Customer Relationship Management

5 benefits of using a good CRM tool

Benefits of using CRM

As a business, your customers are your number one asset. No matter what industry you’re in, what your focus is, your product or service offering, your customers must be at the center of everything you do. It’s your customers that give your business a sense of purpose and direction. Their feedback is the rudder that steers your business ideals and serves as a springboard for product or service innovations. It’d be amiss if we ignored the revenue that they brought in. When it’s all said and done, profit is the reason you’re in business. It follows then that customers should be the number one focus of any business. This means more than simply offering appreciation. It’s about understanding their needs, wants and behavior. And that’s where a good CRM tool comes in.

The relationships that you cultivate with your customer base will determine whether your business lasts or not. And any successful relationship is built on knowing one another as best as possible. So how do businesses get to know their customers? Information. Collecting this information can be a difficult and painstaking task and the buck doesn’t stop there. Once the information has been collected, it has to be analyzed and processed into workable feedback. As such, investing in a high quality customer relationship management tool is a must for any business that wants to build into its business-customer relationship. Here are 5 clear benefits of using a good CRM tool that can help take your business to the next level.

More efficient data collection

The more you know about your customers, the more chance you have of giving them what they want. Every interaction that they have with your business needs to be identified and documented. 2017 means we’ve moved beyond sticky notes and filing cabinets as businesses start to use organizational technology that accurately quantifies and categorizes data for future reference and makes that data available across the business. CRM tools make all of this possible. Consider the scenario where one of your employees is engaged with a customer. Your employee will have access to said customer’s details, purchasing history, and previous interactions with the business at the click of a button, allowing the employee to make instant, actionable decisions. This is sure to lead to greater efficiency all around.

Improved customer communication

Using the example from the previous paragraph, let’s say that the customer returns with a different query a few weeks later. They now face the prospect of starting over with a new employee, who has to relearn all of the previous interactions. With CRM software, this is a non-argument since every one of your employees will have access to the same customer data and therefore provide the same high level of customer service. As such, it doesn’t matter who is currently assisting the customer, because they’ll be working from the same information. And given that most CRM tools these days are cloud-based, this communication is not limited to the office.

Improved customer service

Your customers’ time is valuable. You risk hurting your reputation if you’re not sensitive to this. Should a customer experience a problem that needs resolution, they’re going to be unhappy if the problem isn’t dealt with swiftly. CRM software reduces this risk. It can notify your employees as soon as a customer makes contact and allows your employees to pull all available activity and data on the customer in question. This will empower your employees to bring solutions to the table extremely quickly – it’s immediate and efficient. And it likely means a happy customer.

Automation of the mundane

Closing a sale is never as easy as getting a customer to commit. There are hundreds of smaller background tasks that go into making a sale. Documents need to be filled out, reports need to be generated, legal issues need to be addressed. These are all necessary, but extremely time consuming. The best CRM tools are designed specifically to remove the burden of these tasks from the shoulders of your employees, whether through the magic of AI, or automation. This frees up your employees to focus on what matters, closing leads and resolving customer communications.

Improved data analysis

Misconstrued data should never be a stumbling block to the success of your business. A CRM tool will be able to store information in one place, which automatically means more efficient analysis. Most tools are also seamlessly integrated into other tools, plugins or business infrastructure and have the ability to generate automatic reports – a huge time saver. Personalized dashboards will have your employees accessing customer information quickly and without fuss. Better analysis ultimately means better data. With it, you’re likely to be able to make more effective and insightful decisions regarding your customers and your business.

The customers are the most important part of your business and keeping them happy should be your top priority. Don’t put your business at risk and invest in a quality CRM tool that’ll help show your clients that you care. The CRM process shouldn’t be about working harder, but smarter. Read more on the benefits of CRM in our latest article on the subject.

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