The Growing Value of Customer Relationships: Five Tips for Leveraging Dynamics CRM in Difficult Times

Despite the recession, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is showing expanding sales, according to Brad Wilson, CRM General Manager. He reported at a Convergence 2009 session that there has been "a fundamental shift in thinking" at many companies, with the net asset value of the business now being defined by the value of customer relationships.

This shift has driven CRM to be a top spending priority, he told attendees. Dynamics CRM has more than 18,000 customers, with 900,000 users in 80 countries, he said.

He advised executives to focus on five key areas to improve the value of customer relationships:

1. Focus on Existing Costumers. He spoke of a need for companies to gain a single view of relationships across time. People are lacking specific processes for retention and growth. As one example, he pointed to Raymond James Financial, which had 4,600 advisors using their own contact management system. The firm improved efficiency, customer service, and satisfaction when it shifted to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, he said. 

2. Prioritize Sales Investments. Know your sweet spot and focus your resources on it, he advised. Try to balance mainstream deal mix against elephant hunting, and embrace technology to streamline processes. "Our business has grown fast and evolved, we've had to keep coming back to these keys for Microsoft," Wilson said. 

3. Simplifying the service experience. A unified desktop with a single view is hugely beneficial to users, rather than having multiple applications open, he said. He pointed to Vodafone Scandinavia, which had huge losses and no complete view of customer. It integrated 18 back office systems and 14 customer systems. Now it has up to a 95% first -all resolution rate. "People can make stepwise improvements in the organization and you'll reap tremendous benefits in terms of efficiency and ...