Know-How Exchange : Other

Check out www.crmguru.com. You are more likely to find specific template,advice etc over there.

Good Luck!

You can't outsource - too much personal financial information. And it sounds as though this needs to be someone's top priority - although everyone is already busy. Have you considered hiring someone who has successfully "graduated" from the program, and had a very good experience with your company, who would be willing to come in part-time to be a sort of Ombudsman?

Sounds very challenging digger. Like when I was in the Security industry. To an over taxed client services department we did not get great support when we passed these clients back to them to handle. Someone needs to watch carefully how this can effect the morale of the department.

Since there already dealing with challenges and their short handed they often fail to transmit the (good) image your organization wants to display to their customers.

What eventually happened is that we designated a few persons (on rotation) who were responsible solely for handling these clients. We began to find out that one particular person had a better temperment for dealing with these clients than the majority.

To be effective you must be patient with clients like this who are frustrated. And there is nothing more challenging than dealing with a person who's frustruated and short on money.

Because I have a great deal of patience and compassion for people I got a great deal of these clients. What I found is that when you converted the customer back to a good positive relationship with your company they referred you to others who signed on.

So what ever you decide if you do an excellent job at this expect to see growth and additional customers. To an over worked staff that could be bitter sweet especially if funds are limited for hiring additional support staff.

If you can take care of this problem internally that's great. But I've also facilitated relationships gone bad for other companies and what I found out is that customers do like the third party intervention because they feel like an outside person who is separate from the company can be a great advocate to listen and then do something about their challenging problems.

More than anything remember to be positive, really listen to what the customer is communicating, solve the customers problem and you must consistently keep looking on the brighter side. If there is anything else I can help you with please let me know.

Thanks digger. I must admit there were more than a few times I ran into trouble because of the CF's but I accepted the responsibility because the president of our company was very supportive of my approach. He actually said that if I ever ran into a situation where a customer was not being taken care of notify him.

Of course this could have created challenges with the CRM's but the president of our company sent a clear message to everyone that the customer pays the bills, keeps the lights on and pays our salaries. And no matter how disgruntled they were it was our duty to correct customer issues.

The shame of some companies is that there is a mandate to take care of the customer but "For a Limited Time Only". Thanks for your reply digger and based on your response I truly believe that if anyone can make it happen you can. Go for it! Feel free to email me at anytime. Is there anything else I can do for you?

digger,

to answer your question whether it's real or not can truly only be seen over time. Continue my friend to apply diligence and be prepared to give an answer to all who ask you about your impact on behalf of the companies external marketing affairs.

If they are going to allow you to operate as a true marketing department "that's Great"! But be prepared for people who are watching the bottom line to expect to see results and proof.

Everything leaves a trail and so should the good marketing principals you are applying for the benefit of the company. I learned these valuble lessons from spending years as an accountant before I finally found my calling as a consultant. Everyone was always telling the accounting department that we did not bring in any money so we were an expense. It comes with the territory. When I got into sales "what have you done for me lately" became the theme song of executives and managers who also want to see proof of your impact to the bottom line with the growth of the company. As my success began to mature so did my ability to communicate with senior managers. I'll say this then close digger. What I learned is that I had to sell customers externally and then my internal customers who were the senior managers and boy did I learn to get good at it. I never strayed from being honest and I always got the bad news out front instead of trying to hide it. This took guts but I found that it helped me to build huge credibility.

digger you've got it in you to succeed. Just try to improve 1% each day and at the end of the year they'll know why they need to keep you marketing for them. Become the marketing franchise of your organization. Have a great day! Is there anything else I can do for you?

Deremiah, *CPE