9 benefits of Logging all Communications and activities to CRM

Lets first agree that business is about all the communication and activities that we do with our customers and potential customers. In fact customer experience is also about all the communication that he receives from us. Now with that established will it not be great to be able to measure customer experience thru measuring communications. 

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Everybody seems to have their own idea about what should go in CRM and what should not. Each and every company will have separate set of procedures. So implementing a CRM which will encompass all these process will require meticulous planning and execution. But for SMEs they might not have that kind of resources and expertise to do it. 

So to start with they can at least start with three things:

1. Central database of customers and leads, 
2. A simple process to check the progress of leads (Funnel Management) 

Capture all the activities in CRM. Believe me these three things will give a tremendous boost to your Sales Teams efficiency. 

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What does logging all the activities mean?

1. First thing first. It does not mean just writing down all the things that we do or talk with customer. It goes much beyond that. 
2. Here we mean to record/log all the Calls, SMS, Emails, Meetings, tasks, visits with any team member of Customer Company BY ANY TEAM MEMBER FROM OUR COMPANY. 
3. All records will also be related to respective person, respective customer and respective user from our company, who is being part of that communication/activity. 

AND, this has to be automatic i.e. no one will be required to do all the data entry or reporting. 

Don’t worry, you don’t have to do all these entries its going to be AUTOMATIC

Above concept has more than few benefits than you may have imagined, especially if we add some intelligent analytics to it. 

Here are 9 benefits of Logging all the activities to CRM

1. Activities is all that we do. Yes, its true. Activities is all that we do to run our business. You do Calls, SMS, Emails and meetings to take a prospect to Closing stage. If activities are logged (and analysed) you can easily identify hot and cold prospects at a very early stage. Even Support ticket escalations can be preempted. 
2. 360 degree Analysis. Imagine seeing in one screen all the communication done by all your team members with all the team members of your customer. You come to know who is talking to whom and when. Who is sending Email/SMS to whom. What is the problem and where is the opportunity. There can't be better way to coordinate teams. This also happens to be biggest challenge of SMEs 
3. Finding what is wrong (One). How do you know whether your Sales team is actually touching the customer as many times as they should. "Customer is not responding" is the common reply by sales team. How do you know that this fellow has EVEN TRIED to do this.
4. Finding what is wrong (Two). Many times Sales people do lots of meetings. Say somebody has done 20 meetings in a week. Can they remember what was outcome of each meeting @ end of week? (or even which location did they meet?). Its always good idea to trust people, But having a proof adds much more confidence in that trust. (this mobile app gives you Time and Geo Locations)
5. Finding what is wrong (Three). Many times Customer says that your team is not picking up phone calls. How can you know for sure that customer is telling truth? Not any more, In fact you come to know that your person is not responding to calls - before customer calls you to complaint
6. Ageing Analysis of leads and customers. Most of the time we fail to TOUCH our customer as often as we should. (This is true for new and existing customers). Imagine getting a report which shows "All the prospects or Customers who have not been TOUCHED in last 7 days or 30 days". It makes sense right? (This is possible because your CRM will always update your lead, Contact and Account - whenever you communicate with them).
7. Team Communication. "Business is a Team Sport" - Steve Jobs. Yes indeed it is. Since everybody's communication is logged and related to respective Lead, Contact and Account all team members are aware of what is happening. Generally this is the biggest problem in any team which is more than 3 people. (No body knows who is communicating to which customer and when). This can drastically reduce your Email CCs and you don’t need to overburden everybody's Email Boxes. 
8. Better Team Play. Again, "Business is a Team Sport" - Steve Jobs. As a manager or Boss you will exactly know when to jump in. You can smell the urgency or importance or escalation much before it happens. e.g.: Create a dashboard which shows missed calls by your teams. Since this is updated in real time. If you find any customer calling your team and Team member not able to respond - You can give that customer a call from your office. Imagine the delight on customers face
9. Time and Cost Analysis. Because entering Meetings, tasks and visits is so easy, Doing a time and cost analysis becomes possible. Enter per our cost of the employees in the admin page. Now you have time and cost analysis for every Case, Opportunity, Contracts and even Accounts. You would have never thought this to be possible !!!