An ERP system is designed to connect all areas of your business to improve efficiencies and productivity. Investing in a system that manages your core business operations frees up your staffs' time from spending hours on admin and manual tasks so they can focus on business development.
A key area of business development is customer retention. Attracting new customers is important but retaining and adding value to existing accounts costs less and helps to maintain a regular revenue stream.
The biggest role an ERP system plays in managing existing customers is visibility. Without clear view of what your customer is, and isn't, buying from you, it's impossible to know how to add value to those accounts. The data you can extract from your integrated system gives you the knowledge and power to make better and quicker decisions when it comes to your customers. Below are the top 5 features within an ERP system that are crucial to increasing customer spend.
Knowledge of your customers' history and purchases is invaluable to improving your bottom line and without the visibility of what they buy now, what they have bought in the past and what they should be buying, it becomes an impossible to task to set realistic targets to increasing revenue.
A sophisticated ERP system can give you detailed reports on your leakage figures and customer buying trends which is the data you need to have a competitive advantage. This gives your sales reps the information they need to ask the right questions to better understand your customer so they can sell them the right product at the right price.
Whether the point of sale is your eCommerce site, trade counter or a phone call, the software gives you the ability to offer quality up-sell and cross-sell suggestions to help you improve your margin. Set rules in the system to prompt promotional messages on up-sell opportunities so you can add value to your sales orders but also deliver a quality customer service. The sales opportunity prompts provide the sales team with the knowledge they need, to know what should be sold together, without having to train individuals on every product you sell. This helps to improve customer service and your reputation as a single supplier for all their needs, which stops them from using your competitors for items you stock.
An ERP solution allows you to store special customer pricing against a customer account which removes the manual process of checking back through every invoice to see what they paid last time. Special account pricing is saved, ready to use, no matter the sales channel which makes re-ordering from you easy and hassle-free for your customer, ensuring they return.
It's imperative your customers receive the same personalised service, no matter the sales channel, which is why a personal customer portal is important for your eCommerce website. Customers can place new orders, re-order previous items but also view their account, previous invoices and manage their details.
An online customer portal reduces your office admin time as your customers become self-sufficient, it improves the customer's experience because they can access the same pricing and deals through any sales channel but it also helps to increase sales value because customers are more likely to place orders online for products they didn't know you sold as opposed to simply placing a re-order for the same items.
The CRM sits at the core of an ERP because it stores all the history on accounts and orders that educates your sales and supports teams enabling them to deliver excellent customer service, whilst also fuelling your marketing efforts to increase sales. The information you collect from your customers helps to profile them so you can produce more effective, targeted campaigns.
Next in the series: read our next blog on how an ERP solution can support growth by improving efficiencies to increase profits
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