Last Thursday David & I attended a PM Forum Seminar in Manchester entitled “Driving growth through effective CRM” presented by Robin Dicks of The Thriving Company. It’s no secret that many law firms are not well versed in the best practice associated with Client Relationship Management (CRM); hands up who still relies on Excel spreadsheets, Outlook inboxes or even the trusty notepad to record client/prospect information? If you’re thinking “me” then you might benefit from taking a minute to download and read through the mindmap I put together during the seminar.
The conference identified the various challenges faced by law firms in today’s market as well as the rationale behind adopting a strategic approach to managing client relations. Robin identified many of the benefits of adopting a strategic approach to CRM including the ability to build better relationships with key clients and increasing the firm’s capability to cross sell to existing customers.
Robin gave some solid advice on the topic area of leveraging 3rd party suppliers and also some good advice on selection criteria for CRM system providers. One thing I would have added to this portion of the presentation is a greater focus on some of the false axioms surrounding CRM. One of the common misconceptions is a belief that CRM software and systems manage customer relationships for a firm; such an approach is often the greatest contributor to CRM investment failure in many firms. It is important to remember that CRM software supports relationship building strategies, it does not manage it for you. Your CRM is never going to email a client for you, or make the “touching base” phone call for you. You have to do that for yourself!
Effective CRM requires not just a detailed analysis of the benefits, features, value and pricing offered by a CRM system provider but also an internal focus before any investment is made. For Conscious Solutions (and many of our happy clients), SugarCRM is the answer to an effective CRM system. If you would like to discuss your firms CRM strategy then please get get in touch.
Background
A quick introduction if I may? I am Dave Rolf the newest member of the Conscious Solutions team, I work with David Gilroy as a Marketing Executive and I will hopefully be keeping you all entertained and suitably informed with my musings on the Conscious blog.
Feel free to browse my profile ; anyone able to score 100% on my “Fact or fiction quiz” (honesty required please) will receive the full complement of Conscious tips booklets worth a whopping £116.91.
Being my first week in the job last week David opted to initiate me with a three day 504 mile round trip taking in Leeds, Manchester & Liverpool (with not a Premiership football ground in sight!!) to attend seminars and meet clients, and I must say I truly enjoyed the experience (and the dinners out).