What the Customer Values
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Last Friday I installed a new ACT! system for a client, and today was the staff training. These are a savvy group of professionals with diverse backgrounds on competencies. I found it interesting to hear what they were so excited to learn. Here are a couple highlights. 1.) Their office is VERY busy, and they can’t afford to have things fall through the cracks. So, when they get an inbound phone call, instead of pulling out a pen and paper to take notes, they can instantly bring up a note taking “Record History” box and start jotting down the details that are coming over the phone. After jotting the notes, they can then find the contact to associate the history with, or create a new contact. When they click OK, the history is written to that contact, and now everyone has access to it (as oppose to a pad of paper).
2.) Group scheduling. When they realized that they can now schedule meetings with each other as well as Resources associated (conference room, projector, etc.). They breathed a sigh of relief.
3.) Sales Opportunities. They learned that all their part numbers, product descriptions, costs, and prices were already imported in the Sales Opportunities, they claimed that this would be huge for their business. Now they can do sales forecasting and generate sales funnels and reports with a click of a button and they didn’t have to manually key in all their products.
4.) Handheld sync. When I discussed with them what they can do with handheld devices that tie into the database they changed directions and purchased 2 Treos instead of Windows Mobile devices. This was a couple weeks ago. I was surprised to learn during training that they now have 5 Treos and they want them all to sync via ACT! for Palm OS (including sales opportunity information).
This served as a good reminder to me, to keep the customer central. It’s not about what I (or anyone) can do for them, it is about discovering where they place value, and offer appropriate solutions. What they place value on may surprise you. I imagine there are others out there who might benefit from these functions in your business. Feel free to offer comments or feedback.
Travis Campbell
http://www.actasap.net/
http://www.actblogger.com/
http://www.freeacttips.com/
http://www.asktheactpro.com/
Filed under: ACT Related