6 Reasons Your Business Needs CRM Software
Should your company invest in CRM software?
While every aspect of your business deserves attention, customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most important. How you form and keep the interactions between you and your customers makes the difference in retaining them. At the same time, you need to build new leads and prevent people from bouncing away to one of your competitors.
In today's global economy, if you aren't on top of your game when it comes to the customer experience, you risk losing out. CRM software is one tool worth investing in because it improves the customer pipeline in several ways.
Customer retention increases about 26 percent when implementing CRM software. Churn is a real concern for most business owners. Losing just one or two big clients can make or break your company. However, even retaining the smallest ones helps you grow and attract more via referrals.
There are numerous reasons why you should invest in CRM software. Here's why your business needs this type of software and how it will benefit you in the long run:
1. Elevate Your Internal Communication
Even though CRM software improves the relationship between you and your customers, it is also a vital internal tool that allows departments to work better with one another. Sales doesn't have to wonder what marketing is doing because the database indicates the purpose of a particular promotional campaign. Marketing can pull up past sales figures and see trends so they can tailor things to the right demographic.
In addition to helping sales and marketing communicate better, CRM software allows leadership to understand the complexities of the relationships with each client. It can make changes that improve outreach and retention.
2. Reduce IT Costs
In the past, you may have had to hire a full IT team to keep your databases up to date and not lose vital customer information. However, around 87 percent of current CRMs function in the cloud. This means remote IT management and fewer people you have to hire to keep information up-to-date and the system working smoothly. You'll save money on technology costs by using a ready-built system that doesn't have to be created from scratch.
When you reduce IT costs, you can place that money into other areas of your business, such as training your sales team or creating team-building opportunities. Perhaps you need to upgrade your own equipment and the extra funds allow you to do so.
3. Increase Productivity
Implementing companywide CRMs helps increase productivity because time isn't wasted trying to track down information needed to complete a task. In addition, CRM software creates consistent interactions between different departments and patterns become recognizable, allowing people to work more independently and saving time. All information is in a single location.
You don't have to allow every employee to see your entire database. However, you can certainly create customized settings so they can see the information most pertinent to completing their work.
4. Understand Your Customers Better
About 75 percent of customers say they're more likely to do business with a company after a positive experience. A CRM streamlines all the data about your clients. If a tech is out in the field, they simply pull up information and can see at a glance if someone had previous complaints and if those issues were resolved. The salesperson may look over notes before going into a meeting with a potential big client. They can access personal detail notes about the person, what previous contacts have tried that failed or what has already been promised.
A customer who feels important and heard is much more likely to do business with you than one who feels they are starting from scratch every time.
5. Automate Daily Tasks
Some tasks get repeated over and over again. A good CRM system automates some of them and frees up time for more creative endeavors. Think about the steps for an order, such as filling out a form, sending a report and figuring out the logistics of delivery. A CRM takes over management of many of these tasks and speeds up the entire process. Use the extra time to seek new customers, train your employees better or add new elements to what you already offer. How might your business grow if you had more time to focus on the creative side of running things?
6. Remove Miscalculations
Have you given an estimate to a potential client only to discover some vital piece of information was left out? You can't possibly offer that price without losing money yourself. CRM software creates reports and runs statistics for you, removing the potential for human error. There's nothing more embarrassing than going back to a lead and telling them you can't give them the price you quoted after all. You are almost certain to lose their business forever with that approach. However, with CRM software, you can work up an accurate quote and potentially gain new business.
Invest in CRM Software
Should your company invest in CRM software? Although managing customers through systems is beneficial to any size business, the software isn't free. If you've reached a point where you can't keep track of them, then it's probably time to look into some CRM solutions. There are many different companies out there, and each one offers a variety of price points. Start small and scale up with additional features and space as your business and client base grows.