CRM and Pattern: Why the CRM Database IS THE POINT!

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“… the fact that little causes can have big effects….” (Gladwell, The Tipping Point, 9)

The only thing valuable about a CRM system is the quality of its database.  No data in the CRM database, bad data, missing data  – then what good is the system?  Little things can have big effects ONLY if the little things are accumulating, aggregating sufficient to form patterns.

If knowledge from the customer environment is flowing continuously into the database, if those data are accurate, current, and complete, then those who use the database can find in it patterns of meaning for correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action.  Tipping points become possible.

Patterns can only form when data are aggregating and accumulating in one place, from the best possible sources, and are available to searches and queries that “see” or “discover” them.  All management thinking is a matter of “seeing” patterns, gaining a correct understanding of them, making good decisions, and then taking proper action.

Consider this supporting statement from a leader in the study of “pattern” in thought:

“In any stream of ideas, some kind of pattern will be evident.  The trick is to look for patterns.”  (Gary Hamel, Leading the Revolution, 2000)

IN THE PATTERNS IS THE MEANING!  The search for pattern in CRM databases is the key to CRM system value to an organization.  We can have a tipping point ONLY if we have the accumulated and aggregated information sufficient for patterns to form.  We have to have a rich “stream of ideas” before patterns can emerge.

At the end, the CRM system has only one purpose – to provide the means for accurate, current, and complete information from the customer environment to flow continuously into the database; and then, for those who lead the organization to search and query those databases to find the meaningful patterns that bring correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action.  These elements of the CRM system are the essential, foundational processes through which the promise of the CRM investment and vision is accomplished.

We must get GOOD data into the CRM databases!

The essential tool to ensure a continuous flow of quality data into the CRM system is a data entry tool -  for sales reps, executives, technical support, trainers, and others who travel to meet with customers – that is easy to use, quick to apply, and powerful in its capture of information.  One essential tool is a voice-based CRM data entry system because (1) sales reps and others are willing to use it and make it their own, and (2) the spoken explanatory information of words, sentences, and paragraphs is the lifeblood of CRM database vitality and quality.

Every CRM system application should have at its front end for data entry (as one of the options) a voice-based data entry tool!  Whatever the mix of tools available, leaders must insist on routine reporting into the CRM system by every person involved in customer, competition, or industry marketplace activity.  Every one; without exception! 

Accumulation and aggregation of quality information into CRM databases, with search/query routines, is essential for pattern formation and pattern recognition and ultimately for correct understanding, good decision making, and proper action.

10 Reasons Sales Reps Won’t Use the CRM System

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In the spirit of Dave Letterman’s “Top 10″ lists, here are the Top 10 reasons sales reps do not use the CRM system or why CRM systems have such poor user adoption statistics (*for a possible remedy to these 10 reasons, see note at bottom):

10  They just don’t like administrative sorts of work, which takes them away from selling and making money.  They consider reporting administrative work, so they don’t do it.

09  They just get busy doing their selling, making money, and caring for customers, so they forget to report; it isn’t part of their important work, not ‘top of mind’.  “I just can’t get around to it.”

08  They report by talking about their meetings around the water cooler or in the break room or at the bar in the evening or in the car with a passenger when traveling, or anywhere they can talk about it (and not have to write it).

07  They just call the boss and tell him/her about it all (or, hopefully, get the boss’ email and leave the report as a message), so there is perceived to be no need to do a formal report.

06  They have learned and practiced procrastination from the time of early high school and are very good at it (especially at procrastinating reports), so they can delay reporting for days, weeks, and even months.  “Oh, I’ll get to it next month when I have some time.”

05  They think that nobody in management reads their reports, so they think the reporting is a meaningless waste of time.  “Hello, anybody out there reading this report?  Hello?  Respond to me, so I know someone is reading this.”

04  What they do and how they go about it is their personal “competitive edge,” their own “special style,” and they are highly competitive and not about to reveal it, share it, or comment on it through reports to management.  “If I don’t sell, I don’t eat!”

03  They hate to write, they hated English classes, and they hate “writing” reports.  “Give me enough alcohol and tobacco,” said one sales rep, “and I can write anything.  Dope me up!”

02  They know that by not reporting they can “own” the information and by hoarding it ensure their long-time employment.  “No one is going to be happy to see me “walk out the door knowing what I (and only I) know!”

