Organizations are investing heavily in CRM software and expect a high return on investment quickly. In practice, however, it takes longer for them to reap the benefits, especially when the CRM software introduces new work methods and processes. Our experience shows that CRM is more than just a software system; it’s a way of working. With these six best practices, you’ll get the most out of your CRM software!
1. Identify employees' expectations
Involve employees in the CRM process starting with the assessment phase. They will populate the CRM system with customer data and use this data in their daily work. It is therefore crucial to determine what information they need to do their jobs effectively. Identify employees‘ needs and how CRM can make their work easier. Use these insights to configure the CRM system. After all, no one will change their way of working for something ’new” that doesn’t add value.
2. Store customer data consistently
It’s important to maintain a clear data structure and store customer data consistently. How do you store address information? Do you enter suffixes separately? What is the minimum required data? In CRM systems, you can set up required fields when a new contact is created. Use these required fields to ensure that the customer data employees need is always available. Think about the structure in advance to create a ‘clean’ database with consistent customer data. This will ultimately save hours of unnecessary manual work.
3. Involve everyone in the CRM process
Many organizations view CRM software as a sales automation tool and forget to involve other departments or activities in the process. By integrating CRM throughout the entire organization, you gain a comprehensive understanding of the customer profile. Give departments a place to keep track of data:
- Let the service desk build up a history so it can help customers more quickly.
- Give the marketing team the freedom to create segmentations for targeted marketing campaigns.
- Ensure that the (financial) accounting department has access to all financial information.
- Create sales funnels from prospect to loyal customer.
- Create a comprehensive view of the customer so that the account manager can identify cross-selling opportunities and resolve issues more quickly.
4. Reports Provide Better Insights from the CRM
By visualizing customer data in clear reports, you gain a comprehensive view of your customer base. Within CRM software, you can analyze simple questions: In which industries do my customers operate? How much revenue did the sales promotion generate? When was the customer data last updated? By integrating CRM with reporting or business intelligence (BI) tools, you can combine internal and external data. This combination broadens your insights by allowing you to combine customer data (internal data) with social media metrics, stock prices, or data on consumer behavior (external data) to gain new insights.
5. Using Customer Data as Big Data
Big Data may sound like something far removed from your daily life, but it’s actually quite easy to apply. All you have to do is combine different datasets and gain insights from them. In most CRM systems, you can analyze customer data to identify trends and understand customer (purchasing) behavior. By linking email marketing data, social media metrics, or Google Analytics results to customer data, you gain a broader picture of a customer’s behavior. Use these insights to formulate targeted sales and marketing strategies and sell more successfully. Keep learning from customer data to help the organization grow further, and remember that Big Data doesn’t have to be ‘big’ at all—any optimization based on data counts!
6. Keep customer information up to date
The success of CRM software depends entirely on up-to-date customer data; the data must be accurate. When there are changes to names, addresses, or contact persons, employees must update this information in the CRM system as quickly as possible. Keeping customer data up to date isn’t always easy, but try to make it part of your daily routine or assign someone to systematically maintain and update the data. If you systematically maintain your customer data, employees will always have the right information to get started.
Looking for an integrated CRM solution?
Alistar offers a fully integrated solution that lets you get started right away with customer relationship management (CRM) within your existing Exact software. With the Alistar Starter Package CRM Basic, you’ll be up and running within two days with a basic CRM system via Exact Synergy.
