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Frequently Asked Questions

  
 


If you are serious about identifying, attracting, winning, developing or keeping the kind of customers that are the most lucrative to you, then you are by definition, interested in investing in customer relationship management. In fact, every business interested in repeat business should be considering such an investment.
 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the CRM Master Key?

The CRM Master Key is a CD based product that contains various Microsoft® Office®, Project® and Visio® files. These files act as templates and offer an abundance of specially crafted CRM Tools and Techniques as well as wider management expertise. Companies buying the CRM Master Key customize these templates to their specific CRM project requirements. The CRM Master Key works the way you do – using the software already installed on your PC or within your company.

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How do I find the section I want?

By placing the CD in your computer’s CD drive, you simply open files as you would any other. You can navigate from one file to the next simply by clicking on the hyperlinks contained within each file, in the same way as you "surf" the web.

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What makes it different?

CRM books, reports, workshops and conferences all have their uses. However, they are not user friendly on the CRM project front line! The CRM Master Key is because it is a ready to use toolbox of CRM files and techniques that can be circulated across your company by e-mail within seconds. What’s more, because the files are in Microsoft® Office® and Project®, they are ready for you to edit and tailor to your requirements from day one – unlike many CRM reports that come in .pdf format and are not capable of being edited as part of your CRM project delivery. So, companies purchasing the CRM Master Key will automatically gain a huge advantage in their CRM projects.

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How does a company use it?

There are several items within this answer:

 
CRM Project Templates
 

The templates are primarily in the form of Microsoft® files in Word®, Excel®, PowerPoint ® and Project®, with process maps and graphical CRM methodologies delivered in Microsoft® Visio®. These applications will be needed to view and edit all the templates.
 

Navigating around the CRM Master Key
 

Contained within the files are hyperlinks to other files that will make getting around much quicker and easier. These hyperlinks are shown in blue and underlined.

 

Sequence of work
 

Unless there is good reason, you should go through the CD in its suggested order from start to finish.
 

Digesting the CRM Master Key
 

There is a lot of material to digest, once you have purchased your copy, but you should not feel obliged to read the whole thing before making a start. You can take it in "bite sized" chunks, which you might find more manageable. If you want to get a steer on the whole thing quickly at the beginning, you could e-mail each template to the person who may end up leading that workstream – HR Director for Changing to CRM, for instance.

That way, you can get expert input on the implications more or less straightaway. If you are a very small company without such specialists, you should glance through each section and look at the action checklist at the end on the template for a quick take on the workstream in question. Looking over the CRM Project Schedule in the Project Managing folder will also provide an overview of the way forward and how the workstreams mesh together.
 
Discretion
 

You should use what you can and believe is useful, rather than following the activities without question. The CRM Master Key cannot provide an exact prescription for all companies because no two companies are the same. Rather it is a set of templates that give CRM project teams a head start with the activities you should think about and apply in a way that’s right for your organization. That is the best way of using the CRM Master Key and the only way you can succeed in any event.

 
Collaboration
 

Each template should be circulated to its relevant project stakeholders. The Circulation Register can be used to track this. One person should be assigned for each stage / workstream with the authority to issue new versions on a document, otherwise there is likely to be a loss of version control.

Alternatively, you can put some or all of the CRM Master Key on your company’s Intranet or at the very least on your network drive, where you can hyperlink the documents together in any way you see fit and use it as a CRM project Intranet. This is likely to greatly improve project communications, progress and control.
 

Duplication
 

When you buy the CRM Master Key you are entitled to copy and distribute its contents without restraint, as long as such duplications of content are kept within your company and for its uses only.
 

Project Management
 

The project’s progress can be tracked and managed by using the CRM Project Schedule. This can be viewed as a Gantt chart to see the dependencies and links between different workstreams / stages of the project. For instance, the dependencies between designing the solution to implementing it or from analyzing CRM to investing in it.
 

Action Lists
 

At the end of each Word template is an action checklist that will help CRM project teams control progress in that workstream / stage. Only the top level action points are logged on the CRM Project Schedule because to have put all the activities in would have made the file too unclear and jumbled to follow easily. Besides, it is better for these teams to decide which of these detailed activities need to be performed before adding them onto the schedule so that it becomes unique to your own specific needs.

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Does the CRM Master Key replace the need to hire a CRM consultant?

This depends on a number of factors. The CRM Master Key will certainly prove better than a poor or average CRM consultant – and there are far too many of those. It does not necessarily replace a good or excellent CRM consultant. This depends on the complexity of your CRM requirement. The more complex, the more your need for a good CRM consultant to work out and deliver your specific requirement or solution.

However, the CRM Master Key can also be purchased to ensure that such a CRM consultant is not simply brought in to explain and perform the CRM basics but rather to work out the complex issues. In this way, the CRM Master Key could and should save four figure sums.

That is not to say that buying the CRM Master Key means you do not need a CRM consultant, only that you will not need a merely adequate one. An average CRM consultant will not be able to beat you and your team tailoring the CRM Master Key in terms of quality, let alone cost.

However, there can always be a use in bringing in a first class CRM consultant or analyst. He or she will now not need to start from scratch with you and will be able to craft the CRM Master Key to do the true justice to it that your company deserves. Such delivery might be called World Class. So whatever funds you have and provided you have a first class CRM consultant, you will now be able to make the very most of those funds if you have invested in the CRM Master Key. Either way, a much higher project return on investment is attained, given how much of CRM budgets go on skilled resource as much as CRM software.

The CRM Master Key will not be as good as a first class consultant in your office, but it will act as a rather competent one, even though it is a CD. Having said that, the CRM Master Key will make an average CRM consultant look great.

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How much effort do I have to put into it?

As much or as little as you like or need. You may simply use it to achieve a common understanding of CRM across your organization. Or, you can use it as the backbone of your CRM project. The only certainty is that the benefits grow the more you use it. You get a multiple of what you put in, so it is worth putting in as much effort as you can.

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How much does it cost?

This is dependent upon the number of users and size of the organisation. We will be happy to discuss your specific requirements and investment options.

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Do you need Microsoft Office, Project and Visio software on your PC to use the CRM Master Key? What are the minimum technical specifications?

You will need Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint Project and Visio software for each PC that wants to use ALL of the templates in the CRM Master Key.

The minimum technical specifications are:

System Requirements
Microsoft Office 97 or above, Microsoft Visio 2000 or above, Microsoft Project 2000 or above
CPU Speed 133MHz
Hard Drive Space 30MB
CD-ROM Required for installation

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