A CRM system is a crucial tool for any business looking to develop their practice and grow their client base. In fact, according to recent study from Dynamic Consultants, for every dollar spent on CRM, companies could expect an average ROI of $30.48. With the global markets being so competitive and many companies trying to appeal to the same client and customer base (not to mention a tremendous information flow that comes with running a business), companies invest in professional instruments like a CRM system for business optimization. CRM systems offer numerous integration possibilities to tailor your service to your customer and automate different processes. For example, CRM systems will often have several payment gateways for credit card processing and ACH transactions. In short, CRM systems make many processes more efficient, prevent management difficulties and allow companies to become more productive.
CRM Technology Makes Business Practices Simple
CRM systems give markets, sales teams, and company management a comprehensive platform to observe all aspects of their business from their laptop, smartphones, or any other device that supports the CRM software. As such, businesses are becoming more portable, and companies can cut overheads by working from home. In addition, CRM also allows admins to assign user roles and oversee projects, improving team efficiency and company cohesion.
From the First Lead to Shipment, CRM Systems Help Companies Understand the Customer
One of the biggest benefits of a CRM system is that teams gain a unified view of their customer base. In fact, 72% of companies who use CRM software say the platform gives them better access to customer data. CRM systems gather a huge amount of usable data on the way customers interact with a company, which can inform further business decisions and company growth. CRM systems let users see opportunities for scaling the business, how well they are interacting with customers and leads, sales trends, and more. As such, CRM systems are vital for improving customer experience, informing the way you target new audiences. Typically, companies using a CRM system will categorize their consumers in three different sales funnel stages. These stages include:
- Leads
Leads refer to consumers who may have completed an online form, survey, or simply expressed interest in your business. While these leads could be high-quality, repeat customers in the future, you won’t know until you’ve tracked further interactions with your company. CRM systems produce insights and reports (driven by artificial intelligence), so sales teams and marketers can come up with strategies to convert leads into sales opportunities.
- Opportunities
The CRM system can show you the customer’s location (whereas the likes of Google Analytics and social media cannot) and reveal which marketing ads are successfully turning leads into opportunities and sales further down the funnel. When those leads proceed further through your sales funnel, they can be classed as opportunities. Companies tag customers as opportunities if they have spoken to the sales team, requested a quote, or added an item to their cart on the company’s online store.
- Sales
The CRM system is still beneficial once the company has made a sale and converted a lead into a customer. A comprehensive CRM report will help you understand which random customers become regular customers and what products and services bring them back to the site. As well as collecting data on the customer before the purchase, you’ll also gain insights regarding their actions after purchase. Companies can then tailor their products and services to match popularity and demand.
CRM Systems Provide Actionable Data Dashboards
Suppose a company uses spreadsheets and other disconnected apps and platforms to manage customer data. In that case, they need to input or import all that information manually, sifting through the file of important figures without historical context or complete picture of your customer’s interactions with the site. Manual CRM is a tedious, inefficient process. However, automated CRM platforms do all this hard work for you. You can then customize the CRM dashboard to translate data insights into a scaling strategy better moving forward. Different users and teams within the company can customize the dashboard to suit their department and tasks. For example, marketing directors would set up a dashboard that displays relevant email marketing metrics or click-through rates for marketing campaigns. Alternatively, a sales director would customize their dashboard to see how many calls are made in a specific timeframe, whether they resulted in a sale or positive action, etc. Whatever their role in a business, different members of the teams will be able to highlight specific information and insights to analyze customer behavior patterns and plan the company’s next steps to increase its customer base.
CRM Automation Is Built Around the Customer
Because CRM captures a vast amount of data and insights on your audience, industry, and market, you can create personalized outreach strategies that are tailored to specific demographics. A CRM system will offer dynamic and automated messaging, so you can identify groups of customers and organize them into various drop campaigns. As such, your CRM lets you create a series of emails that benefit a specific section of your audience. The actions of those customers can trigger these emails, say if they view, buy, or interact with a particular product or section of the company’s site. Companies can use these automated drip campaigns at any point in the sales funnel. Automation lets you take customers in and out of a drip campaign based on their actions. For example, a ticket outlet company has a customer who frequently purchases rock music tickets, instead of serving generic emails about all music, the company can begin to send them a drip campaign for customers who frequent rock gigs in a particular location. So, if that person suddenly starts going to more hip-hop gigs and stops interacting with the rock music drip campaign, the platform will remove them from one campaign and add them to another, preventing redundant emails and retaining the customer’s trust that the ticket outlet caters to their taste.
Proactive Audience Interactions Help Businesses Grow
While CRM systems can help companies automate outreach and marketing, they can also improve the sales team and customer service’s ability to interact with customers and maintain a positive relationship with potential leads and opportunities. For instance, if the sales team understands the customer’s interest, they can ensure the customer gets what they want. It is a massive advantage for the customer service department. When the team has data available on the dashboard, they do not need to look for information about the client’s query. Therefore, CRM can save time and help current and potential customers feel valued by a knowledgeable customer service time. Also, you will improve customer satisfaction, reduce resolution, and create a more efficient business model.
CRM Is Crucial for Optimizing Processes
One way in which companies use CRM systems is to automate processes. Some examples include:
- Reducing time to email customers and turn leads into opportunities
- Prioritizing customer interactions over administrative tasks throughout all company departments
- Setting custom parameters in AI to score leads and prioritizing them based on sales.
By using a CRM system to optimize administrative processes, marketing teams can spend more hours coming up with creative campaigns, interpreting data, and testing marketing strategies informed by accurate information. In addition, optimized processes can help sales focus on serving the right products to customers, and customer services can deal with customer queries and problems with greater efficiency and success. By automating processes with a CRM system, a business can build a larger and more satisfied customer base.
CRM Allows Easy Collaboration Across Teams and Departments
CRM systems also allow cross-department conversations, notes, memos, and messaging. If the CRM is cloud-based, the team can view records anywhere and on several platforms. In addition, they can use built-in communication and collaboration features, so many team members can work on the same file simultaneously. For example, several departments can do the necessary work to come up with a sales quote for a customer. It saves time on responses and improves the sales.
Look through the top CRM providers
Admins oversee user permissions and assign roles to specific departments. Moreover, it gives an access to work with the up-to-date information; everybody works from the same page. It helps ensure nobody steps on somebody else’s toes and the team works at maximum capacity and efficiency. In short, a CRM allows greater productivity when working as a unit.
Bottom Line
To conclude, CRM systems are an essential instrument for business development. As automated technologies improve, CRM systems offer unlimited potential benefits. If a company wants to grow its customer base and scale its business accordingly, it needs a CRM platform to automate processes, increase productivity, and turn leads into sales. Some of the many advantages of a CRM platform include:
- Optimized administrative processes.
- Less time spent on manual work and more time making sales.
- Increased collaboration potential.
- A wealth of information regarding customer interactions at your fingertips.
- Third-party apps to improve the customer and administrative experience.
