In the last several years it has become clear customers have gained
significant power when it comes to relationships with businesses and
organizations. With a constant connection to the internet and their social
networks, today’s customers are better informed, smarter, give feedback that
can go viral and are therefore more empowered than ever before (Meisner,
2013) .
Caring for existing customers is a key component to enhancing the customer
relation and minimizing client churn can negate the costs of acquiring new
customers which can be five times greater than the cost of maintaining current
clients.
Approaching consumers and the public from
this perspective is a key factor today for organizations to be truly successful.
From this perspective developing an effective Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) system is a relevant and comprehensive method not only to successfully
engage these consumers, but the public and the marketplace in general. From
this viewpoint collecting actionable data from customers and prospects as they
engage with your business can be an effective strategy in enhancing the
customer journey.
Customer relationship
management has become a major force of many enterprises in managing interaction
and relationships with organizations clients.
Today many companies are realizing CRM provides the tools to fit the
customer relationship needs of an organization. Customer Relationship Management
is not just a software program that automates and reports, it is a business
strategy to acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships, with
the goal of creating a sustainable competitive advantage (Microsoft Corporation,
2012). The customer relationship management business strategy helps
organizations improve their image, differentiate from the competition, helps
minimize price sensitivity and can significantly improve customer retention.
A Customer Relationship Management
systems inherent functionality is to gain enhanced customer visibility across
all product families, thereby creating the ability to streamline sales tasks
and engagement processes. The target state for the Customer Relationship Management
system is to utilize all of the customer touch points with Microsoft Dynamics
CRM (or your preferred CRM system) at the center of how and where you can track
and align client preferences (Ahuja & Alavi, 2014) . Web engagements, Social
Media, Customer Service, Marketing Campaigns, Email, and other data all roll up
to the individual client to signify their preferences and their needs.
Today more than ever,
analytic data from web and other owned digital properties is a significant and
valuable tool organizations need to use to enhance sound customer engagement
strategies. Integrating web analytics data into a Customer Relationship Management
system accelerates and augments that strategy by providing deeper insights into
the customer journey.
Power
Analytics
Power Analytics is a
plugin application for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The software connects Google
Analytics to the CRM platform and allows the integration of web analytics data
between Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013/2015 and the Google Analytics Platform.
Marketers using this application can track over time movements and clicks
customers and prospects are executing on an organizations website and other
digital properties (SBS, 2015) .
By incorporating Google
Analytics into the data available in an active Customer Relationship Management
system marketers can improve the effectiveness of an organizations web and
mobile presence. The integration can also enhance the ability to track and
understand the behavior of online visitors and how they interact with digital
properties including website and mobile applications (Ezzedin,
2014) .
Power Analytics enables marketers to track campaign activity of individual customers
and prospects as they navigate owned digital media properties, which enables
the ability to better understand the customer experience and allows the
opportunity to deliver a more customized experience.
Pulling a website visitor’s
source information can be very powerful for a sales team. For example, if a
sales representative has the ability to identify how a sales lead found the
website before picking up the phone and contacting them, it could significantly
aide in how best to approach the lead on the call. Understanding whether the
source was referred from a specific email with a certain offer or knowing if they
came from a search and, if so, what was the keyword they used. This type of
information can help a sales team understand the intent of the prospect and
where they are in the buying process. Another example can center on existing
customers when an organization uses a newsletter as part of its marketing
communications strategy, as customer are placed in a marketing campaign to receive
this newsletter. As the recipient engages with the content the analytics system
can record the activities, preferences and interests of the customer (Ezzedin,
2014) .
This data can be further enhanced by gearing future content that is focused
more on those preferences.
The web analytics data
collected can also be also be aggregated with other digital metrics including
activities from social engagements through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and other social media sites to provide the marketer with even deeper profiling
capabilities. When online visitors convert to leads, marketers use the Customer
Relationship Management platform, to track the history of prospects and
customers offline and online interactions as well. Tracking every conversation
possible including other engagements such as emails, calls, meetings, cases and
documentations as well as nurture campaigns assists in the continuation of data
building at the customer and contact level (Cutroni, 2007) .
In the increasingly
competitive marketplace organizations have demonstrated clear benefits of
focusing on the customer through quality and excellent service. Utilizing a Customer
Relationship Management system and enhancing it with web analytics can help
nurture and care for existing customers and assist in minimizing client churn.
Enhanced web analytics can also provide significant opportunity in new customer
acquisition streamlining the sales lead process and creating an improved customer
experience. This essentially quantifies how starting with the customer involves
collecting and analyzing information to determine who the customer is, what the
customer needs, and how a business can meet then exceed those needs. The
logical conclusion clearly postulates the Customer Relationship Management
technology with enhanced web analytics can provide the platform to accomplish
the customer relationship management goals of the organization.
Works Cited
Ahuja, V., & Alavi, S. (2014). Digital Marketing
Analytics: The Web Dynamics of Inside Blackberry Blog. International
Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy (IJIDE) v5 n4, 50-65.
Cutroni, J. (2007, October 29). Integrating Google
Analytics With a CRM. Retrieved from Cutroni:
http://cutroni.com/blog/2007/10/29/integrating-google-analytics-with-a-crm/
Ezzedin, A. (2014, October 14). The Ultimate Guide
to Universal Analytics Integration with SalesForce. Retrieved from e-nor:
https://www.e-nor.com/blog/google-analytics/the-ultimate-guide-to-universal-analytics-integration-with-salesforce
Meisner, J. (2013, November 5). The future of
business in the era of the customer. Retrieved August 23, 2015, from
Microsoft Blog: http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2013/11/05/the-future-of-business-in-the-era-of-the-customer/
Microsoft Corporation . (2012). What can CRM do
for your Business . Retrieved November 10, 2012, from Microsoft.com:
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/smallbiz/themes/build-your-business/what-can-crm-do-for-your-business.mspx
SBS. (2015). Google analytics connector for
microsoft dynamics crm. Retrieved from Poweraddon:
http://www.poweraddon.com/google-analytics-connector/?utm_campaign=app_listing&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=ga_partner_gallery
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