For customer conscious companies, effective customer management is near essential. As such, the benefits of CRM are clear for all to see.
From increased customer knowledge to improved anticipation and communication. CRM software allows a business to put their customers at the heart of their operation.
With customer experience often being the deciding factor in competitive scenarios, how you approach and manage your customers is vitally important for assuring long term success.
Without CRM, the challenge becomes increasingly more difficult.
What Is CRM Software?
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a software application that sits at the heart of your operation; helping you put your customers first.
Primarily used as a one stop shop for customer records and sales pipeline management, CRM ensures everyone has access to vital customer data.
No more duplicate records. No more contradicting databases.
Used effectively, CRM allows a company to craft a unique and seamless experience, as well as build better relationships and prioritise opportunities.
Clearly the benefits of CRM software are multiple. Let’s take a closer look…
#1 Enhanced Customer Knowledge
Having an easily accessible, totally transparent location for your customer data can only improve your customer knowledge.
CRM software is so much more than a mere store for contact information. It provides a live, up to date record of your relationship.
“One great advantage of CRM is that you can see your customer’s journey holistically.”
VPN Online
More in depth knowledge ensures you can deliver the right engagement, at the right time. All from knowing precisely what has gone before and when.
It may sound obvious, but having this data, accessible to all, in one convenient location is what makes CRM so powerful.
With all this information, customer relationship management becomes simple.
#2 Improved Reporting
Having accessible information is one thing. Being able to take a deep dive, and glean important insights, adds a whole other level.
CRM facilitates this birds eye view reporting at a glance.
“74% of all CRM users found that CRM software offered improved access to customer data.“
Software Advice
From a managerial perspective, being able to evaluate a team, store or regions’ pipeline instantaneously is invaluable.
Visibility across prospects provides the ability to accurately forecast.
Whilst keeping an eye on existing customers ensures nobody slips through the cracks as a result of a poor customer experience.
Think of your CRM software as a cheat sheet, highlighting trends and spotting weaknesses to give your customer facing teams a competitive advantage.
In other words, CRM allows you to know precisely who your customers are, what they want and where and how you can provide for them.
#3 Focussed Segmentation
Your customers are unique and you should treat them as such.
As a business, you don’t want to deal with a faceless mob, but rather a tailored, segmented audience. The collective ideal customer profile for your offering.
CRM facilitates this focussed segmentation, enabling you to distribute customers and prospects into specific silos.
“80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalised experiences.”
The Power Of Personalisation
From here, you can more easily assign leads to experts within that particular field, analyse which aspect of your offering is most popular and work to promote those areas lagging behind.
Likewise, being able to see across each segment allows you to take decisive action, such as distributing highly targeted campaigns or offers to those prospects on the cusp of converting.
When you know who you’re addressing, you can tailor everything from your pitch to your process.
#4 Customer Retention
A study performed by Capterra revealed that…
“47% of CRM users found that customer retention and satisfaction were significantly impacted by the use of a CRM system.”
CAPTERRA
Customer experience is a key competitive differentiator.
Being able to spot the cracks before they grow into chasms ensures more customers leave your interactions happy.
Harvard Business Review reported that it can cost up to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep one.
It pays to retain your customers.
#5 Anticipation Of Needs
For any business, advantage is gained through proactive action rather than reactionary response.
By using your CRM for diagnostics, you can not only placate unhappy customers with great speed, but spot the steps that led to that situation in the first place.
“Without the ability connect and empathise with the situations that your customers face, how can you provide the best possible experience.”
11 Strategies To Boost Customer Experience
This way, those issues can be prevented from recurring and roadblocks can be eliminated; better anticipating your customers needs.
For example, if you receive a lot of communication from new customers on a certain issue, create a guide and automatically send it out 3 days after purchase to pre-empt the problem.
This way your customer service team are free to tackle more complex issues whilst customers maintain positive sentiment through evidence you are a company that cares.
#6 Streamlined Communication
Personalisation at scale is one of the benefits of CRM software that can have the greatest impact on your teams’ efficiency.
According to Software Advice…
“The ability to track customer interactions (80%) and schedule communications (75%) are the most sought after CRM features.”
SOFTWARE ADVICE
Being able to schedule communications, for prospects and customers alike, ensures you maintain the highest standards of quality without compromising the actions of your expert staff.
We’ve spoken extensively before about the importance of automation. Introducing CRM makes this all feasible.
Think how much time your team could save, and how much happier your customers would be, if instead of taking time to reply they simply got the job done.
Customer relationships are the lifeblood of your business. CRM will allow you to create communications that count.
Ready to explore how Anthill can help you take advantage of the benefits of CRM software? Schedule a demo today.
Intrigued to learn more? Check out our Insights Hub to keep your business at the cutting edge.
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- April 26th, 2022