Client management, or as it is commonly referred to as Account Management, is often misunderstood to be the same as customer management. Though both the concepts are based on similar principles, the difference lies in the overall process. While CRM software can help collect data on every potential customer, account management software focuses exclusively on a group of clients that can help you stay in business with these repetitive customers.
To understand better what an account management software is, let’s first clear the clouds around what an account manager does.
Who is an Account Manager?
Put simply, an account manager is responsible for managing the sales and relations with clients for fetching business continuously. It is noteworthy that these clients are exclusive to the business, and not unbound prospects.
The key principle behind account management is the accumulation of user data, from customers’ points of view. The account manager is responsible for collecting all this data and processing the same in order to enhance the customer experience.
Managing key clients for any business is easier said than done. Though there are some set rules for doing so, such as meeting the clients, learning about their requirements, and alike, there are a lot many unsaid tasks that help to nurture good relations with customers. Moreover, manual record-keeping for client follow-ups complicates the task further. This is where a Key Account Management software can prove to be a great solution.
How Does the Software Provide Better Solutions to Account Management?
Key Account Management (KAM) software and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, both are fundamentally different. There’s no single solution to facilitate both the processes. Of course, you cannot rely on a CRM tool to collect data, analyze, and manage the information about your key clients. You need a precision laden tool for the highest level of customer engagement and satisfaction, accompanied by a peer to peer access.
Here are a few benefits of using a KAM for improving your customers’ experience for your business.
It Helps Know Your Customer Better
Of course, the better you know your customer, the better you can help them with their needs. You need to go beyond just the names and titles and identify your client’s personal and professional goals. Experts at www.kapta.com suggest that conceding the dynamics of your key clients can help you meet your customers’ needs by understanding their expectations and objectives. A KAM tool can help accumulate all this data for easy access. For example, you can list down their goals with respect to each team within their organization and how they expect you to help them. In the long run, it gets pretty tough to access all this information, if it is recorded in traditional books. But with the help of a KAM tool, you can stay connected and access the same from anywhere, whenever you need. This allows you to know your customers up and close.
Strategize a Solution To Help Your Customer
Once you get a clear idea about what your clients desire, a sophisticated KAM tool can help identify strengths and weaknesses. In fact, a good KAM tool is loaded with features like SWOT analysis to help you plan an effective solution. Of course, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats not only helps in devising an effective strategy but also in avoiding any shortcomings, beforehand. After all, a good relationship with your clients depends on how well you know them and their business. And it is needless to say, with good customer relations, comes continual revenue generation, and sustainability can be achieved rather easily. Moreover, a KAM tool offers information organized in an easy-to-read manner, which can further promote team spirit. This happens not only within your customer management team but also between you and your client, in order to achieve their objectives better.
Track Performance by Setting up KPIs
As already mentioned, following up with manually stored data is a bit clumsy and prone to faulty interpretations. A trustworthy KAM software, on the other hand, can help track the performance more efficiently. Of course, you need to work on your customer satisfaction, but a clear analysis of the results is also important. Without tracking the performance of your customer management plan, it can go haywire, and you wouldn’t wish to lose your precious clients. Usually, KAM software includes key measurement features to assess the level of customer satisfaction, customer engagement, and overall client health. It is noteworthy that it’s not just the numbers but an extensive score that can help you modify your quality parameters as and when needed. In fact, if something’s not working for your business, the software providers can assist you with inputs about what needs to be changed to get effective results.
When getting a KAM software, there are certain things that you should be looking up to. This is to ensure that you don’t end up wasting your money on something that may bring in minute differences to your business, against your investment.
Here are a few things that you should be looking for when purchasing a KAM software.
What Should You be Looking for in a KAM Software?
For any business, when looking for technologies to aid operations, there are certain key factors that decide the efficacy of the purchase. The same holds true when buying KAM software, as well.
Look for Convenient Data Management
Scattered client data is always a problem. Imagine if you were to go through spreadsheets, PPTs and all the other documents that you have on your client. It would be too difficult to track what they need if you have to go through all the documents over and over again. When looking for a reliable key account management software, make sure that you consider its efficacy for convenient data management. Ideally, software that offers to edit, store, and access all of your client data in one place would be a great option. And great is always better than good if you wish to achieve the best results.
Skills and Training Needed
Another important factor that can affect your experience with KAM software is the time and effort needed for learning the skills needed to use it properly. And of course, you’ll also need to assist your account managers with the training, so that they can use it optimally. An easy user interface, easy navigation to different features, and ease of access can make a huge difference in the time and effort needed. Of course, you should be looking for software that requires minimal training and is easy to use.
Efficient Measurement Tools for Better Analysis
It has already been mentioned how accurate measurement of KPIs is an indispensable feature of a key account management software. However, different software providers make use of different gradients for measuring the overall performance. That being said when looking for software to manage your key accounts do ensure that the measurement scores provided are relevant for your clients. For example, as already mentioned above, SWOT analysis can be a good way to assess the performance of your customer satisfaction. After all, the client is the boss, and good insight into their satisfaction is the sole purpose of managing relations with the client. Or in other words, this is the sole purpose of account managers.
In the end, it can be put simply that using software to enhance customer retention by ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining good relations with the key clients can be far more efficient as compared to manual management. These tools are meant to assist your account managers and improve their performance, thus ensuring better repeat business.
