1. What is CRM Software?

CRM is a technology used to manage all your company’s interactions and relationships with customers and prospects. The aim is to improve Business relationships. CRM systems help companies stay connected with customers, simplify processes, and increase profitability. CRM systems are usually referred to as CRM platforms, which are tools that help manage contact, sales, and productivity. With CRM software, you can track and monitor a customer’s interaction with your business throughout their entire lifecycle, from finding new customers to winning their business and providing additional services. This can help to refine each customer’s journey and experience. To learn more about CRM software, check out the world’s best CRM system, Salesforce.

2. Who is CRM software for?

 CRM software helps companies of all sizes to drive business growth. From sales to customer service, from business development to recruiting, and from marketing to any other business line of business, a CRM system provides a better way of managing the relationships and interactions that drive success. CRM software stores customer and prospect contact details, identifies sales opportunities, records service issues, and manages marketing campaigns in one central location. It also makes information about each customer interaction available to everyone at your company who may need it. With more visibility and easy data access, it’s easier to work together and improve productivity. Everyone in your company can view how customers have been contacted, what they have purchased, when they last bought, what they paid for, and much more. CRM solutions can be especially useful for small businesses, where teams often struggle to find more with less. Here’s how and why you should use CRM software for your small business, plus some tips and tricks for getting started.

3. Why is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) so important for your business?

 CRM software is one of the largest and fastest growing enterprise application software categories in the world. By 2027, global spending on CRM software is expected to reach $114.4 trillion. If you want your business to survive, you need a future strategy that’s built around your customers and powered by the right tech. You have sales goals, business goals, and profitability targets. But how do you keep up to date, accurate information about your business’s performance? How do you turn the countless streams of data coming from sales, customer support, marketing, social media monitoring, and more into useful business insights?

A CRM system gives you a 360-degree view of your customers. It’s all in one easy-to-use dashboard that tells you what customers have done with you in the past, what’s happening with their orders, if there’s an outstanding customer service issue, and more. You can even include information from your customers’ public social media activity – what they are liking and disliking, what they’re sharing about you, or your competitors. With a CRM solution, marketers can manage and optimize their campaigns and lead journeys using a data-driven strategy. They can better understand their sales pipeline and prospects coming in – making forecasting easier and more accurate. You’ll have a clear view of every opportunity or potential customer, and a clear path from enquiries to sales. Some of the biggest improvements in productivity and the biggest shifts in customer-centricity come when you move beyond CRM as a sales or marketing tool and embed it into your entire business – from finance to customer service and supply chain management – so that your customers’ needs are at the heart of every business process and innovation cycle.

Running a business without a CRM software can be costly. With more admin, less time is available for everything else. With an active sales team, you can generate a lot of data. Your reps are out in the field, talking to customers, seeing prospects, and learning valuable information. But all too often, this information is written down in handwritten notes, on laptops, or inside your salespeople’s heads. Without a CRM, details get lost, meetings don’t follow up on time, and prioritizing your customers becomes a guesswork exercise rather than a fact-based process. And it’s not just your sales that suffers without a CRM. Your customers may be calling, emailing, or contacting you on a variety of platforms to ask questions, follow up on an order, or contact you about a problem. Without a single platform for customer interaction, communications can be lost or lost in a sea of information — resulting in a slow or even unsatisfactory response.

Even if you manage to gather all of this information, you’re still going to have a hard time understanding it. It’s going to be hard to get the information you need. Reports are going to be difficult to create. They’re going to take up a lot of your selling time. You won’t be able to keep an eye on what your teams are doing, which means you can’t give them the support they need when they need it. You won’t have the oversight you need, which means you won’t have the accountability you need.

4. What is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

 CRM solutions are designed to help you attract, acquire, and retain new customers and prospects. They organise customer and prospect data to build stronger relationships and help you grow your business more quickly. CRM systems begin by collecting customer information from a variety of sources and channels, such as websites, email, phone records, social media, and more. They may also automatically collect other information, like recent company news, and store personal details such as a customer’s personal preferences when it comes to communications. The CRM tool then organizes this information to provide you with a comprehensive record of people and companies, allowing you to gain a better understanding of your customer relationship in the long run. Today’s CRM solutions are more flexible and integrate with your preferred business tools, like document signing and billing, as well as surveys. This allows information to flow in both directions, providing you with a comprehensive 360-degree customer view.

A CRM can help you: Improve your bottom line Identify and categorize leads Add new leads quickly and easily Prioritize opportunities that will generate sales Identify leads that require more nurturing and turn them into quality leads Increase your customer base CRM applications have been proven to increase: The average percentage of improvements reported by Salesforce customers Data from the 2014–2016 Salesforce Customer Relationship Survey (10,500+ randomly selected customers). Different response sizes per question.

With comprehensive, precise, and centrally accessible client and prospect data, sales and marketing teams can focus their efforts and resources on the right clients 3. Increase Referrals from Existing Customers By gaining a better understanding of your customers, cross-sell and upsell opportunities become clearer — giving you the opportunity to acquire new business from existing clients.

With improved visibility, you will be able to ensure that your customers are satisfied with your service. Satisfied customers are more likely to remain customers, and they are more likely to spend more, with some studies showing that repeat customers spend up to 33%. Provide better customer support Today’s customers demand fast, personalized support, no matter what time of day it is or night it is. With a CRM system, you can provide the quality service that your customers expect. Your agents will be able to see what products your customers have ordered quickly, and they will have a record of each interaction so that they can provide customers with answers quickly. Improve your customer’s experience In addition to customer service, a CRM can also help you improve your products and services. A good CRM will collect information from a wide range of sources throughout your business and outside of it. This will give you unprecedented insight into how customers feel about your organization and what they say about it. This will help you to improve your offerings, identify problems sooner, and fill in any gaps.

