DFS

Dentists revenues, like those of other professionals, have been affected by the recession. Dentists are going all out there to market their services to attract more patients. They are trying various forms of media like print, television, radio and the internet. Kamyoo FaceBook CRM Apps is another effective alternative.

Given consumers changing behavior, dentists have been allocating more resources towards online marketing and website building. To set up the website, an investment of $2000 to $5000 is required. Each month, an additional $40 – $50 for website maintenance and another $90 – $100 for Search Engine Optimization are incurred.

Most dentists have been complaining that their website did not generate returns on investment as only a small portion of leads generated have been converting to paying customers, often taking a long time. Looking at ads online is similar to viewing ads in yellow pages or listening to ads on the radio. Patients want to validate dental ads that they come across online from trusted sources such as friends and relatives. The immediate place they go to today are social networks where their friends and family have a presence. If a business does not exist on Facebook, it is easy for customers to move to competitors for services.

Statistically speaking, only 14 % of the population trusts advertisements while 78 % of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family (2). Considering this and the fact that majority of the customers still rely on word of mouth marketing for their dental needs, dentists should use powerful social media platforms to market their services.

Dentists should explore having a Facebook business page about their dental practice and additional Customer Relationship Management applications embedded on it. Kamyoo, an off-the-shelf product can be used instead of building the applications from scratch. This can save the dentists time and does not shift their focus from their practice.

The basic package consists of:

Welcome Page: This is the Facebook business page wherein customers, friends, employees and vendors can be invited to the dentists business network. The page which is similar to website home page is easy to edit the content from the dashboard.

Customer Testimonial Component: Dentists can invite their customers to write recommendations of their service and selectively publish customer testimonials on their business page. Prospects will have the option to view their friends reviews only.

Promotions Component: Dentists can easily create promotions and referrals to their social network and publish to Facebook business page. Search Engine Optimization: Kamyoo pages and business content on Facebook will enable search engine optimization and enable local searches to find business easily.

Kamyoo can set up the business page and other apps on Facebook in less than 24 hours. There is no setup cost, only a modest subscription charge of less than $100 a month.

Kamyoo Facebook CRM Apps can market your services efficiently, through word of mouth, harnessing the viral power of social networks and slash your online marketing costs by 90%. You can feel the pulse of your customers opinion on your services and can control what is being said by them about your dental practice online.

For more information on Social CRM Solutions or marketing your business on Facebook, please click http://www.kamyoo.com.

About the Author: Kamyoo solution provides an instant presence on Facebook, generates leads through word-of-mouth marketing in social media, and provides enhanced customer experience through feedbacks, review and customer service tools. To know about more Kamyoo Facebook CRM Apps visit http://www.kamyoo.com .

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New industries are emerging in the CRM outsourcing space. This is according to independent consulting research and analysis firm, Ovum. The new report, released on the 12th of October, advised that healthcare, government and utilities are slated to have the strongest growth in customer relationship management (CRM) for 2011, in terms of demand.

According to report author, Peter Ryan, This will be driven by the need to reduce operating costs in the face of an increase in the number of calls from the public seeking advice on schemes such as unemployment benefits. At a time of economic uncertainty, we believe that government decision makers will view outsourcing overhead heavy contact centers as a wise move.

Call center services have already been increasing in demand this year alone, as mentioned in a previous article. Countries such as the Philippines, Australia and Chile have all indicated increase in revenues, seats and employment amongst the contact center industry.

In Egypt, call center outsourcing company, Xceed, announced plans to double its workforce by 2013, wherein the companys vice president, Osama Nazmy, stated that their business is currently booming. Business is very profitable and I see it growing and expanding in the future. Other companies such as Convergys (NYSE:CVG) and Sitel, have also announced hirings for contact center positions. Some, such as global banking and securities firm, JP Morgan & Chase (NYSE:JPM) and international hotelier Hilton Worldwide, are both shifting their call center support services offshore, specifically the Philippines.

Meanwhile, in line with the shift towards the healthcare space, Xerox (NYSE:XRX) company, ACS, announced on the 15th of October that it is now one of the largest providers of customer services in the pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare services after it acquired Florida-based healthcare teleservices company, TMS Health from Palm Beach Capital. According to group president, Connie Harvey of ACS Healthcare Payer and Insurance, ACS is helping pharmaceutical companies make every customer interaction count – in a market that spends up to $12 billion per year on marketing to its stakeholders. This pushes the company in an excellent position to answer the increasing demand in the sector.

But while the call center outsourcing services are on the rise, a report by RightNow (NASDAQ:RNOW) and Harris Interactive (NASDAQ:HPOL) highlight the effective use of CRM within a company.

In their report entitled the Customer Experience Impact Report 2010, companies who are able to provide superior service to their clients will likely enjoy higher revenues from their customer service, as compared to companies who are not able to deliver superior service.

