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Customer relationship management (CRM) is crucial to any business that has customers. There are a number of excellent software application, such as GoldMine' software and ACT!' software, dedicated to simplifying this complicated task. But wherever human intervention is required in any software program, errors can creep in. This can be especially worrying if depending on a human response is critical to the outcome. The solution to this problem? Automation!

Automated processes through CRM allow predefined business rules to be fully automated. You can monitor them and determine their accuracy when they generate automated actions and notifications every time the rule is hit.

If a new lead fails to be acted on for several days, it can be re-assigned through a preset rule automatically. Or, if a lead remains static in the sales process for a time period that is considered to be too long, an email can be sent to the sales manager warning him of the situation. In a marketing campaign, rules can be set to bring everything to a stop at a predetermined time, or when expected results are met. It can all happen automatically with a little beforehand planning.

Contact management can get very complicated, which is why we use a database and sophisticated CRM software such as GoldMine'. The human memory can be amazing, but all too often, especially at critical moments, it is not. Suppose an important customer has his contract due to expire. Would you rather leave it to an employee with a "good memory" and hope he remembers in time? Or would you prefer to set up a rule that sends the customer a series of reminder emails in ample time for him to renew?

Consider also a situation where members of your sales team are expected to send out a "welcome" email message to each new prospect that is entered into the database. This should be an automatic response, but people are human, they may be busy, and can forget. Software such as GoldMine' will never forget if set up properly. The built-in autoresponder can be triggered as soon as a new prospect's details are entered, and a "welcome" email message will wing its way to the prospect without the need for anyone to remember. That's the power of automation.

Not all customer relationship management software can be preset with business rules. As good as the ACT!' software is in terms of contact management, it does not allow for the ability to trigger tasks in a fully automated way. The GoldMine' software, on the other hand, does allow this level of automation. Suppose a customer already in the database makes a purchase, GoldMine', if set up properly beforehand, will send out a "thank you" email immediately without anyone needing to do a thing.

The power of a built-in autoresponder in a good CRM application should not be minimized. No longer need you worry about customers you have not contacted for a while. Set up the right automated processes and after a predetermined number of days without contact, they will receive a message from you without you having to do a thing. That's the power of CRM automation.