Advantages of CRM - Why it’s important to your business!

Ever tried driving a car without any fuel?
That’s exactly what it is like - to run a business without customers! 

So, in order to ensure your business reaches the pinnacle of success, attaining the exposure it deserves, you need to think of advanced ways to acquire & retain customers.

A CRM software can act like a one-stop solution by forming the backbone of your customer handling plan. CRM, the popular abbreviation of customer relationship management, basically assists you in ways you’ve always wanted to.. 

No customer going unheard? Checked.
A better grip on customer action history & purchase behavior? Checked.
Customer details & the success graph of your customer management strategies available just one-click-away? Checked.
...The list of advantages of CRM goes way further! In order to learn all about it, read ahead!

Read more : Custom CRM 
 

What is CRM?

To put it simply, CRM is basically an all-inclusive digital solution that performs the end-to-end customer management process : from “researching and developing strategies to attract potent customers” to “selecting technologies, tools, and techniques for acquiring and retaining them” and all things related to customer management.

And, now that you have a brief idea on what a CRM is, let’s have a quick glance at what CRM has to offer, and how your business can benefit from it.

 

Top Advantages of CRM 

Customers and businesses go hand in hand and while it’s not a big deal when the number of customers are 5-10..but as soon as the number starts to increase, i.e. during the ‘level-up’ phase of your company's growth, there’s a sudden need for much more attention in this space. How you handle the customers in this expansion phase - be it attracting more to your product / service or attending to their grievances - has the power to make or break your growth ahead. So If you have business expansion on your cards, using CRM is your best bet.

Here’s a comprehensive list of the major CRM advantages that will undoubtedly benefit your business and help streamline your business operations :

 

[1] Building profitable customer relationships

Relationships are the foundation of any successful business, so the focus should be on how you intend to improve them, and the best way to do so is to incorporate a CRM software into your business that will enable you to collect, store, and synthesize all of your customer’s history as well as generate metrics based on their behavior. 
Remember when Paul Brown’s casual tweet stating he was unable to grab his Starbucks coffee before flying out of Boston’s Logan airport actually made JetBlue airlines deliver a Starbucks venti mocha straight to his seat? Paul couldn’t stop gushing about this sweet gesture & well, that speaks for the wonders a great CRM gesture can do to any business! 
Using CRM to its full potential, you too can build longer and more profitable relationships that extend beyond sales and marketing. Additionally, data generated by CRM interactions can also help head off product and support related issues, leading to higher levels of overall customer satisfaction.

P.S. Don't forget to integrate your CRM with loyalty management software for the best results!

 

[2] Enhanced marketing and promotions

CRM integrations provide businesses with a centralized storage for their customers' data, which improves marketing activities from planning to targeting clients and finally execution.

CRM can also help enhance the marketing game by offering a more personalized experience to your customers in several ways. Talking about personalized customer experience needs no introduction to those who are well aware of Coca-Cola’s ‘Share A Coke’ campaign! Coca-Cola simply featured the most common names across countries. The result? Ruled 80 markets. Went steady for 7 years. Reversed US’ consumption-decline of 11 years. Need I say more? 
Here’s a list of the fundamental things that a CRM does for you so you can nail personalized customer servicing, paired with smart marketing tweaks :

 

[i] Segmentation

You can categorize your connections into groups based on common characteristics, allowing for more precise targeting while sending out campaigns.

[ii] Automation

You can also use CRM to automate your daily tasks, such as sending email campaigns to thousands of people, saving you a significant amount of time.

[iii] Social media marketing

Using networks like LinkedIn and Twitter allows you to carefully examine every aspect of your social media campaigns, and if you have CRM integrated into your business, tracking each network to determine where the traffic is coming from becomes extremely easy.

[iv] Campaign Management 

This CRM feature allows you to manage marketing campaigns across multiple channels and mediums, and with analysis tools like Google Trends, you can easily track how each campaign is performing.

[v] Metrics

With metrics, you can view and report on all critical KPIs to determine which marketing ideas are working and which needs to be improved.

 

[3] Customer Retention

Retaining customers for an extended period of time indicates that they are loyal to you and have sufficient trust in your service.

However, if you notice that customers are abandoning your brand on a regular basis, you should re-think your existing strategies & make contemporary edits to retain them.

