Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about finding out what makes your customers tick. From analyzing their purchasing history to listening to what they say about you on Facebook; CRM is how companies learn from and interact with their customers.

One of the many useful tools for CRM is live chat on your company website; software that gives your customers the opportunity to talk to your brand representatives first-hand. However -just like social networks and advertising- you have to be conscious of how you are talking to the customer.

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC CRM

We’ve mentioned before how social media now plays a huge role in CRM. The way your brand presents itself online is a direct reflection of how customers see you; posts on Facebook and Twitter act as vehicles for your company message.

Similarly, when talking to a customer through live chat software (like ours!) it is imperative you remember that you are there for the customer and not the other way around. Don’t be tempted to abuse the customers use of your live chat by bombarding them with advertising or product name-dropping; most consumers have already completed the majority of their purchasing process before they even contact you.

Instead, focus on the basics of customer relationship management (CRM): ensure you are addressing their needs or concerns before anything else; respond as quickly and clearly as you can; avoid using commonplace slang or casual language; stay positive and helpful even when they are not happy. It is in key areas such as these that many companies lose focus and potential customers by not putting the customers interests first.

WHY LIVE CHAT AND CRM?

Live chat software is useful for CRM because it not only gives your customers even more access to company representatives and information, but it can be used to gather important data about your existing and potential customers as well. Live chat and CRM go hand-in-hand to provide you with an all encompassing view of your customers through manual surveys and automatic CRM database entries, as well as important analytic data for your site (visitors, keywords, etc). All of this information can be fed into your CRM solution to give you a 360 degree view of your customers.

By harnessing the power of live chat software and connecting it to a CRM solution (such as Microsoft Dynamics), you are giving your company even more fuel to drive it to success. Your customers are your business so keeping them happy should be your priority; combining live chat with CRM means you can better serve your customers while gathering important data about them too.

Contact an ECI representative today to learn more about our CRM solutions!