A CRM system can provide a wealth of benefits to a brand. Studies have found that more than 91% of companies with 10 or more employees use a CRM to manage conversations with customers. Not only this, it is predicted that by the end of 2022 CRM will be the largest area of spending on enterprise software. A CRM or Customer Relationship Management system is not just an additional expense for businesses these days, but a necessity. So, if you are looking for a CRM partner for your business, this blog will tell you exactly how you can do that.
How can a CRM system benefit a business?
Firstly, let us see some quick benefits of using a CRM for a business. A CRM helps in managing all the contacts of the business and gathers important data regarding customers like demographics, shopping history, communication history, and so on. This information can be used by any department of the company and enhance the customer experience.
A CRM can help businesses in increasing their sales by pointing out what’s not working with their strategies. It can automate sales tasks and help analyze all your sales data in a single place. A CRM can make it easier for businesses to retain their customers by providing a personalized, omnichannel shopping experience for all. It can provide automated customer support, personalized emails, and recommendations for a customer, encouraging them to stay with the brand.
Last, but not least, a CRM can provide detailed data analytics for a business. It can break down data into easily understood metrics, making it easier for the sales and marketing teams to understand customer behavior.
Choosing the right CRM for your Brand
#1 Find out what you exactly need
Firstly, you need to understand what problems you are planning to solve with the help of a CRM. Then only, you can look for those features in a CRM tool. For instance, the prime benefit of a CRM is contact management. So, you can decide whether you need a tool to manage your contacts and leads. Some businesses might use a CRM to overview their sales funnel and find the areas where they are lagging. Some businesses might need a CRM tool to automate their marketing process enabling them to find out more about their audience and use different strategies for customer retention.
Here’s a general features list that includes what should businesses look for in a CRM partner/tool:
- Contact management - to manage your contacts at a centralized location
- Lead management - to evaluate and nurture active leads, incoming leads, etc., and convert them to your customers
- Email marketing - to send automatic emails based on the customer journey and monitor interactions
- Customer journey mapping - to find out the pain points of customers and areas where you need to improve
- Understanding customers - to create a detailed, 360-degree profile for every customer to gain deep, meaningful insights about how they interact with your brand
#2 Consider the implementation process
Do you need an on-promise CRM or do you need to connect with a software vendor who can set up a system for you and provide you with all the results and reports? You have to decide how you want to implement your CRM. Generally, businesses choose a CRM partner that offers them a free trial so that businesses can check whether the CRM will exactly fit into their business requirements or not. Some important factors to consider for implementing a CRM are:
- Whether it is a cloud-based system or not
- What features does the CRM has
- Ease of use and a smaller learning curve
- Accessibility to the customer support
- Free trial period and more.
#3 Compare a few CRM tools
Evaluation and comparison can be the only two ways to decide which tool or CRM platform is the best for your business. So, compare the top CRM options in your list based on important factors like:
How much support does the CRM partner provide?
This includes not just the swiftness and availability of the customer support team but also the content and communication that the CRM vendor provides. Check their blog, frequently asked questions, help articles, and even their social media handles.
What do others have to say about the CRM?
Checking review sites like Capterra, Software Advice, G2Crowd, etc, is also a good idea to understand how others have reviewed the CRM tool that you have shortlisted for your business. You can consider their number of users, social media channels, automation facility, and other important features.
How much will it cost you?
Cost is another important factor to consider when choosing a CRM for your business. You must look for a CRM partner that is not only affordable but has room for growth with time. It should be flexible, scalable, and affordable.
Can you access it on different platforms?
Product mobility is also a comparison criterion when it comes to choosing the right CRM partner for your business. Choose a tool that can be accessed on various platforms like a desktop, tablet, or even a mobile phone.
#4 Look for a tool that helps you understand your customers better
By understanding your customers better, we mean a tool that provides you with better customer insights and makes it easier for you to understand customer data. Today, expect a CRM that not only collects data from various platforms but also refines it for you so that you can have a deeper understanding of your customers. This includes:
Filtering, sorting, and cleaning data
The CRM platform should be capable of cleaning your data for you so that you can create customer personas for deeper customer understanding. For instance, suppose you are running an online store that sells clothing. So, you can segment the customer data based on the buying habits of a customer or their age, gender, location, and so on.
A CRM should allow you to spot trends and buying patterns in your customers so that you can enhance your products and manage your inventory accordingly.
Building a better marketing strategy
As a CRM will improve how you collect and filter data, it should further help you with your marketing strategy. It should provide you insights into what a customer is looking for so that you can reach out to your customers with relevant information and ensure that your communication is personalized to each customer.
Better reports and dashboards
Last, but not least, a CRM should provide you with real-time reports that can help you analyze your customer’s behavior, shopping history, payment preferences, demographics, and more. It should help segment customers based on different criteria so that you can run marketing campaigns accordingly and provide a personalized shopping experience to every customer.
As you look for a CRM partner or vendor, follow this guide line by line and you will be able to select the best CRM suitable for your business. There are four main things to consider when looking for a CRM for your business – your business requirements, different functionalities provided by a CRM, data analysis capabilities, and how you want to implement the CRM. Feel free to get in touch with us for any further help & our CRM consultants will be happy to help you.
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