What You’re Missing Out if You’re Not Using CRM Yet

In the today’s highly competitive environment, even the slightest chance of improvement and optimization of your customer service/marketing/sales/business processes, etc. should not be neglected. Companies search high and low for new opportunities of receiving higher revenue and expanding. Essentially, it is new customers that companies are after. Due to severe competition on the product market, many businesses have already realized how vital the customer service is, which can become their key competitive advantage.

Consequently, it has become of primary importance to be able to refine the communication with customers, so that they wanted to come back and tell others about their excellent experience. In other words, it is called CRM – customer relationship management. This approach includes customers’ history data analysis to improve customer retention and drive more sales.

This is where CRM systems have found their application. Their number is growing, corresponding to the number of companies willing to start using CRM solutions in their business.

CRM Software, Why Not?

Quite recently, these systems were chiefly used by big corporations and enterprises. Today, there is a tendency of more and more small and medium-sized businesses implementing a CRM, and there are a lot of systems tailored to their needs. Nevertheless, there still exist a number of ventures, especially among SMBs that aren’t using a CRM. There are various reasons for not choosing technology, so let’s take a look at the most popular ones.

1. In many companies,  a CRM is still considered necessary only for big businesses with much data and operations to handle.
2. Established businesses are reluctant to change the procedures from bottom to top for fear of slowing down.
3. Staff training and user adoption period seem too time-consuming and troublesome to even try.
4. Companies are scared away by high implementation costs, even in spite of the fact that ongoing monthly expenses are going to be quite moderate.

Yes, implementing a CRM system isn’t done in a few clicks and it does take a lot of efforts literally from each staff member to become a success. Still, it is worth the trouble due to a huge number of benefits it brings. Let us dwell on at least some of them.

[Related Article: The Best Marketing Automation Software & Platform]

What you get when going for a CRM

Data Well Organized

An obvious advantage of a CRM system is gathering all company’s data “under one roof”, so that the spreadsheets are no longer needed. This ensures effective data sharing between different departments for higher work efficiency. It is also effective to avoid the same data duplicated across the company, plus helps keep every bit of valuable information in order and easily found.

.. and Interpreted

Storing massive of data is not enough if you don’t know how to use it. CRM systems are equipped with tools to visualize and analyze the data and understand it for further practical usage. They also make reporting a much easier and less time-consuming task, enabling viewing information from different angles to work out the successful strategy and carry out the necessary improvements to the current campaigns.

Higher Work Efficiency

A CRM helps to automate a number of processes that were previously handled by employees. This saves time considerably, letting people focus on specific tasks that require mental strain and creativity. Such approach also helps minimize the “human factor” and avoid missing and incorrect data issues.

Deeper Knowledge of Your Customer

A CRM provides a 360 degree customer view starting from the first interaction, including preferences, purchase history, support tickets etc. This is extremely important not only to be able to sell more effectively, but also demonstrate your customers that you care about them. Feeling valued is what makes customers differentiate your company from the rest, and therefore each means that helps pursue this goal should be at least tried out.

Better and faster customer service

Time is money, and it is true for your customers as well. So, being able to serve them faster is another argument in your favour. If your salespeople or support techs have all information about a specific customer at their fingertips on one computer screen, imagine how much more efficient they can be in their work. Providing top-level service fast definitely won’t go unnoticed among prospects, turning them into happy customers and making them share the positive experience.

More effective marketing

With lots of data that CRM is storing, marketers can effectively segment their audience, define the categories of customers that bring the most profit and create better targeted campaigns for them. This ensures efficient allocation of budget resources, which aren’t spent on the audience groups that bring no profit. In addition, a CRM software presents extensive opportunities of personalizing any interaction with customers, which helps build trust and loyalty.

Improved opportunity management

A customer relationship management system is well fit to demonstrate clearly which audience groups/categories are the least engaged. This allows to work out a strategy to involve them as well, thus extending a number of potential clients. Some CRM software help sifts through the opportunities to identify the qualified leads, providing feedback on each email interaction, creating call-lists etc.

Smart upselling and cross-selling

With the information about the customer’s purchases, interests and wants, the sales staff receives a much wider opportunity of cross-selling based on the previous orders. Similarly, knowing what a person was interested in previously enables to make a good offer which can be right what is needed, resulting in one more closed deal, leaving the customer satisfied, with the sense that he/she is cared for and that your company does takes his/her needs into account.

Integration

Most CRM systems are capable of integrating with third party tools that you might be using, like marketing automation tools. This way, your company receives a chance to reach out to its customers via different marketing channels, thus increasing its efficiency.

Bottom line

The benefits outlined above are just a few of the reasons for implementing a CRM for your business, whatever its size. In our era of rapidly developing technology, you simply cannot afford to neglect its latest achievements, since you may be putting the success and prosperity of your business at stake. So, go ahead and choose your perfect CRM among a great multitude of variants. You can check out our blog for reviews of most popular systems. Do share what are your favorites in the comments below.