Customer Management is all about how your prospects feel about your offering. The best way to get them to the emotion they want is to get back to the basics: Understanding the three critical elements in everything we do – People, Process, Tools.
It is the coffee you use and how it’s ground as much as it is the coffee-maker or the person making it that creates a great cup of coffee. Since my introduction to the French Press there is no good cup of coffee that was made in a using it. My college roommate introduced me to it and my grandmother bought me one because she could not believe how good coffee made using the basics was.
One pours boiling water over the coffee, waits five minutes, stirs it, and plunges the grounds to the bottom. The simple technology overwhelmed the Mr. Coffee machine and those of that ilk. Even the fancy Keurig one-cup makers marketed today do not hold a cup compared to the simple French Press. The higher the complexity that goes into the process the more I crave the reality that boiling water over fresh course ground coffee. It simply makes the best cup-of-java in the world. I am not going to go into the dangers of Oracle’s Java property, but since I mentioned it – if it is installed on your system, consider removing it unless you just have to have it.
One can feel the power of the press. See the rising goodness as the grounds give there all. It is better for the simplicity too. Simple technologies are the best. The reason is that they allow the user to practice the basics while benefiting from the results. Better yet one is not beholden to any certain technologies in the future.
Acronyms and jargon are for the dogs. That is why this article on customer management begins with a story about coffee. Customer management is simple. Labeled as CRM by people selling databases, information collection tools and hand-held devices. They call it customer relationship management. As a database designer and engineer, I am not throwing these tools on the scrap heap. However, customer management is simple:
- Meet prospects
- Have conversations with them
- Ask succeeding questions
- Acting on the answers to help the prospect accomplish more
- Implement the solution
There are a gazillion technologies on the market today under the acronym CRM and the like. I implemented, customized and sold an early one called TeleMagic. Over the years Tekmar has used, customized and implement a large number of others customer management solutions for the profit and non-profit arenas. My companies and ones I have worked for have designed custom ones from pieces and parts and from the scratch. They are all good tools. They train the user in specific workflows that make sense from the perspective of the end customer and designer.
With the current marketing and sales focus, being all about the Web, Big Data and Social Media it is easy to forget the basics. That awesome cup of coffee that coffee drinkers crave can be yours by sticking with the basics. Methods for meeting prospects has changed. There are communications tools that put more of them at your ears, but unless one effectively engages them in conversation, the result is nil. You are never going to get to ask the Succeeding Questions. The basic system that one needs is an IT Blueprint Web Site Assessment. The assessment give one an understanding of the basic tools used currently and those available meet more prospects.