關(guān)于你的客戶，你該知道和記錄的數(shù)據(jù)有多少？你該如何處理搜集來(lái)的這些信息，還有多少算是太多？
對(duì)于這些問(wèn)題，每家企業(yè)都都必須找到自己的答案。以下是我們這家規(guī)模100人的庫(kù)存管理軟件公司尋求解答的方法。
我們竭盡所能，搜集與業(yè)務(wù)有關(guān)的所有客戶信息，范圍從用于識(shí)別我們產(chǎn)品是否符合客戶需求的幾頁(yè)報(bào)告，到數(shù)十頁(yè)詳細(xì)的信息，甚至包括姓名和公司職務(wù)等個(gè)人信息。這些數(shù)據(jù)都進(jìn)入主要客戶關(guān)系管理的數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)，以方便我們定期、積極運(yùn)用。
我們絕不會(huì)分享或出售這些數(shù)據(jù)。但我們成功的秘訣在于，以非常人性化和個(gè)人化的方式使用這些信息。我們嘗試讓客戶經(jīng)理每個(gè)季度都親自給每位客戶打電話，這么做的目的是要聽(tīng)取客戶建議，以“調(diào)整”我們的軟件、服務(wù)和流程，也就是了解我們可以增加什么、考慮什么，甚至可能是要減少什么以節(jié)省成本。當(dāng)我們用這種方式使用數(shù)據(jù)時(shí)，客戶一般都很愿意為我們提供更多有用的意見(jiàn)。
我們估計(jì)，使用精準(zhǔn)的客戶信息，讓我們?cè)黾樱ɑ蚓S持）10-15%的收入。在經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退時(shí)期，10-15%幾乎是我們整體利潤(rùn)，是否能保有這些利潤(rùn)，全都依賴我們搜集的信息以及使用信息的方式。
我們也使用客戶數(shù)據(jù)來(lái)決定產(chǎn)品開(kāi)發(fā)優(yōu)先順序和產(chǎn)品特色。例如，數(shù)年前，我們得到來(lái)自客戶的重要反饋意見(jiàn)：他們希望能夠改善公司管理客戶退貨商品軟件。根據(jù)這些信息，我們制作了一個(gè)測(cè)試版的軟件供他們使用，借此了解客戶使用軟件核心功能后的想法。我們以為客戶會(huì)說(shuō)：“目前用起來(lái)還不錯(cuò)，接下來(lái)你們可以開(kāi)始去完成我們要求的其他75%了。”但他們說(shuō)：“這看起來(lái)相當(dāng)棒，正是我們所需要的?！边@個(gè)意見(jiàn)讓我們無(wú)需重新開(kāi)發(fā)軟件，也不會(huì)讓軟件過(guò)度復(fù)雜化，還替我們省下約20萬(wàn)美元的開(kāi)發(fā)資源。
在另一個(gè)例子中，我們喜歡稱內(nèi)部一份數(shù)據(jù)報(bào)告為“ProCat”（revenue by product category，按產(chǎn)品類型區(qū)分的收入），其中的銷售數(shù)據(jù)告訴我們，必須微調(diào)某個(gè)核心產(chǎn)品的銷售方式。這個(gè)早期預(yù)警遠(yuǎn)早于標(biāo)準(zhǔn)銷售報(bào)告，我們立即進(jìn)行調(diào)整，核心產(chǎn)品的銷售額立即翻番。如果我們沒(méi)有遏止銷售額逐步衰退的趨勢(shì)，很有可能在12個(gè)月之后造成重大災(zāi)難。而每月建立ProCat報(bào)告的成本基本為零。
雖然企業(yè)應(yīng)該清楚遵守法律要求，并尊重個(gè)人隱私，但我們認(rèn)為，任何企業(yè)都應(yīng)該盡可能的從他們的客戶身上搜集數(shù)據(jù)。若是用人性化和個(gè)人化方式運(yùn)用這些數(shù)據(jù)，客戶就會(huì)愿意（甚至樂(lè)于）分享想法。明智地使用這些數(shù)據(jù)，并且無(wú)微不至地處理這種客戶伙伴關(guān)系，是企業(yè)最明智且最有效益的決定。
英語(yǔ)原文：
How much data should you know and record about your customers? What should you do with the information you gather, and how much is too much?
Every company needs to answer those questions for itself. Here’s how we approach the task at our 100-person inventory software company.
We collect as much business-specific information about every customer as we possibly can. The results range from a few pages gathered to see if our product was the right fit for the customer, to sometimes even dozens of pages of highly-detailed and even personal information such as individual names and roles within the company. The data goes into a master customer relationship management, where we put it to active and regular use.
We never share or sell the data. However, the secret to our success is that we use the information we gather in a very high-touch and very personalized way. We try to have our account leads make a personal call to every account approximately every quarter. The goal of these calls is to get clients to suggest the ways to “tune” the software, the services and processes — what to add, what to consider, and possibly even what to downgrade to conserve cost. When we use the data this way, customers are generally happy to give us progressively more.
We estimate that 10-15% of our revenues are won (or retained) as the direct result of our use of this specific customer information. In a down economy, that 10-15% could mean our entire profit, won or lost as the result of information we’ve gathered and how we use it.
We use customer data to direct our product development priorities and features as well. For example, years ago we got significant feedback from customers about improvements they like to see in software that manages customer returns. Based on this information, we built the basic pieces and released them this beta version as a means to get feedback about how our customers felt about the core functionality. We fully expected them to say: “So far so good — now go and finish the other 75% of what we asked.” Instead, they said: “It looks great, and that’s all we really need.” The feedback saved us from having to overbuild and overcomplicate, and it saved approximately $200,000 in development resources.