Can Customer Process Management Benefit Your Company?
Customer process management (CPM) is the sum of all activities involved in planning, monitoring, and performing any processes involving the customer. Customer process management can be part of an overall enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution or a stand-alone system of processes and practices. Since most companies have a customer service branch of the business, CPM can help firms of all sizes do more with less while cutting costs, delivering better service, and leaving customers more satisfied and loyal.
With the expanding number of customer interfaces available to the public, a customer service department can find its information out of sync. Records from web site interfaces, automated phone lines, and customer service reps must be processed into one work flow that speeds resolution of any problems or inquiries and requests. With a customer process management solution in place, resolution is easy as one work flow process is available to all involved parties on one user record.
Take for example a customer who makes a request through the company web site to change his billing from manual transfer to an automatic bank transfer when the bill is due. The customer may after making the request decide it’s best to request this through an automated phone system or customer service representative, or the customer may suddenly remember that a discount or other incentive is advertised for calling in. In a system lacking customer process management controls, there can be duplicate records and it will take the customer service rep a considerable amount of time to reconcile the customer request. In a customer process management system, the customer service rep will be able to pull the record that was just created on the web interface. With records kept on one central database that is accessible by all involved parties in the process, the transaction is more quickly resolved resulting in greater customer satisfaction.
The work flow that is started in the customer service department or web site can be carried over to the accounting department in the event of customer discounts and other incentives, and the customer will see the discount on their next statement. The result is a satisfied customer who is very likely to remain loyal to the company. Transactions of this kind are not uncommon in today’s business world and a company that does not have a customer process management solution in place risks alienating customers by not quickly responding to inquiries.
The customers and employees of an organization that has implemented an effective customer management process software solution or optimized customer facing processes will effectively handle this type of request in a timely manner. All relevant customer data is available to all involved parties in real-time resulting in handling time ratios being lowered and an increase in customer satisfaction. A much higher percentage of first-time problem resolution will make for more satisfied and more loyal customers.
Customer process management is another example of customer-centric lean management practices that have spread through companies world-wide in the past few decades. Whether your company is looking for the right tools for CRM or information about CRM, CRM Reviews are a good place to start your software journey. Customer process management offers clear benefits to companies of all sizes looking to compete on a global or local scale in tough and uncertain economic conditions.