The business world is raging about CRMs, but not everyone has a full understanding of why these systems have become so important in our modern world. Customer Relationship Management systems have been adopted by thousands of businesses all around the world, but why?
Here are the top six benefits of a CRM:
- Centralised data system
- Solidified customer relationships
- Increased customer retention
- Data-driven decision making
- Automation
- Streamline workforce
CRMs might be expensive, but, if you’re not using one then you’re likely to fall behind your competition. If you still need some convincing about why these systems are so powerful and essential in the modern business landscape, keep reading to find out why you need one!
The Top Benefits to Expect From a CRM
We know about all the reasons that would hold you back from getting a CRM, but what about the reasons why you should? As with anything in life, there’s a trade-off with implementing a CRM into your business. Let’s take a closer look at the advantage that a CRM will provide to your business.
1. Centralised Data System
With a CRM at the core of your business, it becomes a system that can start collecting data for you. Having knowledge and data about your customers will be key in making important decisions that will drive your business in the right direction. It’ll also help you to get more personal with your customers, which is something that they’ll appreciate.
From the moment a customer visits your website and shows an interest in your business, to the moment they purchase a product, your CRM can collect crucial pieces of information about your target audience. From the posts that they like to the emails that they don’t even open.
All of this data allows you to build a profile for each person in your contact list. This will allow you to segment your contact list and target them with personalised marketing campaigns — something that we’ll get into shortly.
2. Solidified Customer Relationships
With all of this important data carefully stored away in your CRM, you’re on your way to making the most out of personalised email marketing. People don’t want to receive emails from info@company.com, they want to hear from Mike at GoCRM for example. This adds a more human touch to your marketing which people react more positively to.
Did you know that 70% of people feel frustrated when they receive irrelevant emails? Forbes has compiled over 50 stats that prove just how powerful personalised marketing can be, and having a CRM is the first step to getting that marketing campaign up and running.
Email marketing is the best way to hook your audience, and connect with different target markets at the same time. It’s one of the most effective tactics that’s even used by some of the biggest businesses in the world like Adidas, Amazon, and closer to home, Takealot!
3. Increased Customer Retention
If customers feel like they’re being treated in a more human way, they’re much more likely to return to a business. The key to this is having good customer service. Have you ever been to a good restaurant, but their service was incredibly slow and the waiters were rude? Would you go back?
It’s the exact same with a business. You might have an excellent product, but if your service is poor then your customers will be left unsatisfied. They’re also likely to look for another business that does the same thing but has friendlier staff and quick service. This is especially relevant to businesses that offer a service!
With a CRM, you can keep track of when your customers have bought a product or service, and then send them a follow-up when it’s time to renew. For example, if your business sells pet supplies, you can enter customer data into your CRM. When a customer buys tick and flea treatment for their dogs, you can automatically remind them to buy the product again three months later when their current tick and flea treatment reaches the end of its lifecycle.
4. Data-driven Decision Making
We already know that CRMs collect a ton of data from customers, but they also give you insights into your financials, project management, and marketing. This allows you to get an overview of your entire business, and it gives you an idea of where you can improve going forward.
For example, you can use your CRM to see where most of your website traffic is coming from. If you notice that your Facebook page isn’t doing well at directing traffic, you can either choose to put more focus on your other marketing channels, or you can try something different with your Facebook marketing to see if there’s a change in how people react to your marketing.
All of this data is displayed in neat graphs and tables on your CRM, which allows you to make data-driven decisions on what’s best for your business and target audience, rather than just guessing or following the latest trends.
5. Automation
Earlier, we lightly touched on automatically sending an email to your customer when their tick and flea treatment runs out and it’s time to renew their product. Well, this is also an example of automation, which is something that most CRMs excel at.
Automation can help to save your team valuable time and effort by reducing the number of smaller, less important tasks and allowing them to focus on the bigger tasks that are more important to the success of your business.
Another example of automation is when a customer tries to contact your customer service team outside of working hours. You can set up a simple chatbot to help customers and answer their questions even when no one is online. If they still need assistance, the customer service team will automatically be informed the next time they’re online.
Automation is one of the most important features that a CRM can provide to a business. As long as your CRM is integrated properly and you’ve got the right automations set up, you’ll see an incredible change in your business’ efficiency and productivity.
6. Streamlined Workforce
Having a CRM will streamline your workforce by allowing them to collaborate on projects across departments and geographical locations. Because all of your team members are using one unified system, everyone can see everything that’s happening in the organisation, including the history of a project, how long the team has been working on it, and much more.
CRMs will also allow you to integrate third-party applications into the system. Most of the popular productivity apps like Slack, Zoom, and even Google Docs can be supported by major CRMs, which allows your team to spend more time working, and less time switching between tabs and apps that slow their devices down.
Final Thoughts
The list of benefits that a CRM brings to your business continues on much longer than the six benefits we’ve seen above. It’s difficult to truly understand the extent of how much of an advantage your business will get from implementing a CRM until you take that leap of faith and try it out for yourself. Get in touch with a GoCRM expert for more information about CRMs or to get started with a CRM as soon as possible.
