Wednesdays With Will: Customer Engagement

By William Marchesano, Technology Advisor & Evangelist
The sales world we once knew is disintegrating as the way your customers once bought has changed.  There’s no reason for concern though, just awareness.  In one of our earlier articles we discussed how marketing is driving sales as buying habits continue to evolve.  Your customers are doing more research prior to engaging with a sales person now than they ever have before.  This means, in most cases, the sales cycle has started before you are even aware of it.  This may be a shift for your sales team whom had become accustomed to being the driving force for initial customer engagement in the past.  They may have lost a great deal of power in what had been their traditional sales process.  But just like their customers, the sales person must evolve as well.
Businesses are investing more in their marketing departments today so they can keep ahead of their competition.  Since the sales cycle is now starting with customers doing their research, it makes sense to increase budgets for creating educational content about how your products or services can address a need.  You’ll also focus on “getting found” so that the great content you created can be consumed.  Though these are two important components for effective marketing, they can be very time consuming and are just the start.  Understanding how your customers are interacting with your content is crucial for guiding them down their purchasing journey.
One of the best ways an organization can set their marketing and sales departments up for success is providing them marketing automation tools.  Years ago, marketing automation almost exclusively dealt with direct mail or email marketing automation.  The rise of the social media channel added a new complexity and opportunity for how you are able to nurture a prospective customer into a client.  With it also came additional tasks and manual processes to take advantage of this new channel.
Using a Customer relationship management (CRM) system such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM can help simplify these processes and improve your marketing effectiveness.  Dynamics CRM lays the foundation for connecting your marketing, sales, and services team, providing them transparency, and ultimately a higher level of collaboration.  It also delivers your client a complete engagement experience from marketing to sales to services.  Though there is a lot that you can do with the native Dynamics CRM platform from a marketing perspective, sometimes you can use additional functionality.
To augment our marketing automation capabilities, Managed Solution leverages an add-on solution from one of Microsoft’s top marketing partners, ClickDimensions.  Our organization relies heavily on our marketing to drive new business leads to our sales team.  Email campaigns, creating forms for our webpages, creating web content, and designing nurture programs are just a few of the ways we use ClickDimensions to simplify our marketing efforts on a day to day basis.  Since it sits right inside Dynamics CRM it keeps everything in a single pane of glass which makes it much more intuitive than other email marketing and marketing automation systems.  If you are already using Dynamics CRM in your organization and are looking to enhance your marketing experience even further, I’d suggest looking at ClickDimensions.  Here’s a short video highlighting some of the latest features:
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As always, I encourage you to reach out to me to discuss these topics in deeper detail. I hope you enjoyed and found this week’s article informative. If you’re interested in some how-to related CRM material, check out blogs by my colleague Ben Ward here. Till next time…
About the author:
Will has over 16 years of experience in business development, team management, and project management. Will has worked at Managed Solution for over four years and is currently advising businesses on best CRM practices and implementations. Will’s focus is on process improvement and analytics specializing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Will is a Microsoft Certified Professional, with certifications in Presales Technical Specialist – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Sales Specialist- Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Application, Sales Specialist- Office 365, Sales Specialist- SMB Infrastructure and Sales Specialist- Datacenter.
For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691.
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Other articles by Will Marchesano:

CRM 2016 - Online vs on-premises features FAQ

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CRM 2016 - Online vs on-premises features FAQ

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 was an online-only release. Most of the features introduced in that release are now available for on-premises customers in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016.
The following table provides a list of features available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 and whether they're for CRM Online only or for both CRM Online and CRM (on-premises). Details about Office integration features are listed later in this topic.
Feature CRM Online/CRM on-premises
Navigation - Move around CRM using the new navigation bar and menu system Both
Performance - Forms load much faster with the new form rendering engine Both
Analytics - Power Query connector streamlines connections to CRM Online CRM Online only
Administration
Switch or delete an instance of CRM Online CRM Online only
Manage CRM Online updates (customer-driven updates) CRM Online only
Customization
Add a logo or change the color scheme using themes Both
Define business rules based on business process flows Both
Move back to the previous stage of a business process flow on a different entity Both
Call custom actions from workflows or dialogs Both
Define rules for creating or updating CRM records from incoming activities Both
Calculated field enhancements Both
Clear field values with business rules Both
Use solution segmentation for tighter control of solutions exports and patches Both
Mobile
Email a link to a page from CRM for phones and tablets Both
Enjoy the same mobile experience whether you’re using a phone or tablet Both
Provide modern UI with the new visual controls in CRM for phones and tablets Both
Export data to Excel from CRM for phones and tablets Both
Use iFrames and web resources in CRM for tablets Both
Manage devices with Intune device management Both
Use mobile apps with Windows 10 and iOS 9 Both
Preview mobile forms and dashboards before deploying to CRM for phones and tablets Both
Secure your mobile data with Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Good Both
View SharePoint documents in CRM for phones and tablets Both
Create a task flow in CRM for phones and tablets (Preview feature) CRM Online only
Service
Customize interactive service hub dashboards and forms Both
Enable service level agreements (SLAs) on demand Both
Prioritize workloads with new interactive service hub dashboards and forms Both
Reduce case call-handling time with rich knowledge management articles Both
Share the knowledge base with Parature CRM Online only
Speed up customer service with default entitlements Both
Use surveys to collect feedback from customers CRM Online only
New, improved Unified Service Desk Both
SDK
Change tracking API Both
Control.getShowTime method for Date controls Both
Create alternate keys for referencing records in CRM Both
Custom actions in workflows or dialogs Both
Custom claim mapping for SharePoint server-based integration Both
Enhanced capabilities for sub-grid controls in forms Both
Form script support for the new Knowledge Management (KM) integration with Parature CRM Online only
Integrate CRM data with external systems more easily Both
Integration with Parature CRM Online only
Multiple message execution Both
New form script capabilities Both
Optimistic concurrency Both
Record creation and update rules Both
Rollup field enhancements Both
Specify custom price lists for opportunities, quotes, orders, and invoices Both
Support for additional “older than” clauses for date and time fields in FetchXML and QueryExpression Both
Support for new behavior of date and time values in CRM Both
Tracing Both
Track emails at the folder level Both
Update message for specialized operations Both
Upsert for updating CRM with external data Both

