The word CRM is not unfamiliar to the world of business, but hardly a few know how to leverage the product at its full potential. To broadly expand its meaning, a CRM software is a tool that help businesses to:
l Collect, organize and analyze customer information from multiple sources and applications and store it to a centralized location.
l Tracks prospective customers through their sales journey.
In the past, CRM was known only as a tool to manage sales. But now, things have changed. Today, its domain has expanded to marketing, customer service, billing and even e-commerce functions. Today it has added different features like:
Automation of repetitive sales, marketing and customer service processes.
Integrates all information from different departments like sales, marketing in one centralized location to access whenever in need.
This feature allows employees to face customers in areas such as marketing, sales and customer selling to make quick and informed decisions on everything - from upselling and cross-selling to providing superb customer service and communication. Also, it helps adjust and strategize your sales and marketing campaigns with data-backed reports.
Value poured by CRM into your Business
Business today can't sustain without the implementation of a CRM tool as it can help you to gain new customers and retain existing customers.
According to a report published by Gartner, of all the software markets, revenues of CRM software has now overtaken database management systems to become the largest!
It’s obvious that the business landscape has become highly competitive. With so many services and products, customers become more selective and loyalty is hard to build.
The moment a service or a new product is introduced into the market, within a few months that service or product becomes a commodity, proving that in today’s market, it has become easy for customers to switch companies.
And to gain advantage in today’s competitive market, organizations must realize that not all customers bear equal importance, some are critical to success, some are not so important and should be treated that way and some distract companies from serving the previous two types of customers.
Some customers spend very little but prioritize customer service as a consideration for purchase decisions. On the contrary, there are groups who do not value customer service like the previous ones, but make frequent purchases. There are also strong market influencers for your brand.
CRM comes for your rescue during such instances by prioritizing marketing and sales efforts to deal with different customer groups. They already know what matters to the customers. Accordingly they curate the product or service portfolio. The catch is to drill and know your customers better so that you can make targeted offers to them which leads to conversion.
What CRM Strategy you can adopt
In today’s highly customer-centric and competitive market, CRM software has no longer remained solely to get more leads and guide them effectively through the funnels created for them with business goals in mind. There are more strategies.
A CRM strategy speaks about the application of intelligence gathered from a CRM tool to develop a business plan to improve customer service, grow sales and boost growth opportunities. This concept hooks from the combination of process, planning and technology.
How it is Relevant for Business Growth
In today’s market where loyalty of a customer is not guaranteed, customer satisfaction has become the only way to attract and retain more potential customers. So the success of business gets tied to customer satisfaction. But how much ? According to a research conducted by PWC on the future of customer experience:
One negative experience will make 1 out of 3 customers leave a brand they used to love once.
54% of U.S customers want an improvement with the experience offered by company
This study proves that the most vital strategy for any business is customer satisfaction?
What CRM Strategy should be Adopted
Without a proper strategy, no technology, even if highly sophisticated, can be successfully implemented for use. An appreciable CRM strategy is always evolving. Technology and business strategy must be in sync to ensure a customer-centric approach.
Here’s how a CRM software impacts customer centricity, data management and Automation. To implement a customer centric strategy,you need to keep the following points in mind.
1. Investigate customer goals
Start with a customer led approach towards marketing, sales and customer service with the implementation of CRM strategy. Even on a basic level, a CRM software gives you data which can be processed and customer insights within each profile. Implementation of any meaningful strategy by this sense starts with clear goals and a vision as to how a customer perceives a happy experience.
Understand the various needs of customers from your side, What are their pain points and aspirations? After these questions become clear, you can develop a strategy to address their needs.
2. Understand the various processes through customer journey
Data is the most important key which creates a positive experience for customers and it ultimately increases your customer relationships and loyalty. You have to understand the step when a consumer first makes contact to when that customer purchases is a move of CRM. How does a consumer travel from making the first contact to a closed sale? By mapping out the process from the beginning to end, you may identify opportunities or bottlenecks for improvement.
3. Automate every process centered around customer
Efficiency, speed and convenience promises greater customer satisfaction. By automating customer centric processes such as sales, marketing and customer care, a company can speed up meeting various needs of customers.
4. Result Measurement
Data analysis is the final crucial step so as to calibrate your strategy accordingly. Data filters what is working over what’s useless and this information could be used to decide on what services to offer, products to sell and how to price them.
The Takeaway Point
A rightly implemented Enterprise CRM software makes all the difference. It helps retain an existing customer or whether or not you grow a new one. Customers who feel that their questions are properly answered and served are happy and happy customers remain for the future.