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02.28.07
The Importance Of Reporting In CRM Software
 By Syed Ali
A customer relationship management (CRM) application that is not able to create reports is virtually worthless.
Accurate reporting in a variety of user-defined ways is one of the core strengths of a good contact management database. Of course, this ability relies on the accurate entry of all the data required for any given report. Without accurate data entry you cannot realistically expect to extract any kind of accuracy in a subsequent report.
Many companies are unaware of the latent power inherent in the data that is entered into the CRM by their sales and marketing team. They fail to realize that all that valuable data can be output as a meaningful and extremely useful report, in addition to just being useful customer contact information.
However, this is something that needs to be thought about before a company rolls out a CRM. Correct measures need to be taken to ensure that the GoldMine® software, or ACT!® software used is customized enough to allow easy and accurate reporting of selected valuable data.
An example might be a sales person entering lead and prospect information, which, if transformed into a report, will reveal how many leads that sales person has. If all the sales people are combined, then the report could tell how many leads the company as a whole currently has.
Intelligent reporting will also show how well a particular sales person is doing. It can reveal the number of calls and appointments that person has for each client, and also how well, or otherwise, he is handling the task.
GoldMine®, for example, can be set up to enforce rules that enable a company to in turn force their CRM users to always enter the correct data. This is accomplished through a feature in the database called "field entry validation" that will not permit the entry of incorrect data.
Using GoldMine® or ACT!® you can also generate meaningful reports from live data. This includes pulling reports from sales people who are in the field using the software. The response of ongoing marketing activities can be monitored and returns on investment can be checked, all through the sophisticated reporting features of a good CRM.
Geographical segmentation revealing useful demographics can be obtained through reporting, showing you exactly where your customers are coming from. You can discover how many prospects turned into real customers by purchasing the product or service from you. If you wish to discover the strengths and weaknesses of you sales team, then monitoring sales pipelines and producing relevant reports will tell you exactly what you need to know.
The sales people can benefit directly from good analytics and reporting. They can effectively turn the tools on themselves to discover in a real-time basis just how good their performance really is. If this information is used for improvement, then the customer experience will benefit also and sales will increase. This puts real power in the hands of the sales people who can monitor their performance on a regular basis to check how they are doing.
About the Author:
Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a
Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM
software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com
Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email:asyed@cqsolutions.com
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