Equal parts strategy and technology CRM is all about using data to understand customers and improve sales. Its success depends on the business creating and implementing a plan for using CRM tools.
CRM is a tool for software that lets businesses keep track of prospect and customer data and monitor interactions as well as automate marketing campaigns and generate reports. It lets companies communicate and interact with customers and prospects via a variety channels such as text messages, email, and other social media platforms.
Although many associate CRM with sales, the reality is that it can be utilized by any department in a business. For example the finance and billing departments can use CRM to monitor commissions, review contracts, and compare sales projections with actual revenue. Marketing departments can utilize it to spot trends to better target customers.
Sales teams create a tsunami of information each whenever they interact with the customer, talk to the new prospect, or follow up with leads. Traditionally, this information was put into unconnected or analog media such as laptops and notebooks or just stayed in the team members head. CRM systems permit this data to be systematically collected and stored in one place that is instantly shared with all of the company’s representatives, regardless of which channel they’re interacting on.
And the most advanced CRMs are now integrated with AI and machine learning in order to interpret the data and provide actionable insights for each opportunity. In this way, businesses can enhance the customer experience, boost engagement, and improve loyalty and retention.