You’ve probably heard of CRM, but perhaps you don’t know what it consists of and how it can be a great asset for your organisation. CRM stands for Client Relationship Manager and broadly speaking it’s a system in which you can manage relationships with your customer base. When harnessed effectively, a CRM system helps businesses and organisations strengthen their customer relationships, and streamline communications, thereby improving their customer service, increasing sales, and ultimately increasing their profitability. In fact Gartner has predicted that by 2021, CRM technology will become the largest revenue area of spending in enterprise software. So here we outline its purposes and its strengths.
Why Have a CRM?
When CRM is referenced, it’s likely that a person is referring to CRM software. This is a digital tool designed for managing contacts, sales, productivity and other matters. The best CRM software works to digitise and automate labour-intensive tasks, thereby improving overall efficiency and success levels when it comes to managing customer relationships. The premise is quite simple: as your business grows it makes sense to possess one central forum where all useful information can cohabitate and be accessed. A business can becomes more efficient if its team members can have vital information at their fingertips and everyone is on the same page. A successful CRM system provides its users with a detailed record of its clients or customers, enabling them to have an improved understanding of the relationship over time.
The best CRM software delivers a complete 3D view of each customer by capturing his or her communications and interactions with the business, which in turn leads to greater communication. By seeing all the information you might need for a customer in one location – namely via a customizable dashboard, you can develop stronger relationships and keep track of your customers with more ease, which is the vital component for customer acquisition and retention.
The Benefits of CRM
The benefits of CRM will differ depending on the nature of your business or organisation. Traditionally speaking CRM software has been an important tool for sales and marketing departments. But there are undoubtedly gains to be made in many other areas, including human resources, supply chain and customer service. When the collection and organisation of customer data remains a task carried out by human hands, mistakes are common. By contrast, leading CRM tools work to help you understand and assist your customers, even when data about them may be incomplete. CRM software helps businesses improve their informational organization, elevate their communications, improve data analysis and reporting, and automate labour-intensive tasks.
Overall, leading CRM software leads to happier customers and improved profits. CRM tools can organise the multitude of communications and sales information that flows through your organisation, effectively managing customer relationships to provide value to your brand and business. Get in touch with LATERAL to learn more about how our next generation automation software can help you thrive.