Customer Relationship Management may sound intimidating to small or medium sized sized businesses but at some point, the company will need to implement a customer management system which is organized and streamlines workflow. CRM is not just for large companies, it is essential for organizations of all sizes. It prioritizes the relationship between a business and its customers. Building and managing this relationship requires two things: human interaction and customer relationship management (CRM)
But don’t just take our word for it. Did you know that 75% of sales managers say that using a CRM helps to drive and increase sales? Or that CRM software increases revenue by 41%?
It’s hard to argue with statistics like that.
CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management software, a tool for tracking and managing communications with prospects, leads and customers as they move forward through each stage in the sales cycle. A CRM software collects information about customer interaction across all networks at a single source.
The CRM tool is mainly designed for marketing, sales and customer service, but it comes with additional features that help manage relationship between teams, partners, vendors and collaborators. It allows businesses of all size to drive growth and profit. The software automates the business functions, to run a business smoothly and efficiently. A CRM aims to improve your customer relationships and in turn customer lifetime value.
A CRM software empowers your sales, marketing and customer service teams to work collectively, to have equal access to information, to share information and to manage every communication with prospects, leads and customers. Here are a few most useful feature of a CRM software:
A CRM software helps you to store all the customer data at a single source so that this information is easily accessible to all teams in your organization. This information includes emails, interaction history, orders received, sale quotations, opportunities and resolved support cases. All this information is in one place, so you can be confident that you are accessing updated information about your clients.
One of the main feature of a customer relationship management software is to manage all the information about the company’s contacts. You can use CRM to store information about each contact like their contact numbers, email, and postal address. For example, if your sales representative is working remotely or is travelling to meet a client they can quickly access the contact information.
With a CRM software you can create reports for different areas of your business like customer service, sales, marketing, leads and so on. You can even generate reports that measure the performance of your business again KPIs. These reports and analysis help managers and team leads to analyse activities of their team members, evaluate their business and take better decisions in future.
Customer service teams in companies use CRM software to manage complaints and queries and resolve problems faster and more efficiently with latest information about the clients. These customer service metrics can be used to improve the overall level of customer service.
CRM software lets you analyse leads and follow up with your prospects to be able to convert them into opportunities. Leads are segmented into hot, warm and cold based on the probability of them converting into clients. The lead and opportunity management feature centralises the whole process of managing leads and converting them into customers.
With the help of a CRM software you can automate your daily tasks that are part of the sales process from processing of the order, managing leads and sales forecasting. This automation of business saves time spent on scheduling calls manually. Notifications and reminders are set for follow up calls so that no opportunity slips from the hands.
A CRM solution helps marketing and sales teams to find leads, opportunities and to close deals faster. These teams can use CRM to track their progress and the results. CRM software also support email marketing, which is an influential strategy about informing customers about the offers and promotions.
A CRM dashboard is a hub of all the information. It provides you insights that can help your team know what is working best for them and what needs to be changes in future for better results. It brings forth the reality of the company’s customer relationships and helps them improve their customer strategies. The CRM dashboard lets you monitor your business performance through data and reports.
Integrated telephony feature in the CRM enables you to track and analyze the calls and activities of your sales team and boosts efficiency. The telephony service lets you make call from the CRM software just at the click of a button. It also keeps a record of all the calls made, so that you never lose track of the conversations with your customers. This feature helps in making your business more effective and efficient.
A CRM software is appropriate for businesses of all sizes be it large or small across all industries. Managing customer relationships is the most relevant step for the growth of the business and is essential for all businesses.
Almost all industries use a CRM software, as the software can be customised to suit your business needs and helps to improve the workflow. Various industries and departments that find CRMs most useful are:
All these examples show that a CRM software is prevalent in various industries.
Gone are the days when CRM meant a bulky and expensive software that would require a team of IT experts to install and maintain it. Nowadays CRM systems are not only technologically advanced and user friendly but can also be customized in a variety of solutions designed to suit the specific needs of businesses of all types and sizes. CRM software offer new possibilities, flexible costs and easy maintenance.
