Modern companies collect large amounts of data, from many different sources.
But for this data to be useful, it needs to be organized, easy to analyze and practically usable.
What does CRM mean?
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is software that centralizes and organizes your data from online channels and physical contact surfaces. This is to help you communicate with customers in a better way and increase the growth of your business.
The benefits of CRM systems are many. Which of these have the greatest value varies between companies, departments and use cases.
Within the next five years, 90% of all European companies are expected to use CRM systems. Let’s take a closer look at the reasons for this.
CRM Benefits
1. Get a unified and holistic overview of your data
Centralized data collection and management is a prerequisite for all the benefits a CRM can provide – improved customer relationships, streamlined main processes, etc.
A CRM system compiles all your customer information and other frequently used data. This makes it easy to visualize, act on, report and optimize using it as a starting point.
Your company can easily get a clear view of results, presented in the form of lists, graphs, diagrams, Kanban boards and so on. For example, you can produce visual summaries of how many leads the company generates, deals won, or show which activities a work group is carrying out.
Sales forecasts, information about which leads should be prioritized and other types of insights from the CRM system can also help teams work smarter.
2. Understand your customers better
A CRM strengthens your company from several aspects, based on one and the same core. It gives you a 360-degree view of each customer by offering multiple types of information: profile (name, email address, etc.), demographics, company information, interaction history, and more.
When this information is always available, customer-facing teams can make informed and confident decisions that improve the customer experience at all times.
Because the CRM system records every customer interaction across all channels, trends, preferences, and habits among customers can be identified. This then helps you ensure accurate, proactive communication (think: more effective marketing campaigns or support materials that anticipate customer needs).
The ability to get to know customers faster, in order to ultimately build long-term relationships with them, is one of the most important benefits of CRM systems.
3. Improve customer retention and loyalty
Remember that acquiring new customers is 5-25 times more expensive than retaining existing customers.
Seamless, personalized, and empathetic customer experiences are key to successful customer retention. They’re also the foundation of customer loyalty.
Twilio’s State of Personalization report found that more than half (56%) of consumers say they see themselves becoming repeat customers after a personalized shopping experience. That number is growing 7% annually.
Improved personalization leads to increased customer retention and satisfaction, stronger brand ambassadors, and more word-of-mouth recommendations.
74% of businesses experience increased customer satisfaction as a result of CRM implementation. 47% also experience increased customer retention.
With synchronized teams and comprehensive customer data, it’s easier for your business to create personalized, enjoyable customer experiences that increase retention and loyalty.
4. Improve internal collaboration
Imagine your sales, marketing, and customer service teams working together seamlessly. With a CRM that offers centralized data, metrics, documents, notes, and activities, this is possible.
The sales team can access data from the marketing department’s latest campaigns, customer service can predict customer needs based on past interactions, and everyone can work together in sync.
Problems with information silos and missed opportunities will become a thing of the past. Your teams will now have the ability to work together and make faster decisions thanks to the sharing of data and insights, which improves the customer experience.
5. Attract and convert quality leads
You probably use more than one strategy to generate leads. Perhaps you produce blog content, run advertising campaigns, or organize digital and physical events?
But there may still be questions about which customers you should actually target and what interests them.
A CRM can give you insight into who these people are, what their preferences are, and how/in what way they have previously interacted with your company. Based on this, you can then create customized campaigns that actually appeal to the right audience and lead to conversions.
As you collect more leads, the CRM system also helps you identify which leads have They are graded based on how well they match your ideal customer, ensuring that your sales team only spends time and resources on your most promising leads.
6. Increase sales
Customer Relationship Management systems also have a major impact on business results.
The system provides insights into which leads are most worth investing in and how interactions at each stage of the sales funnel can be improved. This allows your sales team to drive prospects to conversion faster, and at a higher value.
CRM solutions can actually increase revenue by 41% per salesperson, and 81% of all companies experience increased sales after implementing CRM.
The improved customer knowledge that a CRM provides also means it becomes easier to discover new opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
7. Generate reports to make better decisions
By organizing data into different types of CRM dashboards, you can easily generate both detailed and clear reports, to ensure well-planned and satisfying customer experiences.
You can create reports with information about which channels generate the most leads, how well your marketing campaigns convert, ROI, the number of opportunities in your pipeline, revenue generated, customer support trends, and so on. In other words, you can generate data for all different types of decisions.
Users can map their individual results and achievements to see how well they are in line with their goals. Managers can then use these reports to keep track of sales quotas and get a clear view of the overall business results.
8. Increase efficiency through automation
The ability to automate processes is another major advantage of using a CRM. In our CRM Market Status Report, this was the most important functionality for 42% of all companies of all sizes that participated in the survey.
Your teams regularly need to perform time-consuming, repetitive tasks that are prone to errors. This includes everything from data entry to emailing and follow-up work. Automating these processes through a CRM system can free up time for all users.
Marketing teams can use CRM to roll out personalized marketing campaigns at the right time, based on website visitor behavior and activity. This frees up marketers and salespeople from having to make calls or send emails manually, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.
There are also other tools that help increase efficiency. For example, automatic notifications, scheduling features, reminders, and reporting features.
9. Make your business more scalable
The very best CRM systems are scalable, and remain useful even as the amount of data and the number of interactions increases. They simply grow with you.
Such a CRM solution adapts to technological advances and your needs as they evolve.
Build Better Relationships with a CRM
There you have it; the top nine benefits of Customer Relationship Management.
In conclusion, centralized and well-organized CRM data helps companies build more meaningful relationships both internally and externally, which also drives growth.