A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system helps manage customer data. It supports sales management, delivers actionable insights, integrates with social media and facilitates team communication. Cloud-based CRM systems offer complete mobility and access to an ecosystem of bespoke apps.
Why have a CRM system?
A CRM system helps businesses keep customer contact details up to date, track every customer interaction, and manage customer accounts. It is designed to help businesses improve customer relationships and also Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This is vital because of the vast amount of such data businesses generate daily.
The issue of customer data raises a challenge which CRM systems exist to address. Every time someone picks up the phone and talks to a customer, goes out to meet a new sales prospect, or follows up a promising lead, they learn something new and potentially valuable. Traditionally, all this data went into analogue or unconnected media such as notebooks or laptops, or even just stayed in people’s heads.
With no CRM…
These methods make it all too easy for details to get lost or forgotten, or for a meeting or phone conversation not to be followed up on as promised. Choosing which leads or prospects to focus on can be a matter of guesswork rather than a rigorous exercise based on fact. Worse still, if an individual holding access to key customer information were to leave, then all their knowledge could walk out of the door with them.
A CRM helps ensure accuracy and efficiency
A customer relationship management system aims to address challenges like these. It takes customer data and turns it into useful, actionable insight that can transform a business. It helps everyone in a business to easily update records and to get access to the latest information. If the system is cloud-based, they can do this wherever they are, on any connected device.
What does a CRM system do?
A CRM system essentially provides a central place where businesses can store customer and prospect data, track customer interactions, and share this information with colleagues. It allows businesses to manage relationships with customers, helping the business to grow.
With a CRM system in place, every question, every service request, every preference and every past contact detail about every customer is instantly available, which means that every new interaction with them should always be personalised, relevant and up to date.
As well as tracking every phone call, email sent, meeting held and presentation delivered, CRM systems can also be used to add notes, schedule follow-ups and organise the next steps that need to be taken. This ensures that opportunities to close deals or grow customer accounts won’t be missed.
By understanding customers better, cross-selling and up-selling opportunities become clearer too, giving organisations a much better chance to win new business from existing customers.
Key features of a CRM system
The key features of a CRM system typically include:
- Contact management All the latest information about customers — from contact details to service conversations — is easily available to access and update.
- Lead management The system enables users to track pipeline activities, tasks and targets, all the way from prospect through to conversion.
- Sales forecasting Forecasting reports enable salespeople to get better visibility over their pipelines, qualify leads more accurately, and see how close they are to hitting their targets. Sales managers can use reports to motivate and manage their people.
- Instant messaging between employees Real-time instant messaging functionality makes it easier for coworkers to ask and answer each other’s queries, for instance in support of a live sales opp or service interaction. Managers can check in on staff in the field, and employees can ask for instant feedback or support as needed.
- Email tracking and integration with Outlook and Gmail Syncing email clients instantly with the CRM system allows businesspeople to get a complete view of their customers and leads without having to log in and out of different systems. Calendars and contacts can be viewed across every device, and emails can be created and managed from within a single workflow.
- File and content sharing Team members can upload information to a centrally stored location, and share easily and instantly with coworkers.
- Dashboard-based analytics Information is aggregated and presented in intuitive, meaningful dashboard displays that can be customised based on each individual’s priorities.Advanced cloud-based CRM platforms, like Salesforce, go much further than this basic functionality, integrating with marketing automation and customer service systems to provide a complete, cloud-based ecosystem for customer data.