 

Office integration

The following table shows the availability of Microsoft Office and email features, depending on whether Microsoft Office or Exchange is deployed online or on-premises.

Feature CRM Online/CRM on-premises
Email - Dynamics CRM App for Outlook for Exchange Online CRM Online only
Email - Dynamics CRM App for Outlook for Exchange on-premises Not applicable
Email - Dynamics CRM for Outlook (aka Outlook client) for Exchange Online Both
Email - Dynamics CRM for Outlook (aka Outlook client) for Exchange on-premises Both
Email - Monitor mailbox health using the improved server-side synchronization performance dashboard Both
Email - Server-side synchronization Test connection to Exchange on-premises and setup guide CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM Online with Exchange on-premises CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM Online to Exchange Online CRM Online only
Email - Server-side synchronization - connect CRM on-premises to Exchange on-premises CRM on-premises only
Email - Track Exchange email activities automatically with folder tracking Both
Delve (Exchange Online optional for attachments). SharePoint Online license required CRM Online only
Delve (Exchange on-premises) Not applicable
Export to Excel completely redesigned Both
Immersive experience, Excel Online CRM Online only
Office 365 Groups (Exchange Online) CRM Online only
Office 365 Groups (Exchange on-premises) Not applicable
OneDrive for Business (online) Both
OneDrive for Business (on-premises) Not applicable
OneNote (online) CRM Online only
OneNote (on-premises) Not applicable
SharePoint Online Both
SharePoint (on-premises) Both
Skype for Business (online) Both
Skype for Business (on-premises) Both
Excel templates Both
Word templates Both
Yammer (online) CRM Online only
Yammer (on-premises) Not applicable

 

Managed Solution will partner with your organization, align goals, and deploy Dynamics CRM hand-in-hand, ensuring we create a solution specific to your unique business needs. We have developed a proven deployment and migration strategy for our clients deploying Dynamics CRM to make sure that your transition is simple, smooth, and stable. For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.


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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Wins CUSTOMER Magazine Product of the Year Award

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Wins CUSTOMER Magazine Product of the Year Award

By Tricia Morris as written on community.dynamics.com
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 is wasting no time in showing its strength in delivering intelligent customer engagement. We are pleased to announce that TMC, a global, integrated media company and publisher of CUSTOMER magazine, has named Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 a CUSTOMER Product of the Year Award winner.
As we continue to innovate with the customer in mind, we appreciate the recognition of the investments and steady progress we are making in this area. This is what our new leader of Dynamics CRM, Jujhar Singh, had to say about the award.
“Over the past few years, we have been focused on transforming our CRM offerings to leverage the full power of Microsoft – harnessing the strength of the intelligent cloud to help companies deliver amazing customer experiences across the breadth of sales, service, marketing and social engagements.
“We are honored by this Product of the Year award, which confirms both our momentum and the benefit to customers of a solution that delivers both increased productivity and the intelligence to drive more personalized, proactive and predictive service experiences.”
The 2016 CUSTOMER Product of the Year Award recognizes vendors that are advancing the call center, CRM and teleservices industries one solution at a time. The award highlights products which enable their clients to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers.
On behalf of TMC and CUSTOMER magazine, Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC had this to say about the award. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 has proven deserving of this elite status and I look forward to the continued innovation from Microsoft in customer service in 2016 and beyond."

For information on deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your organization, please call us at 800-257-0691 or fill out the contact form below and an expert will contact you shortly.



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