Sales-force, Marketing and Service Automation

Semester Genap 2010/2011

Learning Objectives

Understand the meaning of the terms ‘customer life cycle’

Define the strategies that can be used to recruit new customers

Understand how to select which customers to target for retention

Identify several strategies for growing customer value

Sales Force Automation (SFA)

Sales Force Automation Definition

The application of computerised technologies to support sales people and sales management in the achievement of their work-related objectives

Key Technologies for SFA

SFA hardware includes desktop, laptop and handheld devices, and contact/call centre technology

SFA software comprises both ‘point’ solutions that are designed to assist in a single area of selling or sales management, and integrated solutions that offer a range of functionality  

SFA Software Solutions

SFA specialists SFA as part of CRM suite

SFA as part of Enterprise suite

Selectica Onyx Oracle

EzRoute Pivotal SAP

Salesnet Salesforce.com Epicor

CallWizard SalesLogix Deltek

Selltech ACCPAC Fourth Shift

CyberForms NetCRM Intentia

SFA Functionality

account management pipeline management

activity management product encyclopaedias

contact management product configuration

contract management product visualization

document management proposal generation

event management quotation management

incentive management sales forecasting

lead management territory management

opportunity management work-flow engineering

order management

Account Management

Offers sales reps and managers a complete view of the customer relationship including contacts, contact history, completed transactions, current orders, shipments, enquiries, service history, opportunities, and quotations

This allows sales reps and account managers to keep track of all their obligations in respect of every account for which they are responsible, whether this is an opportunity to be closed, an order or a service enquiry

Activity Management

Keeps sales reps and managers aware of all activities, whether complete or pending, related to an account, contact, or opportunity, by establishing to-do lists, setting priorities, monitoring progress and programming alerts

Activities include preparation of quotations, scheduling of sales calls and following up enquiries, for example

Contact Management

Contact management functionality includes tools for building, sharing and updating contact lists, making appointments, time setting, and task, event and contact tracking Contact list data includes names, phone

numbers, addresses, preference data, and email addresses for people and companies, as well as a history of in-bound and out-bound communications

Contract Management

Contract management functionality enables reps and managers to create, track, progress, accelerate, monitor and control contracts with customers

Contract management helps manage a contract's lifespan by shortening approval cycles for contracts, renewing contracts sooner, and reducing administrative costs

The software may use security controls to ensure only approved people have access to contracts

Document Management

Companies generate and use many documents as they sell to customers - brochures, product specifications, price lists, competitive comparisons, and templates for preparing quotations, for example

Document management software allows companies to manage these documents, keep them current and ensure that they are available to reps and managers when needed

Event Management

Enables reps and managers to plan, implement, control and evaluate events such as conferences, seminars, trade shows, exhibitions and webinars, whether run solo or jointly with customers or other partners

Incentive Management

An issue for sales managers who use commissions to lift, direct and reward sales reps’ efforts

In many companies, commissions are calculated using stand-alone spreadsheets

Lead Management

Allows companies to create, assign and track sales leads User-defined rules allow leads to be

allocated to reps and account managers on the basis of role, territory, product expertise or other variables

Lead management allows for more equitable workload distribution across a sales team, and uses security controls to ensure that reps can only access their own leads

Opportunity Management

A record of a potential sale or any other type of revenue generation

Opportunity management software enables reps and managers to create an opportunity record in the database, and monitor progress against a predefined selling methodology

Order Management

Order management functionality allows reps to convert quotations and estimates into orders once a customer has agreed to buy

Order management software may include a quotation engine, a pricing module, and a product configurator With visibility through a portal, the customer, rep

and manager has access to the same, up-to-date order information

Pipeline Management

The process of managing the entire sales cycle from: identifying prospects estimating sales potential managing leads forecasting sales initiating and maintaining customer relationships

right through to closureA well-defined sales pipeline helps minimize

lost opportunities and breakdowns in the sales process

Proposal Generation

Proposal generation software allows users to create customized proposals for customers Users draw from a database of information to create

proposals which, typically, are composed of several parts, some of which are customized: cover page and letter, introduction, objectives, products, product features, services, prices, specifications, pictures, drawings, people, experience, resumes, references, approach, schedule, organization, scope of work, and appendices.

