Interactive Marketing: Service flows from people to people. The delivery or the actual service experience happens between service employees and customers. Interactive marketing thus means keeping the promises made by the external marketing and completing the service-marketing triangle. It is through the moments of truth that happen during the interaction the service delivery is made.

 Sales Force Automation (SFA):    

SFA is Sales Force Automation. Understanding SFA begins with the study of basic selling process and the importance of FAB (Features, Advantage and Benefits) approach to selling. It then moves to the technology of Automating Sales process.

 SFA is a technological tool to help sales people acquire and retain customers, which helps in reducing administrative cost and provides good basis for account management.  It increases better selling chances for the Salesperson and more business for the company.  SFA helps in the following ways:

• It helps a company to get customer retention and hence increase profits.
• Customers get better information, better products or services, faster responses to their queries and hence this results in Customer Satisfaction.

The reasons why SFA is important to CRM are:

• Reduction in cost of selling.
• Increased revenue.
• Easy availability of customer information.
• Increased sales force mobility.
• Meeting increased customer expectations.

CRM Implementation:

The most difficult part of CRM is implementing it. Implementing CRM – making it a reality is the real challenge and the purpose of any CRM initiative. When do you say that CRM has happened? When:

• Your customer is more than satisfied; he/she is delighted.
• Your customer attrition rate is minimal. Thus, the selected customer is retained.
• The bottom line improves: the profits multiply.

Implementation starts with questioning the basics of your business; defining business, redefining your strategy, setting up plans, implementing and evaluating the CRM.  Implementing CRM is about creating a change and an urge in your organization to become customer centric. The first important factor taken into consideration while implementing CRM should be people; because CRM is nothing without people. Secondly, technology and the process play should be taken into consideration.  A good product or service, sound process, technology and able people are some of the important baseline requirements to begin with the CRM initiative.  Unless you have the CRM merits in place, it is not possible to judge if you are going in the right direction. CRM evaluation has to be in place and predefined before you begin implementing CRM.

 Common causes of CRM failure:

• Treating CRM = Technology + Automation
• Large-scale systems with long-term promise are better
• Old organizational mindset
• Lack of CRM understanding
• Poor strategy and planning
• Lack of skills essential for CRM
• Inefficient or inappropriate software  
• Lack of commitment