What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a way of tracking your interactions with leads and customers as they transition through all stages of your company’s sales cycle. CRM tools assist in focussing on customers and the software improves customer relationships by streamlining and organising communications and activities from all customer-facing departments like sales, marketing and customer service.
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What exactly is CRM?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a way of tracking your interactions with leads and customers as they transition through all stages of your company’s sales cycle. CRM tools assist in focussing on customers and the software improves customer relationships by streamlining and organising communications and activities from all customer-facing departments like sales, marketing and customer service.
How does CRM work?
CRM software collects customer data (any interaction with existing or potential customers) into a centralised environment which can be used across your organisation. Any user can access and use a customer’s past interactions to effectively move the customer along through sales and marketing processes.
Why would you use a CRM?
A CRM system allows employees to waste less time looking for data on a customer and use their time more effectively on developing connections. It allows for a more positive and personal experience with customers through the use of the centralised framework of data. This leads to a far better experience for the customer. Managers are also better able to assess progress with customers and use effective strategies going forward.
CRM software and customer service excellence
By using this software, your marketing team can find sources of opportunities and can launch targeted email marketing campaigns. Once they have a complete view of the customer, your customer service team can resolve queries quickly and with more personal responses.
Increasing sales
CRM software allows you to automate sales tasks like forecasting and creating quotes and orders. This information can be converted into opportunities using sales workflows.
Effective marketing
You can ensure a higher return on your marketing budget by using a CRM system, as you will create targeted campaigns based on your customer’s specific information.
How can CRM software improve your productivity and profitability
Help your teams accomplish more
Through using a consolidated view of data, duplication is avoided and customers are handled more effectively.
Customer retention
By having a start-to-finish perspective of your customer’s life cycle, using precise data, you can make use of up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.
Marketing
Ensure better growth by using clever marketing campaigns drawn from the customer information you have from your CRM software.
An overview of some top features and benefits of CRM software
- Store customer data in a single, secure location. All users are then accessing and relying on current customer information.
- Many day-to-day tasks are automated eg. Order processing and sales forecast. Times is not wasted doing manual tasks like sales calls.
- You can plan marketing campaigns in a targeted manner, ensuring a higher return on your investment.
- You can shine in comparison to your competition by providing your customers with a nurturing and personal experience with your company. This will lead to better retention and growth.
- You can generate reports for key areas of your business to assist in evaluating where your business stands and how you are performing against KPIs.
- Information like phone numbers and email addresses can be managed and stored through your CRM software. Sales people who are out of office can access the information from your centralised system before they need to interact with a client.
For more information and insights into CRM, have a read of this Beginner's Guide to CRM
