Imagine that you are a cattle ranch owner who, for some reason, decided to release your hundreds of cows to roam and graze in the pastures without any kind of fencing or bordering, no tagging for each cow, not even some sort of documentation of each cow’s history with birth, weight, & physical health. Are you positive that the entire herd will return back to our ranch safe and sound, and that you are able to tend to each one individually like you did before?

Most likely not. Furthermore, it can be quite dangerous. What if there was a cow that is undergoing treatment for neosporosis but you forgot which cow it is, so then you just give the medication to a random cow? Both cows are going to be huge physical trouble.

That riskiness goes the same for a business that doesn’t have a strong management system to oversee all their customers’ relations. Not that the customers are comparable to livestock in any way! Just as how having an organized structure is crucial to the well-being of the ranch and the cows, the same also applies to a company and their customers.

A truly successful business isn’t just simply a one-time transaction between buyer and seller. A successful business looks down the road to the future and makes the accommodations to give the buyer a satisfactory experience, along with an incentive to return.

That is why a genuine relationship with your customers is fundamental. First things first, you have to gather and retain all the data and information for each one. The more you know about their history with your company, the better equipped you are to plan ahead and adapt your products or services for them.

Of course, you can store their information in a notebook or online spreadsheet, but the more your business grows, the more customers you will gain. That also comes with more information for each one: contact information, phone and email records with the support team, each purchases, and then eventually you can funnel them into categories as leads or sales opportunities.

Salesforce is a great CRM system that helps your business keep track of all your customers’ data in one centralized sales cloud. This allows you to access and delivery customer service on any device you have. Whether it is on your laptop at home, or your mobile phone on the subway. It even has numerous features that will prioritize your customers by lead quality so your team can better see what should be the next step in the customer relationship.

Furthermore, other members on your team can log on to see information updates so that you will all be on the same page even when you all dispersed in different locations.

What better way to further a relationship than with email marketing? Salesforce can funnel your contacts into groups for you, and Benchmark can help you create the perfect campaign for each group…a perfect pair.

Use the Benchmark-Salesforce plugin and your business and customers will thank you.