The importance of a modern, functional internet presence cannot be exaggerated. Which functions are essential for the furthering of customer relations? Try these:

  • Personalized information on products and services for customers and prospects
  • Customer forum for product features  – present and future
  • Technical support and advice
  • eCommerce (where applicable)

Most company internet sites talk at readers rather than with readers and allow little or no dialog opportunities apart from a simple contact form or telephone number. This puts the barrier much too high for customers who may have something valuable to say but do not want to reach for the phone or wait for an answer. A customer forum in some form presents an ideal opportunity for gathering ideas, comments and positive criticisms. When a forum with groups, themes etc. is not suitable there are alternatives, for example a competition of some kind. An excellent example is the Smart Design Contest. This success of this well designed interaction shows that customers and prospects will happily contribute constructive ideas and comments. Apart from gathering new ideas for product development, marketing specialists have an excellent basis for trend analysis.

Every forum needs administration and editing – not all comments are friendly or suited for publication – but the costs and effort involved are balanced by the advantages of closer customer relations and also by the value of information gained.

Integration with a CRM application should filter information gathered and channel this information to the relevant employees or user groups. In the case of support oriented applications the business processes for handling incidents (ITIL) are generally well defined and implemented. In the case of sales, this is very often not the case although  CRM software with workflow and customizing tools is available.