How to attract new customers and make life easier for employees: experience in implementing a CRM system

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Pavel Vyazankin, the owner of two beauty salons and a school of makeup artists, tells how the use of a CRM system allowed his business to increase profits, win new customers and return old ones, as well as improve work with employees.

As I understand it, business needs a CRM system

Having established the flow of new clients, I thought about turning them into permanent and preferably bringing friends and acquaintances with me. After all, no matter what business you are engaged in, these factors probably affected you as well:

• Competition is growing - you need to stand out, and preferably not by lowering prices.
• The expectations of the client from the service and the quality of services are constantly increasing, which means that it is necessary to know these expectations.
• The cost of attracting new customers through advertising is constantly growing, and with a small average bill, the costs are often not justified. Therefore, more attention should be paid to existing clients, for the attraction of which money has already been spent.

Ideas for future improvements were already in the air and excited the mind, forcing them to act immediately. But just as George Lucas' lack of the necessary technology forced him to start filming Star Wars from the fourth episode, so my Wishlist faced an urgent need for their technological support.

What was needed was a simple and effective system of analytics and customer interaction, or a CRM system that would simplify and partially automate current tasks.

You can ask a reasonable question: if a phone is installed and a customer base is maintained in Microsoft Excel, is this a CRM system? The answer is yes, it is, but it is very primitive, and the solution of most of the problems that arise with its help is either impossible, or the time of their solution does not suit me.

Choosing a CRM system

By the type of implementation, CRM systems can be divided into stationary and cloud-based. Stationary are installed on a computer at the place of business. Your employees connect to cloud CRM via the Internet, since all your databases are located on remote servers of the developer company (in the cloud). Both solutions have pros and cons. Moreover, the minuses of one mean the pluses of the other, and vice versa.

Pros of cloud solutions:

• You don't have to be afraid of verification, since nothing is stored on your computers.
• There is no need to constantly update and archive the database.
• An employee cannot take the database with him when he leaves.

Cons of cloud solutions:

• The lack of an Internet connection will not allow working with the program.
• A hardware problem with a developer company, or a problem with your relationship with it, can affect your workflow.

Having dealt with the basics, let's move on to the main thing. How to use the functions of the CRM system? I will not give an overview of all the existing functions of CRM systems on the market. I will designate only those tasks that the system I needed was supposed to solve:

• Automatic loading of applications from the site into the system.
• Recording of all calls, automatic identification of the phone number and the client when calling.
• Implementation of bonus and discount loyalty programs, as well as referral programs.
• Formation of reports on clients, sales, finance and so on.
• Setting up auto-informing clients using SMS and email.
• The ability to work with the system remotely.

Business results

Having finished with dry terms, I will move on to the most delicious: what exactly I have implemented and how it affected the business. For convenience, I will begin to build a review by the client going through all the stages from start to finish.

Step 1

The client enters the site and records online for a specific date and time, while the created record is immediately displayed by the administrator in the program, and the client is automatically entered into the database. A day before the specified date, he receives an SMS with a reminder of the appointment.

Result. More than 40% of customers began to sign up through a website or mobile application, which significantly reduced the administrator's load and the load on the phone. SMS messages with a reminder of the upcoming visit made it possible to halve the number of canceled appointments that occurred due to customers' forgetfulness, and to avoid losing revenue. In addition, when a client called the salon again, we could immediately call him by name, which captivates and disposes the person.

Step 2

Before paying at the checkout, the client is invited to join the club and receive bonuses from the amount of the check. Binding and identification of the client in the program goes by the phone number, so there is no need for plastic club cards. The client is invited to invite two acquaintances, for which they will receive a discount, and the client himself - bonuses.

Result. You can join the loyalty program in a matter of seconds - the number of customers joining the club reaches 90%. Thus, we get more complete data about the client and use it for clearer further segmentation. Refer-a-friend referral system provides an influx of 80 to 100 new customers monthly.

Step 3

After visiting the salon, the client receives a message with a proposal to evaluate the quality of service. And a few days later he receives a message that so many days have passed since the date of his visit and we are glad to see him again.

Result. Service quality assessment made it possible to promptly respond to shortcomings in the work of the salon as a whole and individual employees in particular. After linking the service quality factor to staff motivation, the attitude of the latter to the quality of work and the level of service improved. Auto-informing about repeat visits reduced the cycle of customer visits to the salon by 15%.

Step 4

The analytics is total and merciless! Total and in a short time. Money, visits, services, goods - all these indicators are analyzed along and across. Also, a detailed analysis of the work of each employee is carried out and the planning of his indicators for a month.

Result. The ability to form individual plans for revenue for each employee increased their return and removed leveling, and detailed analytics of their work sent every month made it possible to build substantive individual development plans for each and raise my status in their eyes as a leader.

Step 5

Deep detailing made it possible to single out various groups of customers and make them targeted offers. For example, customers who use only one category of services are offered another category with a discount. Those who have not been in the salon for more than 90 days are offered a lucrative offer, limited in time. VIP-clients, active and wealthy, can be invited to a closed one-day promotion-presentation.

Result. Increase in the return of lost customers by 27%. Receiving additional revenue from cross-selling. During VIP events, revenues double the average, also increasing loyalty and highlighting their special status for the benefit of the salon.

Output

Needless to say, the 60 thousand rubles spent on the system paid for itself many times over and gave me a number of competitive advantages. The introduction of even an inexpensive CRM system will greatly simplify the work of the business owner, save time and money, allow you to see your company more transparently and wholeheartedly, correctly set goals and ensure their rapid achievement.