Our Mid-Jan Pick-Me-Up Involves CRM (Unsurprisingly)

This week on Funnel Frontier: Discover Capsule CRM on After-sales, Monday's fresh updates, and Engagebay's marketing ideas for February

This week on Funnel Frontier:

• After-sale afterings 

• Late winter marketing ideas (via EngageBay)

• monday + January = synergy?

Stat of the Week 

In 2023, SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle each accounted for about 5% of CRM market share, trailing market leader Salesforce. (Statista)

After-sale comes ____ (via Capsule)

What’s the deal with Aftersales Service? I said, “My app isn't working.” The guy says, “Try using it in another room.”

Now, that’s clearly wrong, but what would be right?

Capsule CRM’s Rose McMillan, for one, has some ideas. She thinks after-purchase pampering is a big brain activity. 

In a recent article, she suggests selling a product is merely the opening act in a never-ending customer-facing bonanza. 

Increased loyalty, rave reviews, and heightened revenue await those who dare to care post-sale. 

Product follow-up could be a heartwarming narrative of trust built. And customer support? The opportunity for personalized interactions, where CRM data feeds familiarity, turning mundane software glitches into opportunities for emotional connection… and upselling.

Some other benefits: 

• Improved long-term brand health and reputation (and easier mitigation in troubled times)

• Actionable feedback that can improve product/services 

• Winning the “social proof” game via better Google, Yelp, and Trustpilot reviews that everyone peeks

Of course, in this kaleidoscope of customer care, challenges abound. Crafting the perfect blend of empathy and strategy is a perma-WIP. One’s gotta keep up with the relentless march of tech to stay nimble. 

It's a tightrope walk over a dual-sided hot pot of profit margins and customer expectations, where one wrong step could spell a spill (or at least a nasty tweet).

But I believe in you. With a dash of CRM magic, a pinch of strategic foresight, and a borderline-fanatical belief in the power of customer service, you can make it.

The Week @ CRM.org

WordPress CRM Plugins. I.e., how to turn your website into a schmoozing machine.

Citrix Podio CRM Review. Like meeting a unicorn in a world of donkeys—it's unexpectedly versatile and doesn't bray.

Crypto Tax Software. Tallying up your DOGE gains shouldn’t be “crypto.”

ServiceNow Review. Turns out it’s a really good ITSM tool.

Google Sheets Review. Doing fancy things with numbers sans Excel.

Weekly Bloom

History of Computing: Part IV. How Gen X/millennials got tricked into mass computer adoption (spoiler alert: video games). 

Busy January for monday.com

Holiday hibernation continues for some vendors. No shame. 

However, monday.com has been unusually busy, early. They’ve announced a tidy swathe of updates, and by golly, you’re gonna hear about them:

• Dashboards now run on the new MondayDB data architecture, which will speed them up

• The “My Work” task management part of the app got a feature-boost

• Keyboard accessibility has been added to the Homepage and Admin, as well as screen reading for account/workspace permission pages. 

• Pop-up automation explainers have been added, so you know exactly “what just happened.”

Eyebrows up? You can watch a quick vid on the updates via X. 

Also, monday.com was named one of Builtin’s 2024 “Best Places to Work.” Not a bad haul for 16 days deep. 

This February, give the gift of Good Email Marketing (via EngageBay)

January’s already tilting towards gone. Meanwhile, February promises three things: 28 days, Valentine's Day, and the Super Bowl.

What’s an email marketer to do with this short, cold month—stick hearts and footballs on everything? Er, perhaps. However, SMB-focused CRM vendor EngageBay has bequeathed a few other ideas.

Because every day is a marketing opportunity. Each is more tenuously linked to consumerism than the last, but still.

Business Secrets of Feb:

• Friday, Feb 2 is Groundhog Day— the furry critter’s pronouncement of more winter/less winter could well play in your comms

• Feb 7 is “Send a Card to a Friend Day,” which could easily segue into “Buy Something for a Friend Day.”

• Feb 12th is “Clean Out Your Computer Day.” Said “decluttering” could creatively include new SaaS tools for organizing, among other purchases.

• Feb 17 is “Random Acts of Kindness Day.” Not a bad time for your biz to show its moral side.

• Feb 19 is President’s Day—sales, sales, sales, yawn. 

• It’s also National Weddings Month (unless you’re in the Wedding industry, you can probably ignore this without penalty).

I might also add that it’s Chinese New Year on Feb 10 (we’re movin’ on to a Dragon Year).

So wrap up warm, grab a cozy cocoa, and remember: February isn't just about love or football; it's about finding out that deep down, there’s a little marketing potential in all of us.

Tasty Tidbits

CRM blips from around the web

Blue Ridge supply chain vendor joins with Plative. Blue Ridge’s strategic partnership with the CRM-ERP provider will aim to optimize end-to-end supply chain management.

CRM/SaaS startup Axle receives $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. Their mission is to ease corporate access to Wall Street with modern tools. 

Milestone Technologies acquires Suyati. The Silicon Valley IT firm gains Suyati, a tech services/solutions provider with about 15 years of helping clients implement CRM, CMS, e-commerce, and marketing automation.

Stocks of the Week

Significant Moves (01/08-01/12)

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