There comes a point in the life of any business owner where things might feel a bit… out of control. You might be frustrated because the company isn’t growing as much as you think it could. Or, on the flip side, it could be growing so fast that you’re completely overwhelmed and unsure about how to plan the right next steps. Well, we’re not saying a CRM is the magic bullet for all your business problems. But there are nevertheless ten very good reasons to use customer relationship management software.
What is CRM?
1. Your Customer Data Is All Over the Place
2. You Lack Visibility into Your Sales Team
3. You Have Too Many Points of Contact
4. Customers Complain About Service/Support
5. Manual Data Is Lengthy and Often Wrong
6. Manual Reporting Is a Struggle
7. You Struggle to Focus on the Right Customers
8. Lead Flow Is Becoming Harder to Manage
9. You Need to Streamline Communication
10. You Want to Save on Scaling Your Operations
The Easiest Way To Get CRM For Your Business
FAQs About CRM For Your Business
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It’s a system designed to do just that: manage relationships with your customers.
In practice, it looks like a computer program (app or software) that lets you log customer data, see who they are to your business at a glance (leads, prospects, loyal customers, etc.), and prioritise what next steps your business should take.
If you want the full, in-depth answer to that question, including the history of the term, we’ve got you covered with this article.
And now, let’s see the tell-tale signs your business might need one.
Sure, you may have your faithful Excel spreadsheets at hand, but have you ever found yourself searching for a shipping address through your emails? Or struggled to contact a customer whose phone number had been changed?
This is one of the beautiful things about CRM systems. Anytime you get new customer information, you can update it in one place and one place only. No more sticky notes scattered all around the place. Everything is centralised, whether you work alone or with a team of 100.
Bonus point: some CRM platforms even make the customer data import process super easy. For instance, HubSpot can automatically update info directly from Outlook.
This problem grows exponentially with the number of salespeople at your company. Every new agent might have a different way of doing things, which can lead to data silos and make you feel like you’re out of the loop.
Here again, CRM software works as a powerful centralisation tool because every customer interaction can be logged, tracked, and monitored.
Email, phone, social media, support ticket, live chat, messenger apps…. There’s no shortage of communication channels for your users these days, quite the opposite.
The only problem? It can make it harder to keep track of who said what, when, and where.
By documenting a history of all your interactions with customers, prospects, and leads, you streamline communication, which helps with support, marketing, and sales. Best of all – you can still give customers all the options they want. The key point is that it all ends up in the right inboxes from your end.
Customer complaints come in many shapes and forms, but they tend to boil down to one thing: frustration about how you communicate with them. Maybe there’s not enough information. Perhaps they have to resubmit the same details numerous times. And maybe they’ve been in touch with multiple agents, all of whom told them different things.
This is once again why having all your customer data in one place can be a lifesaver. No more crosswires when it comes to reaching out to your customers, no matter how many sales or support agents you have: they all use the same database with the same information. And it all gets updated in real-time.
Updating multiple systems involves manual data entry, which tends to be time-consuming and also error-inducing. You might find yourself with duplicates, typos, and simple mistakes that can cost your business in the long run.
With a CRM, you can grab a customer’s info from, say, an online form, and automatically import it into your system. It’s fast, efficient, and works with multiple integration touchpoints, like email, calendars, or social media.
Bringing data into the CRM isn’t the only process you can automate. Getting data out is just as seamless when creating reports. Since all your information is in one place, reports can be in-depth, filtered, and tailored to only focus on the critical information, such as closed deals per quarter, daily MQLs and SQLs, or answered support tickets per agent.
Finding customers is difficult enough as it is, but knowing which ones are truly valuable for your business shouldn’t be. With a CRM, you can list customers based on how much they have spent with your organisation, their yearly budgets, or which recurring products they might need. This helps to anticipate their needs and bring in more business when your sales agents can upsell, cross-sell, or simply strengthen their relationships with them by accessing the right data.
If you’ve got more leads coming in than you can manage, CRM systems are again excellent at prioritising. Your team can become more independent by listing leads in order of importance, delegating to the right sales agents, or simply being more proactive in contacting the right person.
And if you’re concerned about sales agents stepping on each other’s toes, don’t worry. You can easily add comments and notes in your CRM software and assign permissions for the team, so only the managers get to see certain information.
As your business grows, communication issues will increase. This is true whether you hire extra marketers, support agents, or salespeople. A bigger team means more tension between departments and a lot more passing of the buck when things go wrong.
Unless, of course, you are smart about the workflows you put in place through your CRM tool.
Centralisation is vital here, as all the communications are kept in one place and easy to manage in the form of tasks and reminders.
A CRM platform saves time, which means fewer expenses on admin and management. Using the right CRM tool also allows you to onboard more staff with fewer training overheads, as they only have to learn one dashboard instead of several.
Similarly, you only have to deal with one vendor instead of several, which saves time and resources that can be allocated to what matters the most: growing your business with complete peace of mind.
There comes a time in the life of every organisation when growth needs to be handled smartly. You might have too many business leads or too many sales agents to get a sense of what’s happening. Or you might find that your support is overwhelmed with customer requests for better service.
While CRM tools are first and foremost used for managing customer relationships, the truth is that they can do so much more. They can improve communication, unify departments, and save you time and effort on manual tasks.
Ready to take the next step? Contact Velocity, a diamond HubSpot partner, for expert assistance with CRM implementation. Let us help you streamline your operations, improve customer relationships, and boost your business efficiency. Get in touch with us today!
A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system, helps manage customer data, streamline communication, and improve sales and support efficiency.
A CRM centralises customer data by storing all information in one place, making it easily accessible and updatable for the entire team.
Using a CRM benefits your sales team by providing visibility into customer interactions, tracking sales progress, and ensuring consistent communication.
A CRM improves customer service by providing a unified database of customer interactions, reducing repetitive information requests, and ensuring consistent responses.
Yes, a CRM helps with lead management by prioritising leads, assigning them to the right sales agents, and automating follow-ups to increase conversion rates.
A CRM streamlines reporting by automating data collection and generating in-depth, customised reports that highlight key performance metrics.
Managing multiple communication channels with a CRM is important to keep track of all customer interactions and provide a seamless experience across email, phone, social media, and more.
A CRM improves internal communication by centralising information, assigning tasks, setting reminders, and reducing misunderstandings between departments.
A CRM saves money by automating manual tasks, reducing administrative overheads, and improving the efficiency of sales and support teams.
Your business is ready for a CRM if you struggle with managing customer data, lead flow, communication, and reporting, or if your customer service is suffering.