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Why update is one of the most customer-oriented companies

On April 2014, it was announced that update software was voted one of the most customer-oriented German companies in a ranking carried out by the Handelsblatt newspaper in cooperation with the University of St. Gallen. As vice president of sales and a long-serving employee of this company, I was both gratified and proud that we have won this acclaim.

As providers of CRM software, we have been helping our customers align their companies toward their target groups’ needs for 26 years now. It takes readily accessible, structured information about the relevant market environment to achieve this. Armed with this data, employees can actively build up knowledge and take customer-oriented action. Customer relationship management software helps optimize the activities performed by customer-facing employees, contributing to efficient processes.

However, my article is not intended to be a sales pitch; rather, I would like to give an insight into the best practices that have earned us a place in this customer-orientation ranking. It is our core business, customer relationship management, and the expertise we have gained in it that are the most important success factors. After all, you cannot excel at selling something you yourself do not exemplify; it must be deeply rooted in all your customer-facing departments.

For many years now, we have been winning over an average of 100 new customers every year. When we close a deal, that’s just the beginning of our customer relationship. Just as our sales reps prepare well before talking to customers, our business consulting department also needs profound knowledge about our customers when they go to implement or enhance a CRM solution for them.

Our long-term customer relationships are testament to the fact that our products and services hold what our sales reps promise. Word gets round about CRM success stories and it is this word of mouth that is the best recommendation, driving our business success and growth. As a strongly sales-driven company, we give our customer base top priority and our Software as a Service model makes it even more important to keep our fingers on our customers’ pulses and our sights on their needs.

As a result of our company’s development over the years, we at update software are highly focused on external factors. Our management emphasizes that employees should always question whether their actions really serve our customers or whether they are just ends in themselves. And of course we use our own CRM solution – intensively, in fact! This way, we as the managers have ensured that our employees can work efficiently while always focusing on our customers. Our managers routinely check whether our internal processes are optimal or whether they need to be tweaked or adapted. This is reflected in our continuous development and enhancement of our CRM system. Even our internal optimization processes are customer oriented.

BY Christian Stadlmann, VP sales at www.update.com

 

 

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