Customer management solutions can accelerate and enhance how you find, win, and delight your customers. Want to sell more, quicker? Skip ahead. Watch our interactive video to see how Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with Salesforce can not only help you win customers, but also find them and delight them. How a CRM Can Future-Proof Your Business As the pandemic has shown, a company’s ability to adapt to external changes can make or break its success. While some businesses have failed, others have successfully pivoted and adapted their products or services in a new way to reach customers, gaining a new customer base. Some have even grown, such as in ecommerce, logistics and pharmaceuticals. In all these cases, the customer is at the heart.

Google India’s Country Head and Vice President, Sanjay Gupta, says, “India is a country with a low internet penetration of around 33%. The rapid digitization of the country will see an increase in the number of online transactions. In June 2020 alone, 1.34 trillion online transactions took place, which is an increase of 80 to 90% compared to the year before.” What can a unified CRM system do for a business? A robust CRM can ensure that your business is prepared for the era of connected consumers, who expect a consistently high-quality experience throughout the entire customer journey. With 66% of today’s millennial consumers expecting real-time answers and interactions, 40% of customers will not do business with you if you can’t provide them with their preferred communication channels. A unified CRM system that stores all of these interactions across devices and timeframes will improve the overall customer experience.

Responding quickly to customer needs is essential for the customer experience. Edelweiss global wealth management has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating digital transformation and adoption, ensuring customers continue to access their funds and financial advisors 24/7. Edelweiss has also increased the adoption of the salesforce mobile app across its workforce, adding an extra layer of security to ensure transactions are secure. All employees are now using the app to access customer and transaction data directly on their mobile devices for agile execution and continuous customer service. The salesforce mobile app also records customer calls, allowing employees to stay on top of customer needs and feedback throughout the process. To deliver an engaging and unbeatable customer experience through hyper-personalization, businesses must ensure that every interaction is personalized to the customer. 61% of the millennial generation are willing to share personal data, which leads to a more personalized shopping experience.

Hyper-personalization refers to actually personalizing products; offering specific products in specific locations based on trending; personalizing communications based on omnichannel data; or engaging in real-time. According to 84% of customers, being treated as a person rather than a number is extremely important to them. The meaningful engagement that hyper-personalization provides can result in a better customer experience, which in turn leads to higher user satisfaction and higher sales.

AI-Powered CRMS Can Improve Decision-Making and Productivity Businesses can use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make smarter, faster decisions. 64% of customers expect personalized engagement based on previous interactions. Marketing AI can collect data from interactions to determine what messaging your customers will likely respond to. 71% of customers have used multiple channels to initiate and complete one transaction. AI tracking across media and devices is essential for sales. 68% of customers prefer self-service channels (knowledge bases or customer portals) for simple questions or queries. 4. Leverage the Internet of Things (IOT) to Improve Customer Engagement With connected devices everywhere, a steady stream of data can enter the CRM platform

Retention is tied to a company’s bottom line. Eighty-nine percent of customers are more likely to stay loyal to a company they trust, and sixty-five percent have stopped buying from a company they don’t trust. GEP is a leader in procurement software, strategy, and managed services for the Fortune 500 companies. Each of GEP’s customers faced challenges during COVID-19, from supply chain disruptions to lockdowns and wild fluctuations in demand. For example, a consumer products company needed to expand its supply chain to accommodate double digit growth in demand. A technology firm experienced procurement disruption, as suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers could not source components and raw materials. GEP’s Customer Support Operations team worked quickly and efficiently from home around the world to support all customers. The consumer goods company was able to meet the sudden surge in demand, while the equipment manufacturer quickly sourced new suppliers and significantly reduced risk in their supply chain. Since March to June 2020, GEP’s service team has improved its service level agreement (SLA) by 5%. Case resolution time has decreased by 23%.

A CRM can ensure your business is ready for the future by connecting you to your customers – hyper-personalized interactions that are visible across your business teams, data-driven from connected devices and AI-driven, all designed to boost retention by addressing your customers’ individual needs.

5. CRM Infographics What is a cloud based CRM system?

 CRM and cloud computing have revolutionized the way businesses operate. Perhaps the biggest change in the CRM industry has been the shift from on-premise CRM software to the cloud. No longer does software need to be installed on hundreds of thousands of desktop computers or mobile devices. Instead, organizations around the world are discovering the advantages of transferring data, software and services into a cloud-based environment. Work from anywhere Cloud based CRM systems like Salesforce (What is Salesforce?) ensure that all users have the same information at all times. Your sales teams on the go can review data, update it immediately after a meeting or work from anywhere in the world. Reduce costs A cloud-based system can be implemented quickly and easily. No hardware is needed to set up the system, reducing IT costs and removing the need for version control and change schedules.

Generally, cloud based CRM platforms are priced based on how many users are using the system and what kind of features you require. This is extremely cost-effective and flexible, allowing you to scale and add more users as your business expands. Salesforce is also flexible in functionality. You don’t pay for features you don’t use. What a Cloud-Based CRM Platform Offers: Faster Deployment Automatic Software Updates Cost-Effective and Scalable Ability to Work From Anywhere, Anytime Increased Collaboration.