Customer Relationship Management (4)
After too much of a good thing
Natural language input is something that most application today should have. For example, if my action item in Excel spreadsheet says 'setup a meeting with Dorothy Ba. next Tuesday' and my filename is '012507-GE-Security.xls', the CRM application should be able to interpret next Tuesday = January 30, 2007, and look for Dorothy Ba. from my client list within GE Security. [Hint: both date and company name are from file name, date from file is January 25, 2007]
If there are two Dorothy's (Dorothy Barnes, Dorothy Bailey) who work for GE Security. CRM application would ask me to confirm whether this action means: 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Barnes on January 30, 2007' or 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Bailey on January 30, 2007'. Then Since this entry contains - setup+ meeting, it could look up Dorothy Barnes' channel of contacts. Some clients prefer an e-mail, some prefer a phone call. If Dorothy Barnes prefers e-mail as a channel of communications. An e-mail could be sent to Dorothy by the CRM module.
It's not that hard to teach an application to do something. The last part (e-mailing a client automatically) may sound a bit much but it could send a notification e-mail to me to e-mail Dorothy.
We are now in the world with automatic cleaning robots, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and many more automated machines. We have auto-park feature (called Electronic Park Assist), auto-cruising feature in our cars. Why can't we build something that's intuitive to users, something that keeps guessing what users want to do and do them if users confirm that action.
What else could have been done?
Channel management -
Clients have different ways of communications. Some like phone calls, some like e-mails, some like short-message (text message via mobile phone), and more. CRM application should know what is their most comfortable channels and utilize those. CRM application should not send out e-mails, notes to clients without approval. This demands for a quick workflow. A salesperson can approve to send messages (e-mail, voice mail, SMS, etc) to his client only. What about a large client? Then workflow can be set easily on how many approvals before sending the message out.
Waiting for approval may take too long. A salesperson can just e-mail or call the client before the system does. When everyone approves, salesperson can just add to the item that it's been taken care of. CRM application should not get in the way. It surely should be used to notify people.
Channel management is not only for clients. Salesperson can also be notified through channels as well. A salesperson can setup the preferred method to be notified. For example, I will like it very much if I get notifications on my mobile phones (via Short-Message-Service or SMS or Text Message). I'll also need an e-mail carbon copy for every SMS notification that I get. If I don't have the phones with me when I travel internationally. I still can check my e-mails.
DISCLAIMER: My company now makes intuitive (learning) software for various industries. One of application that we are working on is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Time to first flight is within months now. It's going to be exciting!
Natural language input is something that most application today should have. For example, if my action item in Excel spreadsheet says 'setup a meeting with Dorothy Ba. next Tuesday' and my filename is '012507-GE-Security.xls', the CRM application should be able to interpret next Tuesday = January 30, 2007, and look for Dorothy Ba. from my client list within GE Security. [Hint: both date and company name are from file name, date from file is January 25, 2007]
If there are two Dorothy's (Dorothy Barnes, Dorothy Bailey) who work for GE Security. CRM application would ask me to confirm whether this action means: 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Barnes on January 30, 2007' or 'Setup a meeting with Dorothy Bailey on January 30, 2007'. Then Since this entry contains - setup+ meeting, it could look up Dorothy Barnes' channel of contacts. Some clients prefer an e-mail, some prefer a phone call. If Dorothy Barnes prefers e-mail as a channel of communications. An e-mail could be sent to Dorothy by the CRM module.
It's not that hard to teach an application to do something. The last part (e-mailing a client automatically) may sound a bit much but it could send a notification e-mail to me to e-mail Dorothy.
We are now in the world with automatic cleaning robots, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and many more automated machines. We have auto-park feature (called Electronic Park Assist), auto-cruising feature in our cars. Why can't we build something that's intuitive to users, something that keeps guessing what users want to do and do them if users confirm that action.
What else could have been done?
Channel management -
Clients have different ways of communications. Some like phone calls, some like e-mails, some like short-message (text message via mobile phone), and more. CRM application should know what is their most comfortable channels and utilize those. CRM application should not send out e-mails, notes to clients without approval. This demands for a quick workflow. A salesperson can approve to send messages (e-mail, voice mail, SMS, etc) to his client only. What about a large client? Then workflow can be set easily on how many approvals before sending the message out.
Waiting for approval may take too long. A salesperson can just e-mail or call the client before the system does. When everyone approves, salesperson can just add to the item that it's been taken care of. CRM application should not get in the way. It surely should be used to notify people.
Channel management is not only for clients. Salesperson can also be notified through channels as well. A salesperson can setup the preferred method to be notified. For example, I will like it very much if I get notifications on my mobile phones (via Short-Message-Service or SMS or Text Message). I'll also need an e-mail carbon copy for every SMS notification that I get. If I don't have the phones with me when I travel internationally. I still can check my e-mails.
DISCLAIMER: My company now makes intuitive (learning) software for various industries. One of application that we are working on is Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Time to first flight is within months now. It's going to be exciting!
posted by Peter Srivaree-Ratana at 10:21 AM
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