Benefits of CRM systems for businesses

In today's ultra-competitive markets, the companies that manage customer relationships the best are more likely to win hearts than those that don't. While the technology surrounding customer relationship management may have changed, the goal of making a sale and keeping a customer has not.

At its core, CRM is all about merging marketing efforts with business processes to be able to identify, pursue and manage valuable customer relationships. For companies that are still on the fence about CRM, it's worth considering the benefits CRM systems offer.

Here are few of the biggest advantages.

1)    Efficiency- A well-implemented CRM system can replace manual processes that create significant organizational inefficiencies. Thanks to the ability of CRM platforms, the efficiencies of CRM can enable companies to interact with customers in ways that they wouldn't have the resources to otherwise.

2)    Improved Customer Experience- Today’s customers expect a customized, streamlined experience from beginning to end. They want you to know who they are and to have what they need— without transferring the call and without keeping them waiting.  A customer relationship management system will enable you to quickly identify your customers, address their initial needs and subsequently recommend additional products or services that match their profile.

3)    Increased accountability - When companies lack the tools to manage their customer relationships, customers are bound to fall through the cracks. CRM systems can help ensure that this doesn't happen by adding a layer of accountability to the customer relationship management process.

4)    Focused Marketing Efforts- Rather than taking the mass marketing approach, CRM allows you to focus and fine-tune your marketing efforts to make those efforts more productive. That saves you money, because you aren’t expending resources on individuals who ultimately won’t become customers.

5)    Automated Analytics and Reporting - Whether your business is large or small, chances are you don’t have time to track and analyze the buying habits of every last customer.  The beauty of customer relationship management applications is that they handle that piece of the marketing puzzle for you.

6)    Better Coordination and Cooperation When sales, marketing and customer service share a common CRM platform, they are able to speak the same language with one another. Rather than being separated by systems functionality or access to key information, departments across the organization are able to function more cohesively.

7)    Effective time management - CRM prompts users to follow up on activities and automates alerts when important events occur, or if actions are missed.

8)    Increase Customer Loyalty - Understand your customer needs and expectations by gaining more customer visibility. Keep your customers happy and coming back with repeat purchases, increased renewal rates, and customer retention.

9)    CRM gives a professional image to your business. All businesses want their customers to regard them as professional and it can be the little things such as knowing what your customers usually buy that will help to project this image. Knowing the service or products your customers have purchased also enables you to cross-sell or up-sell any additional services/products that you offer to gain additional value.

10) Customer details are stored in an easy to access place - No more searching for customer information on various databases. Customer relationship software enables all customer details to be stored in the same place which can then be accessed by anyone within the business