Quotation Management

Quotation management software allows reps and managers to quote for opportunities The software allows users to create,

edit, approve, and produce costed, customized, proposals quickly and reliably

Some vendors enable users to create multimedia proposals with audio, animation and video

Territory Management Territory management software allows sales managers

to create, adjust and balance sales territories, so that sales reps have equivalent workloads and/or opportunities

Some territory management applications come with a territory management methodology which users can follow when establishing sales territories

Some applications link to geographic mapping, or geo-demographic, software The software enables companies to match sales coverage

to market opportunity, create sales territory hierarchies (cities, states, regions) and reduce the cost of selling by reducing travel time

Call cycle scheduling, calendaring and lead management is often enabled by the software

Workflow Engineering

Workflow engineering software is useful for designing sales-related processes, such as the lead management process, and the event management process It can even be used to design the selling

process itself – the series of steps that a sales rep must follow in shifting a prospect from initial awareness to the close

Examples of SFA Reports

cost-to-serve sales cycles

customer profitability share of market

lead conversion share of wallet

pipeline progress sales person productivity

quotation performance win-loss rates

Benefits for SFA Stakeholders

Salespeople: shorter sales cycles, more closing opportunities, higher win rates

Sales managers: improved salesperson productivity, improved customer relations, accurate reporting, reduced cost-of-sales

Senior management: accelerated cash flow, increased sales revenue, market share growth, improved profitability

Motivations for Implementing SFA

Motivation % of sample reporting

Improve efficiencies 72

Improve customer contact 44

Increase sales 33

Reduce costs 26

Improve accuracy 21

SFA will enhance performance when…..

Sales people find that SFA is easy to use Sales people find the technology useful because it fits their

roles well Availability of appropriate-to-task SFA training Users have accurate expectations about what SFA will

deliver Users have a positive attitude towards innovation and

technology Availability of user support after roll out, for example, a

help desk Involvement of user groups including sales reps and

managers during project planning and technology selection Deployment of a multi-disciplinary team in the project

planning phases Senior management support for SFA

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation (MA) Definition

The application of computerised technologies to support marketers and marketing management in the achievement of their work-related objectives

Benefits from Marketing Automation

Enhanced marketing efficiency Greater marketing productivity More effective marketing Enhanced responsiveness Improved marketing intelligence Improved customer experience

Functionality Offered by MA Software

Asset management Market segmentationCampaign management Marketing analyticsCustomer segmentation Marketing optimisationDirect mail campaign management

Marketing performance management

Document management Marketing resource management

Email campaign management Partner marketingEnterprise marketing management

Product life-cycle management

Event-based marketing Search engine optimisationInternet marketing Telemarketing Keyword marketing Trigger marketingLead generation Web analyticsLoyalty management Workflow engineering

Asset Management

Enables companies to identify and track the assets that customers purchase, license, use, install, or download Assets can be either tangible, intangible

or blended

Campaign Management

Automates the processes involved in planning, implementing, measuring, and learning from communication programs targeted at prospects or customers

The key elements of campaign management software are workflow, segmentation and targeting, personalization, execution, measurement, modelling and reporting

Customer Segmentation

The practice of partitioning customers into homogenous subsets so that each subset can be addressed as a unique marketing audience

This is the foundation of customer portfolio management

Direct Mail Campaign Management

A specific form of campaign management in which the communication medium is direct mail

Direct mail has many applications including lead generation, lead conversion, building awareness, up-selling and cross-selling, customer retention, database building or image enhancement

Important contributors to direct mail success are the list, the creative execution, the offer, and the timing

