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June 2007
How well does your company know your customers?
Individually, your customer-facing employees have a wealth of knowledge about the customers they work with on a daily basis. They know the essentials, such as the names of new contacts, to small personality quirks, such as the customer who hates to be called before 8 AM.
You can see the dilemma: Even the most trivial of these details can become vitally important when a problem arises – and the person best suited to respond is sitting on a beach in Waikiki. With summer vacation season about to hit full swing, you may find out the hard way how much valuable customer knowledge will also be on hiatus when employees leave.
One solution to this annual challenge is to develop a company-wide “knowledge base” that aggregates every customer detail – the essential, the trivial and everything in between. By creating a central repository of customer knowledge, your whole team has access to the right information when they need it. Here are a few tips to help you implement your own customer knowledge base:
Start Simple; Collect the Information
Starting a knowledge share may seem overwhelming; how exactly do you house all of this information? The first step is to simply collect it; ask employees to grab the post-it notes and scribbled scraps of paper from their workspaces and enter it in a spreadsheet. Your knowledge base should include essential details such as the names and preferred contact methods of key personnel; specific buying or estimating habits and records of notable successes or failures. No detail is too small; even the names of customers’ pets or their favorite lunch spots may come in handy.
Get Buy-In
Creating an effective knowledge base is quite an undertaking; you’re asking employees to give up ownership of often hard-earned customer information. You’re also asking for a substantial investment in time and energy, as a useful knowledge base is a living document that must be constantly updated to be effective. Be sure to carefully explain the purpose of your knowledge base and its benefits to your company’s daily operations, not to mention the sanity of your employees.
Make it Easy to Access
Your knowledge base can be as technically simple as an Excel spreadsheet, or as complex as a dedicated software tool. Regardless of its format, your knowledge base should be easy to access and update. An electronic system is strongly recommended; sifting through hundreds of handwritten notes defeats the purpose and will quickly render your hard work irrelevant.
What Grow Sales, Inc. Can Do For You
Since 1996, Grow Sales Inc. has helped companies and their sales teams capitalize on current and future sales opportunities. Our mix of outbound marketing, sales support, public relations, graphic and web design will arm you with the tools to differentiate your company in the eyes of key prospects and win new business. Contact us to learn more about what we can offer your company.
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