01  They perceive that the only thing management cares about is making money, so if they are meeting their goals or exceeding them, they think reporting will never be enforced.  “They will never fire me for not entering my sales information into the CRM system!”

*Note:  Here is a possible remedy to these reasons sales reps won’t report into their CRM system.  Attention Management literature suggests that sales reps pay attention to the things their managers pay attention to.  The sales team must know that managers up and down the organization are (1) committed as a team to the value of the knowledge in the CRM system for analysis, decision making, and proper action, and (2) insistent on the fundamental requirement that aggregating in the CRM databases is a continuous flow of accurate, current, and complete explanatory knowledge from the field.  This continuous flow of information is easiest attained with a voice-based CRM data entry system that is easy and quick for reporting and one that sales reps will use naturally. 

Maybe sales reps – when shown a better way – can set aside these 10 reasons for not reporting and follow the example and attention of their managers in building CRM databases of good information that make a practical difference in the success of their organization and themselves.

“Getting it Out There”: When CRM Information Makes the Difference

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“I received a note from a sales rep in an entirely different territory, thanking me for information on a competitor in a sales report I had entered into our CRM system a month or so ago.  The person said he was bidding against this competitor and my information on several key discriminators for our products really helped him write a winning proposal.” (a Voice2insight/CRM system user report, February 2012).

One of the most important values of an active, organization-wide CRM/Voice2insight system is the continuous flow of current, accurate, and complete knowledge in the system and available through search/query to all authorized members.  This organization-wide availability of good knowledge has been the “holy grail” for knowledge management systems for many years.  The collaboration and sharing of lessons learned and key technical information can save many hours of searching (often with no results) and can give employees a critical competitive edge, wherever they are working in the organization.  This open and collegial sharing of knowledge is a key to what is called a “learning organization,” an organization with a vibrant date entry system and with feedback loops and double loops, where good information is “powering vigorously” around in the organization.

Sales reps will use a voice-based data entry system.  A key to “getting it out there” is a voice-based CRM data entry tool that sales reps find natural, intuitive, easy, and fast.  If they know they can get their sales reporting task done immediately following a sales meeting, in just a few minutes, without all of the hassle associated with keyboarding and writing, they take to it willingly and with positive business intent and purpose.  They know that the organization needs the knowledge, so they give it clearly and completely, with thoughtful explanation and sufficient detail.  With voice and the phone, the words, sentences, and paragraphs come out naturally and fluently because these are tools the sales reps use continuously and with excellence.  They are very good at speaking their minds and explaining their experiences.

The need is for explanatory knowledge not jots and tweets.  Organizational use of its expensive CRM system cannot be limited to just activity reporting, a number or statistic to be entered via a smart phone or tablet computer.  These notes, jots, and tweets are not sufficient to sharing the explanatory and experiential knowledge of background and context that makes information useful for understanding, decision making, and proper action.  We need full and open voice-based CRM data entry to capture the full experiences the sales reps are having out with the customers on the ground.  Words, sentences, and paragraphs of explanation are the life blood of a “learning organization” environment.

The power of knowledge is in data aggregation.  We need all to aggregate all of the information possible, amass it in one place, so the great power of computer searching can be brought to bear for an understanding of trends, patterns, and behaviors that are operating with customers and competitors and in the industry marketplace.  That is why organizations buy CRM solutions.  What is going on our there?  How do these purchasing decisions compare or contrast with those of last quarter or last year?  Why are they asking these kinds of questions now?  Are we seeing a new product development life cycle because of the availability of these new materials?  Can we raise our prices now or should we wait for the next quarter – what have our customers done in the past when we have raised prices – what have our competitors done in response?  Who is this new company – why are they growing so rapidly – are they taking our customers?  The greater the flow of information coming into the CRM system from the sales team, the greater the aggregation of good data and the greater the potential for good analysis, decision making, and proper action.

CRM has to connect top management and the sales team.  The more vibrant, the more energetic the data input from the sales team that is flowing consistently into the CRM databases, the more good information is aggregating and accumulating, and the better the searches and queries and yield of strategically useful information.  When the top managers of the organization know what they want as information from the field, from the sales organization, when they communicate this openly and positively to the sales team, then the sales people can gather this information and return with it for management use.  The connection between the management team needs and the sales team capabilities for gathering information is a connection made in heaven when organization leaders see it and foster it.

