Signs of a CRM Crisis – Is This Happening at Your Company?

In many cases, companies seem completely blindsided by a true CRM crisis at their company. A business will suddenly notice a huge drop in profitability or will face litigation over inferior products and in many cases the owners of the business will shake their heads and say “where did we go wrong?” In almost all cases, the problem stems from unhappy customers and a problem within the company that was likely visible for months or even years before the crisis broke. If you are noticing the following red flags at your own company, you need to start turning things around before you have a full-blown emergency:

1) You frequently hear about customer complaints. Of course, “frequently” is subjective, but your company should have a system – such as Relenta CRM – for gathering customer complaints in one place. You should review these complaints periodically. If the complaints suddenly increase, take action. If more than one customer complains about one thing, look into it carefully. Customer complaints are very important messages that no company can afford to overlook.

2) Your employees blame the customers for not knowing how to use the product or for having the wrong expectations. This is a sign of a major miscommunication between your team and the customer – and this miscommunication can only lead to customer satisfaction and loss of business. Teach your team to be more sympathetic to customers or teach them to educate customers more fully.

3) Your team members try to prove that everything is ok. When a customer calls with a problem or question, your team members need to listen carefully and not act as though the question is obvious (even if it is). They need to provide personalized service and clear directions that make the customer feel good about calling. Team members also need to be trained to understand that their job is to help the customer and to make them happy about calling.

4) Your customers are calling about the same issues. If no one understands your manual or if a person calls every day about a shipping problem, then the problem is not with the customers – the problem is something inside your company. To save the customers and yourself some time, change things so that the problem goes away. If your courier delivers 10% of your orders late and you get a few complaints about it, switch courier companies.