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Don’t believe the hype – Twitter and CRM is not your cure all for poor customer service

March 24, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

twitter-mas90-schulzJust recently Salesforce.com announced that the popular Twitter service would be integrated to their CRM software. On the surface this allows their customer service department to monitor the constant stream of
Twitter messages (known informally as tweets) for mentions of displeasure with the company’s product(s).

There are several things wrong with using Twitter as a primary approach to improving customer service.

Mistake #1: Using Twitter to catch disgruntled customers encourages the cell phone model of only giving the best deals to those who gripe loudest

There’s a whole subset of consumers who are onto the model employed by the cell phone companies. The drill goes like this – at the end of a cellular contract some customers have wised up to the fact that there’s a customer retentions department that can offer all manner of promotions to entice a customer to stay.

The  problem with the “retentions” approach is that it places all the customer service focus on the back end business of saving a customer relationship – and not on the front end of nurturing and growing that relationship.

If you’ve noticed, there’s an ever increasing stream of complaints from current cell phone customers that only new customers or those threatening to leave are offered the best deals.

That’s one hell of a way to promote high customer satisfaction – make customers threaten to quit before you reward them!

Mistake #2 – Fishing for Twitter complaints is time that could be better served improving the service in the first place

Spending  time improving  customer service so that there aren’t people complaining in the first place is a better use of your time.

Why only react when the problems reach “I’m going to tell everyone” proportion? Instead – focus on improving the customer experience from start to finish.

Here’s an idea (and one that I’ve used for the last 10 years).

Instead of laying back – waiting for customers to come to you with complaints – how about a proactive marketing approach that reaches out via emails, web seminars, and newsletters (I use constantcontact.com which charges only $25 per month for me to email over 2,000 customers).

Pushing out news and tips that helps customers work with your product fosters goodwill during the relationship – and I think is a much better (and more profitable) business model than trying to salvage a  relationship by waiting for  disgruntled tweets to appear.

Mistake #3 – Monitoring and reacting to Twitter complaints — only encourages more Twitter complaints

Some (but certainly not all) Twitter complainers, like children who learn that if they beg long (and loud) enough for a new toy they’ll get it, will eventually become an overwhelming resource hog.

Instead of fielding true complaints – your company could be lulled into being “gamed” by those Twitter users who figure out that if they complain long enough they’ll get your company’s equivalent of a free toy.salesforce-service-cloud

Observation

Twitter has a place in your customer service arsenal. In my experience it is no better tool than reading and responding to old fashioned complaint letters.

Twitter is also a noisy place — and it’s only going to get noisier and noisier.

My recommendation?

Focus your primary customer service efforts on building  bonds with your customers BEFORE they become disgruntled enough that they’re logging onto Twitter (or a personal blog or message board) and blast your company’s good name.

If you’re doing customer service the right way – you should not be providing customers with a reason to get onto a soap box in the first place.

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP Tagged With: crm, customer service, mas200, Sage 100 ERP, salesforce, twitter

Netsuite offers 50% discount to Salesforce.com customers via RenewForce

October 23, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

netsuite renewforce.jpg

Software as s service vendor Netsuite has rolled out a program termed RenewForce that promises 50% off the cost of any Salesforce users existing contracts.

Their offer is valid through December 31, 2008 and Netsuite claims to offer more features for less with their NetSuite CRM that includes creating estimates and quotes, sales-order generation, management of multiple quotas and forecasts, support for cross-selling and up-selling, commission management, integrated e-mail marketing and pre-configured sales dashboards.

NETSUITE RENEWFORCE PROGRAM SAVES CUSTOMERS 50% ON THEIR SALESFORCE.COM INVOICE

With RenewForce, Salesforce.com Customers Move From Standalone SFA to Feature-Rich CRM and Leading SaaS Suite for ERP, CRM and Ecommerce

SAN MATEO, Calif. — October 22, 2008 — NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management software suites for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies, today announced a new program aimed at salesforce.com customers who are eager to realize greater value from their customer relationship management (CRM) investment, as well as relief from some of the industry’s highest on-demand subscription fees. The NetSuite RenewForce Program offers all salesforce.com customers the opportunity to drop their standalone sales force automation (SFA) offering from salesforce.com in exchange for NetSuite CRM+ at a cost NetSuite guarantees will be 50% off the value of their current salesforce.com implementation.

NetSuite anticipates that salesforce.com customers will find a lot to like about the NetSuite RenewForce offer as they seek opportunities in this economic downturn to realize greater value across their operations. As an on-demand suite with built-in integration and business analytics, NetSuite offers substantially more value than the standalone salesforce.com SFA application and at substantially less cost. For more information about the NetSuite RenewForce program, please visit www.netsuite.com/renewforce.

The NetSuite RenewForce program is available now for a limited time only to all current salesforce.com customers in good standing. The 50% discount will apply to a comparable license for NetSuite CRM+, including customer support and implementation services.

“RenewForce ends the age of being forced to pay $125 per-user-per-month for basic contact management and SFA,” said Zach Nelson, NetSuite CEO. “In this environment, reducing costs and increasing productivity are key, and applications like NetSuite CRM+ that include—but go well beyond—basic SFA functionally enable companies to do a lot more with a lot less.”

Salesforce.com customers who take the NetSuite offer receive much more than just a 50% discount and a great product. They also receive important customer relationship management functionality not found in salesforce.com, including the ability to:

* Create estimates or quotes
* Generate sales orders
* Manage multiple quotas and forecasts
* Automate support for cross-selling and up-selling
* Manage incentive management (commissions) within the system without using a third product
* Conduct integrated email marketing
* Pre-configure dashboards for business intelligence, and more

For more information about NetSuite Inc., please visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are registered service-marks of NetSuite Inc.
For more information on the offer visit RenewForce.

via: Informationweek

Filed Under: Pricing and Promotions, Technology Tagged With: netsuite, renewforce, SAAS CRM, salesforce, Wayne Schulz

Salesforce Lauches Integration With Google Apps

April 14, 2008 by Wayne Schulz

Picture 56.png

Salesforce.com today announced integration of their online CRM software with Google Apps. This integration will allow users of both products to run their favorite apps from right within Salesforce. You can send Gmail to contacts, chat with contacts with Google Talk and create and attach Google Docs to Salesforce records.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Google Apps, salesforce, Wayne Schulz

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