Customer management is, by far, the most vital function of every organization. With competition increasing by the day, if you are unable to look after the needs of your customers proactively, they are sure to leave you sooner rather than later. Besides looking after the needs of your existing customers, it is also crucial to find prospective customers and win back those who have deserted you.
So, what should businesses do to secure the customer front, both existing and prospective?
As a business owner, you need to invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. A CRM system helps you collect, organize, and manage customers for organizations of all sizes. It is a wrong notion to assume that CRMs are only meant to help big organizations. CRM helps small- and mid-sized organizations as much as large enterprises.
CRM software streamlines your business processes as well, especially your sales function. And, the sales function is one of the most crucial departments of every organization. It also allows improvement of the coordination between your sales and marketing functions.
Benefits of using CRM for your business
It is difficult to beat the competition in today’s times without the help of technology. One of the most useful management tools that businesses can’t do without these days is a CRM system. Here are some of the benefits of using CRM for your business:
A CRM system helps improve customer satisfaction – With a CRM system in place, it is possible to improve customer satisfaction significantly. It allows you to streamline and improve your marketing, selling and after-sales service functions. And, when you look after your customers in all these departments, customer satisfaction is bound to improve substantially. CRM software allows you to understand the needs of your customers. When you improve your services to your customers, their satisfaction improves. With a CRM system, you get to know the preferences and purchase history of your customers, which helps you to serve them better.
CRM helps improve customer retention as well as revenue – Acquiring new customers is costlier than retaining your old customers. It means, the longer you retain your customers, the more you can improve your revenues. According to Harvard Business Review, a 5% reduction in customer attrition can improve your profits from between 25% to 85%. A CRM system allows you to gather valuable customer information and insight, and you can proactively contact your dissatisfied customers and try to retain them to reduce customer churn. You can also contact your satisfied customers and encourage them to place repeat orders.
CRM improves your internal communication – CRM software improves the flow of information among various departments in your organization. This allows your employees to more effectively work as a team, which helps optimize the customer experience. Every bit of customer information is available to all of your employees, and anyone can handle customer queries without any problem. As they say, teamwork makes the dream work – which always benefits your customers!
It streamlines your marketing – A CRM system can facilitate a more targeted and cost-effective marketing program by providing data that helps you to understand the behaviors and needs of your customers – which also guides you to identify the right time to promote your product. It also allows you to segment your customers, thereby helping you identify the most profitable customer groups. When you optimize your marketing resources properly, you can increase your overall revenue.
You can get valuable customer insights – Since CRM software stores all the information in one place, it is convenient to analyze your company’s performance on a macro and micro level. It allows you to generate various reports, such as lead generation, marketing campaigns, revenue-generated, etc. – which helps you make informed decisions about your organization. Also, better reporting data means you gain valuable customer insights.
CRM software can ultimately maximize your business performance because it opens up many new opportunities to cross-sell and upsell.
Five characteristics of a good CRM system
If you want to get the most out of your CRM system, you need to make sure that you get the right CRM solution for your organization.
So, what makes a good CRM package?
Gone are the days when a “one size fits all” kind of approach works well for organizations. Before you take a final call on CRM software, you need to make sure that you have a well-defined CRM strategy in place, and that you evaluate the technology properly. If you don’t assess your business needs and don’t evaluate the technology properly, it is difficult to get the most out of a CRM system. It is, therefore, important to keep in mind the key characteristics of CRM software.
Here are five characteristics of a good CRM system that you should keep in mind:
- Ease of Integration – Your customer data and processes can be located in different support systems. You cannot replace your support systems all at once. Therefore, when you shop for a CRM solution, you need to ensure that it integrates well with your existing applications. If your CRM is unable to integrate well with your support systems, it can increase your project timelines and overall costs. A good CRM allows you to quickly and conveniently import data from your existing databases.
- Ease of use – You buy a CRM solution so that your employees can use the system. If the CRM you buy is difficult to use and your employees find it difficult to use the system, then the whole purpose of buying a solution is counterproductive. Make sure the system you buy is easy to use so employees readily adopt it.
- Scalability/ adaptability – Because every business has the ambition to grow over time. Make sure that you factor in your future needs so that you don’t have to change your CRM as your business expands.
- Impacts customer satisfaction positively – Maintaining a positive customer relationship is the most crucial aspect of CRM software. A good CRM is not simply a sophisticated address book – it allows you to see a comprehensive customer profile. Your CRM should also facilitate ease in answering customers’ questions with specific, relevant solutions.
- Comprehensive reporting and overviews – If you want your organization to grow, you need to have a 360-degree overview of what is happening in your company. That is why you need to make sure that the CRM you buy supports analytics with comprehensive reporting and tracking features.
If you are considering a CRM solution, eZnet CRM offers an intuitive, user-friendly system that is easy for employers to implement and for employees to use. eZnet CRM provides the comprehensive support, training and technical capability critical to seamless functionality and end-user acceptance. Contact us to learn more, and begin a free 30-day trial.
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