CRM- customer relationship management was introduced in the early 1990s. It can be defined as an organized approach to growing, administering, and nurturing a profitable relationship with customers.
Business people started using this concept to change from transactional to relational. Maintaining this relationship with customers had a great impact on sales, marketing, after-sale services, etc. World`s first CRM professor Francis Buttle described it as a process that integrates with internal and external networks to create and deliver value to a target customer at a profit.
What is CRM?
First of all, you need to understand what CRM systems are. It is a tool that centralizes all the essential factors such as contact information, identifying sales opportunities, recording service issues, and managing marketing campaigns.
All this data is further distributed among the respected staff members which helps them to analyze & improve their services.
Advantages and disadvantages of CRM system:
Every system has its advantages & disadvantages here are some of the Customer relationship management systems.
Advantages of a CRM system:
Here are some advantages of this system.
1. Better knowledge of customers:
When a business starts maintaining its relationship with existing customers and plans to do the same with its potential customers as well. Then owners start to understand their customer’s behavior and also gain good knowledge about their taste in products.
With this knowledge and understanding of individual’s choice, they will be able to provide better products and services based on the customer’s interest
2. Retain More Customers:
By understanding customers’ buying patterns owners prepare a list of their regular customers who are interacting with them regularly. With this list, they can check customers’ loyalty and sales revenue generated from overall purchases.
3. Better Segmentation:
Customer relationship management has all the data related to a customer’s purchase history. Owners can segmentize a large group of people under the same category based on their taste & type. With these insights, they will be able to enhance the customer’s experience.
4. Minimizes cost:
CRM eliminates labor work such as calculating sales, amount of stock remaining, Number of customers interacted, etc. Traditionally this work was done manually but now with the help of technology, it is replaced with CRM tools. Due to this replacement owners can save a lot of money by avoiding extra & unnecessary labor expenses.
5. Enhance Corporate Image:
Customer relationship management undertakes various factors such as improved customer services, Enhanced customer engagement, and Streamlined sales process, and provides data-driven solutions that help in building and maintaining relations with customers to create a positive business image.
Disadvantages of CRM system:
Here are some disadvantages of this system.
1. Costly process:
CRM is a process that helps you in integrating high-performing software into your system. For this, you should hire an agency that provides you with the best CRM services. Adding extra features and specifications will charge you accordingly.
2. Training:
CRM software is easy to use but not many people have mastered it. Therefore hiring a pre-trained employee can be challenging. That is why many companies train their employees by themselves under an expert which makes this process costly & time-consuming.
3. Eliminates the human element:
It is a fully automated process where a single person can handle multiple tasks using CRM tools. In this time when the rate of employment is decreasing day by day using such a system will replace the human element completely.
Machines are not as smart as humans, they are not able to understand every need of customers which leads to miscommunication and causes a loss of human touch, reducing sales and revenue.
4. Third-party access:
CRM systems store all the confidential data related to customers. This information is essential for companies as they can analyze this data and make decisions based on it making them unique from other brands in the market. For example, if a third party integrates into the systems and misuses the data by selling it to some other company, and causes loss to people.
5. Technical support:
To build such a system you need to have a team of technical experts who can provide you with the best Customer relationship management services, such as marketing communication, customer interactions, activity logging, etc. But mainly companies demand Salesforce & Dynamics CRM services.
- Salesforce CRM services
These services are highly demanded by medium-sized companies including business services, software, and manufacturers. This CRM is capable of managing a company’s interactions with customers through various methods such as Email inquiries, Phone Calls, Communities, and Social Media.
- Dynamic CRM services
It is a Customer Relationship Management Software made by Microsoft to help Businesses by Managing their customer’s databases, engage with them, resolving customer service issues, and generate leads.
Three Most important factors for success in CRM systems:
Customer Relationship Management is a broad concept with many factors that play an important role in making it a successful system. But the main three factors which are to be taken under consideration are Communication, Planning, and Facilitation
1. Planning:
Planning is the first step in any process whether it is to build a system or to start a day. Therefore you need to plan how to incorporate the new CRM into your sales book. choose the best suitable CRM according to your company’s needs and communicate with your team about its usage.
If you are planning to build a whole new customized CRM system then make sure to hire developers who can provide you with the best CRM services. They will help you build a system that integrates smoothly into your existing systems. All these factors should be given equal importance & attention while planning the process. You should ask questions such as
- What is the budget?
- Who will own the system?
- Who will implement the change?
2. Communication:
Communication is key to success in CRM strategies. The word itself explains the importance of communication in customer relationship management. Connecting with customers becomes easier and more impactful when they get in touch by improving vocal relations.
Many times you will see situations where language and body language plays an important role in enhancing businesses’ image. The more gentle and polite a businessman is, the more connected the customer will feel.
3. Facilitation:
CRM systems require flexibility for making necessary changes according to developing technology. Even the finest plan needs a change, you can take consultation from experts to provide various facilities to your customers.
However, you need to constantly stay in touch with your team to ensure and analyze all the changes made by them. To build maximum capacity you need to overcome the biggest challenge of keeping your team on the same page.
This will help you in facilitating and understanding how each sales rep is using the CRM data in real-time to grow revenue and shorten the sales cycle.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, by Using Customer Relationship Management systems you can enhance overall business activities and provide extraordinary service to your customer. By having the right technology and tools you’ll be able to position yourself to adapt and incorporate best practices.