A voice-based CRM data entry system, willingly and thoughtfully used, brings an incredibly powerful force of knowledge for good that is available no other way and is the heart of a successful “learning” organization.

‘Easifying’ Data Entry for Your CRM System

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“Secret:  Overloaded people want simplicity, ease, and fun.  In the Age of Overload, the simplifier is king…. Secret: Word of mouth is, first and foremost, an experience-delivery system.” (“George Silverman, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, “Dominating Your Market by ‘Easifying’ the Customer Decision Cycle, Customer Relationship Management, January 2012, 24-29.)

‘Easifying’ is making things easier.  Making the data entry CRM experience easier for sales reps required to report their sales activities in meeting with customers – ‘easifying’ it – can have a significant impact on both user adoption and the kind and quality of the information reported and entered into the CRM databases.

The important objective of sales reps using the CRM system willingly and with business intent to feed current, accurate, and complete (explanatory and experiential) information on the customer, competition, and the industry marketplace, on the understanding, decision making, and action of organizational leadership, is precisely the reason senior managers bought and paid for CRM in the first place.  “Customer Relationship Management” – being able to know and react to the real-time customer environment – is the driving vision or purpose that justifies a company spending its treasure to implement CRM.

If sales reps do not adopt or use the CRM system willingly and with business intent, if they just do the very minimum required sloppily and reluctantly (like angry school children denied recess), then the entire CRM system – top to bottom – is at risk.  Bad and missing data from the field doom the value of the CRM databases, and these systems become very expensive but empty filing cabinets.  Incomplete, inaccurate, deliberately biased, ambiguous, purposely sabotaged for spite, or confused data certainly and severely limit the value of the entire CRM investment.

What is it about traditional CRM data input that is so off-putting to sales reps?  Why is it so prone to avoidance, trivializing, and procrastination?  One of the major constraints is keyboarding, the need to “write” by typing in the words of the report.  For people who “hated to write” while in school and who consider any kind of “writing” (keyboarding) to be “administrative work” that takes away from productive selling work, the CRM data entry reality (if that is perceived to be the only way to get information into the system) is a major barrier and limited factor for CRM success. “I really don’t want to do it!” means it will not get done or it will be done at the absolute last minute at the absolute lowest level of interest.  (Remember in school when a paper was due on Friday, how many were up all night on Thursday pounding something out?)

So, how do we ‘easify’ CRM data entry to change the CRM data entry scenario?  Organizations do it by observing the second “Secret” stated in the opening quote – go to “Word of Mouth.”  Go to a voice-based data entry system.

Sales reps love to talk.  Talk is their live and their livelihood – talking.  Talking is natural to them, intuitive, and developed from infancy.  They are high verbal.  People in sales have excelled from a young age at verbal expression and the powers of persuasion through talking.  Writing, on the other hand, is not natural and not intuitive.  Writing is a learned skill.  Writing is filled with rigid yet inconsistently taught rules and requirements, expectations and artificial constructs taught by English and writing teachers in many, many classes over the many years of schooling.  Over and over in adult writing seminars, you hear the expression and confession, “I hate to write.  I don’t know how to do it.  I am not good at it.”  And, truth be told, many of them, however fluent they are at speech, however successful they are at selling and persuading and closing by voice, are not very good at writing.  Spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation – the whole thing is a mass of confusion in their minds.  They could not tell you, after 10 years of schooling and at least 10 English classes over that time, the correct use of “principal/principle” or the meaning of the words “independent clause.”

They love to talk, and they love to talk on their phones.  They are phone technology freaks, many of them, sporting the latest smart phone or tablet, with all of the latest supporting gadgets. 

SECRET:  Why not let sales reps enter their CRM data by just speaking it into their phones – simple, quick, intuitive, natural, done. 

Speak in the sales meeting notes for 3-4 minutes (replacing 60 minutes or more of the hated drudgery of keyboarding/writing) and when finished hang up.  Let the Voice-Based CRM Data Entry system transcribe the audio (ensuring 98% accuracy) to convert it to digital and sync it automatically into SAP, Salesforce, Oracle/Siebel, or MicrosoftDynamics? 

Why not ‘easify’ the data entry for sales reps with a voice-based data entry tool and give a tremendous “shot in the arm” to your CRM system’s viability?  If they find it simple and fast and will use it willingly and with business intent, watch the user adoption numbers and the value and the kind and value of the data flowing into the CRM system SKYROCKET!

