As we previously discussed on this blog, a touch point with a customer may include everything from a simple phone call or email to an in-person sales visit. It may also be a service call; it’s important to think beyond the outside sales team when tracking customer activity in your CRM.
A standard function of CRM is activity management, which tracks the touch points you have with your customers, as well as who made those contacts and when. Who responded to the emergency service call that came in last week, and what did he fix and why? When was the last time an outside salesperson reached out to ABC Company? Documenting this information religiously is critical; leveraging it is how you will get ROI from CRM.
At minimum, you should be tracking:
- The activity – sales or service visit, inside sales call or other contact with customer (Who and when? Remember to include customer touch points across the company.)
- The activity/visit’s purpose (For example: Was it an expediting call? An emergency? Complaint? Special application?)
- The product or service inquired about (Use product or service codes set up at implementation to ensure consistency. This makes it easy to slice and dice your data by product category.)