The CRM software have changed a lot from the past years. They have moved from earth-bound domains to cloud based systems with integrated telephony. A cloud based CRM software is hassle free, all you need is an internet connection and you can get the software running in no time. A cloud based CRM software gives you flexibility to do what you need to do when you need to do it. Cloud CRM has a centralized database for all the information and allows you to access your information from anywhere and on any device be it office or home, desktop or laptop.
Integrated telephony feature in the CRM software is designed to boost the productivity of your teams. It helps your business stand out in a competitive environment and makes your business effective and efficient. It prioritizes tasks for you and supports your sales team to close deals faster. The integrated telephony feature makes it easier to reach out to more prospects, thus creating more opportunities. Improves customer engagement, by categorizing customers based on various factors which lets the sales representatives have a more personalized conversations with their prospects, increasing their chances of closing deals faster. It boosts customer satisfaction and presents new opportunities to generate revenue.
Analytical CRM is a kind of CRM software that serves as a source of business intelligence. It helps to manage and organize large data to gain insights about customer experience. It takes the data generated through customer interactions and finds information that can be used to improve performance. This CRM evaluated the data and helps you to take essential decisions.
Collaborative CRM is also known as strategic CRM. These CRMs share customer information between different departments in a business to make sure that there is a consistent customer experience. Collaborative CRMs let you be in constant touch with your clients via emails, chats or phone calls. This integration makes a seamless customer experience.
Operational CRMs are the most popular of all types of Customer relationship management software. It assists you with managing the daily activities of the teams. It automates the business process by automating marketing, sales and customer service. They centralize customer data and thus help to streamline the workflow. These CRMs have a clear objective: to increase the sales volume.
The faster you can get all the representatives of your team to use a CRM software, the more accurate and better your data will be. This is why the primary step in implementing a CRM software should be adding users. Explain your team members the value of a CRM software and how it can be used to increase the efficiency of the team.
Your CRM software should reflect your sales cycle. It should track the customer from “lead” to “opportunity” to “customer”. Create stages in your sales pipeline to make the tracking easier. CRM software come with default properties for details like phone number, email address, city and so on. You can add other properties according to your business needs like billing ID, product bought. Customize your settings before importing any data in your CRM software.
Almost all CRM software let you import your existing files to add your existing data into their system. Make sure each column of your spread sheet matches with the new added properties for a seamless flow between the old and new system.
Different areas in your business like marketing, sales and customer service should be centralised in you CRM software. This centralization will provide you with a 360 degree view of your prospects and customers. You can integrate forms with your CRM, so that if an interested person fill up the form all the details of the prospect reflect in your CRM. Thus making it easier for you to follow up and close deals faster.
Your CRM should give you a clear overview of the performance of your team so that you can keep them united and provide them the right training and track. A CR dashboard is like a control panel that can be customized to suit your specific needs. Select what should appear on our dashboard based on your sales and objectives. For example, you can have a section for activities and tasks completed in a day.
A CRM software generates daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly reports. So that it is easier for managers and team leads to track the activities of their sales representatives. These reports also provide insights as to what works best for clients and what needs to be changed. Thus, helping managers and team leads to take better decisions in future. For example, if a follow up email that was send to customers gets a good response it should be continued but if a mail remain un-attended by many prospects, the method of reaching out to your prospect should be modified.
If you are considering of implementing a CRM in your business but aren’t sure if it will help you or not, answer the questions below. These questions will help you decide whether a CRM solution will benefit your business or not.
If your answer to most of these questions was yes, your business needs a CRM software to manage customer data, give you a consolidated 360 degree customer view, improve the efficiency and productivity of your teams and to help your business grow and your sales team to close deals faster.
Using a CRM, teams can save time, increase their productivity and gain visibility across the business. Enjoy increased sales and greater business growth. A CRM software enables sales, marketing and customer service teams to work better together in sync with each other. Thus making it easier for them to manage every communication with their clients, prospects and leads.
All CRMs have one thing in common: they simplify all the tasks and activities in an organization. To have everything at hand saves time and reduces the possibility of mistakes. It keeps the task of the whole team up-to-date. The sales process with a CRM is personalised by understanding the needs of the customers.
Most of the CRMs are affordable and easy to use and many business around the world have adapted to this modern solution for their business needs.
