What Is CRM – Customer Relationship Management Software
Your service business is growing. You’re hiring more people in your sales team. You’ve got more field workers on your payroll. Your marketing department is brimming with ideas and ready to implement them. There’s just one problem: communication.
Coordinating ideas, conversations, steps, processes, complaints, bookings, leads and everything else between teams can feel like an insurmountable challenge. But there is a solution. And that comes in the form of customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you’re struggling with any of the above-mentioned challenges, you’re not alone.
The right CRM system can help “unclog” inefficiencies and get your teams and customers on the same page every single day. With this in mind, let’s take a deep dive into what CRM is and what it can do for your business. Ready?
CRM software: Definition
Managing customer relationships used to be done in isolated silos. But with the introduction of CRM systems, this is no longer the case.
Wondering what is customer relationship management software? Here’s the easy breakdown for you: CRM software is an intelligent and sophisticated way to manage your business’ activities. This is because it helps nurture and manage new leads as well as existing customers. All this while ensuring your team stays on top of all communication and processes so that you never face the situation of one hand not knowing what the other is doing.
So, what is the purpose of customer relationship management software? In a nutshell, it aims to streamline and coordinate the new and existing customer management process for better business performance and greater client satisfaction.
Who uses customer relationship management software?
Both small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as large businesses benefit from and use customer relationship management software.
Internally, teams that can enjoy a broad range of advantages of this software include:
- Sales teams
- Marketing departments
- Customer service teams
- Field service employees
- Human resources
Why is a CRM system important for your small business?
A CRM system is vital for modern business activities. No matter the size of your business, if you are looking to scale or you’d like to streamline your operations, using CRM software is the right choice. Here’s why:
Centralised customer data
The right CRM system will centralise all your new and existing customer data, meaning no more isolated silos or back and forth communication between a sales representative and customer service teams.
Improved customer service
Customers want to communicate with your business in ways that suit them. You need to ensure that you offer an omnichannel, integrated experience that offers them this convenience. Plus, the more integrated your channels are, the better and faster you can resolve their issues. This means an improved customer service and experience.
Enhanced sales tracking
Do you want to help your sales team thrive and exceed their targets? A CRM solution can do just that. By ensuring that leads are marked as hot or otherwise, and ensuring full visibility for every lead and every sales rep on your team, through an intuitive dashboard, you can track sales much faster and much better than ever before.
Marketing automation
CRM solutions also offer automation of many marketing activities. An example of this would be tracking how many people arrived on your landing page, how many clicked on your call-to-action, how many new bookings you have and more.
Scalability
And of course, all of these perks combine into a massive benefit for your business: the ability to scale your operations smoothly and intuitively, without any hiccups or unnecessary pesky obstacles that seem to crop up at every turn.
Key features of a CRM
What are the key features of a customer relationship management solution? Below, we take a closer look at some of the most common ones found across different industries.
Contact management
Contact management is the lifeblood of any business. And a CRM system does this to absolute perfection. Whether it’s a new lead or an existing customer, a CRM solution can help you manage your contacts by giving you full view and control over each one through an intuitive dashboard.
Sales management
Sales teams also benefit from CRM systems because their sales processes become more streamlined. Want to keep all customer communication in one place? The CRM has you covered, whether it’s by phone call, email, text message, social media channel or anything else.
Marketing automation
Another key feature of CRM systems is marketing automation. Many repetitive tasks that take a lot of time, effort and resources are now streamlined in a single platform that enables cross-team collaboration.
Customer support
Your customer support team can enjoy this feature immensely, especially because it helps to unify customer communication. Ultimately, this facilitates a faster response time to queries or challenges, meaning greater efficiencies and higher customer satisfaction.
Reporting and analytics
If you thought that that was all there is to a CRM, you’d be mistaken. A sound CRM should also feature reporting and analytics functionalities that give you real-time reports to help with faster and more informed decision-making processes.
Integration capabilities
And last but not least, what would a CRM system be if it couldn’t be integrated with the many apps your business uses? Most modern CRM systems offer integration capabilities that mean no more new tabs and apps opened, no more remembering of a dozen passwords and usernames and only convenient integrations that make your team’s work easier.
What are the three types of CRM systems?
There are three main types of CRM software: operational, analytical and collaborative.
Operational CRM
Operational CRM solutions, much like the name suggests, help you with your day-to-day operations. Sales, marketing and customer service teams are all on board and on the same page when they use an operational CRM.
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRMs, on the other hand, have a greater focus on reporting functionalities. Some use artificial intelligence (AI) to help teams identify trends and patterns, get access to real-time data and facilitate faster and more informed decision making.
Collaborative CRM
Then there is collaborative CRM, which facilitates more streamlined communication between teams and customers, to ensure a greater and smoother customer journey, leading to an improved customer experience.
What are the benefits of CRM?
With this information overload, you may be wondering why you need a CRM in the first place. Well, if the following sound like goals that your business has, then a CRM solution will be perfect for your objectives:
- Enhanced customer relationships
- Increased efficiency and productivity
- Improved data management
- Better sales performance
- Informed decision-making
- Enhanced and easier scalability
How does CRM work?
And now, we move onto the nitty gritty. The details behind how a CRM system works. Stick around, because it gets interesting.
- Data collection
At the very basic level, CRM systems start by collecting data. This data can be filtered, analysed, studied and used to inform decisions.
- Data storage
Apart from collecting data, they also store data so that you can tap into your system at any time, from any location or device, enabling you to make tweaks and changes, as necessary, to help keep your team on track.
- Data analysis and reporting
This is where things get interesting. An intelligent CRM system will take all your data and analyse it. The beauty of all this is that data analysis takes place in seconds. Whether you’re pressed for time or you need instant insights into your business or team’s performance, the right CRM system can offer highly valuable insights.
- Automated tasks
You can also automate a number of repetitive tasks that would previously have been done manually, saving your teams time, effort and money.
- Customer segmentation and customer interaction management
For more complex operations and a vast customer database, you’ll want to be able to segment your customers according to their customer journeys. This has never been easier than with the right CRM solution at your fingertips.
Choosing the right CRM software
And there you have it — all the amazing reasons to choose to implement and use a CRM system in your business. But an important question arises now. How do you choose the right CRM for your needs? The deciding criteria should include the following:
- Business requirements
- Ease of use
- Customisation and scalability
- Integration capabilities
- Cost
Why choose ServiceOS’s CRM software?
Here at ServiceOS, we’ve created a customer relationship management solution that offers advanced customisation options, seamless integration and which is easily one of the most cost-effective solutions on the market today. Apart from this you can scale your business with a CRM that grows with you.
And our unparalleled and highly responsive support means you’re never on your own or in the dark about how to use it or what to do in the event of an obstacle. Ready to get started? Simply reach out. Alternatively, book your demo with us today. It’s time to get your business scaling new heights. Get in touch today!