Ok, you have found a cloud-based application that promises to add value to your business.  The next thing to investigate is whether the support model meets your needs.  What are the questions, beyond the business functionality, that you should be asking of the vendor – and yourself?

  by  neonbubble

• What will the vendor do if there is disruption of service?  What do you need to do?
• How can you access your data if you want to integrate it with another application or migrate it altogether?
• Who has access to the data, both internal to the vendor and externally?
• When and how is the data backed up?  How and when can I request a restore?  What does it cost?
• What is the vendors monthly percentage of downtime?  What is your recourse if they have more than that?
• How does the vendor communicate maintenance and other outage information  to customers?  When is maintenance usually done?
• What happens if the vendor goes out of business?  How can I get my data and what would it take to switch to another vendor?  Can I switch?
• How can I get support if I have a question or a problem?  Can I call someone or do I have to use email or chat?  Does more personalized support cost more?

First, ask the vendors these questions.  Ask follow up questions if you don’t understand.  Then ask yourself – can my business live with that?

Didn’t get enough buzzwords last week?  Not to worry, I am here to fill the big gaping void in your week!  Here are more buzzwords that every small business owner should know.

Lets get started!

1. Business intelligence – CIO.com defines business intelligence or BI as “… an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data”.  So what does that mean?   Generally it means going beyond straight transactional reporting to using data to  improve decision making, cut costs or identify new business opportunities.  It generally entails merging data from various sources and looking at data over time to identify trends, etc.  You use BI to answer questions like “who is my most profitable customer” or “which is my costliest route”.  I talked about BI in this post.
2. Cloud computing – there are lots of definitions but mine is this:  any computing resource that you use that isn’t on your desk or in your office.  For example, this blog is physically stored on a server that I think is in New Mexico.  Heck, I am not entirely sure where it is.  Where it is NOT is in Dunwoody, GA – hence it is in the cloud.  If you use Gmail, Evernote, Dropbox or any other software as a service (SaaS – another good buzzword) program you are “in the cloud”.  You can read more about the cloud here and here.
3. CRM – stands for customer relationship management.   It is a business function, usually supported by technology, designed to improve interactions with customers.   It allows a business to, in one place, keep track of interactions and communications with a customer like inquiries, complaints, phone calls, emails, and transactions.  It can help marketing, sales and customer service stay on the same page when dealing with customers and prospects.   I wrote a few posts about CRM you can read here and here.  If you go beyond traditional CRM that and start to keep track of a customer’s online behaviors thru social media like Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and the like you are dabbling in Social CRM (see, another free buzzword for the price of one!).  There is a great article that describes social CRM here.
4. ERP – is the acronym for enterprise resource planning and it refers to an integrated system that manages most of the business functions of an organization.  It can include finance and accounting, HR, supply chain management, project management, CRM and more.  ERP solutions for small businesses include NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and a plethora of smaller niche applications.  There are so many choices it can be confusing – Laurie McCabe has a good article on how to choose the right business applications.

What does all this mean?

All of these buzzwords should be in your technology plan – if you aren’t using them now you will want to use them in the near future.  If you aren’t sure how to get started or don’t even have a technology plan, get help.  These are all tools to help your business grow and be effective.  And who doesn’t want that?

  by  revbean

Technology has advanced so much in the past few years – I can’t imagine a world with no internet on my phone, no ability to make dinner reservations online (love Opentable!), no easy way to get directions or maps when I need them or no Angry Birds.  Yet every once in a while I get slapped upside the head with a business process that is, well there is no nice way to say it, so 1990s.

I recently took one of my dogs to the vet – no, this article isn’t about my vet.  They are fairly high tech and progressive (shout out to them!).  As part of completing the check-up I had to get new supplies of various medicines, including heartworm preventative.  Merial, the maker of the heartworm medicine, was offering a $12 rebate if you bought a certain minimum number of dosages.

Going Back in Time

Here is where things got a little surreal.  The process to get the rebate was this:  vet has to give me an extra receipt.  I had to fill in a paper form, attach the receipt and mail to Merial.  Then I have to wait 6-8 weeks for processing.

Really?

There Has to Be a Better Way

Why couldn’t I fill in a form online with some sort of code from my vet receipt?  Or why not allow me to scan the receipt and attach it to the online form?  And why on earth does it take 6-8 weeks to process anything these days?  Other than making sure I’m not sending in multiple copies, what is there to process exactly?  The de-duplicating can easily be done by computer and then it is a matter sending a transaction to an accounts payable system to cut me a check.  Heck, maybe they could have been really out there and deposited the money in my PayPal account.

