Customer Relationship Management interprets how your business interacts with your customers. CRM as a system captures information about your customers and uses this information to better meet the needs of your existing customers and identify new customers, resulting in higher profits for you.
CRM comprises of
• A database that collects information about your customers.
• A way to analyze the information in the database.
• A strategy for applying the analysis to better meet your client’s needs and identify potential customers.
• Collecting data to ensure your strategy is effective.
Interactions with the customers, their needs, questions and concerns, services and products they need the most, all are stored in one place.
It will improve efficiency by giving support and services to clients online and will help in foreseeing future business requirements based on stored data. In addition to this, an effective CRM will help you to expand your customer base by employing new ways to engage in business online.
Using a platform with the best CRM features is an essential part of that strategy, so let’s look at the features of CRM.
Central database
A central database that is accessible by all employees to view and update customer data.
This customer data is analyzed and segmentation of potential customers is done. The segmented data will help in improved campaign targeting, customized marketing, or sales campaigns. This information helps with
• Maximizing repeated business opportunities by anticipating your existing customers’ needs.
• Identify your best customers.
• Identify potential customers.
• Identify complementary products you can
sell to your customers.
• Target marketing campaigns/materials
and promotions.
Workflow automation
CRM enables the marketing, selling, and service functions to be automated and integrated.
Marketing automation using CRM involves campaign management, event-based (trigger) marketing, and marketing optimization.
Sales force automation includes automation of account management, lead management, opportunity management, pipeline management, contact management, quotation, and proposal generation.
Service automation comprises of Case management, customer communications management, queuing and routing, and service level management. By using rules, you can set your CRM software to automatically perform a specific action based on triggers or events,
Customization
Every business is unique in its sense, therefore, you must choose the CRM that caters to its unique needs. It’s critical to know your desires when it comes to customization before making a purchase. Will the software grow with your organization? Does it have the capability to adapt to and integrate with existing software used by your organization? Can it change when you need it to? If you answered no to any of these questions, you may need to find more flexible software.
Mobile CRM
To go further in developing your online presence, you must have a CRM app by which you can access customer information and perform tasks even if you are not physically present in your office. With the help of the mobile app, customer information will be available to sales and marketing employees and they can access it from anywhere, anytime.
Third-party integration
To save time and money, a CRM system must be able to connect with other software solutions that you are using. Therefore, in a bundle of CRM software, you must choose one that is compatible with the other software you use.
Here are a few things you can do with the right third-party integrations to make your life easier:
Run CRM software straight from Outlook, Gmail, or other email clients so you don’t have to keep switching between apps.
Contact Management
Contact management is a vital CRM capability. It allows users to segment their contacts into groups to organize and better cater to them. With this CRM capability, you’ll be able to gather crucial customer data and strengthen your marketing strategies when introducing new products. It also improves the personalization of all contacts with customers, making them feel important and catered to. This is a key factor in customer satisfaction.
Customer service
It can help in customer self-service where the customers can self-order and help themselves using web-based, password access. It must also have a customer service profile that includes information about
• What kinds of problems/issues do they encounter?
• What is the current status of their issues?
• How many open tickets are there?
• How many cases have been resolved?
There should also be an online forum where customers can provide reviews and feedback, this also allows you to hear about problems as they emerge and to respond quickly. To increase customer loyalty offer free products or incentives for additional or future purchases.
Summary
Despite all of the improvements in technology, without the proper management, a CRM system can become little more than a glorified database in which customer information is stored. In CRM, data sets are connected, distributed, and organized so that users can easily access the information they need.