CRM and the ‘Cost of Not Knowing’ (“CONK”)

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The promise of CRM is knowing what is going on with the customer, competition, and industry marketplace for proper understanding, decision making, and action.

We buy CRM software and pay the heavy expense of implementing it because we believe that the management of knowledge is critical to organization success.  We believe that the organization is more capable of competing when our decisions and actions are based on good knowledge from the customer environment.

Because the knowledge we seek with CRM is that most directly related with customer needs and satisfaction, the group of people of most importance is the one most directly connected to this knowledge, and that is the sale team.  The sales reps are the point of contact with customer decision makers, and, if the CRM system is to work, the information related to those contacts must be fed into the CRM system continuously for management understanding, decision making, and proper action.

We buy CRM because we need to know what is going on out there!  We spend the money to train and equip the ‘point of contact’ sales team to find and deliver that knowledge back into the organization.  Thus, that knowledge is expensive to gather and make available, certainly, with the cost of the CRM software, the training, the organizational changes, the monitoring, and the motivation.  Certainly, proper CRM implementation is a significant cost in the treasure of the organization.

However, what is the ‘CONK’ or the cost of not knowing?  What if we are NOT getting the information we planned and worked for?  What if the sales reps won’t use it or won’t use it to deliver explanatory information?

What is the cost of not knowing that your competitor reps are into your major account and doing audits and offering information for their products or services as opposed to yours?  How long will that ignorance go on before you find yourself shown to the door?

What is the cost of not knowing that your pricing is too high in the competitive marketplace, and that it is causing your customers to “shop around” for alternative sources?  How long before your ignorance allows a significant loss?

What is the cost of not knowing that your product has features that the customers find limiting or constraining, such that bad feelings are developing towards your company that are going to be easy for the competition to capitalize on and move you out of the business?  How long before you are way behind the curve and cannot catch up?

What is the cost of not knowing that there is a pattern of activity developing in your industry that changes the way businesses manage their projects, such that the bidding and contracting processes are changing to privilege or benefit competitor companies? How long before your company finds itself “outside” of the flow of the competitive market?

What is the cost of not knowing that one of the senior people in your major customer organization finds your product or service defective and poorly designed and is angrily going about in the company and among his golfing and tennis associates bad mouthing your company and your products?  How long can you survive this going on?

What is the cost of not knowing….?  What is the cost when the expensive CRM system isn’t producing the critical information from the field that you need?

Interestingly enough, CRM with voice-based data entry, that makes it easy and intuitive for sales reps to report their sales meeting information quickly and easily, is the least expensive element in the CRM cost.   This is because it involves only the mouth and the phone.  CRM based on voice-based data entry has the potential to gather ALL of the critical explanatory information from the customer environment and feed it immediately into the CRM databases.  What is the cost of current, complete, and accurate information flowing into the CRM system from the customer environment?  What are you already paying for your sales team?  They already know how to make your CRM investment pay off with the information you need.  They speak on the phone constantly. 

The cost of the most important piece of your CRM investment, sales rep usage through a voice-based data entry tool, surprisingly, is the lowest of all, yet it provides the most valuable ingredient for CRM success for the organization.

‘Form Communicates’: CRM Sales Letters and Emails to Customers

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Experts say we have “Seven Seconds to Make a First Impression.”

“You meet a business acquaintance for the first time – it could be your new boss, a recent addition to your team, or a potential client you want to sign up.  The moment that stranger sees you, his or her brain makes a thousand computations: Are you someone to approach or to avoid? Are you friend or foe? Do you have status and authority? Are you trustworthy, competent, likeable, confident?  And these computations are made at lightning speed. Researchers from NYU found that we make eleven major decisions about one another in the first seven seconds of meeting.”  (Carol Kinsey Goman is an international speaker, executive coach, and author of “The Nonverbal Advantage: Body Language at Work,” & “The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt – How You Lead.”)

What is true in body language when people first meet is also true of written communication in CRM with sales letters and emails where people meet.  At a glance at the document, within seven seconds, a person can tell, on the one hand, if the sales person is respectful of the customer and mindful that the customer is a reader or, on the other hand, is insensitive to the customer and unmindful that the customer is a reader who can see in the form the degree of attention the sales reps pays to details. 