Email Campaign Management

Email campaign management is a specific form of campaign management in which the communication medium is email

Email is cheap, easy to use and ubiquitous

Enterprise Marketing Management

Encompasses the business strategy, process automation and technologies required to effectively operate a marketing department, align resources, execute customer-centric strategies and improve marketing performance It is best-suited for large organizations with 50

or more people in marketing This includes functionality for campaign

management, lead management, MRM [marketing resource management] and analytics

Event-based Marketing

Occurs when an event triggers a communication or offer

Event-based campaigns are usually initiated by customer behaviours or contextual conditions

Internet Marketing

The process of creating value by building and maintaining online customer relationships

7 Stage Cycle of Internet Marketing

Keyword Marketing

The practice of generating website traffic from internet users who have entered keywords into search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Ask.com and Live search (formerly MSN)

Lead Generation

An important marketing objective, particularly in business-to-business contexts Sales people challenged to grow the numbers

of customers served need to be presented with high quality leads for follow-up

Marketers can deploy campaigns, events, seminars, Webinars and other tactics to generate the leads

Loyalty Management

Loyalty management functionality allows organisations to develop and operate loyalty management programs

The development of customer loyalty is a goal of many CRM programs

The availability of loyalty management applications is a direct response to this need

Loyalty, or frequency, programs are important to several constituencies – the brand owner who operates the program, the member who collects and redeems credits, and the channel partner who transacts with the member

Marketing Analytics

The application of mathematical and statistical processes to marketing problems

Marketing analytics can be used to explore, describe and explain

Marketing Optimization

Marketing optimization software allows companies to select an overall goal, such as sales or profit margin maximization, and specify all of the constraints of a marketing campaign strategy

The software then determines which customers should get which offer through which channel to ensure the campaign objectives are met

Marketing Performance Management

Marketing performance management (MPM) software enables companies to measure their marketing performance though analysis and reports, and improve outcomes over time through closed-loop marketing

Senior management is progressively becoming more demanding that marketers be accountable for their expenditure, and MPM helps marketers meet that expectation

MPM, which is typically focussed on analysis of marketing tactics such as events and campaigns, is routinely built into most MA applications

Marketing Resource Management

Marketing resource management applications consist of a range of automated tools that enable marketers to manage their marketing processes and assets more effectively, and to work at greater speed and with improved control

MRM toolkits may include modules for : Marketing planning and budgeting, New product launch,

Marketing event calendaring, Event planning and registration, Project management, Campaign planning, Collateral production, proofing and approval, Digital asset management, including brands, trademarks, logos and collateral, Expense and budget management, Time management, Media buying, and Procurement

Partner Marketing

Partner marketing solutions enable companies to coordinate and work collaboratively with channel partners and others

Partner marketing solutions are used to manage processes such as: partner qualification and sign up development of joint business plans and objectives cooperative advertising and promotions lead management co-branding of collateral and point-of-sale materials measuring partner performance partner training administration of marketing funds specialist partner incentive schemes

Product Life-cycle Management

Product life-cycle management (PLM) applications help marketers manage life cycle stages effectively and profitably

PLM software solutions facilitate collaborative intra- and extra-enterprise engineering, product development, and improved management of projects, product portfolios, documents, and quality

PLM applications can provide a single source of all product-related information to use in the innovation, design, engineering, feasibility, launch and market development processes

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is the use of the telephone to identify and qualify prospects, and to sell and service the needs of customers

Telemarketing takes two forms: inbound (calls from customers) outbound (calls to customers) a blended function with agents both making and

receiving calls Telemarketing is widely employed in both B2C

and B2B environments, but is subject to legislative control due to its intrusive nature

Telemarketing Functionality

Auto-dialling Predictive dialling Automated voice-messaging Contact list management Agent management Do Not Call compliance Screen pop with caller ID Scripting, including objection response Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI) Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Trigger Marketing

