CRMs have become incredibly popular in recent years, not only overseas but also in South Africa. Statistics have shown that businesses all around the world have started to adopt CRMs — their usage has gone up from 54% to 72% in the last year alone!
If your business is not using a CRM, there is a risk of falling behind your competition. These powerful systems can be used to create a stronger bond between your business and its customers, streamline your workflow, and even allow your team to collaborate seamlessly across departments and geographical locations.
But, in order to understand what you are truly missing out on, we need to dive deeper into the features that you can expect when integrating a Customer Relationship Management system into your business in 2022.
What is a CRM?
CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management system. These platforms have been developed to allow businesses to launch themselves into the stage of efficiency and productivity. If these systems are integrated properly, they can become the foundation of your business and allow your team to work more effectively than ever before.
Top 8 CRM Features
Below we’ll be diving further into the top 8 features that all modern CRMs provide to their businesses. Each CRM will have their unique strengths and weaknesses, and some may even offer additional benefits to the businesses that use them. But, for now, we’re looking into the main features that will drive your business ahead of the competition once you have invested in a CRM.
1. Contact Management
CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management, so it might come as no surprise that one of the main functions of this system is to manage your list of contacts. But, a CRM can help you to build your contact list by collecting details from your customers. You can then segment this contact list into different groups, allowing you to differentiate between different types of customers and communicate with them accordingly.
2. Reports on Dashboards
With a CRM at the centre of your business, it will collect data from several different avenues. From your website visits the number of views on your latest social media post. All of this data will be collected and displayed in dashboards on your CRM. This allows you to quickly and easily monitor how your business is doing in a specific area such as marketing, sales, or even customer service.
3. Sales Analytics
Your CRM can provide your business with in-depth sales analytics — this is potentially one of its most valuable features. Your team can create better sales campaigns by analysing past results, and your CRM can be used for sales forecasts, deal management, and even sales automation such as follow-up campaigns.
4. Synchronisation and Sharing
CRMs will sync with your outside applications such as Outlook and Google Drive. This allows you to use one platform with several different apps connected to it rather than constantly switching between tabs and applications. With a CRM being the foundation of your business, every member of your team can get access to documents and files that they need directly from the CRM.
5. Marketing Automation
Marketing campaigns can become tricky to manage when you’re using a wide range of different platforms and trying to tie them all together. But, if you’re using a CRM, you can automate these campaigns by connecting your social media channels to your unified system. This allows you to post on different platforms and keep track of your analytics all in one area.
6. Third-Party Integration
Third-party integration is another notable feature that CRMs offer. Whether you use Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet, your CRM will be able to integrate these apps which allows your team to seamlessly work together using the CRM. Some CRMs such as HubSpot can even offer integration with over 500 third-party apps.
7. Campaign Management
Managing a campaign becomes much easier if you’re using a CRM. You can manage the campaign ROI, scheduling, analytics and more directly on your CRM without ever having to leave the system. With advanced analytics and dashboards, you can track your campaign’s progress and make data-driven decisions on the next course of action to take.
8. Project Management
Project management is yet another strength that CRMs will bring to your business. Whether it’s working on a website or chasing up a lead to convert sales, you can use your CRM to keep track of your progress and define clear steps that you need to take. Other team members can easily check in on the progress of any given project without even having to jump into meetings or type emails to their co-workers.
How to Get Started With a CRM
There is a multitude of CRMs to choose from, but it’s not just about choosing the CRM with the most appealing colour scheme. There’s a lot to consider underneath the surface of a CRM. Choosing a CRM is a difficult process, and sometimes you need to consult with an expert to get some guidelines on which CRM you need to integrate into your business. Get in touch with a GoCRM expert for a full breakdown of which CRM you need to choose, and how you can get it implemented into your business as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
