Thoughts of CRM by Salespulse

20 or maybe 40 years ago, you would have walked into your local shop and the shopkeeper would have asked you about your family, your holiday and would have known exactly what you normally buy and may even have had a special offer for your favourite product. In short it would have been an enjoyable, personalised experience.

 

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the software that companies have turned to, in order to try to recreate this personalised experience. Used properly, the company will be able to record the full profile of the customer, what they buy, what complaints they have ever lodged, details of any phonecalls they have received from or made to the company, what sales or marketing campaigns that have been targeted with. The theory being that when the customer rings up, then all previous dealings they have had with the company are available at the fingertips of all company employees, This should result in a better experience for the customer as they are not being asked the same questions each time & they are not being targeted with products they don’t want or need.

 

There are many different types of CRM software systems available. They range from freeware to multi million euro systems for large organisations.

 

A spreadsheet with a list of customers and a different column to record every phonecall from them is a type of CRM system, albeit an inefficient one

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Club card schemes from large supermarket chains are a type of CRM system. Without you realising it the supermarket knows how much you spend, when & how often you buy, what different products you buy regularly and which ones you buy occasionally. They will then analyse this information and use it to tailor special offers and even to send out special offer coupons for products you are likely to purchase.

 

In short a CRM uses the information it holds about customers and prospective customers to try to provide a better customer experience and to increase sales.

 

From our experience of providing CRM systems for a number of years, I would say that the purchase of the system is only part of the solution. The commitment by the company to the system, the training of all staff in its use and benefits and the management of the change involved in its introduction are more crucial to its success that the system itself.

 

That is why there have been a large number of high profile failures with CRM (& other software) systems.

 

Adult Education & Salespulse

Adult Education is a significant industry in Ireland as it is in many economies. It takes the form of short training courses, Education programmes, Literacy training, Adult Guidance. It is delivered in commercial training organisations, community education environments, in employment situations & online to name but a few.

 

We are a significant player in this sector in Ireland having a system deployed nationally to manage Community Adult Guidance as well as a number of administration systems being used by over 1,000 users. The products we have include Learning Management Systems, Online testing, Online questionnaires, Student registration systems, Text a student facility and timetabling.

 

I will use this blog to discuss individual aspects of software for the Adult Education sector. I will talk about some case studies in general terms and would hope to get feedback from any parties interested in this area.

Company first posting

by Brian Kelly CEO, Salespulse

 

We started this company in 2002 with the intention of filling some of the niches and gaps that we saw in the software industry. At the time we saw that service & support was an area that left a lot to be desired.

 

7 years is a long time in software development. Areas that have evolved or progressed significantly in that time include Blogging, Selling Software as a Service, Podcasting, RSS feeds, release by manufacturers of Software development tools to encourage organisation to adapt the software themselves and much more.

 

We believed, when starting the company, and still believe that a tailored product that provides what an organisation needs is the key to success. The problem being that people wants the customised software product for the Off the Shelf price.

We have tried therefore to develop products that have appeal to a larger number of customers which can be customised by the individual organisation.

 

We work in a number of different sectors, Business, Education & Health.

 

Overtime I will talk about the technology, the different markets we are in, selling (or trying to sell !) & marketing software in a tighter economy, the issues & challenges that a growing company faces. I would be delighted with any contributions or discussion.