It’s a fact that architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals don’t forge typical customer relationships. Engineers and construction managers are often on-site rather than in an office. Architects are in an office but the output involved in their jobs often makes it easy for them to overlook the many other aspects involved with running a business. Add working with multiple clients and potential projects all on different schedules into the mix and you see how marketing for AEC professionals can be challenging. That’s why a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a must-have for AEC firms: It enables maintaining solid customer relationships while helping to acquire the new leads crucial for success.
Most established AEC firms are already using a combination of Microsoft Outlook and Excel to collect data on projects or customers. What often happens is those various emails and spreadsheets tend to become “silos” of information. Maintaining customer relationships becomes difficult when AEC firms have much of their most valuable customer data locked away in multiple emails and spreadsheets across many different devices owned by multiple employees.
This is why a CRM solution—preferably cloud-based and accessible from any Internet-connected device—is so important for AEC firms. Rather than languishing in disparate silos, notes about your customer’s personal preferences and the date/time of your last call about the project can be instantly
Once an AEC firm has committed to implementing a Customer Relationship solution, the worst mistake they can make is to just use it for tracking typical to-do items or leads. The real value is the ability to focus on customer commitments and desired business outcomes. It takes more than buying a subscription and hooking it up to your Microsoft Outlook to see any real return on your investment. To maximize your CRM investment, you should:
When done well, a customer relationship management solution can enable intelligent, data-driven customer engagements that builds customer relationships based on trust and loyalty. There are numerous options for cloud-based CRM solutions and it helps to partner with firms experienced in deploying solutions specifically for AEC clients. Amaxra is proud to be a platinum sponsor of the Seattle Chapter of SMPS for three years running and has a proven track record of guiding key business processes that result in improved management of customer relationships with Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.
To learn more about capturing even more value from your CRM or schedule a free demo to see what a CRM Solution can do for you.