Likewise, poorly delivered customer service, which includes contact center services, could result in higher customer attrition, mainly due to rude staff or delayed issue resolution.

Most interesting though, is that while an unpleasant customer experience will likely alienate you from your customers, a superior customer service delivered to your customers would result in greater satisfaction and more effective word of mouth marketing by your customers. Likewise, the report emphasizes that people will be willing to pay more in order to have superior customer service.

In our age when everyone has an opinion and there are ever increasing ways to make yourself heard, the numbers are significant. The numbers show that while the demand for customer relationship management services is undoubtedly increasing and moving towards different industries, it is still essential to remember that aside from answering that demand, bpo providers must be able to provide excellent customer service outsourcing at every level.

About the Author: Audrey B is a Strategic Solutions Group Executive of Infinit Outsourcing, a call center philippines outsourcing provider that puts together a boutique approach to give small to medium and large companies a long-term competitive advantage.

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You already have a great financial system, HR app, you use Microsoft CRM and you are looking for a project management and project billing system with Microsoft CRM integration which links your Microsoft CRM opportunities and project pipeline information to a project time & billing software. You have invested in various carefully selected technologies to run your business and you are looking for a MS CRM time and billing software tool that fully leverages your existing investments. It would be counterproductive to rip and replace your enterprise systems with watered down on-premise or cloud alternatives. You want to keep Microsoft CRM – people are already familiar with it and it works for you and gain a true competitive advantage in project delivery and workforce management by leveraging a best of breed time and billing solution. A project management software solution that has built-in and certified connectors to Microsoft CRM is the ideal answer that will provide a totally integrated project time & billing software.

Billing project time and expenses is a crucial function for many businesses as the world moves toward a service-based economy. Field service specialists, professionals of all types and customer support personnel all need to track time spent and account for or charge for this very precious commodity – their time! With a globally dispersed project workforce, a web-based project time and billing tool is needed to get project time and expense information quickly and efficiently.

Project time and billing software that works with your existing enterprise CRM, systems and tools

A Microsoft CRM time & billing software provides you with an efficient an accurate tool for project time and expense billing. Opportunities in Microsoft CRM translate into projects base on your project pipeline settings; project progress, expenses and hours spent is tracked in a project time and billing software solution and through CRM integration with the project management software CRM users gain easy access to project cost, billing and status report information. Project time and billing software solutions solve these problems by tracking time and billing and project progress that is subsequently made available as dashboards and reports in Microsoft CRM add-ons.

There are many benefits to Microsoft CRM integration with time and billing software

A project time and billing software with MS CRM integration provides you with project pipeline information, forecasts, and resource utilization reports you can depend on. Your executives gain access to real-time project billing, cost, and budget information that enables them to quickly answer questions like:

- What does the quarter look like? - What is our project pipeline forecast and cash flow? - Which client engagements generate the most revenue or highest profit? - How is this customer doing right now? How satisfied are they? - What has been billed to this client so far? - Where can I get a consolidated view of all of our service engagements and their current status?

There are significant advantages in a project management system integrated with your CRM. If you are using spreadsheets to keep track of resources, utilization or time and billing data; issues such as over or under billing can arise, forecasts may not be accurately tracked in spreadsheets resulting in bench time or over-stretching of resources, and commitment to projects which the company does not have the ability to meet.

About the Author: This article has been brought to you by Tenrox, a project management software solution provider. Microsoft CRM integration with Tenrox project management solution is designed for out of the box integration with your existing enterprise systems. Tenrox Microsoft CRM add-on also integrates with other enterprise tools such as Microsoft Office SharePoint, your accounting and payroll systems.

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The role of e-commerce in influencing consumer behavior has increasingly become evident and has been adopted as one of the most preferable business media.

Electronic Commerce refers to the process of purchasing and selling of product information and services through a computer network (Kalakota & Whinston, 1996).

Furthermore, Bloch, Pigneur and Segev (1996) further described it as any form of business transactions that is carried out over a digital media. In this regard, with the growing use of internet as a global network, e-commerce has established its role in influencing supply chain relationships in terms of marketing, product accessibility, and promotional campaigns as well as presenting business portfolios.

According to Mentzer et al., (2001) a supply chain can be described as three or more business association directly linked from a source to a customer through the flow of products, services, finances, and information. These relationships vary from single transactions to complex mutually dependent relationships. Moreover, the main objective of these supply chains management is to establish a close working relationship that would increase competitive advantages of the parties involved in the supply chain. In this regard, e-commerce has offered an avenue through which this can be achieved, (Ganesan, 1994).

E-commerce and the internet has been referred to as the next business revolution by Palmisano (1998) in Theres no business like e-business, Directors and Board. Palmisano has observed that the connection between networks, computers, consumers and businesses for the principle rationale of selling goods, services and information can be used to heighten shareholder income as compared to the conventional business methods. Moreover, e-commerce plays an integral part in cutting costs, contributing to the growth and expansion of markets as well as maximising profitability. E-commerce also matches the utilities provided by traditional methods exemplified by delivery, credit facilities, selection of payment model and personalised assistance.

