Leveraging Technology for Success

Transcription

1 Smart Equipment Dealer s Guide Leveraging Technology for Success Using a CRM to Connect Your Departments

2 Smart Equipment Dealer s Guide Using a CRM to Connect Your Departments You own a wealth of information about your customers: their purchase and repair history, maybe their birthday, and possibly even the names of their family members. You ve built a relationship. All this information can be used to improve customer satisfaction AND increase sales using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) integrated with your business system. This guide will review how to use the CRM features of your business system to make your internal operations run more smoothly AND help you to increase sales.

3 The Integrated CRM A CRM integrated into the dealership management system provides dealers unique insight into their biggest asset their customers. The integrated CRM provides the greatest advantage in leveraging the data that you enter every day. A stand-alone CRM will not provide these results. A main function of a CRM that should not be overlooked is the ability to integrate and connect all of your departments. It is this connection that strengthens your dealership as a whole, and is thus reflected in better customer service and increased sales. Using the CRM functions, each department can stay on top of what the other has done, and in some cases, even follow a specific workflow or chain of actions.

4 Important Components of a CRM In this guide, we'll review how effectively using each of the following CRM components with your business system can help your internal operations run more smoothly, increase your customer satisfaction and retention, and boost profits. Marke ng Automa on Customer Support/Contact Management Sales Force Automa on

5 Leverage Data Across Departments: Targeting Customers for Marketing Following are examples information that is shared between departments can be used to increase sales, improve customer service and streamline workflow: Compare Unit Sales with Service Saleswho has purchased units but not service? Compare Parts Sales with Service Saleswho has purchased parts but not service? Compare Units Sales with Parts Saleswho has purchased units but not parts? Compare Sales Between Departments

6 Targeted Customer Marketing with CRM Tools Generate mailing labels and/or create a mail merge from your targeted lists Prepare and send customized marke ng e mails to select customers Retain a permanent history of all contact to measure success rate

7 Better Communication = Better Support By providing a 360 view of all customer data across all departments, a CRM allows your staff to be more prepared and more responsive to customers needs such as foreseeing items customers may be interested in purchasing, or reminding them of when they need their equipment serviced. Filter/sort your completed work orders or equipment pickups by zone, and create a call or e mail list to no fy customers Track expiring warran es to get customers in for service Send birthday or anniversary cards, etc. Set reminders for customer contacts Record any incidents, complaints, etc. and ensure follow up

8 Improve Internal Communications Many dealerships, especially large and/or multiple-location operations, can struggle with managing internal communications A few simple clicks are all it takes to keep communication flowing between departments: Set tasks and reminders on customer records for follow up calls Use internal instant messaging from the CRM to immediately address customer needs Ensure that all your staff log all their customer contacts, even from the field Using technology such as instant messaging will not solve the en re problem, but with its ease and speed of use, it can minimize delays and enhance overall communica ons. George Russell, industry consultant

9 Stimulate Your Sales Team Getting salespeople to do necessary follow-up can be an issue in some dealerships. You don t need to rely on old-fashioned techniques compensate for this common challenge by employing the simple technology a CRM provides. Do your sales staff: Procras nate, avoid or delay star ng projects that require a lot of concentrated mental effort? Hesitate to organize and plan for the comple on of tasks? Have difficulty finishing projects or comple ng assignments when performing many tasks simultaneously on the go? Forget to complete tasks details when more s mula ng tasks arise? The above list is excerpted from George Russell s ar cle Technology at the Intersec on of People and Business

10 Use CRM for Sales Force Automation Improve and automate sales processes and sales tracking Sales managers can easily view sales pipeline by salesperson, projec ons by week, top deals, recently won/ lost deals. Use workflow when quotes are converted to sales, such as automa cally no fying service department of ac on needed

11 Mobile Connection to CRM Are your sales or service staff in the field without a computer? It used to be that they would have to write notes and enter them in after returning to the dealership, but that has all changed now with the advent of mobile access to CRM! Mobile staff can access and log customer communica ons Mobile staff can access customer purchase and service history Mobile sales or service staff can create lists of parts and units using their mobile device for dealership staff to take ac on on

12 Now Connect Your Departments! When used effectively, a CRM integrated with your dealership business system will bring all of your departments together. When connected like this, your business will run like a well-oiled machine! Prevent duplica on of effort all data is in one place All marke ng efforts are logged and tracked Reduce your dependence on tribal knowledge Forecast purchases based upon quo ng/pipeline Communicate internally throughout en re sales process Automate processes and streamline workflow Use data across mul ple departments to increase sales and improve customer service

13 We hope that this guide has been helpful to you! We are happy to answer any questions you may have about this guide or how when effectively used a CRM integrated into your dealership management system will improve your operations. Complete Dealership Management System Contact us to find out more at solutions@chartersoftware.com or by phone x219