When analyzing CRM benefits, this task is usually carried out within the boundaries of the CRM software by sales, marketing, and customer service managers. Despite homogenizing interdepartmental systems to build one seamless business solution, this may still be the case in large and small organizations.
Suppose you’ve noticed your company also working in similar silos. In that case, it is likely that your CRM benefits are not being experienced up to their true potential while also failing to capitalize on holistic concepts such as enterprise Unified Communications.
Understanding how CRM benefits can positively influence every business process across your organization will be an excellent first step for companies still functioning with interdepartmental disconnect. Next, a CX strategy can be built by tallying the CRM benefits you can obtain through your CRM solution with the unique factors which comprise your business.
CRM Benefits that Go Beyond Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service
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Centralized customer data
Unifying all interaction history pertaining to a customer in a single record doesn’t just streamline the CRM pipeline in the customer service department; it can also be a window to valuable insights that can subsequently drive key strategies in other areas of the business. Such CRM benefits can add immense value to your entire organization, maximizing the ROI your system can receive in the short and long term.
For example, notes about a customer’s preferred spot to accept deliveries can be added to their record by a customer service agent who would’ve assisted the customer over the phone. The notes would then be instantly accessible by relevant staff in other departments (delivery personnel, in this case), who can then conduct a handoff based on the instructions provided.
Insightful product development
With customer data unification being one of the most sought-after CRM benefits, gathering big data also offers immense potential to leverage customer information. Integrating business intelligence tools with your CRM software can bolster CRM benefits since you can seek valuable insights to understand customer preferences.
In turn, such insights can be used by product development teams to enhance the quality of goods and services offered so that your business can provide products aligned with your customers' true interests - before your competitors can do so.
Customer-focused automation
While sales force automation is one of many CRM benefits that focus on automating common or mundane tasks for sales teams, leading CRM solutions can go beyond this by enabling automation for customer-related tasks outside sales, marketing, and customer service teams.
For example, delivery teams logging the dispatch of an order over a unified customer profile can enable service agents to track this log on a real-time basis, so they have answers at the ready in the case said customer calls in to inquire.
CRM Benefits and ROI: Creating a Seamless Relationship
The possible CRM benefits that influence your team on which CRM system to purchase also need to address the level of ROI that can be derived to make the purchase feasible for the long term. While cost savings and increased revenue are viable factors to measure CRM ROI, there isn’t an exact blueprint on how to do so.
Therefore, the CRM benefits your business can capitalize on are the need to be connected to relevant goals and KPIs to ensure you get the most out of your CRM system. On top of that, the CRM benefits your system can offer should be scalable to the growing needs of your business.
This is especially true if you’re working with a CRM for small business, since CRM features and capabilities need to adapt to changes in resources, revenue, and even overhead. CRM vendor updates and patches are another contributing factor towards the quality and consistency of the CRM benefits you receive from the system you have, which subsequently also determines CRM ROI - and whether you made the right choice purchasing the CRM system you currently have.
As CRM systems fundamentally revolve around the customer, CRM benefits tend to have an all-round impact across every department within the organization. It is, therefore, more accessible and faster to achieve the desired ROI from CRM and related customer experience tools, as modern businesses are mutually focused on customer centricity by nature.
Choosing the Best CRM to Positively Impact Your Business Goals
The CRM benefits your organization can eventually enjoy depending on your CRM system. You should aim to purchase an application that offers CRM benefits on a company-wide level, as it is imperative to know your existing business pains and bottlenecks.
In this situation, your business decision-making team will significantly benefit from a detailed guide to purchasing a CRM system. Below is an outline that, while brief, will help you and your teams identify which CRM benefits are suitable for core requirements - but will also strengthen other areas of your organization on the whole.
1. Start with a business assessment
Gather relevant members from across the organization to understand the problems which plague all customer-facing and customer-focused areas. Collate all these findings into an assessment brief.
2. Seek CRM vendors online and offline
Now that you have a detailed assessment of problems that need to be fixed searching for the right CRM vendor becomes more strategic. Compare and rank CRM vendors online for insight on which vendors are leading the space, but also reach out to colleagues you trust for recommendations.
3. Shortlist based on which CRM benefits are helpful for your business needs
After discussing your CRM needs with relevant vendors and watching demos of their offerings, deciding which vendor to choose can still be tricky. However, tallying your business pains with the promised capabilities can help you understand whether a specific CRM vendor is right for your business.
You can take this analysis further by understanding whether the CRM benefits will impact your entire organization. Vendors that stand won’t just give you the tools you need to handle customers correctly, but empower your organization on the whole.
