While most companies focus on winning new business, many companies don't have processes around managing relationships with their existing clients and ensuring that those customers are retained. Some of the common issues that organisations face include:
- Once a project is won, or a sale is made, how is that relationship maintained?
- What are the prompts to ensure that account managers actually make regular contact with clients?
- What are the fallbacks or alerts to ensure that this happens?
The process for managing this can vary depending on the type of client. However, the approach recommended by CRM Online is to design a process that combines a proactive approach to client management, generally around ensuring a compulsory next followup date is set by the account manager, with more passive communication such as trigger-based email communication, general email newsletters and social communication.
The figure below shows an example of how the process of managing a customer transitions from a sales team to an account management process based on opportunities. Note that this is a general process and is not be applicable to every company.
Using CRM to Drive Customer Followup
In the this process, the CRM system is configured to flag an account as an active client based on the successful closure of an opportunity. Based on this trigger, a compulsory next followup date on the client record is set, which drives the followup process of the account manager. In the event that an account manager fails to properly follow up with a client, management is notified via their own reports that identify followup activity that is overdue by more than X days, or by email notifications containing similar information.
Note that the above process is specific to a particular example. In high volume sales environments, opportunities may not be applicable and we've often found that a prospect should be maintained in the lead stage until a sale is made.