Ok, so maybe I’m cheap – I did fill out the form and send it in to get my $12.  Unfortunately I’m left with an unfavorable impression of Merial – which is probably not fair because there is a 99% chance that someone else is actually processing their rebates.  In addition – Merial likely had a marketing goal tied to those rebates.  How many folks do what I almost did and just throw it away because it was too much trouble?

Time to Look at Our Own Businesses

This got me thinking – how many of our business processes are inconvenient for our customers?  How many of them leave our customers with an unfavorable impression?  How can a business owner use technology to make things easier for their customers?

By the way, this is Jester, my old girl.   She probably doesn’t need a year’s worth of heartworm preventative anyway but we can always hope!

by  Erin!

I have written a few posts about CRM applications in the past but I’ve come to realize that folks are still confused about what CRM is.  I think that is part of the reason there are so many failed CRM implementations – too many people don’t realize how broad the term is and when they choose a tool they do it without evaluating what they need and comparing it to what is available.  Believe me, sometimes more is NOT better.  Worse, CRM is as much a business strategy as a technology – you need both to be successful.
 

So what is CRM then?

According to Wikipedia CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a broad term referring to “a widely-implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.”.  Wow, that is a lot of stuff.

In an attempt to further simplify I’ve come up with an overly simple graphic (so you knowledgeable folks don’t need to tell me what I left out – sock puppet simple, remember?) to help illustrate.

If you think of the three major functions of CRM in a Venn diagram as above you can see that sales, marketing and customer service share a major function which is simply called Contact Management here but is really the information about your customers.  Therein lies the problem.  Some companies want the sales functions and contact management, some want the marketing functions and contact management.  Some companies just want contact management.  Regardless of what you want, if you don’t choose the right application you are likely to get one with all of the functionality.  Anytime you get more than you want to use you are asking for trouble.

So how do you get the right tool?

It pays to think about your strategy first, even a simplified one.  What are you trying to accomplish for your business?  Then, with a bullet list of requirements, look at the functionality of the available tools.  Don’t restrict yourself to the big names or the one your buddy uses – look at all of them.  Make sure you are getting what you really need, not a whole lot else.  Picking something that has just what you need will make installation, training and adoption immeasurably easier.

But what if I need more functionality later?

If you are absolutely, positively certain you will want, say, sales force automation in the next 6-12 months then add it to your requirements.  Otherwise, add a requirement that speaks to the ease of moving data in and out to your list.  Who knows what applications will be available a year from now – make sure you can easily get your data out and worry about what the next right tool is when you are ready.

Get help if you need it

Remember, unless you are an IT professional or CRM expert, choosing a tool and implementing it correctly can be a daunting proposition.  If you had a tax or legal issue you’d get help from your accountant or attorney, right?  Don’t hesitate to get help from your technical advisor if you need it.

Bottom line

There are a lot of CRM applications and most of them are pretty good.  It is a pretty mature technology and there are many happy customers using each and every one.  Unfortunately they almost all have unhappy customers too and many times it is because the wrong tool was chosen.  Take your time, do it right and get help if you need it.

by  Sebastian Mary

All across town there are cafeterias and lunch counters that want to offer their customers good-tasting, made from scratch pizza each day, without having to make it themselves.  Enter Joe.  Joe is in the wholesale pizza business.  He makes a few types of pizzas in bulk and delivers them each day to to these food service establishments.  Each day his customers place their orders for the next day – how many pizzas of what sort and what time they want them.  They can even place multiple orders for a day – maybe two deliveries during the lunch rush and and another for the mid-afternoon snack crowd.

The key to Joe’s success is to be able to deliver the pizzas they want, when they want them.  His customers insist on getting hot pizza on time and are willing to pay a premium for a reliable, high-quality product.  To this end Joe is putting his money where his mouth is by offering his customers a discount if he is late or delivers the wrong thing.  His Service Level Agreement is more than we need to go into here but basically, if, on average, he is late by more than a few minutes or if, on average, he mis-delivers, his customers get a discount.

This is where things get interesting.  How can he a) collect the data to measure against this agreement and b) report back to his customers on his performance?    Here are some scenarios:

Low tech scenario

Joe’s delivery guys have a delivery receipt on which they record the time of delivery and have it initialed by the customer.  At the end of their shift they return their receipts to Joe’s bookkeeper who keys the information into a spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet has details about each customer and each delivery.

At the end of the month the performance metrics are calculated and the results are used as input into  billing.  A performance report is created out of the spreadsheet and included in each customer’s bill.  The bill can be sent via snail mail or email.

