Your customer is all digital today. They prefer online buying, digital payments, live chat for customer support, social media for product details, WhatsApp for communications – in short, an end-to-end digital customer. And that gives you enough reasons for getting CRM software for business.
As a SME owner, it is natural for you to look at digital tools for providing customers an enhanced experience. A simple solution to keep customers loyal and returning is to provide delight in every experience. Manually, a very tedious and challenging task, but with a CRM tool, it can be done right.
In this article we will look at the benefits of CRM software for SMEs and how it can be used to build and keep better relationships with the digital customer.
CRM solutions: The way to winning digitally at customer relationships
Digital platforms have made it easy for businesses to connect and communicate with customers. CRM can take it to the next level. It can personalise communications making it more engaging and less standardised. Let us look at why CRM is important for business.
- Personalising communications for the digital audience
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all your communications could be unique to each customer? It can when you have the right tools with you.
Your customers are interacting with your brand across several touchpoints on a daily basis. Whether through emails, websites, WhatsApp, social media or any other – each of these touchpoints could be a potential for driving sales and/or enhancing customer relationships. Let us understand this better.
Personalising emails: A CRM software makes it easy for businesses to segment their customer databases and send automated and personalised messages. Databases can be segmented by industry, location, demographic details, purchase behaviour, or any other. We consider some personalised email examples:
| Category | Email message | Description |
| Engagement | Hello <First name>,
Here is what’s trending in <city name>! |
Here emails are personalised by:
Customer’s first name Location details |
| Upselling/Cross selling | Hi <First name>,
Enjoyed using <product name>? We think you will also like: <product recommendation 1> <product recommendation 2> <product recommendation 3> |
Here emails are personalised by:
Customer’s first name Last bought product Relevant/similar products |
- Automating the lead management and sales process
This may sound as the most cliché advantage of CRM software, but it really does make a difference to how modern organisations have been able to manage lead flow and drive sales conversions faster.
Doing business in a digital-first era means that leads can be generated through multiple sources. Online and offline. It can generate from regional, national, and global markets. It can be for a small order value or a large order. It may be for a generic product or a custom product. And when it is for B2B, customers can be suppliers, vendors, wholesalers etc. In short – different leads, different requirements.
And while doing this manually is possible for a small business, it is not recommended. Automating lead management and sales with CRM will not only help to streamline the process, but also add speed, efficiency, and profits in the long run.
Most sales CRM software come with a dashboard feature that provides a holistic view on the status of leads generated. It provides insights on the channel, agent assigned to, lead status (hot, cold, warm), last contacted, etc. In short, it helps businesses to project their sales pipeline and focus on accelerating sales. This helps businesses to save time, eliminate routine tasks, stay updated on leads and deals – that is, drive efficiency through automation and digital solutions. (Eg. Popular CRM solutions in India – Bytepaper, LeadSquared, TCS iON CRM, Cronberry)
- Drawing deeper insights into customer behaviour
Your customers are unique and have different engagement and purchase behaviour. A single strategy might not work at all. What is required is an understanding of how they behave, what prompts them to purchase, what keeps them loyal, and how to nudge them from time to time. A customer relationship management solution will help you with that.
A marketing CRM tool will provide you with data for insights. This is crucial irrespective of whether you are a large or small business. This data on customer behaviour, marketing spends, sales team performance, optimal channels etc. is pivotal in shaping impactful strategies and forecasting.
Your customer is digital today and a smart way to engage and interact with them is through the digital channel. For instance, with CRM analytics you may learn:
| Insights | Your solution |
| Leads generated through WhatsApp have 15% shorter sales conversion cycle time when compared to email and social media leads |
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| Sales closure rates are 20% lower on Thursday |
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| 25% customers prefer to use live chat over other tools for contacting your business |
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- Prioritising positive customer experience as a business objective
As a business owner you already know how daunting it is to get a new customer. But it is also not easy to retain a customer. It requires effort and a plan.
There are several strategies that can be looked at. Adopting a CRM solution for customer service is one of them. Some of the ways it can add value include:
- Provide a holistic view of customer profiles: A CRM tool can store all relevant data on each customer eg. contact details, purchase history, feedback and reviews etc. This data can be analysed to draw insights and send personalised communications for repeat business. For instance:
- Send feedback/survey emails to customers after 1 month of purchase to seek feedback on the product/service, or address concerns
- Review inactive customer data, and send discount offers to nudge them into purchase
- Improve customer service: Your digital customer expects quick resolution. With the contact management feature in CRM systems, it is easier for customer support agents to get details on customers and help them with their queries more efficiently. For instance:
- Review ticket-source (eg. chat, WhatsApp, email) and allocate agents accordingly
- Review open tickets and assign senior agents for quick resolutions
Does your small business need CRM solutions?
Whether you are a business with 50 or 5000 customers, this is a vital question – do you really need a CRM lead management software in business?
CRM solutions can be used across industries. Whether in retail, construction, telecom, real-estate, automobiles, or manufacturing – there is a CRM solution right for every business. As a business owner the idea is to compare and invest in a tool that is right for you.
From streamlining and automating processes, to saving time and money, to accelerating the sales process, the benefits of a CRM application are many.
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