Good customer service is an integral part of any business and is the cornerstone of keeping your customers happy and most importantly, retaining them. Improving customer service should not be that difficult given well designed internal processes and the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is vital that you provide excellent customer service to ensure customers and referral sources for life. This is a critical element in the evolution given it is 6 to 7 times more costly to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one.

The description below explains the life cycle of a case within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, from the initiating activity to the case resolution.

• When a customer initiates contact with your organization, it is saved as a communication activity, such as an e-mail message, phone call, or letter. These activities are either created automatically, such as an incoming e-mail message, or manually, such as a letter received.
• The activity is then sent to a queue to wait for someone to take ownership of the activity.  Alternatively, workflows could be developed to automatically acknowledge the customer communication and route the service
  request to the appropriate individual or department in your organization.
• The new owner converts the activity to a case and starts working to resolve the customer’s issue. The customer
  service representative (CSR) can link the case to an existing account or contract and view historical information about the account or contact. If there is a contract, the case can be linked to a specific contract line that allows the allotment to be added to the billable total time. As the CSR researches the issue, the CSR can link to a relevant Knowledgebase article and forward to the customer as appropriate.
• Further contact with the customer and activities performed to close the case are also saved.
• When the case is resolved, it is removed from the queue automaticallly. The closed acivities, including the case resolution, can be viewed in the history of the account or contact. Customer Care dashboards and reports can give management insight into this important department of the company.

If your organization is located in the Arizona or New Mexico area, contact Sherwood Systems for assistance in determining if a technology solution can help your organization better serve your business needs. (877) 943-9696

By Sherwood Systems – Arizona MicrosoftDynamics CRM Partner

The Flow of Case Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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A contact management system is simply that, a place to store your contacts.  On the flip side, a robust CRM system like Microsoft Dynamics CRM will manage every aspect of communication with a contact.  This includes tracking:

• the flow from prospect to customer
• every interaction from marketing to sales
• the products the customer buys
• the services you provide the customer
• everything in between…

Every interaction with every department is captured.  With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you have integration within Microsoft Outlook, making work seamless and optimizing employee productivity. Managers can see a full 360 degree view of all leads, opportunities, marketing campaigns, tasks, emails and appointments.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes analytical tools like graphs and dashboards that provide a quick view of key performance indicators and trend analysis for your business. These are completely customizable so you can tailor the system to capture your specific industry demographics. Users can create process dialogs and workflows to help automate data collection and repetitive tasks. Altogether, Microsoft Dynamics CRM spells higher productivity for your business when comparing it to a simple contact management system.

If your organization is located in the Arizona or New Mexico area, contact Sherwood Systems for assistance in determinin

g if a technology solution can help your organization better serve your business needs. (877) 943-9696

By Sherwood Systems – Arizona MicrosoftDynamics CRM Partner

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Search results are displayed in a single view, organized by record type.

You can

• Search all CRM entities with a single search from any page in CRM
• Perform sub-searches and sorting on the results page that is delivered
• Customize the information you wish displayed on the results page
• Open the CRM records directly
• Include attachments in your searches

As a result you shouldn’t have to worry about “losing” data in your CRM system again.  Global Search will help you find it and get relevant results quickly.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.

by Sherwood Systems, Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Global Search Tool is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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Save time in making changes to many records at once using bulk edit. Select multiple account records on a list and click the edit button on the ribbon bar. A window displays allowing you to change one or more fields. Change the shipping method, for example, on all selected records at once.

2) Wildcard Searching

Quickly find a record by using a wildcard (*) in a search field on any list of records. For example, entering *good in the account search will find accounts Designer Goods and Elemental Goods.

We use this to find accounts whose name has changed. When an account name changes, we enter the original name in parenthesis next to the new name, for example, Century Link (Qwest Communications). If we forget the new name, we can still find the account by the original name if we use the wildcard (*) search of *qwest.

You can use the wildcard search for any searchable field on the entity form.

3) Recently Visited

Click the recently visited button (folder icon with star) to the right of Workplace to find your way back to recently opened emails, contacts, activities and views in CRM. The items are sorted from most recently to last recently visited. As new items are visited, the older ones fall off the list unless you “pin” the item. Pinning an item, by clicking the push pin icon, will keep the item on the list. It will move down, but won’t fall off the list.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at www.sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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Global Option Sets (formerly known as “pick lists” in CRM 4.0)

Global Option Sets provide an easy way to create a list of values and make that one list available from anywhere in the system.  For example, you may have a list of software modules that you assign to a lead, to an account and to a case in CRM.  If you need to add a new module to the list, you only need to add it once – instead of adding it to several pick lists for each of the forms.  If you’ve ever had to manually synch up similar lists across multiple entities in CRM 4.0, you will appreciate what global option sets can do for you!