On the consumers side, e-commerce helps regulate impulsive buying and spending, Hunt (2000) in The Lights Are on but No Ones Home; Revolution. This is attributed to the fact that to the complexity of some of the online store in regard to the purchasing procedures. This in turn reduces post-purchase behaviors related to regret and dissatisfaction. Furthermore, internet has increased accessibility of products by the consumers while expanding the market values. A consumer is able to explore among the large number of products and services offered with ease and convenience hence making information search and evaluation easy. The suppliers on the other hand do not have to maintain a visible inventory, increasing service quality in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and speed.

In conclusion, e-commerce (internet) has established itself as the leading trend towards influencing consumer behaviour. It holds the essence of consumer behavior which will define future business strategies. Just as Sanchez (1993) once observed in strategic flexibility, firm organisation, and managerial work in dynamic markets: a strategic-options perspective, Advances in Strategic Management, e-commerce will offer successfully dynamic product markets leading to competitive success in stabilising markets.

By Nicole Papadopoulos – 1house Follow on twitter @1house_media @1houseGroup

About the Author: 1house provides 360 degree integrated online/offline solutions. Everything is designed to help you reach customers and grow your business. Websites, CRM, ERP Systems, SEO, Social Marketing, Branding, PR, Advertising and more. With our qualified teams and marketing, business savvy solutions, 1house is committed to delivering you with results. We listen.

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Successful small business owners understand how many facets of their business need to be managed on any given day. The balance of time, resources and workload becomes more complex the faster the business grows and the more customers the business gets. Many small business owners or managers in small businesses are curious about switching to an online customer contact management system. The most important reason to upgrade from a mixture of spread sheet files, email software and half a dozen other things to an all in one solution, is that it will not only save the business valuable time, but maximize the opportunities to close more sales.

Choosing the right on-line customer contact management software can be confusing, fortunately some offer free trial periods wherein small business users can see how easy the software is to use, if it has the features that best fit a small business user and learn how much insight they can get into their existing customers. The most important factor that small business owners find is whether the software was actually designed with an understanding of small business needs or was the software actually built for large enterprise organizations and simply marketed to small business for the software provider to earn money from this growing market.

Questions to consider when using a free trial:

Does the software let you import your customer information from the current products you use such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Excel?

The software should provide for importing of .cvs and .xls files so that bringing your existing information can be done in minutes not days of data entry. If the package was not designed for small business but for large corporations you may find that it requires that extra services are charged for or that additional plug-in software needs to be purchased. These hidden costs will quickly make the solution un-affordable for the typical business of fewer than fifty employees.

Does the software take advantage of the latest web technologies or does it force you to constantly switch full pages of information to see what you need to see about a customer?

Web based software has come a long way in the last five years since the first online CRM software came to market. Larger corporate based solutions may add features but they can not take full advantage of the latest web programming techniques because they simply can not change software that large companies have invested so many training dollars into.

The latest software solutions can be reached online from any computer or mobile device and feel exactly like they are on a desktop or laptop computer. The advantage of this is that multiple windows can be viewed comparing information, different types of information can be switched between without waiting for screen redraws and much more. Seeing one of these solutions in action compared to a five or ten year old web-based product provides dynamic proof of limiting older technology can be.

How much software does the company need?

Web-based customer contact management software can be scalable and based on the individual company need. In this way the financial commitment to a program is kept very affordable and within the budget of most small business users. Some solutions require no long term contract or commitment to the number of users, contacts etc. that you pay for. Watch out for hidden fees for storage or additional features that the business can live without because they are aimed at large sales force management with a heavy emphasis on executive reports and employee monitoring.

The best fit for a small business is usually software that provides customer contact tools focused on closing sales not on analyzing years of performance or providing the best impression to your board of directors. Many older customer contact management solutions focus a great deal on interrupting the sales process for sales people in order to provide the greatest amount of analysis of the sales persons activities and time. In a small business the result of this is that sales people become frustrated with the software and simply avoid the software you provide them during the actual sales process.

There are many customer contact management software products on the market. Take advantage of free trial periods to learn about the products and see how fast the company can adapt to the user interface of the solution. Remember that the most popular solutions or longest established products may not be the best fit for small business and may in fact not take advantage of the latest technologies for speed, flexibility and shear customer management power.

About the Author: Brent Silveria is the CEO of Resilient Labs, Inc. publishers of Performance Desk a cutting edge web-based sales and marketing tool for small to medium size business. Brent believes that usability is the key behind any successful software. Brent has a background in sales management and business, consulting companies such as Roxio, PBS, The Grammy Awards, Warner Bros Animation. http://www.performancedesk.com/grow.asp