Often issues revolve around time, resource and client management practices. If any of this sounds all too familiar to you, then read on! We might have a couple of tips for you:
Resource Management
Resourcing is a huge issue for PSOs. According to research conducted by the Aberdeen Group, 50% of PSOs identify a lack of resource as their top challenge. Skilled staff are your primary resource and far too often, staff are stretched across multiple projects. This can mean a reduction in the quality of service you can offer to your clients. Reducing the quality of the service you offer can have a detrimental impact on your organisations reputation.
“There’s just no time!”
If you’ve heard yourself utter those immortal words, you’re a victim of time management issues. The same report from the Aberdeen Group shows that 26% of PSOs suffer from ‘shrinking timeframes.’ Many PSOs find it challenging to help staff manage their time across multiple projects and clients.
Getting things done on time is a valuable commodity in business. Whilst there is scope to move deadlines if mitigating circumstances allow, habitually failing to meet deadlines is something that can strain a relationship between you and your clients.
Issues managing data
The issue of data quality is emerging as one of the greatest challenges for modern businesses. A study conducted by Experian indicates that on average, inaccurate data costs an organisation 12% of its revenue. The same report claims that 22% of an organisations’ data is inaccurate in some sort of description.
Poor data management can cause irreparable damage to your business, with mishaps and miscommunications a few examples of the consequences of bad data. Things like: inadvertently omitting clients from important events, sending duplicate copies of the same communication or failing to keep accurate data can damage the credibility of your organisation.
And issues analysing data too
Not only does your business face challenges in keeping accurate and centralised records of your data, you also face the challenge of finding the means to understand the data you generate. You need the right analytics tools to manage and interpret the data that your business generates.
Without the right tools, data can remain fragmented across multiple systems and teams, making it difficult for you to make informed strategic decisions.
Keeping mobile
Businesses in 2016 have to be prepared to do anything, anywhere at any time. The nature of work that PSOs undertake can often mean that you’ll undertake work at your client’s premises. Not to mention continued globalisation, which means you’ll be doing business with people in different time zones.
The impact of being unable to do business whenever required can impact your business negatively as clients and prospective clients may lose confidence in an organisation that cannot facilitate needs as they demand them.
The solution?
CRM and ERP solutions can help to ease these issues. In particular, CRM systems have a rich suite of tools designed to assist with these issues:
Top level CRM features:
- Resource management tools: Top CRM systems boast features that allow you to manage field and project resources electronically. Allowing you to allocate the right person, at the right time for any job
- Comprehensive data management: CRM systems allow you to store and manage your data centrally, removing the headache of trying to find your data across disparate systems
- Robust analytics tools: Analytics are a key part of any CRM system, granting you the resources to interrogate and make sense of data from many different sources
- Mobility: The vast majority of important CRM systems now support mobility. The need for a mobile enabled solution has become more apparent with working culture fundamentally shifting over the last decade. Allowing you to work wherever you need to, whenever you need to
- More time: With your CRM handling all of the above, you’ll have more time to focus on other tasks instead of getting bogged down with tasks that don’t need to be done manually!
Sound interesting? Of course it does – who doesn’t want more time to get things done! Get in touch with our CRM team or check out our website for more details.
