There are two sorts of databases that can greatly increase your ability to service your clients. The first is a CRM to document not only contact details etc for your clients, but also previous communications between your company and your customers. The second is a Knowledge Base, or wiki to capture Frequently Asked Questions; to store solutions to common problems; and to enable all staff to answer basic questions from all areas within your company as well as to be easily able to identify the “go to” person for more advanced issues.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
A good CRM system will be flexible enough to work for the current size of your company, and be able to grow without causing any major headaches. So as a soloist with a small number of clients, you might be able to use something as simple as Microsoft Outlook, or Google Calendar, Gmail and Drive, but the more people involved in your company, the more you’ll need from your system. Initially, you’ll always need a few things:
- Somewhere to store details of the company, such as physical address, postal address, website, social media accounts and ABN
- Somewhere to store the details of contacts within the company such as name, email address, telephone, mobile number, fax etc
- Somewhere to note any details from telephone calls with information that need to be available in the future.
- Store emails
- Be able to find details of invoices and payments
- Be able to easily retrieve any of the above
As your business grows or your compliance requirements increase you’ll probably need to add functions, or use more sophisticated software. There are a lot of options available, and you should research which suits you best. Going looking with a shopping list of your current needs is great, but remember to make sure it’s not something that either contains a heap of functions you don’t need, or is not capable of growing with your business.
Once you’ve got the right CRM in place, you’ll find client relationships run much more smoothly when you’ve got the whole picture at your fingertips every time you contact a client.
Knowledge Base
Often you’ll find that as your business grows, there are a few key staff who know how to fix certain issues that recur frequently and that are relied upon as “the only one who can deal with xxxx”. Or maybe your customer service staff will notice that you’re getting calls daily asking about business hours – but the message won’t get through to the website team that Opening Hours should be on the website, or if they are, that they’re not easy to find.
Even if you’re a soloist, there will be questions that come up once in a blue moon and you have to dig around a bit for the answer. Create a knowledge base and the information is at your fingertips every time. It doesn’t have to be anything huge or complicated, a word document stored in Dropbox, a google document or use something like WikiSpot to create a wiki or just Google “create a Knowledge Base” to find other options and tips on how to get the best from a knowledge base.
Having all staff be able to answer questions makes the customer service process smoother and much more pleasant for the customer as having to be passed from department to department to get answers on your query is really frustrating. Giving all staff the knowledge to be able to respond to common questions will also empower staff and encourage them to learn how their position fits into the company.
Lastly, keep in mind that as your knowledge base/wiki is an internal document, it’s worth storing other things that need to be infrequently referred to such as:
- Your corporate style guide
- Your emergency procedures for occurrences such as a bomb threat checklist or emergency evacuation procedures
- A company telephone listing
- Internal forms for leave, timesheets, purchase orders, fax cover sheets etc
- Links to document templates
- Copies of staff industrial awards, or links to your states Industrial Relations department
- Anything else that’s used within the company and is not sensitive in any way (i.e. never store personal details of staff, corporate in confidence material or similar in a knowledge base or wiki)
Obviously if you’re a soloist, your needs will be different to a small business whose needs will be different to a larger corporation. But whatever size your business is having information available at your fingertips will be invaluable, and starting off with something scalable will allow your solutions to grow with your business.
