My father supervised a busy Air Traffic Control centre when I was a kid so sometimes I'd drop in and observe him in action (these were days before the current high security on air traffic control centres). I was intrigued with the interaction he had with his staff. My parents were both affectionate – prone to lots of spontaneous hugs – and my father seemed able to use touch as an effective medium with the men and women who served him – often, for example, placing a hand on a shoulder or arm, or patting a back. I never once saw anyone who seemed uncomfortable about such contact and so I asked Dad is there is a secret to avoiding the “used car salesman” feel to this interaction with others.

 

“The secret” he told me, “is touching only when you are giving and never when you are taking - people sense your intent.” In today's world, where we are highly sensitized to harassment and overt salesmanship, that lesson has been a valuable one, even beyond the physical touch - and into the virtual one.

 

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is often marketed as a digital “touchpoint” (or hug) for your clients. A database-driven application that can track customer sales volume, buying preferences, demographic and psychographic profiles, CRM software can help you to effectively mine the data that comes through your point of sale, and to automate functions that keep you in intimate contact with your client. However, like all eBusiness applications, it is just a tool and only as effective as the person or organization who wields it.

 

During a stay this weekend at Harris Hall B&B in Granville Ferry, owner Jack Slater asked me if I thought CRM was useful to small businesses like his. After some discussion about his business practice, he noted that many of his reservations are for a special occasion like an anniversary, birthday, or wedding. Tracking such occasions could provide a way for Jack to touch base annually on those anniversaries to offer congratulations (and valuable reservation discounts) thereby increasing repeat sales.

 

There are many affordable approaches to CRM in Nova Scotia through services like MadeInAtlanticCanada.com, ImmediaC, ConstantContact, Liberated Networks and Salesboom. However, you can start to achieve appreciable CRM benefits with a simple database on your desktop, tracking some of the more intimate and relationship building aspects of your client interactions.

 

With increasing sensitivity to spam these days, we seem to get annoyed by email solicitation, yet we seem to welcome contact by those organizations that offer value and personal recognition. If you are thinking about developing a CRM system to hug your clients, you may be wise to be guided by my Dad’s “give-when–you-touch” principle.

 

People do sense your intent...