The practice of responding to some customer-generated or customer-related event in a way that is designed to achieve some marketing goal such as make a sale, identify a cross-sell opportunity, prevent negative word-of-mouth, or promote positive word-of-mouth

The event triggers the response

Web Analytics

Report the behavior of website visitors

Include performance data from campaigns and events that involve the web site, for example the number of click-throughs from a web-link inserted in a campaign email

Two main technologies collect data logfile analysis page-tagging

Workflow Engineering

Workflow engineering software is useful for designing marketing-related processes, such as the campaigning process, event-based marketing process, or the marketing planning process

Service Automation

Attributes of Companies Renowned for Excellent Service

1. Customer service is pervasive It is everyone’s responsibility; it is neither delegated nor relegated to a

single department or function.

2. Their operations run smoothly with minimal product and service defect rates, allowing them to focus on pleasing customers

3. They are always looking for ways to improve. 4. Customer service lies at the heart of the value proposition.

Customer service is the main selling point.

5. They build personal relationships with customers. 6. They employ the latest IT to

allow their customers to interact with them more conveniently develop a profound understanding of what customers need and want track activities and processes that influence customer experience.

Service Automation (SA) Definition

Service automation is the application of computerised technologies to support service staff and management in the achievement of their work-related objectives

Where is service automation deployed? [1]

contact centres Contact centres are configured to

communicate with customers across multiple channels including voice telephony, mail, email, SMS, instant messaging, web collaboration and fax

call-centres Call centres are generally dedicated to voice

telephony communications, whether through a public switched telephone network, cell-phone network, or VoIP

Where is service automation deployed? [2]

help-desk Help-desks are usually associated with IT

environments where assistance is offered to IT users SA applications such as case management, job

management and service level management are used in this setting

field service Field service is widespread in both B2C and B2B

environments Service automation applied to field service operations

involves technologies such as job management, scheduling, mapping and spare parts management

Key Technological Elements of SA

InfrastructureDataDeviceSoftware

Benefits from Service Automation

Enhanced service effectiveness Greater service productivity Improved customer experience

Functionality Offered by SA Software

Activity management Mapping and driving directions

Agent management Outbound communications mgmt

Case assignment Queuing and routingCase management ScriptingContract management SchedulingCustomer self-service Service analyticsEmail response management Service level management Escalation Spare parts management Inbound communications mgmt

Web collaboration

Invoicing Workflow engineeringJob management

Activity Management

Enables service staff to review their workload, to-do list and priorities as directed by their manager or scheduler, and to report back on progress and issue resolution

Some applications allow activities to be updated in real-time by dispatchers and routed to the technician, so that work can be reprioritised

Alerts can be set so that appointments are not missed, or to notify agents and their managers that issues are unresolved or service levels are about to be, or have been, violated

Agent Management

A high priority for call- and contact-centre managers

Too few agents and customers will be dissatisfied with wait-times; too many agents and payroll costs will be unnecessarily high

Technologies that contribute to this outcome include queuing, scripting, and knowledge management

Case Assignment

Case assignment applications ensure that each enquiry or issue gets routed to the right agent or technician for resolution

Customer service agents might, for example, be organised according to language skills, and field service agent by product category

Case Management

Case management covers the full cycle of activities involved from receiving initial notification of a matter of concern to a customer to its final resolution and the case file being closed Case management is also known as incident

management and issue management. Cases, incidents or issues are initiated by

the creation of a trouble ticket Customers may be allowed to do this by web-form, or

by emailing or calling a service or contact centre

Contract Management

Contract management functionality enables service engineers and managers to create, track, progress, accelerate, monitor and control service contracts with customers

Many companies now sell extended service contracts to customers when warranty periods have expired

Customer Self-service

An attractive option for companies because it transfers the responsibility and cost for service to the customer

Customers who self-serve are much less likely to place demands on contact-centre, call-centre, help-desk or field service staff

