-improve-your-crm

This is the 21st century and here everyone expects more from business interactions. Call center analytics is an efficient and quick way to gauge its overall approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Earlier, call recordings were thought to be an approach for analyzing customer demands. But due to its shortcomings like delays in recording and transcribing, has open doors to new methods. Every company seeks for newer methods to differentiate their customer service experience and optimizing it to the fullest level. A recent example is of Amazon Mayday Functionality which promises help from a real person with prior knowledge of functionality and the service is delivered with high quality video experience. With visual demonstrations it is easier to resolve the problems sometimes in matter of seconds. The greatest contribution for this technology is made by WebRTC supported on desktops and even android phones. It has proved itself successful providing the customers with the best they deserve. Read more about this aspect in Ashley Unitt (founder of NewVoiceMedia)'s article link: http://www.mewvoicemedia.com/blog/contace-centre-innovations

An article by Candida McCollam, owner of Localspeak, conveys that as demand for integrating social media intelligence into the ecosystem of companies grows, human data has become the new currency. Companies have not only seen the correlation between growing brand loyalty through employee advocacy programs, but significantly, also see high returns on the value of adopting new social intelligence collaboration tools. He also mentioned some of the potential use cases among the cross-vertical implications. The article also talks about emphasizing the need for disruptive technology and tools that deepen organizational collaboration and thereby, elevate customer experience and brand loyalty. Combined with a holistic social media strategy and leadership, enterprise shared analytics equips brand product teams throughout the organization to collaborate creatively and compete intelligently.

To know in details visit http://socialmediatoday.com/localspeak/2394696/social-enterprise-realigning-disruptive-technology

What many social and marketing professionals fail to acknowledge is the reality of what can be called the coherent customer. As lines in between marketing and IT merge, the consumer has a huge head start in their daily lives. While device adaptation is a fairly blunt tool to gauge new coherent customer, studying consumer trends increasingly points to not only cohesive elements but to stratification as well. Marketing needs to play a bigger role in harnessing all that data and determining how to use it to drive customers through the purchasing life cycle.

To know more read the article by Phil Butler, editor-in-chief of Everything PR, follow http://socialmediatoday.com/philbutler/2368211/new-marketing-paradigm-coherent-customer-satisfaction