When businesses are searching for CRM software, they aren’t just looking for a generic system to manage their sales, marketing and support teams. These days, companies choose software like people choose their cars. It is all about finding the right fit for your specific needs. A married couple with twins on the way will want an SUV that can fit two strollers in the back. A farmer with 150 livestock will need a CRM solution that can track health information and breeding statistics.
To meet this need, Microsoft has partnered with value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to provide customized software built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. Just like new cars at a dealership, there are a ton of options to choose from when it comes to customized CRM software. So, Software Advice, Inc. decided to simplify things a bit by choosing 20 major industries and highlighting a vendor customization for each one. This isn’t a “best-of” compilation, but it is a great resource that gives you an idea of what all is out there for your industry. Check out the blog post here.
Say you’re a product manager responsible for a line of MP3 players. One of the players is not selling well, in spite of various promotional activities including two price reductions within the last six months. You still can’t find lift.
As with any product development cycle, you conducted focus groups and researched the market to determine the optimal feature set for your target audience, at a compelling price point. The research didn’t yield any unexpected or actionable results.
In addition to handling your regular workload, you have several hundred online customer reviews collected over the last 60 days to plow through. It’s vital to read these reviews but you simply don’t have the bandwidth to go over them all with an attention they require. You need an easy way to filter out relevant customer themes that provide quick, current, actionable insights from customers.
Competitive products offer almost the exact same features as your MP3 player at a similar price. You’re now working on a next- generation player but aren’t clear on what the “must have” features should be for this version. Not only is your market data ambiguous, but also it’s now stale after all this time.
Sound familiar?
Enter Amplified Analytics. Using AAI’s Product Reputation Market Intelligence Reporter (PRMIR), which is based on semantic analysis of customer reviews and behavioral economics models, product managers and key decision makers can quickly segregate and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) like Customer Satisfaction (CSI) with a product functionality, reliability and a quality of support.
Top category selections, such as MP3 players, on the PRMIR data entry screen are, easily identifiable and simple to find. Users can see the ratio of reviews to products, using a significant product sampling (in the case of the MP3 player, 75:1). All listings are date stamped, so that users know precisely when data has been updated. In just four mouse clicks, a product manager is able to generate meaningful functionality rates for his or her product;
The PRMIR interface allows customers to make multiple selections of competing manufacturers and filter the number of reviews and ranges for several performance indicators, including Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), Product Functionality Score (PFS), Product Reliability Score (PRS) and Product Support Score (PSS).
The Product Satisfaction Analysis report is generated in less than a minute. Within five minutes, in this particular scenario the product manager would discover that 5% of customers were reporting design issues with the battery compartment latch design.
When recalculating the CSI factoring out this specific design issue, the MP3 player in question outscores the competition by 4.2%. An up-to-date analysis with easily importable data is available in less than 15 minutes; the entire process takes less time than a normal lunch hour. Most important, stakeholders walk away with accurate data and tangible feedback to ensure customer satisfaction and profitability of future products.
It is a well-known fact that when a customer is happy, they will tell at least three people. On the other hand, it has also been documented that if a consumer is dissatisfied they will tell FIFTEEN people. So what are they saying about you?
In these days of social media, those numbers are sure to increase at least ten-fold and as they do, the question arises; how can you get more consumers working for you, fewer against? A great place to start is to concentrate on understanding customer satisfaction and to do that, you must create a remarkable customer experience, one they cannot wait to tell others about.
Consumers want to be “wowed” and for that to happen you must exceed their expectations. However, to state the obvious, that’s not always easy to do. Robert Stephens, the founder of Geek Squad, now a part of Best Buy, has said, “Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” Mr. Stephens had a very small advertising budget when he formed his company so his marketing goals included finding inexpensive ways to be visually creative. He also realized that paid advertising is just a portion of a total marketing budget.
A well-rounded marketing campaign usually includes several facets of promotion and discovering the right mix to be competitive and gain market share, is the key to success.
Today, an increasing number of consumers are using one or more forms of social media to connect with friends and family. They are sharing EVERYTHING that goes on in their life. What an opportunity for brand awareness and product marketing! Future customers are forming opinions about you right now and you need to know what they’re thinking, and of greater importance, what they’re saying to others.
The question is, how? The good news is the online world is saturated with consumer feedback regarding not only your products and stores, but those of your competitors as well. And the bad news? Well, until recently there has been so much information you could quickly become overwhelmed trying to make sense of it all. But not anymore.
Amplified Analytics’ is a new generation market intelligence company whose objective is to provide you with the tools you need to understand how your customers see you. We review products using a common methodology of measuring their functionality, reliability and support reputations based on what your customers are saying. Our proprietary algorithms monitor and measure the difference between customer expectations and their actual experience with the product, a gap you need to understand.
Take a look at how consumers view the reliability of headphones (based on 64,000 plus online comments published prior to January 26, 2010.)
Headphone Reliability
Brands Seen as Above Average Reliable (+ ratings) and
Below Average Reliable (- ratings)”
If you are Panasonic, life is good and if you are V-Moda, you’ve got some work to do.
We live in a new world and along with everything else, how you market to consumers and what you need to know about what they think, has changed. Get ahead of the game (and your competitors as well) by harnessing the power of social networks. Sit at the same table your customers do to see what is being said about your products and stores. Understanding your consumer relationships will lead to higher market share and profits . . . your improved bottom line!
Take a free 5 day test drive with Amplified Analytics. Call us today @ 415-742-2580 or send email to greg@amplifiedanalytics.com and/or visit our website at www.amplifiedanalytics.com and click on contact us.
A blog about experiences, curiosity and the never-ending search for ways to do better things better