I once heard said that 60% of lost business is through “perceived indifference” on the part of the vendor. I have never been able to verify this figure, but looking back on my own dealings with various companies, I can well believe it. Hours spent listening to a recorded voice assuming me how valuable my call is. Promised calls not returned and quotes that take days or weeks to arrive, usually after numerous calls to chase. I have walked away from numerous vendors, because what makes them looks bad reflects on your dealings with your own clients. “Sorry, but I am still waiting for the information” only washes for so long.

This invaluable insight came my way at around the time that Sentinel Business IT was born. Until that point, all the planning and conversation was around winning new business, but little about managing the client once they came on board. It was therefore decided early on that we would not use voicemail, preferring instead to ensure that the phone would always be answered by a human being, even if that was an answering service. We also set ourselves the objective of always returning a call or providing information when promised and ensuring effective communication with the customer, even if it was just to say that we were still waiting for the information requested; often it is the silence that infuriates. Finally and crucially, in a world where the concept of “customer service” seems to reach no further than the mission statement, we needed to deliver truly outstanding responsiveness and service.

Of course, having these aspirations are laudable, but how to actually take that into a busy, sometimes frenetic service environment? With requests coming via email, fax, telephone, text and verbal message it is not surprising that things get forgotten or mislaid. Everyone has their own system, some better than others, but to deliver an effective and consistent service you have to employ a system that encompasses all aspects of your business from leads and opportunities to driving your service effort once you have the customer on your books.

Sentinel Business IT chose Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It was quite an investment for a small start-up company, and at the time I considered it to be overkill. Even with the software concession from Microsoft as a partner, the cost of servers and software still took a large bite out of our initial budget, but my business partner insisted that these systems were in place from the start. She was absolutely right.

Once we started to use the system and began to perfect and tweak the system to our needs, it simply revolutionised the way we worked. Incoming customer issues are raised as a case, telephone calls, messages, tasks and appointments are attached, and workflows trigger reminders and emails to ensure that promised actions are not forgotten and the customer is kept informed of progress. At any time or location, the complete history of any issue is available, including actions taken and notes, preventing repetition and virtually eliminating the frustration that all of us our familiar with; having to repeat the same things time and time again just because you can’t reach the same person on the other end of the phone.

The system now produces reports for weekly case review meetings to prevent issues dragging on. It forms the basis of our monthly billing, ensuring that time spent is accounted for accurately and providing transparency to the customer; each monthly invoice is now accompanied by a Resolved Case report detailing by case the time spent, who requested the work and time to resolution.

At the end of each month, the system also generates a case feedback letter, which not only gives us the opportunity to send our client a sachet of fabulous Arabica coffee, but also allows the customer to provide feedback, which is again fed back into the system providing invaluable stats and allowing me as director to call the customer if there is any aspect of our service with which they are unhappy. I have only had to make one such a phone call in the past 2 years, and then the issue was quickly resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

Having invested so much in our service effort, Sentinel Business IT Ltd is now turning attention to the sales effort and applying the same principles. Happily, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also provides the same functionality for leads and campaign management. Employing external providers for marketing and PR, we can make available live information to them without compromising existing account or case security. In turn, they can update the information I need on a day to day basis.

Despite having worked in the IT industry, and unlike many of my peers, I am a firm believer that not every problem requires an IT solution. However, when it comes to driving customer service and sales efforts, I am completely sold on CRM. However, the cost of deploying such a system in house has traditionally been prohibitive, especially for a start up or smaller business. This is no longer the case.

Last month, Sentinel Business IT launched EasylifeIT teamlink Customer Manager. Not a small company attempt to offer an alternative to the real deal, but fully powered Microsoft Dynamics CRM available to you for a modest monthly subscription; probably less than you pay for your mobile. No server required, just a good broadband connection and located on super fast Microsoft servers, which are secure, backed up with 99.9% availability. Oh, and did I mention available virtually anywhere?

This new service brings an enterprise class IT system to the start up, small or growing business, allowing everyone to share in the benefits and efficiencies of CRM

Looking back to our start-up days and the pain and cost of deployment, I am almost jealous.

EasylifeIT Teamlink Customer Manager is available from Sentinel Business IT Ltd

Tel : 0800 043 9186   Email : info@easylifeit.com Web : www.easylifeit.com