Good organization of work is the basis for achieving the best possible results. An important issue in this topic is the adaptation of appropriate tools that will help improve the performance of the organization. CRM system or Customer Relationship Management in literal translation means customer relationship management.
Have you wondered what impact a well-chosen and configured CRM system will have on your company?
Why is it so important to define your needs and good market research in terms of the capabilities of a given solution?
In the following article, you will learn more about CRM systems and which one to choose for your company.
What Is A CRM?
To begin with, it is worth explaining in detail what a CRM system is and the benefits of incorporating this technology into a company’s operations.
In a nutshell, CRM software is a set of tools that allow you to manage contact with customers.
It is extremely helpful in establishing, maintaining, and improving communication between representatives of the organization with its customers.
This technology allows you to identify customers, collect their data (address, financial, sales data), and create a personalized offer
For specific audiences. Building a history of customers is an important activity, especially for marketing, sales, or customer service departments, but nurturing customer relations is not the only goal we can achieve with such a tool.
The introduction of CRM class software will significantly organize sales and marketing processes in the company, measure the effectiveness of activities and automate them.
Why Should Every Company Have A CRM?
CRM systems are dedicated to both small, medium, and large companies. However, not all software will be effective for every organization. CRM systems differ significantly from each other and have functions that your company does not necessarily need.
Due to the diversity of industries, needs in companies, as well as the huge range of possibilities for sales activities, before incorporating the chosen technology into the organization’s operations, it is worth considering for what purpose we need it and what problems it is supposed to solve.
CRM can be divided, based on the functions and role it plays in the company.
1. The first is the communication function, which facilitates the flow of information and customer history within the company and contacts with customers.
2. The second is an operational function to automate sales and marketing processes.
3. The last is an analytics function that gives the ability to analyze data related to the company’s activities in real-time.
CRM systems can be generally described as technical help for a company. Its tools help collect customer information and create a special database.
It contains such information as a customer card, sales opportunities, emails, a collection of offers and orders, and all documents – the collected information can be used by sales, marketing, or customer service departments.
If you’re wondering what CRM system to choose, think about what problems your company might be facing and what data will help solve them. The technology we are talking about flows out, among other things:
- Improving sales processes;
- Improving work organization;
- Establishing and maintaining customer relationships;
- Speeding up the duties performed;
- Increasing the security of customer’s corporate data (collecting it in a database reduces the risk of lost documents);
- Collect up-to-date reports and effectively measure the sales activities undertaken;
- Gathering information for the company about product inventory and prices;
- employee time management;
- structured knowledge of customers and partners.
A well-chosen CRM system should have a high degree of flexibility and scalability, that is, the ability to adapt the chosen technology to the company’s needs as it grows.
A user-friendly interface, easy integration, and easy-to-use tools are also good features. Simply buying even the most expensive software will not bring success.
The important thing is to tailor it to the company’s needs and apply it appropriately and translate the company’s existing processes into the system (The system is tailored for the company, not the company adapting to the system).
Before implementation, it is worthwhile at the outset to consider what your company’s business vision is, to determine the long-term goals of the organization, and to describe its processes.
Once the system is implemented, it’s a good idea to constantly observe changes and make updates.
Read This Article: CRM Strategy: 8 Steps To Design And Implement An Effective Strategy
Benefits Of Implementing A CRM System
A CRM system for companies allows you to improve the functioning of the entire organization, and its implementation and proper use can bring real benefits to both the company and its employees.
Benefits For The Company
The most important benefits of CRM for a company are:
1. Creating a communication strategy
Improving communication within the company, streamlining the process of attracting potential customers, collecting all information about cooperation with customers, creating a database, and significantly improving the quality of customer service.
2. Work organization
Increase efficiency in the company, convenient scheduling of activities and working time, management of employees and faster replacement of absentees, navigation of information to one place, mobile scheduling of meetings and events, synchronization with mail, easy data analysis, automatic creation of reports.
3. Security
Information security in CRM-class systems is most often guaranteed by extensive privilege management, secure user login, automatic security copies, and regular updates.
4. Cost reduction
Automation of many activities increases productivity by eliminating ineffective sales and marketing activities. At the same time, thanks to deep analytics, you save time and resources and the sales department can focus on leads that are promising and converting – not wasting time on customers who won’t buy anything shortly.
Benefits For The Employee(s)
We have already mentioned most of the advantages. However, CRM systems also have benefits aimed specifically at employees.
These include the ability to better organize one’s work, organize sales and marketing processes, access the customer base, and obtain information faster.
What Are The Risks Of Choosing An Inadequate CRM System?
Sometimes companies decide to choose a CRM system without being fully aware of what capabilities it has.
An important consideration before purchasing the software is to plan exactly how the system is going to improve the company’s work.
Awareness of how sales processes work and how sales representatives build relationships with customers can help in the right choice of software.
What can influence the selection of an inadequate CRM system?
- Choosing the wrong supplier.
- No idea how to apply CRM.
- Trying to adapt the company to the tool, rather than the tool to the company.
- Poor employee induction or a complete lack of training on how the new software works.
- Poorly matched system to actual company demand
Answering the question: what is the danger of choosing an inadequate CRM system? It can certainly state that it is the lack of any results. An ill-fitting system will not solve any real problems for the company.
The lack of a specific goal will not lead us to its solution, but will only cause problems and unnecessary activities that can backfire on the company’s budget.
The same goes for poor training of employees, who as a result will not know how to use the new tools.
In the worst case, the chosen system will become just a database/repository with customer history and an unpleasant chore for employees.
Summary
In this era of widespread digitization, a CRM system is a “must-have” tool for any company, regardless of its size. It is a very useful tool, but only if it is used for a specific, planned purpose.
The technology should be tailored to the company, not the company to the system – in other words, CRM should complement and facilitate existing work, it should be implemented, not “launched.”
And the last, very key point is that for the system to bring real benefit to the company, it should be selected according to the needs of its key users. First and foremost, the salespeople who use it daily.