CRM Asset - Knowledge management at the personal level

By Dick Wooden on May 29, 2012 at 9:42 AM

Capturing Knowledge of the Customer

Once upon a time you got your first customer. A transaction took place: You were selling something, and the customer bought it. Let’s call this customer Mr. B.

Hopefully Mr. B came back and bought something from you again. And again. Each contact you had with him, you learned something new—more about his wants, needs, desires, preferences, buying habits. Let’s assume you captured it all somewhere.

With an effective CRM system, this growing body of knowledge – this asset – gave you the capacity to respond better and better to those wants and needs. Your valued relationship and the shared knowledge grew. It wasn’t just a transaction any more. It was a deepening relationship. Now you could almost see what Mr. B’s next need would be before he even told you. He would ask you questions, trusting that you’d either be able to help or could refer him to someone else with the answers.

High value: a winning, sharing relationship

Your long-term relationship with Bob (Mr. B) has increased in value for both of you. Because of it, you are both thriving. Loyalty is not an issue, as long as your bank of useful knowledge is the foundation of every contact your business has with him. Everyone on your team knows what you know about Mr. B’s wants, needs, desires, preference, buying habits, service history, and goals and has fingertip access to information about your strategic partners when he needs a referral to some other resource to help him be successful.

Here’s the best part of all this. This customer is now your best source of referrals. A trusted, strategic relationship has developed. Experiences with your business have been so good that he can’t help but tell his friends and associates about it.

The more Mr. Bs you have in your customer database, the better for your own business success.