We learn to trust people’s professionalism in a moment.  At a glance, we can tell if the sales rep has taken any time with the communication, to think it through, to make sure the point is clear, and to make sure the details support the point being made.  We can spot the misspellings, the poor grammar, the confusing arrangement of the sentences and paragraphs.  At a glance we can see a huge block of print with no relief to the eye or mind that tells us the writer is working inside of his/her own head and not thinking about someone having to read the stuff.  At a glance, we can see how much the writer respects the reader.

Let me make this more specific by give three areas of major important to making a good initial impression with a sales letter or email:

1.  MAKE THE POINT OF THE LETTER OR EMAIL CLEAR AT THE TOP!  Is the point clearly stated at the top of the CRM messages, in the Subject headings or in an opening statement of a sentence or two?  What do you want?  What is the point?  Why are you writing this to me?  Usually, for most business people, the point only becomes clear at the bottom of the letter or email, so the writer should take that final or concluding statement and move it up to the top, into the Subject heading or as the first or opening paragraph. 

“I can’t spill the cookies in the lobby” is one expression people have for the feeling that you can’t just say what the point is at the top, but you have to meticulously inch your way down, point by point, to the bottom where you can, finally, add it all up to a conclusion.  The scientific method, the auditor’s details that lead down to the main point.  “UP and LEFT” in the document is where the main point of the letter or email should be stated.

Example:  “John, I need your report by 2:00 pm today, so I can include it in mine and have the final report off to Japan by 6:00 pm EST.” 

Rather than start with all of the details of the 6:00 pm time and the Japanese managers, and all of the “reasons,” start with the point – what do you want from the reader?  What’s the point?

MAKE THE POINT OF THE LETTER OR EMAIL CLEAR AT THE TOP! (and repeat it at the bottom)

2.  TELL US, SHOW US EXACTLY HOW THE DOCUMENT IS ORGANIZED! Use white space to give relief and to make structure of the CRM message clear.  Paragraphing is a wonderful mark of “punctuation” that opens up the communication, gives the reader a sense of how much there is, how it is organized, what the key words are, and how much detail is included.  Tell the reader “on the one hand” and “on the other hand,”  “First, second, and third” out on the left hand tops of the paragraphs.  Use numbers to indicate steps or parts.  Do not assume that the reader will “see” your meaning as you do – TELL the reader what you are doing and how the communication is going to proceed.  

Example:  “John, the report you sent has five omissions that I would like to help you correct:

1.  ….”

TELL US, SHOW US EXACTLY HOW THE DOCUMENT IS ORGANIZED!  FORM COMMUNICATES!

3. LEARN AND USE THE BASICS OF GRAMMAR, SPELLING, AND WORD USAGE!  Train yourself to use good grammar, spelling, and word usage.  We all have spell checkers these days, and those are wonderful – USE THEM!  Know what a basic sentence is (an independent clause) and how to punctuate it.  Know how to use commas, semi-colons, and colons properly.  Know how to spell “maintenance” and “environment” and other common business words.  Know the difference between “principal/principle,” “effect/affect,” “it’s/its,” “site/sight/cite” and the many other commonly confused words. 

A sales rep who confuses “their/there/they’re” marks him/herself as illiterate and suggests to the reader that the person might not pay attention to, maybe cannot be trusted to handle detail related to customer care and service.  Tom Peters gives the example of getting on an airplane and finding the foldup tray filty and, in turn, looking around and wondering if the pilot is trained and if the engines are properly maintained.  We jump quickly from a little thing to big things in our judgments.

Example:  “The principle we honor today is important to the principal owner of the company.  At this important site today, the sight of the founding partners invigorates us all.  Their dedication there in the beginning, with its intense commitment and sacrifice, has had an effect on all of us whom the partners have brought into the company, which will affect us for years to come.” (a bit of nonsense, if you will, to illustrate word choices)

LEARN THE BASICS OF GRAMMAR, SPELLING, AND WORD USAGE (professionals pay their customers that courtesy).

Form Communicates in CRM sales letters and emails just as much as it does in face-to-face meetings.

(CEM) Customer Experience Management: Use Voice for ‘CEM Conversations’

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“2011 was a big year for customer experience management (CEM)….  CEM incorporates many channels, for example social CRM, which offers the means to understand where, what and which conversations are happening, and how to engage in conversation. Social CRM can be used for engaging internally within a sales team, as well as externally with the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment.” (Steve Fearon, Oracle: “The evolution of CRM to customer experience management is happening, January 26, 2012″)

“ENGAGING IN CONVERSATIONS” is the key to social CRM and the new Customer Experience Management approaches to “providing mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. 

