Do you know enough about your customers to tell them apart?
Women sorting silk cocoons, Antioch, Syria, c. 1913. Underwood & Underwood, publisher. Library of Congress.

Recently I met with a payroll vendor regarding some additional services they were offering.  The first thing she asked was “Tell me about what your company does.”  This took me by surprise. We had been doing business with this company for over four years and she didn’t know what we did?  I understand it’s a different business unit, but at least take a few minutes to understand a little about your customer.  After explaining, she then asked approximately how many folks we have on payroll.  Wait a minute.  She works for the company managing our payroll and she doesn't have that information available either?

First of all, she should have taken the time to understand her customer, but more importantly, doesn't she have access to a system that shares this knowledge within the company?  So I asked that question. She said, "No, but we really need one.  All we have right now is Sales Force, which is just used for entering contacts and activities."   Sounds more like contact management than customer relationship management.

What they really need is an integrated tool that brings all the data to the surface to help them better understand their customers.  Ironically, that’s exactly what Efficio does for media sales organizations (TV/radio).  Efficio provides one place where you can access all your sales information, not just simple contact management.

Do you have the right tool to manage your customer relationships?

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