Strengthening Relationships with SMB Technology

Author: Lynn Rodenroth, Deerfield.com

Consider what it takes for an organization to effectively manage customer relationships. You've been there: it requires properly managed information, made available to the right people (both employees and customers) at the right time, and a trained staff that uses that information to enhance the customer experience.

You can accomplish the objectives of building customer relationships more effectively and less expensively than the big dogs, because when it comes to size, your small business has an advantage: the ability to relate to individuals. And the right technology can greatly enhance your efforts.

The trend in big business is to implement CRM (customer relationship management) solutions to accomplish such goals, which can typically run upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars (U.S). Still yet, studies show that over 70% of CRM endeavors fail, due in part to the inability to truly develop relationships with individuals - and that's precisely where small business has the upper hand in managing relationships. Most small businesses inherently practice good CRM, but the question becomes, "how can I effectively incorporate technology into a CRM routine?"

Take Deerfield.com for example. We're a small business, located in rural Northern Michigan. (Need I point out how much we love the Internet, which allows us to connect with the rest of the world?) Since the beginning, our mission has been to leverage technology to facilitate communication. But early on, we recognized that the more automated our online processes became, the less interaction we had with our customers - not to mention, the increased difficulty our customers were experiencing in communicating with a real person regarding our products and services.

In 2000, Deerfield.com successfully introduced "Personal Service with a :-)®". When our customers (like you) download a Deerfield.com product, they have the option to receive a personalized email from a Sales Associate, including the specialist's name, an 800 number with their direct extension, and their personal email address. Our continued vision to facilitate individual customer communication has ultimately led to an entire suite of software, named VisNetic.

At the cornerstone of the VisNetic suite are four products that, when used together, provide very affordable customer service tools for your small business: VisNetic MailFlow, VisNetic MailCast (on the front end); VisNetic MailServer and VisNetic WebSite (on the back end) - all used by Deerfield.com for our own operations as well, I might add.

VisNetic MailFlow (VMF) improves customer correspondence quality through centralized email management. VMF ensures customer care by automatically routing inbound email to appropriate employees and workgroups. For consistently accurate, prompt, personalized messages, VMF also utilizes standard response libraries, threaded conversations, history, spell check, and (message) age alerting. VMF is easily implemented, economical, and comprehensive.
[VisNetic MailFlow web site]

VisNetic MailCast (VMC) allows organizations to disseminate very tailored customer email campaigns. Administration is web based, a key benefit for group collaboration. Import any database (even your Outlook contacts) into VMC, then simply type, or paste your message (VMC converts it to HTML code as you go - or choose from plain text, or multipart); then VMC will alert coworkers of your choice for proofing, editing and testing. Once your message is just right, hit 'send' - and VMC will begin tracking your results.

MailFlow and MailCast require access to two essential back-end technologies: a web server and an email server. A web server allows MailFlow and MailCast to be centrally administered and accessed by users via any Internet connection. Although you can use any Windows based web server, VisNetic WebSite is optimized for use with other VisNetic products. A mail server is your email gateway to the Internet: it's what MailFlow and MailCast send and receive email through. Use VisNetic MailServer (Pro comes with a 3-user MailFlow license) for higher volumes of email, WinGate's built-in email server for small loads, or check with your ISP for permitted access to their email server.

All Deerfield.com products are available for download, with a fully functional, 30-day trial. I also encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about how to incorporate VisNetic customer service solutions into your CRM routine. Find out more, and leverage your own brand of "Personal Service with a :-)®".