Tech-enabled scenario

Joe’s delivery guys each carry a mobile device capable of accessing files (probably still spreadsheets) on the Internet.   This is easily done with no custom software by using Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox and the like.  When they make a delivery they note the time of delivery and the name of who received it, online as they complete the delivery.  They still carry paper delivery receipts to get the customer’s initial but they don’t need to go back to the office right away.  Joe’s bookkeeper doesn’t have to key in the data – it is already in file the delivery guy accessed via the mobile device.  Performance and billing calculations are done as in the previous scenario.

Because data is updated on-the-fly on the Internet, it is possible to give Joe’s customers read-only access to the files so they can see Joe’s performance whenever they want, not just at the end of the month.

High-tech scenario

Joe’s delivery guys have a specialized application on their mobile device.  When pizzas are delivered they hit a button that logs the time of delivery.  They then present the device to the customer for signature.    After the customer signs on the mobile device, the data is uploaded to Joe’s system at the click of a button.  Even if there is no coverage, the delivery guys can capture the delivery information and sync it up at a later time.  No paper documents to keep up with, no return trips to the office, no re-keying of information.

Results

You can see, a new small business can easily manage their customers in the low-tech scenario, as long as the number of customers and deliveries stays small.  Once Joe’s business starts to grow, he can move to the tech-enabled scenario without a huge investment.  When he is wildly successful the investment in the high-tech solution will make him much more efficient.

These scenarios really jus tdiscuss applying technology to the “collect” portion of  for Joe’s need to collect, use and report on performance data for his customer’s.   Think about how technology could be applied to the “use” (calculating performance metrics and applying them to billing rules) and “report” parts of the equation!

Would applying technology to your service level agreement process make your small business more efficient?

Retail and food service businesses probably don’t have this problem but service companies that are growing know exactly what I am talking about.  After identifying a customer, engaging in a protracted sales process, and wrangling over the fine details of the contract you are ready to begin providing services to your new customer, and better yet, start invoicing them.  But when you talk to the various parts of your company you realize it is all a lot harder than you thought.  Why is that and why does it take so long?

To answer that let’s look at a typical set-up a medium-sized company might have:

• Your customer is hopefully already set up in your CRM system, at least as far as your sales folks are concerned.  You will want to make sure your customer service folks have them set up for their needs too.
• You will want the new customer set up in your accounting system…
• And your billing system..
• And in whatever operational system(s) you use (consulting firms might have project management systems, shipping companies might have logistics systems, wireless carriers will have network systems).

Even if you don’t have individual applications for these functions, you still have people who have to know about the new customer and to adapt their internal processes to accommodate them.

So why would doing this take a long time?  If you are a smallish company it might not be too bad – you may have to update your various applications, spreadsheets or lists yourself or holler over to the guy in the next chair.  As your company gets bigger, however, you’ll likely start dividing the work functionally – you may have an accounting group or department, another for billing, another for sales, one for customer service and another one for the operational aspects.  Suddenly getting everyone on the same page, and better yet, with the same information, becomes a challenge.  As you become more successful and grow you may find that your automation has become fractured – some groups have grownup applications, some use spreadsheets or their own databases.  This uneven growth and lack of integration across the organization becomes more and more difficult to manage.  Which leads to increases in your cost to onboard a customer.  And, because every group updated their processes and systems manually you may have played “telephone” with important information like customer name, addresses, contact info, etc.  This in turn will lead to issues down the road doing analytical reporting about things like the profitability of a customer.

The good news is this not a new problem – millions of companies face this all the time.  Think of it as a good sign, a growing pain for a successful company.  It is a legitimate problem though and if left to get out of hand can bog a company down, making your organization a modern day Tower of Babel.  Here are some of the symptoms:

• You have  ”bad data” – which is, generally in this situation, inconsistent data.
• You miss key dates – for example your contact stipulates an SLA period for follow up on issues that never made it to customer service.
• You notice frequent miscommunications with customers.  Or about customers.
• You experience more the than usual instances of over or under billing.
• Or your numbers aren’t what you expect but you don’t know why.

What can you do?  Here are some thoughts:

• When you start to see these symptoms force yourself to take the time to stop and take a look around.  If you are still small you may be able to institute some policies and procedures that govern how new customers are set up.  Something as simple as a check sheet can go a long way to staving off problems.  Collaborating with lists and spreadsheets in the cloud might help as well.  Look at Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox or the like.
• Listen to your employees carefully for statements that indicate the symptoms such as “We’re doing business with ABC in two different offices and it is so hard to keep it straight.  Sure would help if they were set up the same in both places!”.  When you hear this ask probing questions to figure out why.
• Take the time to document your processes.  Then review them and look for inefficiencies and opportunities to automate processes or integrate processes for which you already have applications.  As a bonus you’ll have training material for onboarding new employees!
• Review the processes regularly, at least annually, as input into your technology plan and budget for next year.

