What’s CRM and why do I need it?

Simply put, a Customer Relationship Management Tool is a computer program that manages all of your company’s customer interactions, or potential ones, and organizes them for you. You can use your CRM tools to stay connected to customers, cut back on scattershot advertising, streamline your sales process, and boost your profitability. These tools also save and organize your contacts, sales figures, employee sales data, and much more. What does this mean for small business owners? It represents an easier connection to customers, better leads, personalized advertising, and superior customer support–all things that build loyalty and respect from your clients. As Marcus says, “People for me is the only reason that businesses fail or they survive.” CRMs help you treat your customers better.

1. CRM advances customer service. Businesses big and small have found that adding a Customer Relationship Management Tool improves customer service. Take the email marketing company Mailchimp as an example. With only 100 customer service agents and over 16 million customers, Mailchimp needs to stay on top of customer service to keep their business prosperous. It uses Zendesk CRM to offer 24/5 chat support, 24/7 email support, and self-help options to all of its customers, even those outside of the United States. In 2017, the company used Zendesk to take care of almost 35,000 help tickets every month. (Zendesk, 2020).

3. It helps build retention. Lifelong customers are the best asset a company could have. With a CRM program, your customers’ information is analyzed by up-to-date tools that can give you hyper-specific metrics. You can use those metrics to send personalized messages, targeted ads, and custom email blasts. Most of the time, it displays that info on an easy-to-read dashboard. When a customer feels like they’re engaged personally, they are much more likely to become repeat customers. In fact, some surveys cite that engaged customers are loyal to specific brands at a rate five times higher than unengaged people. (Alida, 2016).

This will allow you to market your business with pinpoint accuracy, even to people you’ve never sold to before. Your business can achieve this focused targeting by sorting your customer base by their behaviors and preferences in addition to gender, age, geographical location and other commonly used demographics. Good software also allows you to personalize your ads with customer names and different verbiage depending on location or age. Say goodbye to “dear customer” and say hello to “Hey John” or “Bonjour Pierre!”

2. Customer data is always available. When all of your information is organized and cataloged in a central location, employees and managers can access it without waiting or jumping through hoops. That depends, of course, on who is allowed to access it. Cloud-based data only requires an internet connection, so a cell phone or a laptop is all that’s needed to run a report or check on an ad campaign’s viability.

To efficiently monitor their massive staff, they rely on Salesforce, a CRM platform, to track their banking, mortgage, credit card, investing, and employee management. After signing on with Salesforce, Wells Fargo’s developer productivity went up 20%, and the company has saved more than 5,600,000 hours of extra work. (Salesforce, n.d.).

4. Modernized invoicing. Financial management tools included in most CRMs can quote prices, prep orders, invoice specific customers, and generate sales data, all from the same platform that your company uses to complete orders. Your expenses are under the same umbrella, too, so your sales can move efficiently, and you’ll never be left wondering when a check is arriving or departing.

5. Automated social media presence. A modern Customer Relationship Management Tool should have options to control all of your social media profiles. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, a CRM tool can automatically post on your behalf, respond to customer questions, and keep your online presence known, freeing up your time for other things.

2. Operational. One of the most popular CRM forms, this tool handles everyday marketing, sales numbers, and your customer service division. It can automate marketing, build leads for you, keep your sales pipeline running smoothly, and automate customer service emails or texts.

3. Analytical. If your company needs to harvest and analyze vast amounts of data, this tool is for you. It focuses on turning prospective clients into purchasers, upselling, retaining your current customers, and tracking interaction data. It does this by analyzing customer behavior and patterns, then offering you a tailor-made marketing or sales plan.

There’s a reason why businesses spent 48.2 billion dollars on CRM software in 2018, making it the most significant and fastest-growing enterprise software in the world. (Moore, 2019). Understanding and managing your customer data makes companies more efficient and helps them understand their customers better. At the end of the day, it’s easy to see why information is so important in our modern, digital world–customers leave bread crumbs of data everywhere. It’s up to business owners to figure out how to use those clues to maximize sales and retain their clients. It’s like Marcus says, “If you don’t know your numbers, you don’t know your business.” Luckily, CRM tools can make sense of those numbers for you so you can focus your energy on growing your business.