Twenty-five years ago, no one could have imagined that advanced digital technologies would overshadow and, in time, completely replace the pen and paper business. Nowadays, for a business to prosper, it is essential to adapt to modern industry standards. One of those standards is Customer Relationship Management software or CRM. CRM allows companies to manage their internal and external communications and operations as efficiently as possible. Here’s how relationship management technology can help you foster stronger connections to customers, improve operations performance, and grow your company bigger and faster than ever.
How Does CRM Software Work?
At its core, customer relationship management is an approach towards organizing and analyzing the sum of a company’s customer interactions. CRM software collects stray information pertaining to customer interactions and compiles it into something digestible and easy to understand. For example, website, social media, and email traffic are consolidated and reflected in your CRM, eliminating the need for tedious manual data entry tasks. From analyzing which web pages customers engaged with most to storing call records, CRM helps you keep your business’s history of interactions organized and easily accessible.
The three main types of CRM software are Operational, Analytical, and Collaborative.
Operational CRM focuses on streamlining sales, support, and marketing operations. Operational CRM improves a brand’s ability to provide excellent customer service by automating customer interactions such as emails, client onboarding processes, and feedback.
Analytical CRM is most useful for companies that work with large datasets and regularly use analytics in their business decisions. Unlike operational CRM, analytical CRM focuses on the analysis and enrichment of consumer data. It does this by running data through various channels to gain valuable insight, which can then be used in marketing decisions. You can also integrate analytical CRM with your invoice software to make use of financial data.
Collaborative CRM, the last type of CRM, is used for maximizing team productivity by facilitating internal communication. Collaborative CRM enables a company to collect, organize, and share information across multiple teams. For example, the technical support team can interact with the customer service team to solve problems on the customer’s end. Consumer feedback could then be shared with the marketing team, creating an integrated, effective business management system.
CRM software is typically equipped with each of these major features. Still, it is important to understand the different functional components CRM has to maximize the benefits it can give your business.
7 Reasons to Consider CRM Software
It’s For the Entire Team
CRM software doesn’t serve the interests of a single department. It’s for the entire company, from marketing and sales to finance and HR departments. The finance department will receive data on customer acquisition costs, closed deals, predictable revenue, etc. At the same time, the HR team will be able to track employee performance and see how their efforts impact the company’s growth. The customer support team will have all the tickets, live chat, and email conversations in one place, enabling quicker, more helpful answers to customers.
Fewer Tasks, More Productivity
Manual data entry is a thing of the past. It leaves room for human error and requires hours of tedious work from your team. With CRM software, you can have instant, automated visitor data that is accurate, organized, and easily accessible. The elimination of manual data entry can free up team members to work on other tasks. That will increase productivity, and leave more time for what matters.
It’s Budget-friendly
Monthly CRM subscription fees vary. You will find full-featured packages that cost up to $400 monthly. On the other hand, you can find free CRM programs that charge up to $200 monthly for certain features, like reporting. There is also CRM software available for free to unlimited users, which offers five gigabytes of storage, and features without limits. If you are a small business owner, it is recommended you look for free or relatively inexpensive CRM software since you most likely do not need 100 gigabytes of storage or customer segmentation features.
Use Analytics to Optimize, Predict, and Convert
Your CRM software will tell you how your marketing channels are performing and which of your lead magnets work best. For example, you can analyze how many contacts you generated from organic search, social media, referrals, and direct traffic in any given period. You can also see how many contacts one of your lead magnets (e.g., e-books, checklists, etc.) generated.
Personalize Every Customer Interaction
Customers love being remembered. When you have the customer’s background in front of you and ask personalized questions, you appear more professional and friendly, and customers are more likely to trust you. For instance, imagine that a customer is facing an issue with your company and contacts you via a live chat. With CRM, your support specialist does not need to ask dozens of questions, only the customer’s email address, to identify the customer and solve their issue.