Like I said earlier, this isn’t the sign of a “bad” company, just one that has grown by focusing on getting the job done and not “how” the job gets done.  And as you can see, taking a look at the “how” now and again can help you continue to grow.

Has your company experienced this growing pain?

Last week I wrote about the iPad and some applications it has for businesses.  This week I’d like to both broaden and narrow that discussion and talk about using mobile devices to enable your field service employees.

It wasn’t that long ago that any time an employee had to call on customers remotely they showed up with their clipboard and pen.  To enable these employees to do anything in an automated fashion was expensive because it required specialized hardware and software that was generally custom built for the purpose.  This cost created quite a barrier to entry for small and medium sized businesses.  Not so today.

With any smart phone or device (iPad, tablets, net books, etc.)  that has internet access you can provide your field employees with a wide variety of tools for use at the customer site.  You can cobble together a collection of free applications and some business processes to allow these employees to remotely access and complete work orders, create sales orders and provide estimates.  The results of these can be uploaded either directly to your office (if you have the appropriate connectivity) or to a place you designate (like Google Docs, DropBox, or Box.net).  Following is an example of what you can do for the price of an everyday device and a data plan.

Joe repairs appliances.  Each day he can go online and download a list of the service calls he has for the day.  Each will include a description of the problem and an address that he can use to get a map to where he is going.  When he gets to a home with, let’s say, a bum dishwasher, he can go to where his company stores their service manuals for each make and model online.  He can use these to determine the problem.  If he happens to have the parts on his truck he can fix the dishwasher and then create an order from the form he gets online.  He can list his time and the cost associated with the parts (which he again found online).  He can email the invoice to his customer and upload to the office at the same time.  In an alternate scenario, if he doesn’t have the parts he can send a requisition into the office.  When the parts are ready his follow up call can be scheduled and he can go back to the customer for the repairs.  At the end of the day he can upload a list of what he did.

I realize this is an oversimplified example and it doesn’t meet every situation.  For example, what if he doesn’t have internet connectivity at this customer?  This is a real situation that has to be managed.  My point is that technology is advanced enough that this example is very real as long as the obvious situations are thought thru and the appropriate procedures are put in place.  For example, Joe could download the manuals he will need and put likely parts on his truck before he leaves.

There are a million variations on this and what I want you to think about it is “What part of our process can we enable with smartphones and other compact devices?”.  The answer may not be everything but it may be enough to shorten your sales call-to-cash cycle, increase the number of calls an employee can make in a day or reduce the number of times he has to go out to handle a given service call.  Any or all of these can  have a positive affect on the bottom line.

As you begin to the see the benefits you may then want to start looking at specialized paid applications, specialized devices or even custom software.  The bottom line is though there is a lot you can do before you get to that point.

What mobile applications can you apply in YOUR business?

I have to be perfectly honest, I was an iPad skeptic.  I wasn’t skeptical about the device itself – it has the inherent coolness of all the Apple products – but I was skeptical of its usefulness to me and to my business.  I have and heavily use (and adore) my iPhone and I have one of the smallest and lightest full featured notebook computers on the market.  What would be the benefit of adding a new device to the mix?

In the months since the iPad came out, however, I’ve looked at my business and other businesses with a new eye for iPad opportunities.  Frankly, I’ve been surprised at how many I have found.

Retail

A retail establishment could use the iPad instead of a clipboard for inventory.  They could use it instead of a TV and DVD or VCR for product demos.  They could also use it for customer loyalty club sign-ups.  Of course, they’d probably want to bolt it down or tether it for the latter two tasks.

Any industry – Mobile Sales

Wow, any sales person that is out traveling about would find the iPad useful.  The biggest benefit would be the ability to show a customer or client fabulous online demos, videos, etc. with out using a projection device or having an unwieldy computer between them and the prospect.   Once the impressive demo was over the iPad would be great for creating real-time sales orders.

Any industry – Mobile Service Technicians

Cable people, electricians, plumbers, any sort of home maintenance or repair person – these could all use an iPad.  Service orders could be dispatched to the technicals, notes written up, and invoices created.  Service manuals would be available at the flick of a finger.  Estimates could be created and presented to customers on site.  The time lag between service performance and billing would be almost zero.

Medical

Medical histories could be taken, xrays or other test results shown, records updated – all on a small, inconspicuous device the size of a notebook.

Real Estate

What if you were driving a prospective buyer around town and they wanted to see more homes than you prepared for?  In a flash you could search other listings, show the buyer photos and videos, get directions to other homes.  You could do these on a smartphone but the visual experience would be unappealing and a laptop would be large and unwieldy.

