"We are looking at a convergence between pre-sales and after-sales. This phenomenon is directly related to the omni-channel concept and the notion of customer journey. ", Fabien Comtet, President and founder of Kestio (Consulting and Training in Business Efficiency, Customer Experience, CRM and Digital)
Given the commercial potential of several information channels in the retail sector, it is impossible not to think about the implementation of an omni-channel strategy. Today, the commercial relationship is completely redesigned and the customer, especially through its digital footprint, holds a key role allowing the exploitation of its individual data.
How to use the information left by customers to optimize your business strategy? In 2018, new tools allow you to understand, to track the customer's journey or even to anticipate future purchases by analyzing the different channels of information used.
How to collect and analyze all customer information without losing a detail? In this article, look back at the latest technology tools that can optimize omni-channel customer relationships
"The customer is autonomous; he inquires, compares, explores the points of sale with his smartphone to cross the information he gets on a product, all this goes beyond the simple CRM. ", Nessim Makhloufi, Sales Director France Hybris solutions within SAP
The successful deployment of an omni-channel strategy will be based on two important elements: the traceability of information and the processing of this information. First, in an increasingly connected world, a business that does not want to be omni-channel would simply be disqualified in the race for new markets and new customers.
Then, it is important to focus on the source of information, what is its origin? By which channel did it reach an employee? The idea is to seek to determine finely the source of the information in order to know how will be attributed the commercial performance resulting from this information. Who went to get the lead? Who managed to turn the commercial lead into a sales contract? By which channel did the employee go to collect and transform the information?
Faced with the proliferation of information sources, organizations are obliged to take strong managerial decisions in order to know how to allocate the incentive compensation of employees effectively and equitably. The goal is to remunerate at fair value each action involved in the chain of a sale achievement. Take the example where the market manages a lead, then a call center takes over and responds to the customer, then a traveling salesman goes to the customer to qualify in person the need, the latter renews a request by mail, treated again by the call center, finally, the traveling salesman returns to the customer to complete the sale and close the deal. In this situation, how to allocate a fair and equitable variable compensation to each stakeholder during this sales process? Without a real strategy in terms of traceability of information and actions carried out by each employee, it will be impossible to successfully distribute a consistent variable compensation.
Thus, to avoid paying two or three times the same commercial act leading to a single business performance, the identification of sources of information and the delimitation of the specific field of action of each is essential. To compensate several times, several employees for the conclusion of a single sale is not a source of economic performance for the company, quite the opposite. To avoid these pitfalls, it is very important to trace the origin of each lead, its path in the sales process and especially to identify the right people to reward according to their real degree of contribution.
"The very nature of CRM is to centralize all the information related to the commercial relationship with the customer. Therefore, we must already begin by exploring all aspects of CRM to take stock of information that may be useful to the sales manager. " Florent Ribaut, Business Manager CRM & BI at eFrontech
When implementing an omni-channel strategy in retail, it is important to audit your current information system and measure its effectiveness. Indeed, often underused, functional CRM already in place do not deliver all their possibilities so far as the data they contain are not optimized. Thus, before opting for the implementation of new expensive and complex solutions, first check if your CRM already in use is used optimally.
The CRM aims to centralize all the information linked to the relationship with the customer. As a result, thorough exploration of all aspects is essential for the sales manager who wants to make the most of each lead recorded by the CRM. The majority of business strategies depend on information collected in the front office and are based solely on an orders rate received, a total turnover or a sales volume. This raw information is necessary for decision making, but must be part of the collection of finer and more precise information on the purchasing behavior of customers, to be totally effective.
One of the strengths of the omni-channel strategy in retail is to break down the commercial relationship chain. In this way, working together pre-sales and after-sales can converge information and optimize them to promote sales. Customers have the opportunity to use multiple channels of purchase and left behind them significant digital traces, which force companies to rethink the concept of customer journey. The latter becomes more complex and is part of an interconnection approach with multiple channels, so the different sales teams must also work in interconnection to understand the customer behavior as a whole.
Today, the sales function must be able to identify the sales channels favored by customers in order to optimize its efficiency. The omni-channel customer experience brings together data from the Internet, various web applications, but also customer services, after-sales or physical outlets. The collection and comparison of these data make it possible to set the course to follow in terms of commercial efficiency.
Several software companies offer data processing solutions for sales people. Integration of a new CRM, management and business intelligence solutions or integration of new functional bricks into an existing CRM, etc., will require a significant financial and organizational investment from the company. In addition, the implementation of new integrated solutions will require an overhaul of the practices in place, an analysis of the data already present in the system and finally a training of each user. "This project must bring together the energies of the ISD, the CDO, the CEO and the sales manager. At SAP, we offer an integrated suite that, once deployed, knows how to reconcile all the data, "says Nessim Makhloufi, Sales Manager France Hybris solutions within SAP. As a result, multiple application tools, such as CRM, ERP, supply chain or e-commerce will have to be taken into account in the implementation of a new solution, integrated or interoperable.
According to Florent Ribaut, CRM & BI Business Manager at eFrontech, an effective solution must succeed in highlighting the key indicators that will give the sales manager the opportunity to make strategic decisions, including "through the use of highly graphical control charts," 'obtain a synthetic vision of the performances of each channel, in order to align the sales forces towards the same global objective'. The solutions, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce or Oracle, allow the sales manager to accurately understand the balance between the various information channels, the segmentation of commercial actions for optimal ROI while having real-time business information to drive sales forces in a dynamic way.
The DMP, or Data Management Platform, is a tool that can collect all the data left by clients, regardless of channel and broadcast media. The DMP thus gathers customer information collected on websites, smartphone applications, cookies from mobile sites, etc. It allows to track the customer whatever the chosen channel when the latter interacts with a brand.
The DMP functions as a "reconciliation key". In this way, it proposes a synthetic vision of the customer's interactions with a brand by bringing together different means of identification. Thus, the DMP recognizes a customer through its identifier on an application; his e-mail address, especially if he subscribes to a newsletter; or thanks to a scan of QR code via his phone. The DMP makes it possible to know the customer in a more global and more precise way, therefore, to adapt the commercial offers and the consumer experience to each user is facilitated. In this configuration, the conversion rate from leads to customers is significantly improved. Several companies have specialized in the development of DMP, among them, Eulerian, Weborama or Axciom.
The implementation of the DMP requires a financial investment ranging from 100,000 to more than 1 million euros, for projects combining DMP and CRM for a real-time feedback of data. But do not worry, other integrated solutions CRM / BI, more affordable, will allow you to fully embark on the omni-channel!