CONVERSATIONS! 

Conversations are people talking to each other, communicating, explaining, sharing, and collaborating.  All human exchanges require the use of “voice,” which is word and sentence and paragraph based, whether that voice is spoken or texted.  And the easiest and most satisfying conversations, especially of any length, are communication by voice – people talking to each other.

Voice-based CRM data entry using human transcription, rather than speech-to-text software, opens the space for speakers to explain the background and context of the information, to phrase and rephrase the explanations to get them right, and to relate the information personally to the listener/receiver.  Speaking is natural, intuitive, and powerful, and a phone-device makes speaking fast and effective. 

Voice is the most effective communication vehicle between and among sales team members, sales reps and their customers, among customers, and among management groups in the various organizations.  Conversations, talking, explaining, asking and answering questions, clarifying positions, expressing thanks or concerns, etc.  People explaining, sharing, responding.  CONVERSATIONS!

The best voice-based CRM data entry systems are simple and every effective.  Just dial a number, enter a secure ID or PIN number, enter an open dictation environment, and speak in the information.  The voice-based CRM systems that promise accuracy and freedom from extended editing then use human transcriptionists (native English language speakers and U.S. citizens) to transcribe the audio message, and sync it automatically into the CRM fields and onto executive dashboards.

Social interaction, as CONVERESATION, is not about numbers, statistics, or jots or tweets or notes.  Social interaction is about CONVERSATIONS that involve exchanges of explanatory information through sentences and paragragphs among the parties, with explanations, examples, stories, questions, answers, and all other kinds of social interactions.

Steve Fearson with Oracle continues, “A successful social CRM strategy for sales requires much more than access to social information about prospects. It requires a fundamentally different selling process. B2B companies need to leverage the vast volume of customer data and insights, but how the data is aggregated, transformed into intelligence and integrated into the sales process are the primary factors in determining the success of a sales organisation ‘going social’.”

We need more than just information (the typical CRM system that monitors activity with numbers and statistics); we need “insights (CONVERSATIONS)…  aggregated, transformed into intelligence and integrated into the sales process….” 

Voice has to be captured in its full expression and explanation and then converted into digital form and entered into the CRM system in such a way that it can be “displayed” for all to see and available for drill down for use in the new SOCIAL CRM system.

A New Industry: Voice-Based Data Entry is the New Productivity Tool

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When we wisely abandon the drudgery, procrastination, and time wasting involved in keyboarding information among professional engineering and scientific people and, instead, use voice for serious, paragraph length data entry into company databases, when we see the natural and intuitive simplicity of a voice-based data entry approach, we can appreciate two applications that have been proved successful in major U.S. corporations:

1.  Customer Satisfaction Surveys – identify the customer contacts you want to hear from, ask them to participate, give them a phone number to call and a secure (and anonymous) ID number, and then let them call into an open dictation system and answer 4-5 simple and general questions as they choose to answer.  This will give you what is truly “the voice of the customer.”  Then, use a qualitative knowledge analysis tool to convert the audio to digital, number/code the “thought units” (word, phrase, or sentence with one unique message), and enter the information into the database for analysis. 

Such a system has been used by several major aerospace companies with their Department of Defense contacts on major weapons systems.  The contacts are asked to comment on their perceptions of customer service, teamwork, product efficacy, and other issues they might have with the company sponsoring the survey (observing all confidentiality requirements).  With this service, you get 95% participation, speaking times of 5-8 minutes (equivalent to about one-half page of 12-point font text), and significant qualitative insight into the feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of the callers/speakers.  All input is anonymous in the database, so callers are free to speak their minds without fear of discovery or repercussion.

Voice-based data entry for customer satisfaction surveys is a state-of-the-art qualitative method of “hearing” directly, with words and emotions, the perception of company products and services with statements of satisfaction and suggestions for improvement and being able to perform analytics on those data.

2.  Large Proposal Preparation – have the Proposal Manager set up the outline for the proposal, following exactly the guidance in the Statement of Work, Sections L and M of the RFP, and other guidance.  Then have that Manager assign sections to the various content specialists and top level managers who know the information that is to go in each section.  Realizing that at the beginning the people already know 98% of what is needed in the proposal, then have each of those persons call into the open voice-based system, enter their ID number, and then speak in their information.  This is the very best “pre-kick-off” activity because it generates a baseline prototype of the document in a very short time.  Have those inputs transcribed and entered into a master database for the sections of the proposal.  Then a week prior to the formal “kick-off” meeting, pass out these documents and have everyone come to the beginning meeting ready to discuss the proposal direction, win themes, and content.