Customers are typically more competent at self-serving when transactions are involved (e.g. online banking or music downloads); however, they are less competent when problem-resolution is concerned

Email Response Management Systems

Email response management systems (ERMS) are not only useful for handling inbound emails but also for delivering outbound emails and SMS messages

ERMS are designed up to manage the reception, interpretation, routing, response and storage of incoming email securely and effectively

Escalation

Escalation ensures that issues get escalated according to internally determined rules

Higher levels of authority typically have greater discretion to resolve issues For example, a front-line customer service

agent might be required to escalate to higher levels of management issues that have a potentially high cost or reputational consequence

Inbound Communications Management

Inbound communications management (ICM) applications allow companies to receive, route, queue and distribute incoming communications from any channel – voice telephony, email, fax, instant message, SMS, fax, web form – to agents in any location including contact centre, in the field or at home

A unified queue, issue/content recognition, intelligent routing, and knowledge-base integration allow agents to deliver a consistent customer experience and to respond effectively to service requests whatever the communication channel

Job Management

Job management applications offer a range of functionality including: cost estimation quotation generation creation of trouble tickets job planning travel time and distance calculation job clustering (to reduce travel time) Calendaring Scheduling spare parts management job progress tracking Invoicing service level management technician despatch time management product configuration

Mapping and Driving Directions

Solutions that provide mapping and driving directions are very useful for service engineers who need to visit customers’ homes or business premises

Taking into account the engineer’s point-of-origin, service locations, job priorities, service level agreements and other variables, mapping solutions can minimize travel times and distances to ensure that service tasks are performed optimally

Outbound Communications Management

Outbound communications management software applications are used in a service environment to: acknowledge service requests make and confirm service appointments advise on the progress of a service task invoice for out-of-warranty service follow-up after service to ensure that the customer

is satisfied

Queuing and Routing

Queuing and routing applications allow issues to be routed to agents with particular expertise and positioned in that agent’s queue according to some criterion

Routing is usually determined by case assignment rules and position in the queue is determined by customer value or some other metric

The objective of queuing and routing is to ensure that every service issue is presented to the most appropriate agent for handling and resolution

Scheduling

Scheduling involves planning and organising a service technician’s activity plan for a day, week or other period

A technician’s schedule contains details on the customer, location, time, product and issue

Some scheduling applications take into account a range of considerations to ensure that the right technician is sent to service the customer travel time and distance, technician availability,

technician skills, customer access hours, service level agreement, availability of spare parts, and the technician’s hourly rates of pay.

Service Analytics

Service analytics provide managers with information on how effectively and efficiently customer service generally, and individual agents or technicians specifically, are operating

Important metrics for managers of field service operations, for example, include technician utilization, parts inventory, travel time, first time fix rate (FTFR), mean time to resolve (MMTR), and job backlog

Service Level Management

Service level management applications allow managers to control the level of service that is offered to customers, and technicians to deliver the level of service agreed

Service levels can be agreed for a number of variables including: availability (the percentage of time that the service is

available over an agreed time period) usage (the number of service users that can be

served simultaneously) responsiveness (the speed with which a demand for

service is fulfilled)

Web Collaboration

Web collaboration between customer and service agent is enabled by technologies that use instant messaging (web chat), or allow both parties to co-browse web-pages

Customer service agents can collaborate with a number of customers simultaneously, or can prioritise based on customer value or some other metric

Workflow Engineering

Workflow engineering software is useful for designing service-related processes, such as problem diagnosis and issue escalation.

Workflow for field service operations will define: how service requests are validated how service tickets are issued how tickets are allocated how problems will be diagnosed how parts will be ordered how problems will be fixed how customers will be invoiced, and so on.

References

Francis Buttle, Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies, 2e, Elsevier Ltd., 2009

Baran, Galka and Strunk, Principles of Customer Relationship Management, South-Western, 2008