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Creating Integrated Customer Service Management with a CRM System


Posted on November 11, 2011 by Chris Hooven, Vice President, Business Development, OSF Global Services

For many organizations, a customer relationship management (CRM) application is often implemented to support the activities of a specific department such as managing sales, running marketing campaigns or supporting customers. But a CRM system can be more than just a point solution. It can help you automate your business processes and integrate every client-facing department within your service organization. The result: enhanced customer satisfaction, improved long-term relationships, reduced costs and increased revenue.

CRM integration across the enterprise

The heart of any CRM application is your customer data – and too often that data is stored in multiple systems. Besides creating redundancies, inconsistencies can creep in as different customer data is collect to support the needs of your various departments. By integrating your customer data into a single platform, you can ensure that personnel across your operations are working with one common data set.

In addition, by integrating your CRM system, you can improve communication inside and outside your company. Personnel have access to information about all customer interactions, regardless of which department was in contact with them. This means that your personnel can more quickly respond to any issues that arise – and that they may not have been aware of because of the disjointed systems and processes used in the past.

While a service management module is often part of a larger CRM application package, it is not always used. By taking a more holistic view of your operations, you can uncover where you can gain the most from integrating your service management module. For example, you might link CRM to other systems and external tools such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that supports invoice management and billing, or a third-party system that handles phone and subscription services.

Steps to a successful integration

Of course there are challenges that you may encounter along the way. To alleviate some of these issues, you should keep the following key tasks in mind:

  • Define the problem and business processes – Before you integrate CRM and service management, define the business processes that explain how you want departments to interact. As different departments begin looking into the data within your CRM application, you should properly define best use cases so all are using the data in the most appropriate way.
  • Ensure you have executive support – Take the time to secure support for your chosen direction and plan from your senior management. You can then leverage that sponsorship to roll out your initiative across departments.
  • Train your users – Provide adequate time and resources to training your personnel. If your approach to integrated CRM and service management is not easy to use or connects through an interface that is not intuitive, your personnel probably will not use it.

Choosing the right approach

When deciding whether to incorporate CRM into your integrated service management processes, the type of business you run is more important than the size of your organization. For example, if your company has a small customer base but your business is customer-support intensive, you will benefit from an integrated service management approach that reduces the amount of time your agents have to spend with customers. On the other hand, if your customer support interactions are at a low volume, an integration effort will probably not deliver the return on investment you expect.

Partnering with an experienced service provider that has a track record of integrating CRM and service management can help you decide which approach is right for you. They can also make recommendations that align your business needs with your service environment.

Example: Integration in action

For a small start-up company that provides online backup solutions for file storage and protection, an integrated CRM solution is delivering better service management of subscription plans, integrated payment processes and accurate reporting. The company needed a website that would serve as a marketing interface and portal for its customer data, a unique customized application, and a backend CRM solution for service management and reporting.

Once the process flow was analyzed and customized, a NetSuite solution was implemented to handle the business processes, and a unique Facebook-dedicated application was developed to enable file access to customers via the social network. The new website and customized application serve as single point of communication. In addition, both are integrated with NetSuite to meet all of the service management and backend reporting requirements – from subscription plans to invoicing and payments.

This CRM integration has helped the company deliver faster services to its subscribers, improve customer satisfaction, and create a more efficient internal reporting process. What’s more, the innovative Facebook integration solution has opened access to a large pool of potential clients.

Changing your business processes

By taking a more holistic view of CRM, you can change the way your business positions and uses services to manage your customer relationships. As you integrate CRM across your operational processes you can drive down costs, better serve your customers, increase your upsell opportunities and reduce the amount of time spent with customers and prospects.

To learn more, read the OSF white paper or contact us directly to talk to a specialist.