Customer-centric experiences are a huge part of business today, with the increasing focus on how businesses can manage that experience for their customers.
As discussed in our previous piece, a business interacts with customers in different ways, depending on the journey that customer has had in relation to that business.
Keeping track of these different interactions with a strategy actioned by CRM software can have a number of benefits for the business.
Better Customer Knowledge
CRMs can be seen as cheat sheets for businesses when it comes to dealing with their customers. Former US President Franklin Roosevelt was famous for recalling significant events in the lives of people he met, a feat which endeared him to people greatly. In fact, it was all the work of his campaign manager, who had created files on everyone that FDR was due to meet, creating a cheat sheet, often cited as an example of CRM implementation for the former President, helping to create powerful and personal interactions.
CRMs allow businesses to create those powerful and personal interactions with every single one of their customers in a number of ways, as outlined below.
Customer Grouping
Every customer is an individual. This should be reflected in how a business interacts with its customers.
CRM software allows customers to be grouped according to the data held on them. This means a business can break their data down into different categories and criteria. The result of this is a targeted interaction with specific groups of customers, creating a highly personalised pitch.
Increased Customer Retention
CRM keeps track of customers and crucially, how long it’s been since they had any interaction with the company. Identifying those customers and reaching out is likely to increase retention by reminding customers of additional value services.
Proactive Interaction
Data is the lifeblood of any modern customer-centric business. The data provided by a CRM will provide invaluable insight and help you stay on top of interactions.
A CRM provides a place where the entire team can look, to proactively discover a client’s needs before an interaction takes place. This can be anything from offering support on a new purchase, to using data gathered by a marketing department to suggest complementary purchases.
Supercharged Communication
In all forms of relationship, it’s a well-used troupe that communication is key. With a CRM, communication with customers is optimised.
CRMs can provide automated marketing communication and automated inbound communication responses. This not only speeds up response time and response rate but has been shown to be a key metric in customer engagement.
Compliance
The caveat to the data revolution is that we must be careful how we store and use people’s personal information. GDPR guidelines are strict and the penalties for breaching them can be rightly severe.
CRMs offer a way of managing data in a way that complies with the latest legislation, including managing email preferences, obtaining permission and automated notifications to customers about the storage of their data.
There is not only a benefit for companies in implementing a CRM protocol but also in the additional value provided in it when considered as an investment proposition.
In our next piece, we will explore the hidden values of CRM.