In a very short time, you can move from the announcement of the proposal to a working prototype with all sections started and everyone discussing the overall structure and content of the proposal.  This is a far more effective method of proposal starting than storyboarding.  This voice-based data entry is a tremendous tool for “front-end loading” and “rapid prototyping” of a proposal to get the energy up quickly and fully and everyone engaged and participating.  One of the major problems with proposals is waiting too long to develop an initial prototype of the final document.  This is sometimes left until the end of the effort, the last step.  Far more powerful, is a front-loading by voice of all of the content that everyone already knows, getting it out where everyone can read it and evaluate it, and having an initial prototype in hand to force momentum and energy into the work.

Voice-based data entry systems are becoming a new industry, with companies seeking natural and intuitive ways to assist professional people gather and analyze “the voice of the customer.”  Speak in the information and get it done in minutes, right now, with energy and intellectual intensity rather than depend on the old, tired keyboard method that can take months because of avoidance behavior, procrastination, and dislike of the writing task.

“Sticky” CRM: Data Entry from a Sales Rep Perspective

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Discussed here is the industry of voice-based CRM data entry tools that replace the keyboard as the essential CRM data entry vehicle, making CRM easier to use, more intuitive, and thus, more “sticky” or useful. 

In general, CRM “stickiness” refers to the very real concern of CRM vendors and organization leaders who see that costly CRM implementations are not staying in place in organizations to deliver on the promises, hopes, and expectations – the vision – that motivated and justified the purchase.  The CRM implementations are not being used by sales reps, not “sticking,” thus vendors are losing customers, some organizations in frustration are casting about at significant expense trying in-house solutions, and other organizations, increasingly skeptical, are “shopping” for plausible customer relationship information solutions amid the new world of smart phones and tablets.  (For background concepts see Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2002) and Chip Health and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (2007)

Yet, when we look at the CRM “stickiness” problem from the perspective of the sales reps, it is easy to see the natural and intuitive conditions for “stickiness” of the voice-based tools. 

When the sales people use their phone to speak in their sales meeting information, they get the task done easily, quickly, and intuitively, moving on immediately to continue working with customers, selling, and making money.  Some enter shorter dictation (and I am using a critical industry-specific distinction in the following) suitable for “closed” speech recognition systems, and others enter longer, more textual dictation suitable to more “open” text-based dictation systems.  Sales reps take to the “open” voice-based system within minutes, with no learning curve or training time (they already love to talk on the phone), and they use it willingly and easily.  Thus, the CRM system for them is useful, practical, and “sticky” – it stays active over time for CRM data entry  – ensuring a continuous inflow of current, accurate, and complete information from the ground into the organization’s CRM database.

“Sticky” is referring to people actually using the tool, making the most of it, for the benefit of the organization.  When sales reps have a tool they like, they work it and improve it, and make it better and more effective. 

Thus, voice-based tools increasingly enable them to report sales meeting information quickly and easily, ensuring that the CRM databases fill with current, accurate, and complete customer, competitor, and marketplace information.  Organization leaders, then, have these data and this information at their fingertips near-real time to increase understanding, good decision making, and proper action.

Voice-based CRM data entry – an industry and a concept, a practical tool that helps bring about the vision of the power of actionable customer information that CRM promises.  Perhaps it is a “tipping point” for successful CRM; perhaps this ensures that your CRM system is “made to stick.”

A Critical CRM Choice: Voice-Based CRM Data Entry or Speech Recognition or Speech-to-Text

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When buying or implementing a CRM system, you have an all-important choice to make as far as your data entry system.

The ‘Holy Grail’ for CRM data entry is the ability to just talk to the computer, have it convert the audio into digital automatically, and then have it enter the data into the CRM program.  No sweat!  Just talk and the computer does the rest.  Speech-to-text and speech recognition technologies have improved significantly in the past few years, with many services providing workable results.  These advances seem to say that the software people have “figured it out” now and that speech recognition and speech-to-text have solved the CRM data entry issue.  Issue resolved!  The Holy Grail located!

