It is no news that every business needs customers. However, you would agree that it is not usually easy to find new customers for your business, especially if your company is still young and in the early stages of growth.
Plus, even after building an enormous customer base, you want to ensure that you treat them like gold, having understood the difficulty you experienced in bringing them in.
That’s why you can’t afford not to have an efficient customer relationship management system in your company; this implies integrating CRM software for all customer interactions. And in case you are wondering what CRM means, see our recent post on the definition of CRM here.
In this article, I’ll share seven key benefits of using CRM software in your business. Now, let’s dive in!
1. Deeper Understanding Of Your customers
One exciting functionality of CRM software is that it allows you to store every possible information about your contacts or leads in one place.
This means that your marketing and customer service teams can easily access a wide range of information about all your leads and customers, including their Full names, phone number, email address, website, postal address, social media handles, as well as other personalized data like their birthdays, job position, etc.
Having all these data will enable your company to create customized interactions with all your contacts. And you can also keep track of customer activities in the past, including their email replies, live chat messages, product purchases, orders, etc. In a nutshell, using a CRM system will help you know your leads and customers better and understand their needs.
2. Effective Segmenting
When it comes to doing business, people always prefer to deal with a perfect system. A perfect system implies a highly organized company in terms of dealing with customers; this is an area where CRM software can be handy.
A CRM software allows you to categorize all your contacts based on specific criteria, making it easier for your sales and marketing team to communicate effectively and close more sales since they can know the exact set of contacts to pitch to and the appropriate time to do so.
Bear in mind that, although it is good practice to market your products, it is also crucial that you sell to the right person.
3. Improved Customer Retention
After spending so much time and effort finding new leads and customers for your business, you need to ensure that you keep them loyal to your brand; just as the saying goes, “it will cost you more to get a new customer than to retain an existing one”.
A CRM tool can help you achieve enhanced customer retention. The software has multiple customer-retention features such as reminders, email campaigns, and follow-up email templates, which allows you to remain consistent in meeting appointments with your customers and doing effective follow-ups for those that need more convincing to purchase a product or service.
CRM software also alerts you to reach out to specific leads that have not been emailed for a while.
4. Predict Future Customer Needs
Imagine your car broke down in the middle of the road and you needed an auto repairer urgently; while in your worried state and contemplating what to do, an auto mechanic just walked towards you with his toolbox ready to offer you service. How would you feel at this point?
- Would you have a feeling of relief, comfort and accept his services or
- Would you get angry and reject the offer?
The logical answer to this question will be option A, right? That’s correct, considering your current condition. Now, this exact scenario applies to marketing.
It is easier to sell to a customer that you’ve known over time because you would have learned so much about their buying habit, their likes, and dislikes.
The CRM software provides you an excellent platform to learn about your customer’s behavior regarding their buying history, the kind of products purchased, how they bought them, and the time of purchase.
Having a good knowledge of your customer’s purchasing history can help you predict what they need at the right time, thereby offering timely products and services and recording more sales.
5. Quicker Communication
Time is of the essence when it comes to responding to customer requests. People always want to be attended to immediately. Nobody likes being delayed; otherwise, you will end up losing your customers to a competitor who can provide a quicker response.
That being said, you need a system that can give instant replies to your customer requests. That is what CRM software can do for your business.
The CRM system comes with a series of customized emails, welcome notes, letters, newsletters, invitations, etc., which are automated and sent to your contacts promptly once triggered.
Your CRM software can also help you schedule important messages and emails to be sent out to specific contacts several weeks or months before time.
6. Improved Data Privacy Protection
The General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) requires that your contacts consent to your communication with them and use of their data. It means you can’t send out any email or call any contact without their permission.
Ensuring that your company complies with GDPR can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with many contacts. However, with CRM software, your company can easily comply with GDPR requirements.
You can quickly generate automated confirmation emails to seek permission from your contacts before adding them to your list. You can also oversee your contact’s subscription status and provide them an option to unsubscribe in case they feel like doing so.
It would be difficult to achieve this manually with a large customer base. Hence a CRM software is highly beneficial here.
7. Detailed Analytics
In addition to helping you gather various customer data, your CRM software also enables you to analyze these data in the form of charts, statistics, and metrics that are easily readable and understandable.
For instance, you can analyze metrics such as bounce rates, unsubscribe rate, click-through rate, engagement, conversion rate, etc. all these analytics help you measure your sales and marketing performance over a given period.
Conclusion,
Your customers are at the core of your business success; hence, the importance of incorporating a CRM system into your business cannot be overstated. When you think of maximum customer satisfaction, think of CRM software.
Want to learn more about incorporating CRM and other software into your business? Then reach out to our online consultants here.