Creatives

Designers of all sorts, craftsmen, architects and other creatives could use the iPad as a portable portfolio.  They could also use it to take notes, show design changes and options during customer consultations.

So where does it leave me?  I don’t fall into these categories as a provider of professional services.  Yet I can see using the iPad to show case studies, websites of interests or videos.  I’ve about talked myself into buying an iPad for the ease of doing email and web searching alone.  Consuming content of any sort is the greatest strength of the iPad.  I’ll still want to use my notebook computer for creating content – such as writing blog posts like this.

I still haven’t bought one yet but I think I see an iPad as my year end bonus to myself.  What other ideas for uses of iPad’s in business do you see?

This will be a short post today to make up for not posting last week.  I’ll get back on track later this week, I promise.

What is keeping you from leveraging today’s technology to provide stellar customer service?  I’ve noticed a trend in the reasons I’ve heard from small business owners and it ISN’T money.  This surprised me because you’d expect the main reason to be cost.  In today’s economy cost IS something to consider and any changes or additions to the technology you use to support your business should be carefully thought out and carefully planned and implemented.

No, the reasons I hear most start like this:  ”I still have to…” or “I would have to change…” or “I want…” – in other words, it is all about the business owner, not at all about the customer.  When I hear sentences that start with these phrases the following questions come to my mind:

When I hear “I still have to…” or “I would have to change…” I wonder, have you taken the opportunity to rethink your operational processes?    You might not need that step any more.  Or I wonder if you really understand the solutions you are considering.  For example, if your response to putting in functionality for customers to self-schedule appointments is “I still have to call them to confirm or change the appointment”, you may need to look at what the services provide.  Most of them allow you to apply rules to the appointments, maybe only existing customers can self-schedule or you can specify dates and times for appointments based on the service selected.  In addition, most of the services include functionality that automatically emails confirmations and reminders for you.
When I hear “I want…” my ears really perk up – this is where it is GENERALLY about you, your sales technique and need to deal with your customer in a way you are comfortable with, your needs and not your customer’s.  When you start with “I want…” keep in mind that today’s culture is getting more technology-savvy and more technology-centric.  Your customers have lots of options on how to interact with business and more and more often they want to choose their communication channels and deal with your business when it is convenient for them.

If you keep thinking “I want…” instead of “They want…so I should…” you may find yourself left behind your more open minded and progressive competitors.

Wow, we are part 5 of the series on how to use technology to improve customer service with your small business.  No foolin!

Today I want to talk about online chat, also known as live chat or click-to-chat.    This is a feature you can add to your website that allows your customers or prospects to choose to communicate with your company real time, using text.  It can be implemented in a number of ways and can provide a variety of service-related benefits to your small business:

• Your customer service folks can be involved in multiple chats, allowing them to help more people at one time than they could on the phone.  Not only can your representatives have multiple chats going at once, you can “can” responses to frequently asked questions and your reps can use them by pressing a single button.   You can increase customer service while reducing operational costs!
• It allows your customer service people to engage in communication that is more conversation-like than asynchronous email.  The number of people that engage in live chat or instant messaging is on the rise so this a communication channel that many are very familiar with.  Finally, while it is real-time and comfortable, it allows for a level of anonymity that some people prefer.
• Customers or prospects that engage in online chat generally have a higher tolerance for waiting for service (but not too long!) – by definition they are online and can easily multitask while they are waiting for answers to their questions.  When they are on hold on the phone they are usually much less patient.
• Most, if not all, live chat implementations allow you to push content, via links, to the recipient.   You can provide FAQs or a how-to videos easily, for example.
• If you have an e-commerce site where you sell a product, most live chat vendors provide “shop with me” functionality that allows you to gently guide your customer thru your site and address any questions.
• You can set up live chat to proactively engage users if they spend a long time on a page or repeat actions that indicate they are having a problem.
• All of the chat conversations are logged and saved to a database.  You can use them identify frequent customer problems or diagnose customer-service issues.

Live chat can provide benefits beyond improved customer service.  Most of the vendors provide functionality that helps you better understand how users interact with your site and to optimize it.  You can proactively engage prospective customers at key place in your site, perhaps speeding up the acquisition or conversion process.

As with any new technology, there are a lot of best practices you can employ to improve your chances of success – just as there a lot of way to screw it up and annoy your customers and prospects.   This is definitely a place where you should get professional help to make sure you are doing the right thing for your business.

If you are interested in learning more about live chat, contact your technical advisor and see if live chat needs a place in your technology plan.