In the past, managing the relationship between a business and its clients often relied on face-to-face interaction and manually recording information such as contacts, sales, and order history.
Commonly known as customer relationship management (CRM) technologies, these systems offer businesses an easy way to centralize, track, and manage the interactions and relationships between itself and existing or prospective customers.
CRM systems help companies expand or streamline sales, find new markets, monitor customer data like help desk tickets, improve profitability and, in the end, enhance the customer experience. So how does a company get the most efficient, effective use through a centralized CRM system?
What is CRM integration?
CRM integration refers to taking these multiple software/telecoms systems used to manage a company’s customer service, sales, and marketing functions and connecting them to a single, centralized CRM (customer relationship management) system. By doing this, CRM integration ensures a business not only has a streamlined process for handling tasks for sales, marketing, and customer service but also ensures the organization makes the most efficient use of the CRM solution itself by inputting up-to-date, accurate data.
1. Customer communications
Once integrated, companies can communicate and manage contacts directly from the CRM and use it for things like sending automated marketing messages. Additionally, a CRM user can set communications based on thresholds, such as response rate, helping businesses increase customer satisfaction and get the most out of existing relationships with the automation available with telephony integration
2. Automation opportunities
In addition to the ability to perform scheduled marketing email blasts through marketing automation software, CRM integration can help automatically evaluate the relationship between a business and customers based on predetermined metrics. For example, CRM software can assign a score based on whether a customer responds to or interacts with communications from a business, giving the company a better understanding of customer value. Finally, integrating with a CRM offers a quick and easy solution for automating repetitive tasks, such as scheduling, billing, or logging hours.
3. Organization and efficiency
CRM integration offers companies a way to streamline countless aspects of their operations. A good CRM set-up allows a business to view important customer information such as demographics and contact information, along with their account history, all in one place. Moreover, integrating apps like calendars, internal communications, marketing and even sales with CRM not only centralizes information but also provides organizations with key customer insights that can help increase productivity.
Summary
Today there is countless CRM systems on the market, but it is not a case that picking one without careful evaluation will be best for your business. Some are complex, some are basic, and some are aimed at a particular sector. This is why it is important set out from the outset, what your requirements are, your budget, etc. and work out which CRM will bring the most benefit to your business.