BUT STOP!  That is only partially true.  Before going in that direction, CRM buyers need to think about a critical choice between two very different CRM data entry possibilities.

On the one hand,

FOR”CLOSED” DICTATION ENVIRONMENTS, where (1) the ambient environment is controlled so there are no distractions or interruptions, (2) where the vocabulary is limited and controlled so the speakers only use the service for well-defined tasks, (3) where the information dictated is very short (a number or two or a word or two), and (4) where the system is “trained” to the speaker’s voice – these ‘closed dictation’ environments are providing tremendous success for speech recognition and speech-to-text software solutions.  To say “Radio” while driving and have the computer/radio turn on is wonderful.  To say “Hotel” and have the computer system ask, “What hotel are you looking for?”, again, is a useful service.  To say “Send email” and then be promoted through the tasks to send a brief email of a few words has significant value to a busy person. 

For words, numbers, and short notes or jots or tweets, the closed dictation environment is blossoming and growing, and, certainly, everyone applauds these developments.  The possibilities seem endless.

On the other hand,

FOR “OPEN” DICTATION ENVIRONMENTS, however, we find a different world entirely.  PROBABLY THIS IS YOUR WORLD!  This is a dictation environment (1) where there is no control over the ambient environment (with many disruptions and distractions), (2) where the vocabulary is open to anything the speaker wants to say and with the speaker changing or editing the dictation as he/she goes along, (3) where the information is paragraphs in length and often technical and complex, and (4) where there is no training of the system to the speaker’s voice.   No IVR, no imposed discipline or control, just an open dictation system where the speaker dictates exactly what he/she wants to say, how he/she wants to say it, for as long as it takes to work out the ideas and get them into the system. 

Think about it!  The OPEN CRM DATA ENTRY ENVIRONMENT is an entirely different environment for longer, paragraph(s) length dictation that requires an entirely different tool for data entry.

So, you might ask, “How does a Voice-based CRM data entry system work in an “OPEN” environment?”

1.  A voice-based CRM data entry system is one where the caller dials a phone number, enters a secure PIN or ID number, is greeted by name by a pleasant recorded human voice, and then enters the open dictation space.  Because the dictation will be transcribed by a human transcriptionist, the caller knows a human intelligence is working with him/her, listening, adjusting, helping, and fulfilling at a high quality and professional level of 98% accuracy.  There may be some general categories the company has given where the person speaks “about” certain topics, but how the person goes about the dictation, the logic and the flow of the information, is entirely unique to the speaker.  The speaker can edit things, rearrange things, struggle to make something make sense, give instructions regarding formatting, and otherwise work out what it is that needs to be said.  He/she has an intelligent partner who is as interested as he/she is in getting things accurate and making things look professional.

2.  For a voice-based CRM data entry system to provide satisfying service, the human transcriptionist must be a native English language speaker, a U.S. citizen living in the United States with broad general experience in the speaking patterns of the culture, with extensive documentation experience and capable of assisting the speaker in constructing a clear and concise document.  Once transcribed, the document syncs automatically into the CRM system, such as Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce or other.  The caller receives an email immediately with a copy of the document for his/her reference, and simultaneously the data go into the CRM databases into the specified fields as determined by management.

AND THE ADVANTAGES VOICE-BASED CRM SYSTEM IN AN OPEN ENVIRONMENT?

Voice-based CRM data entry is simple and quick – a person walks out of the meeting, finds a quiet place with a good cell connection, dials the number, speaks in the data, hangs up, and gets on with customer service, selling, and making good money.  Simple and fast.  The reporting requirement is satisfied with excellence, the reporting job is off his/her back and out of mind, and management now has accurate, complete, and timely information flowing into the CRM databases or management understanding, decision making, and proper action..  A 5-minute phone call report is the equivalent of a 60 minute keyboarding exercise of trying to type it up on a computer (with all of the Internet and other distractions), which usually requires significant procrastination and setting aside time at night or on the weekends (or just not doing it).  With voice-based CRM data entry, we never hear a sales rep say, “I hate to write!” when the subject of sales reporting is mentioned.  “It just takes a moment and I’m done.”  User adoption is a non-issue, bad and missing information in the CRM system are non-issues.  Management and sales rep frustration at poor communication among their functions are a non-issues.

In an OPEN ENVIRONMENT, where paragraph-length information is sought, voice-based CRM data entry is an essential companion to any serious CRM implementation in any organization.