CRM: Build relationships that last, not just databases

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. So, for a change in the world of technology, the name is reasonably self-explanatory! Although, to throw a spanner in the works, the term Customer Engagement (CE) is also commonly interchangeable with CRM.

A CRM solution holds all your customer data and provides you with insights into their behaviour, wants and needs. With this data, you can manage and improve your sales, support, and marketing interactions with both your existing and prospective customers. The result? Increased engagement and satisfaction, shorter sales cycles and improved profitability. You can further enhance the business value of your CRM when you segment and share data with a marketing automation tool.

As the CRM records each point of contact with individual customers, it makes relationships more personal, positive, and productive. Support is easier as your help desk or account manager can instantly see records of all previous communications. And as we all know, responsive support and service are the primary building blocks of customer loyalty. Managing and maintaining a sales pipeline and closing deals is easier. With accurate real-time data in front of your sales team, they’ll never again miss an opportunity to upsell, cross sell or renew.

Best of all, a CRM allows you to say goodbye to the risky and disjointed days of using Outlook or spreadsheets to hold your valuable customer data. Your lead, prospect and customer data is in one centralised and safe place, not on a salesperson’s laptop.

Any business or organisation that understands the concept of customer value needs a CRM. Whether your ‘customers’ are end consumers, online shoppers, students, patients, trainees, subscribers, ratepayers, or resellers, a CRM will help you manage their lifecycle and maximise the opportunity to extend the value of the relationship.

All the customer data in a CRM, from every activity and source, is kept in one place, so you have a centralised database of information which is always up-to-date and accurate.

Modern CRM systems collect data from a wide variety of sources. Once upon a time, you may have relied on phone calls and mail to update and enrich customer data, but today’s CRMs are designed to collect data directly from your website, phone, email, live chat, eForms, SMS, marketing materials, social media and more.

The business benefits of cloud CRM range from operational to financial.

It’s more affordable. With cloud CRM, there’s no need for costly IT infrastructure. All you need is an internet connection. Your operational costs go down, and monthly costs are predictable.

It’s more cost-effective and efficient. Cloud CRM automates processes and greatly enhances accessibility to information, so you minimise the resources and time needed to keep the sales funnel running smoothly. Your employees become more efficient and effective due to the easy-to-use tools designed to track customer communications and understand their unique desires.

You don’t need to maintain or monitor it. Your cloud CRM provider is responsible for monitoring the system, round-the-clock. They also automatically make any updates, upgrades, or fixes as needed, so you’re always using the latest, most powerful, and fully featured version of the application.

It’s secure. Your cloud CRM provider is also accountable for keeping the system current with the tightest security controls possible including applying redundant data policies, performing frequent data backups, encrypting your data, and defining user security roles.

It’s always on, and always accessible. Cloud CRM is available to your team 24/7, so it supports flexible working hours, and differing customer time zones. You no longer need to be closed to your customers outside of ‘normal’ business hours.

It supports your mobility strategy. Cloud CRM allows authorised employees to access the application from whatever device they have available at the time, from desktop computer, laptop, tablet, to smartphone.

Collaboration! By working together in cloud CRM’s common interface, your people can share data and updates that benefit the whole team. As you grow, so does your cloud CRM! Unlike a CRM application hosted on physical server, an increase in traffic on your cloud CRM doesn’t require additional hardware. All you need to do is purchase additional licenses, as needed.

It makes sense to integrate your CRM and ERP solutions. Why? Well, it’s to do with databases. When the two systems share or can access the same real-time data, it makes your people more efficient, as well as dramatically decreasing the problem of duplicated and error prone manual data entry. Your customers can be billed faster, and product returns can be automated between the two systems. You’ll gain 360° visibility of all stages of your business’ sales process, as well as a deeper understanding of your customers’ buying behaviour.