Role Based Forms

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you can assign different forms to users based on their role in the company and their security.  For example, a Customer Service Representative (CSR) may need to enter and track different information for an account than does a Sales Manager.  Each user in that role can have a different Account form, which displays data relevant to that role and security.  As a result, the form opened by the CSR would have a completely different look and feel from the form opened by the Sales Manager.  

Drag and Drop Form Customization

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, customizers can drag available fields onto the form in the section where they would like the field placed.  Previously, the fields were entered on the form by going into Settings and selecting the section and tab where the field should appear.  The Drag and Drop feature saves time and allows the user to visualize how the form will look.

We’ve worked with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for several months now and are impressed with the many time-saving features added – especially around customizations.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at www.sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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Documents can also be linked to other entities within CRM, such as an Opportunity, a Case, or a Marketing Campaign.  In a nutshell, SharePoint integration within Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables you to:

• Create, upload, view, and delete documents from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM based on user’s security roles.
• Check in and check out documents, view version history, and change document properties.

We recently migrated our on-premise CRM 4.0 to CRM 2011 to take advantage of this Sharepoint integration.  Our support consultants are excited about being able to share documents easily including documents related to a case, to an account, or even regarding a generic topic like ‘Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010’.  Instead of storing their documents on a shared drive – or worse yet their hard drive – they can now store documents in Sharepoint.  With the integration to CRM, these documents can be easily retrieved and shared with the rest of the team.   In addition, because the documents are stored on a server that is running SharePoint, non-Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can access the documents given the appropriate security on that server.  This approach promotes better collaboration and teamwork in an organization where all users may not have CRM available to them.

We are looking forward to learning more about and teaching our customers how to take advantage of the integration of these powerful technologies – Sharepoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at www.sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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16 attendees heard Ed Bonaski, Director of Sales, deliver the keynote address in which he updated the attendees on Dynamics CRM 2011 in the marketplace and Microsoft’s strategy for cloud computing.

Sean Stecker of Ensynch made a short presentation on Microsoft’s transition from BPOS to Office 365.

We saved the best for last when Anthony Ferrari, CRM Technical Specialist extraordinaire, provided a product demo that brought the house down.  Anthony showed real life examples of functionality in Dynamics CRM 2011 in the marketing, sales, and service modules.  We all learned something from Anthony and the attendees raved about his performance.

What is our favorite new feature in Dynamics CRM 2011?  That is a tough question but right now on the heels of this hugely successful event, we like Dialogs.  Dialogs are interactive processes that require user inputs to start and run until they are completed.  More on Dialogs in an article soon!

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at info@sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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Abe Lincoln certainly never envisioned how his statement might apply to a software product but here’s a feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 that you’re going to love if you’re a goal setter! Users can create goals for employees or teams for sales numbers and any kind of key performance metric.  Earlier versions provided sales quota functionality and fiscal year settings, however in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, users can more easily determine how they are progressing toward these goals by using “Goal Management”.  

You can set goals for anything from the number of activities an employee must complete this quarter, to the total value of fulfilled sales orders in a given month or quarter.  These same individual goals can also be used by teams.  For example, if a customer service manager wants to track the number of surveys returned by customers who ranked overall satisfaction of their service seven or more, a goal could be set up to be associated with a customer service team and the metrics could be evaluated against a custom entity called “Survey”.

In this era of tight budgets and lean workforces, management teams everywhere can rely on this enhanced feature to track how well employees and teams are performing against their key performance indicators and business targets.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at info@sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

Goal Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is a post from: CRM Software Blog

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In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 , users are now able to define their own connections between any two of any of the CRM entities.  Upgraders will still have the ability to use the relationship functionality between accounts, contacts, and opportunities; however, I suspect they will naturally gravitate to using connections moving forward.

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 the connection entity allows a flexible way to connect and describe the relationships between any two entity records in the system. They can help promote teamwork, collaboration, and effective management of business and sales processes.

Multiple roles and connections can be created for a particular record.  For example a contact may have many relationships with other entities and may play a different role in each of those relationships.  Connection roles can also be categorized by business, family, or social.

We are looking forward to showing our customers how to extend relationships with connections!

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at info@sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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Dialogs can be used to guide customer interactions and internal processes.  Workflow logic could be applied which will make the dialog more versatile.  This logic invokes automated tasks by using the responses that a customer or user makes during the dialog script.

As an example, you can create dialogs for your service representatives to use as a guide for case resolution and case escalation.  By the same token, you can create dialogs for standardizing internal sales and marketing processes such as opportunity qualification and lead scoring.

We look forward to working with our customers and helping them take advantage of the improvements to processes in Dynamics CRM 2011.

Sherwood Systems, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) business management and accounting software for small to midsize businesses in the U.S. with an emphasis on customers in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Contact us at info@sherwood.com or call 877-943-9696.

by Sherwood Systems, your Arizona Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner

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