5 CRM benefits to supercharge your sales & customer service

CRM can be crucial to business success, helping you to close sales, identify leads, and super-serve customers for best-in-class experience.

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The success of a company is measured both in the quantity and quality of its customer relationships. As your business scales, it can be increasingly difficult to keep the balance right, , particularly when you’re trying to convert ad hoc users into loyal returnees. .

If missing a customer inquiry or not understanding the lack of interest in your latest product is currently keeping you up at night, there’s software that guarantees a good night’s sleep – Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

From keeping your customers happy with enhanced customer service to ensuring your marketing strategies are worthy of awards, CRM can be your customer relationship coach. We break down some of the benefits below.

What is CRM?

Short for Customer Relationship Management, CRM refers to the cloud-based software and digital tools that businesses can use to organise and manage customer data. At its most basic level, CRM software is a digital version of an address book – a place to securely store all contact information.

Your CRM database stores all of the valuable data you have about your customers, which is produced through every action and interaction. This data includes:

  • Name, title, and email address
  • Date and nature of your last interaction
  • Visits to your website and engagement with your brand
  • Their previous orders and spend
  • Even personal information such as their interests and hobbies

Streamlining communication and collaboration

Enhancing sales team communication and collaboration is a game-changer, and leveraging your CRM system is the ace up your sleeve. Picture this: a centralised platform holding all your customer data, accessible in real-time by every team member, regardless of whether they’re working from home or the office.

CRM systems are superheroes in the sales realm. They equip your sales force to not just sell more but also sell smarter and faster. How? By providing a comprehensive history of customer interactions throughout their journey. This treasure trove of data allows your sales team to predict and meet customer needs before they’re even voiced. That’s proactive selling at its finest—building stronger connections and delivering top-notch customer experiences. With customisable email templates, document formats, and ready-to-use proposals, your team can skip the mundane tasks and focus on what really matters: engaging with clients.

Enhancing sales pipelines

Integrating a robust CRM system into your sales strategy isn’t just about managing data—it’s about transforming your sales pipeline into a powerhouse of efficiency and effectiveness. Key CRM features like lead management, sales forecasting, and opportunity tracking are the driving forces behind this transformation.

Imagine having a tool that breathes life into your customer interactions, making them more personal and much less like transactions. CRM humanises your sales approach, allowing you to see faces behind the numbers. By segmenting contacts into target audiences (for instance, based on demographic), CRM adds vibrancy and depth to your customer base. Importantly, CRM also tracks your customer engagements, allowing you to identify prospects ripe for conversion and those needing a different approach. This insight ensures you guide the right leads towards making a purchase while avoiding strategies that might turn potential customers away.

Transforming marketing strategies

While CRM is a mighty and powerful tool in the hands of your sales team, it equally can be the Excalibur of your marketing team. This is because CRM gives you the data and insights you need to create finely-tailored campaigns that resonate deeply with your audience. Remember that email your favourite ecommerce company sent you just days after you were eyeing that new product? That’s not a coincidence. That’s the power of CRM in motion.

CRM shines because of its built-in analytical capabilities. These functionalities serve as a guiding light in the sea of marketing data. By analysing metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates, and demographic information, CRM helps you decode your audience’s behaviour. It’s like having a magnifying glass that zooms into crucial details, highlighting what works, placing customer data in its context, and uncovering blind spots in your marketing strategies.

Elevating customer service

The core features of CRM, including an advanced ticketing system, effective management of customer feedback, and automated response capabilities, form the backbone of delivering top-notch customer satisfaction. These features prepare you to address customer concerns promptly and foster a sense of reliability and satisfaction.

Yet, CRM’s impact extends far beyond just appeasing unhappy customers. It also plays a pivotal role in retaining customers by serving as a dependable reminder system. Whether it involves remembering appointments or sending follow-up emails, CRM ensures you stay on top of your customer agenda, fostering trust and loyalty.

Improving data views of customers

CRM serves as a comprehensive repository, consolidating diverse customer information into a full 360-degree view of their interactions with the business. This becomes a goldmine accessible to every department in your company, permitting a seamless flow of information. For instance, it simplifies the process of identifying specific customer preferences or past purchases, giving you a clear idea of the products or services that might pique their interest.

CRM lets you instantly understand customers’ behaviours, preferences, and engagement history across various touchpoints. By accumulating data from different sources, it paints a complete picture of each customer. This speeds up your decision-making and empowers your team to tailor its approach, offering personalised experiences that resonate with individual customer needs.

Conclusion

The days of sifting through old files and frantically scrambling through loose sales pitch notes to find customer information should be buried in the last century. Any business that wants to scale and keep its customers happy with personalised treatment should have a CRM system to call their own.

From leveraging customer data at the click of a mouse to concocting a winning marketing formula, CRM can be your best ally when it comes to winning over, retaining and growing your customer base.

Written by:
Fernanda is a Mexican-born Startups Writer. Specialising in the Marketing & Finding Customers pillar, she’s always on the lookout for how startups can leverage tools, software, and insights to help solidify their brand, retain clients, and find new areas for growth. Having grown up in Mexico City and Abu Dhabi, Fernanda is passionate about how businesses can adapt to new challenges in different economic environments to grow and find creative ways to engage with new and existing customers. With a background in journalism, politics, and international relations, Fernanda has written for a multitude of online magazines about topics ranging from Latin American politics to how businesses can retain staff during a recession. She is currently strengthening her journalistic muscle by studying for a part-time multimedia journalism degree from the National Council of Training for Journalists (NCTJ).

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