Think of how ‘My Starbucks Rewards’ took Starbucks’ forever unique ‘client retention’ strategy doubling as a way to increase sales, a notch higher, just by introducing the gamification feature! 

And, with CRM, you have all ingredients of similar revenue spike at hand to keep your customers coming back for more :

[i] Loyalty programmes, that lets you reward your most devoted customers with special discounts and offers. 

[ii] Surveys, for gathering customer feedback and measuring customer satisfaction.

[iii] Personalized content, so that you can re-engage your customers and help drive more conversions. 

[iv] Gamifications, for encouraging users and customers to complete preferred actions such as making another purchase, invoking to buy what they’ve left in the cart, referring to their friends, signing up for a newsletter etc, simply by making it more enjoyable for them to do what they would’ve otherwise given a second thought to. 

 

[4] Increased customer engagement

CRM presents a comprehensive view of your target audience that helps you gain a better understanding of your customers and their purchasing habits, allowing you to tailor a plan to their specific requirements.

And, when you customize plans, you increase customer engagement by providing your audiences with a personalized experience with your company, thereby increasing customer interaction.

CRM also allows you to hear from those who interact with your company. This feedback gives you the information you need to address and help resolve issues with your approach. 

 

[5] Increased sales

Compiling and analyzing massive data sets through online and offline sales channels, a CRM helps you get your customers’ pulse. With the history hand & a data-backed futuristic strategy in place you can streamline your sales processes with ease. Just by developing a sales pipeline, and automating key tasks, you will potentially increase sales and productivity in your business.

 

[6] Cost reduction

When you own a business, if you're not keeping a firm eye at optimizing expenses - you’re doing injustice to your profitline. CRM, can be your money watcher by reducing business costs as it allows your team to devote more time to high priority tasks.

CRM can handle some of your logical marketing campaigns and complete them quickly. This way your employees can shift their concentration to higher priority tasks from the CRM-worthy ones.

 

[7] Enhancing security

With a robust CRM you can impose access control over your customers' data and business information by securely storing it in the cloud. Cloud storage ensures protection to your sensitive business data from unexpected events, thanks to in-built advanced protection measures and automatic backup.

Following are some examples of CRM security controls :

1. Confining account managers to only view their own records.
2. Limiting delete permissions.
3. Blocking users from exporting CRM data to Excel.
4. Encrypting data
5. Monitoring transaction logs

 

[8] Flexibility

CRM lets you create, edit, or collaborate on the processes and business relationships that are important to you whether you are at your desk or on the go, thanks to its mobile apps, web interface, and offline access.

When events occur, CRM allows you to connect with everyone, make updates, and take action on the fly. This includes the following :

1. Making a new service case based on emails received via a mobile app.
2. Referring to recent contact history during a customer meet. 
3. Updating sales opportunities and pipeline details, when returning from a customer visit. 
4. Scheduling CRM follow-up activities in response to emails received and meetings. 

 

Who is CRM designed for?

Be it sales, customer support, recruitment, marketing or any other area of a business - CRM can be advantageous for all of them as it makes it easier to monitor the interactions and relationships with customers that leads to positive outcomes. A CRM programme will essentially allow you to keep track of customer and draft pick contact information, discover sales opportunities, track service issues, and marketing operations all in one place - and make information about every customer encounter available to everyone in your organization who requires it.

 

Why is it a smart move to let BinaryFolks develop your CRM software?

Looking for an experienced CRM software development team to help you speed up your business operations?

BinaryFolks can undoubtedly assist you with this. Our skilled and specialized software developers have firsthand knowledge of delivering a wide range of projects for clients from various industries. With BinaryFolks, you can easily tap into the full potential of your CRM software and accelerate your company's growth graph.

So, here’s what to expect if developing your CRM software with BinaryFolks :

 

Conclusion

Now that you are well aware of what all a CRM can effectively do for you, there shouldn’t be much doubt on its potential. Now, if you can’t decide whether or not to implement a CRM software in your business, try answering the following questions :

1. Which of your business lines does your CRM need to support?
2. What CRM features do you need to help you streamline your business processes?
3. What level of scalability do you require from your CRM?
4. Do you want to integrate third-party applications into your CRM?

If the answers to these questions come easy to you and the ways to achieve those do not, then CRM will be your friend in need. 

 
Let’s Plan Your CRM !