Avoid Unassigned Contacts and Overdue Tasks
Lead distribution is a very crucial part of any CRM software. Distributing or routing the lead is the process of assigning them to your team members to close the deal. When done manually, some leads could remain unassigned or be misdirected. With automation, you can assign leads based on specific criteria, leaving no contact behind. For example, you can define that all leads from social media be assigned to your X salesperson, or leads from X country/region may be assigned to another sales rep. Thus, you make sure your team members deal with the contacts they are most likely to build strong relationships.
Bring a Multitude of Tools Under One Roof
CRM software isn’t just limited to sales, marketing, and service-focused tools. You can find other built-in features that allow you to facilitate and organize effective team communication and workflow. For example, CRM software will provide a task management feature, which you can use to track current and completed tasks, filter them by due dates, and set reminders. It won’t replace your project management process, but an additional internal feature will keep your tasks organized and create fewer opportunities for data import/export errors.
How to Choose CRM Software for Small Businesses: 5 Things to Consider
We’ve already mentioned that small businesses can use free CRM software in the beginning until they are ready to allocate money toward a paid program. However, not all free CRM tools are created equal. Here are five things you should consider before committing to any CRM tool:
Get Niche-specific
If you are a marketing/consulting agency or SaaS company, you might pick one of the popular CRM software and choose the best plan. However, if you operate in niches such as real estate, nonprofits, etc., then a “general” CRM software might not suffice for your needs. There are CRM tools for almost any niche out there, so first, check whether you need a specific one for your organization.
Features/Price Ratio
Cross-referencing pricing plans and features between software may be time-consuming, but it’s well worth the benefits of finding the perfect CRM program. To make your job easier, first think about what goals you want to achieve with CRM. From that list, narrow down the key features you’ll need to accomplish that goal. This process also ensures you will not be paying for features you don’t want.
Ease of Use
Subscribing to a new software won’t be useful if you have trouble using it. Some tools are well-designed with user experience in mind, while others can be unintuitive and uncomfortable. When it comes to ease of use, consider mobile-friendliness as well. If you need to log in to your CRM from a mobile device, make sure it’s optimized and won’t create difficulties for your team.
Integration Opportunities
Small businesses aren’t usually interested in too many integrations. But as your business grows, you might want to integrate your CRM with SMS marketing software or invoice software. Integrations help you combine your data under one roof. When shopping for CRM software, it’s essential you first define which integrations matter most to you. This way you can choose a tool that will support your plans.
User Reviews and the Demo
User reviews are one of the most significant factors that should drive your decision. Review sites allow you to compare multiple tools in one place. So you save time and have access to fresh data. The last step in your selection process should be to contact one to two CRM providers and ask for a demo. A short demo will help you understand which tool suits your needs and gauge whether you’ll continue using it as your team starts to grow.
3 Steps to Getting the Most Out of Your CRM Software
After you chose the right software, follow these three simple steps to make the tool your most flexible marketing assistant.
Step 1: Establish a Sales Process
CRM software is there to automate your tasks and make your job easier. But first, that requires human input giving commands, and telling the system what to automate. For example, if you have leads in France, you can direct CRM to assign them to your French-speaking sales representatives. You may also consider what information you’re trying to gather and which sales representative that information will be most useful to.
Step 2: Dive Deeper into Your CRM Features
Even if you are already using CRM software, you might not be aware of all the features. Start checking out all the sections in your dashboard and try to understand how they can help you. Contact your CRM support team for clarification if there’s a feature you’re unsure about. You can also ask them for advice on how to integrate other software your business utilizes. Be sure to also adequately train your team in CRM functionalities.
Step 3: Clean Your CRM or Order an Audit
You will have to clean your CRM software from time to time to get rid of duplicate and/or incorrect data. It also points out missing contact details, which you can then fill in. You can conduct a CRM audit on your own or order an audit at a marketing agency. An audit will help improve your team’s performance and allow you to start using features you didn’t even know existed.
