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Implement CRM On IT Base Company
Q&A Session Between G-CEM Advisors And Members
Mr. Simon Kriss, CRM & Call Centre Expert, APCCN
www.g-cem.org
Question : As I know CRM are very useful in customer interactive center (CIC). May I know if an IT base company also can implement CRM? How CRM bring an important role in an IT base company? In my term on IT base company mean that company are running their business as provide IT service to their client. Thank you.
It Can Be Extremely Useful
Thank you for this question, and the very simple answer is YES. CRM can be extremely useful in an IT support organisation.
Most IT companies have some form of incident tracking system which is more of a transactional information system, similar to a bank's transactional system. This system typically records what the problem was and how it was fixed. If it is an advanced system it may even generate reports to show how often a certain problem occurred to lead to program or configuration changes, etc.
Unfortunately what these tracking systems fail to catch is the interaction information. I want to make a clear distinction between transactional and interactional. Transactional is about what happened, Interactional is about how the transaction happened.
So why is interactional data important? Interactional data can give trend analysis that can lead to business process changes or training opportunities. Let's take a couple of examples.
Let's suppose your help desk gets 50 calls a year from one department about how to change the toner cartridges in their printers. This is a simple call for your operator and is probably not even being logged in the incident tracking system. The operator thinks nothing of it and helps the client. However, the directions for printer cartridge replacement may be on a FAQ website. If you can track that 50 calls are coming from one department, then you can pro-actively go to that department head and suggest a brief training session on how to access the online self-help system, and reduce your own call load.
Secondly, let's pretend that one particular site is constantly ringing in about modem reset problems. They just seem to be the one site that struggles with modems. If you find out that the modem network is going to be upgraded then you can pro-actively go to that site and explain what is going on so as to avert an avalanche of calls when the change happens.
In essence, a CRM application and business philosophy in an IT help desk environment lets you have a much better understanding what is going on in the user community. Most help desks can only tell me WHAT is happening out in the business (that is, what faults are being reported). They cannot tell me things like: by WHO, WHEN, WHY, HOW (what communication channel), etc.
Also a good CRM philosophy will provide your customers with a more holistic approach to their issues. That is, if I report a fault by email and don't hear anything for three hours, I will ring in. At that time if the agent can say "Yes, we have your problem listed in our CRM system and Bill is working on it" then I will hang up and await the repair. Most often what happens is that I call and the agent says "An email" I have no idea, I'll just put you on hold and see what I can find?.
In summary, I would say that help desks do not have to have CRM to survive, but they do need it to grow and prosper. And let's face it, if you are not growing then how long will you stay in business.
Learning more about your customers, their habits, preferred methods of communication, etc is ALWAYS a good thing.
CRM System Should Be A Very Important Role
Mr. Grant Zhang, Marketing & Sales Manager, Shanghai eCaseSoft Co.,Ltd.
Of course you can implement CRM in an IT based company. A lot of IT based company implement CRM system, like IBM, HP, ORACLE and so on.
I work for an IT based company, and I implement CRM system by myself.
In my opinion, CRM system should be an very important role. Today in IT area, technology is no longer the most thing for you to win customer.
You should learn to listen to your customer, to know what they really need and want, to figure how to use technology to meet their requirement that will help you to be leadership of the market.
IT--The Same As Other Companies
Mr. Robert Yang, Country GSI/SSI Channel Director, Avaya China
For general speaking, an IT company is nothing more than a company who provide products or service to their target customer. So in terms of how to keep the customer and explore new market, IT company facing the same problem as other company.
Let's take a look at IBM-typical IT company, they have pay lots of attention and invest a lot to internal CRM process. The whole procedure link front end Customer Service center/Tele mkting outbound center with back end sales leads qualification/key account high touch plan. It's a big picture, but the concept is same: A company must have customer, a customer must be well cared to keep the revenue continuously.
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