Communication is one of the main tools for the companies and organizations to build their customer base. To drive the business, it is necessary to maintain constant communication with the clients and the prospects. This communication helps to build the relationship and interaction with the clients and prospects. The CRM simplifies and streamline this process, helps to initiate communication, and stay connected to the people. The interaction with the clients through different available tools is the main goal of the CRM. Different tools are available in the market for this process.
These CRM suites collect data from different communication channels including the company's website, telephone, emails, live chats, web forms, marketing materials, and social media. These data are then compiled using analytics tools that are available with the CRM Software. This gives an idea on the target audience. The company uses this data to cater the needs of their clients. The main goals of this is to retain customers and drive sales.
Before the evolution of the CRM software, the businesses used surveys or front-line asking methods as tools for evaluating customer’s satisfaction. The prospects were asked about the services they were looking for and about the quality of the services being delivered to the existing customers. Then gradually the spreadsheet software bundled with mainframes allowed the businesses to automate sales. Only the large corporations could afford these expensive machines in the early 1980s. With the introduction of the database programs, it became easier to gather and analyze customer’s data using statistical analysis. The first CRM system was developed by Siebel Systems around 1993. Then to compete with these stand-alone CRM solutions, the ERP was launched by Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, etc. that embedded the CRM modules with these software packages.
Today many open-source CRM solutions are available in the market and with the introduction of cloud, the software companies today provide CRM as SaaS(Software-as-a-Service). The CRM software is tailored to meet the needs of the individual business.
CRMs from the days of their creation have been highly tailored for the specific needs of the organization. All these are due to the change in the customer’s portfolios, pace of the business operations, and change in purchase behavior. All these give rise to the need of handling the huge amount of customer’s data, and sharing information over different departments. Some of the types of CRM are as given below:
Strategic CRM is a type of CRM in which the business puts the customers first. It collects, segregates, and applies information about customers and market trends to come up with better value propositions for the customer. The business considers the customers' voice important for its survival.
Operational CRM is oriented towards customer-centric business processes such as marketing, selling, and services. It includes the following automations: Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation, and Service Automation.
Analytical CRM is based on capturing, interpreting, segregating, storing, modifying, processing, and reporting customer-related data. It also contains internal business-wide data such as Sales Data (products, volume, purchasing history), Finance Data (purchase history, credit score) and Marketing Data (response to campaign figures, customer loyalty schemes data). Base CRM is an example of analytical CRM. It provides detailed analytics and customized reports.
Collaborative CRM is an alignment of resources and strategies between separate businesses for identifying, acquiring, developing, retaining, and maintaining valuable customers. It is employed in the B2B scenario, where multiple businesses can conduct product development, market research, and marketing jointly.
According to Oracle - the largest enterprise database solution provider company, CRM provides a centralized platform for sales teams to manage customer interactions and prioritize activities so that no customer feels ignored, thereby boosting the customer experience. It allows the businesses to spend more time with the customers, which means more deals will be closed and there is a feeling of being cared for by the customers. Hence, CRM helps to build a loyal customer base. Some of the importance of the CRM are briefly given below:
CRM software helps to generate leads directly from the websites and social media sites. The email integration feature allows automated emails to the clients. Tasks can be created and assigned to the different employees. Managers can keep track records of the activities and it enhances team collaboration. This makes the sales and marketing process systematic. It is more fruitful than the orthodox planning in the businesses.
The CRM helps to create customer relationships. This in turn makes customers stick to the company. Retaining customers indirectly helps to gain new customers. New products can be sold to the existing customers or can be given to them on a trial basis for evaluation. Brand loyalty is the gem of the business. Long term relationships and satisfaction make customers advocate for the brand to others. This is a more effective type of indirect marketing.
CRM helps to collect important data on the existing products and helps to develop future products that can be targeted to the existing and new customers. Feedbacks, feature requests, remarks, all help to improve the existing products. This in turn not only improves the products but also makes the customer feel that their voices are heard and their opinion matters. The analysis can be done on the competitors’ products.
The CRM segmentation allows to classify the clients according to the industry, requirements, pipelines or other characteristics. The good discriminator is required to categories the customers and deliver the customized products to that specific demographic. This helps to build a strong portfolio in a diversified products field.
The CRM helps to target profitable customers. The businesses can screen the prospects, marketing the right products to the right customers. Employees can be trained on CRM platforms to exploit these measures. Once of the advantages of the CRM is the ability to forecast accuracy of the sales. Learning about the customers certainly pays off in the long run.
