Should I be using a CRM?

A business’ CRM (or Customer Relationship Management system) can take your productivity and overall sales to the next level. Small and large businesses alike are using CRM systems to help improve their business for a number of reasons. 

But there is one huge benefit of using a CRM, and the clue is in the name. If your business values customer relationships, then you’ll likely need a CRM to help you take your business to new heights. 

If you’re a service based business or focused on long term sustainable growth, a CRM will play a huge part in the success of your business and lead generation efforts.

By valuing your relationships with your customers, you’ll be building customer loyalty which leads to customer retention. A CRM simply enables you to track your customers’ behaviour, allowing you to provide the best possible service.

In fact, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service, according to Super Office.

A solid CRM enables you to communicate with your customers wherever they are, many CRMs are built to work with a variety of communication and marketing channels, including your websites, social media and direct communication such as phone calls, SMS and live chat features. The features do vary depending on the CRM so selecting the right one is critical to engaging with your customers.

What is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?

A CRM is software that gathers and tracks your interactions with your customers and their interactions with you. It provides you with a central platform that you and your employees can use to help track analytics, organise customer details and automate key tasks within your business.

A CRM can also allow you to track your customer’s buying behaviour, allowing you to create a sales or marketing strategy with accurate data.

Some CRM supporting or including sales data you can also perform automated tasks such as sending following emails, offering related products and services or obtaining customers reviews.

However, there are various ways in which a CRM can be used by a business. We’ve collated some of the most important reasons why you should look to introduce a CRM system into your business.

9 reasons why you should introduce a CRM into your business

1. All your information in one place

It can be frustrating having multiple software systems to monitor when running your business. With a CRM, there’s no need to use more than one system to keep track of your sales, customer data and interactions. A CRM works by gathering information from your channels like emails, social media and phone calls. This allows you to have all of your information in one place.

The diversity of CRM integration means that the system can work with your existing channels to help collate information into one place.

Sales teams using a CRM can provide amazing customer service that beats over your competitors. Integration with your phone system can allow your team to know who’s calling before they even answer the phone; with instant access to sales orders, accounts and previous interactions.

2. Integrate your CRM with your website for even greater ease

Your website is often the first point of contact your customer will have with your business and it’s important to ensure that customer’s journey is as straight forward and smooth as possible. 

When your CRM is integrated with your website, customer queries can quickly be assigned to the most appropriate member of the team to quickly follow up and turn their query into a sale. Even if the customer’s query isn’t regarding sales, it’s hard to put a price on great quality service and that isn’t to say next time they won’t generate a sale. 

Adding a live chat feature to your website can also help to provide better customer service. The feature will allow you to connect with your customers as soon as they begin their customer journey and this can help turn their enquiry into a sale.

3. Marketing & Engagement

Many fully featured CRM also offer tools that allow you to run automated marketing and improve engagement. These tools allow you to keep in contact with customers even if they’re not ready to convert yet.

Staying ahead of your competitors in this way keeps your business front and centre for when that customer is ready to place their order with you.

Data captured inside your CRM can also have a huge impact on your other marketing activities, allow you to create retargeting campaigns for PPC or social ads, improve the odds in your favour of getting the sale.

Marketing Channel Accountability is also another great way the CRM can support your business marketing efforts, providing you with detailed statistics on which channels are performing best and which are falling behind. Making sure your marketing budget is well spent for a great Return On Investment (ROI).

4. Better leads equals more sales

By introducing a CRM, you can turn your website from an impressive looking contact form into an expansion of your sales team. With your CRM integrated with your website, you can ensure more accurate data which will lead to better customer profiles and ultimately secure sales. 

The integration will reduce your sales process and create more relevant leads. You’ll be able to create bespoke offers depending on your customer’s needs when you have their data stored in your CRM system. 

Every interaction you have with your customer builds a better picture of their exact requirement, allows you to provide a better service and is stored in one place so the whole team visibility.

5. Keep Leads Warm

Warm leads are more likely to convert into a sale and keeping them that way is important if they’re not quite ready yet. 

A CRM can be used in a number of ways to help your team keep them warm from setting call back reminders, automated offers or appointments booking.

The exact method depends on your business and your target customs however, our expert team are more than happy to discuss how best to engage and convert your leads.

6. Automate your sales reports

Since a CRM allows you and your sales team to collect and organise customer data, it will also allow you to create accurate sales reports on your business’ performance. 

Once you’ve used your CRM to help ensure your sales and marketing strategies are directed to your target audience, you’ll then be able to evaluate and track your sales goals, making tracking of your business’ performance a lot easier.

7. Learn about your businesses’ performance

When it comes to evaluating your businesses’ performance, your CRM will often host most of the data you’ll need to gather. This information can be crucial when measuring how your business performed and help to identify areas for improvement. 

This will also help you to budget your business areas that need investment. As an added bonus, by Integrating your website and your CRM will also help decrease time spent on your admin. If the two aren’t integrated, it’s likely you’re wasting time exporting and importing data from one system to another; or, you’re not using this data at all! 

Integrating the systems will greatly decrease the time you spend on your administration which can be better spent elsewhere. 

8. Improved interconnectivity

Many CRMs have great support for connecting with other tools and services. These connections allow you to enrich your customer experience and improve sales by bringing in data from other sources. A great example of this is Zoho CRM and Zoho SaleIQ. Including SalesIQ on your website can directly pass a customer’s browsing data to CRM when they complete a goal such as submitting a form.

The data provided here can then inform your team as to the page on your site they spend the most time and even directly influence marketing and remarketing campaigns. 

This data can help your sales team to support and convert that visitor into a customer and can be used to ensure the right member of the team handles the lead. Making CRM the centre of your business can vastly improve your conversion rate and customer retention.

9. Better sales forecasting

Most business operations will need to review their previous performance and look ahead to plan for the future. With a CRM, you’ll be able to track customer trends and help you gauge what you can expect your future sales cycle will look like.

At Purple Orbit our team supports many businesses in all things CRM from selecting, configuring and integrating a CRM into your business to ensure you’re getting the most out of these powerful tools. Get in touch with the team today.