The most important usage of the CRM is to build healthy relationships with customers and generate new sales, it is not just limited to these goals. Some important use cases of CRM are as given below:
Different campaigns can be run to generate leads and these generated can be prioritized by giving them different ranks using certain rules. This ranking helps to analyze the lead engagement with the business. Promotional emails can be set up to be triggered by sophisticated triggers. This ensures that important leads are not missed.
CRMs can be automated to send personalized messages and emails. Email templates can be created and bound to certain triggers. For example, whenever a new deal is created, the sales rep will get the notification by email or message. In another case, if a customer leaves queries or complaints, the customers will get a customized mail informing them that their request has been submitted and is being processed, while the support team will be tasked with a ticket associated with the query or complaint.
CRM is a powerful tool to analyze the customer’s behavior. Using this tool, businesses can track customer’s behaviours. This gives insight into the customers and product acceptance. This helps to determine the popularity of the product. The business can then create plans and strategies to target the specific demographics.
CRM helps to handle sales activities. It helps in time-management by allowing sales people to schedule and prioritize tasks. Marketing teams can target specific areas to reach potential customers. It is achieved by email campaigns, calling and surveys.
Why your company needs a CRM: Get 10 reasons that you might not know about
The trend of using CRM has increased in recent times as businesses become aware of the benefits and use cases of the CRM tools. Connecting with customers and driving sales are the lead reasons for the popularity of the CRM software. Some of the industries, where the CRM software are used are:
Software companies use CRMs to target audience, manage leads, track communications, provide post-purchase services. Most of the large and medium scale software companies use CRM to automate their sales and marketing.
The banks and finance sectors use tailored CRM software that are best suited for needs for personalized handling of the customers. These CRM are more customer centric. The software provides statistical data on the customer's financial activities that helps banks to target certain financial products like insurances and loans to the clients.
Retail industry uses CRM for marketing and advertising. It is found that retailers that use CRM have been found to have increased sales. Thanks to advertisements aimed at proper demographics. They were also able to monitor sales and evaluate feedback on the products. CRM plays an important role from production, supply, operation and finance to customer database management.
The CRM helps the insurance companies to collect customer data and understand the customers’ needs and requirements. They can analyze this data and create products that have better acceptance in the market. This helps to grow their customer base.
CRM helps the consulting firms to track applicants. It helps them to filter the applicants and consultants based on their skills and experience. The CRM is configured to send automated emails, set up interviews based on available time slots, filter applicants, keep track records of the vendors, target new clients and so on. The CRM helps them to manage day-today activities.
Some other industries: Industries that will benefit using CRM
Spreadsheets might be easy to use, they are well known to organize the data. But all these come with the cost. Multiple sheets are required to track different kinds of data. There is no feature of tracking the customer relationship. Also the spreadsheets are spread across different employees’ computers in a company. It becomes quite cumbersome to consolidate such a large amount of data. Because of these disadvantages spreadsheets are being replaced by CRMs in many industries.
Know More: Spreadsheets Vs CRM
CRM also allows the team to segment and understand data in a way that helps identify valuable opportunities. CRM users can select from a wealth of criteria-based options to better understand how they should be working to maximize sales. There's no more need to pull data from countless documents, endlessly copying and pasting, only to get confusing data. A team relying on spreadsheets and floundering with customer relations is a team on the path towards failure. Modern economics and an ever-changing business sector mean that spreadsheets and cluelessness will not help the business to survive.
The market is very competitive and only those companies survive who understand the need for change and plan accordingly. To sustain business, it is necessary to adopt modern technologies and methodologies. So the modern tool is required to reach customers and create a robust sales environment. The price of the CRMs have also decreased and the business can now afford them. Also there’s no need to upgrade the infrastructure because most of the CRM are now web based. It reduces the overhead cost of implementation. CRMs help the business to generate sales forecasts based on available data. The data collected from the different sources aid it. It results in an increase in sales by consolidating data at one place.
CRMs help businesses to retain old customers and get new ones. Forms, emails, activities, all helps to establish relationships with the customers. Lead management allows sales teams to manage leads and classify them into various categories. Businesses can track them on social media channels to know more about their choices and preferences making it easier to convince them by coming up with their likes and dislikes. Task Management feature allows organizing tasks according to the priorities. The main advantage is that any employee can access the CRM from anywhere.
The bottom line is having CRM software can only have an advantage to any company. With the better understanding and proper use of CRM software, companies can enhance team communication and retain customers despite your industry. This is only possible if you are able to figure out a CRM for your business that operates the way your business model, Delta Sales CRM, can be the one of your need, have a trial and decide.
Date: May 25, 2021 Author: Nagendra Sardar
