CRM at its best will promote business efficiency, increase productivity and drive profitability. It will manage and monitor the full customer journey, streamline the experience and improve rates of retention. But take a half-hearted approach and its value is limited. So, how do you ensure your business is reaping the full benefits, and that it continues to do so during times of growth and evolving customer expectations?
After all, it’s easy for a CRM solution to quickly become a part of the office furniture – as indeed it should – but it can sometimes be tricky to review objectively as a result. Ensure you are constantly challenging your CRM strategy and making the most of the solutions available to you by following these five simple rules:
1. Take a step back
Review your business’s sales objectives as a whole and the different channels you are using to achieve them – your account managers, emarketing, ecommerce – now ask yourself: is your CRM system aligned with them? How easy is it for you to garner the relevant information from a customer’s interaction with each channel, and for your sales team to capitalise on that insight?
Granted, ecommerce in the B2B environment has been a slow burner until now, but common sense and evolution dictates that B2C logic must be applied to thrive in this changing economy. After all, B2B customers may wear professional uniforms, but they’re all consumers underneath, looking for quick transactions that fit in with their busy routines. Ecommerce solutions will deliver just that for many businesses, but they are at their most effective when integrated with CRM and ERP/accounting systems.
2. Consider future business plans
Where do you see your business heading and how do you plan to get there? It’s a word you will have certainly heard of, but is omnichannel something you are aspiring to? Could your customers indeed benefit from an ecommerce function and, if so, when will you offer this? As your business evolves and promotes a more fluent customer experience, this needs to be reflected in its processes. To succeed, client records – detailing engagement across all channels – will need to integrate with stock control, accounting and supply chain, so it’s important that your CRM system can keep up.
Don’t allow your business development strategy to be restrained by your CRM system. Think about where you want to take your business, not where it’s feasibly going to take you. If you find yourself thinking in terms of the latter, it’s unlikely your CRM system is flexible enough to meet the full needs of your business and it could be time for a change.
3. Talk to your team; listen to your customers
When reviewing your CRM system it’s important not to overlook the experiences of those that interact with it, both directly in the case of your employees, but also indirectly, i.e. your customers. Find out what frustrations your team has and where the inefficiencies lie, what they enjoy least, and any negative feedback they receive from customers.
Perhaps a telesales call has resulted in an incorrect order, caused by a lack of previous order visibility in the CRM system; a mispriced invoice has been sent when pricing agreements in the ERP system haven’t correlated with the details in the CRM for quoting; or a web form has been completed only to lead to a duplicate conversation with telesales the following morning. Whatever the reason, your customers are your business, so if your CRM system isn’t working for them, it’s important to find out why and customise accordingly.
4. Offer training
Of course, some CRM mishaps could just be a result of insufficient training. To truly make the most out of your CRM system, your employees first need to know how to use it to its fullest. Getting to grips with functions beyond the basics can take time, but its important to ensure everyone who uses it can get exactly what they need from the system, and make the most of the customer information they have to hand.
Even just ensuring records are kept up-to-date each time contact is made with a customer or a meeting is set up will make a world of difference, but your employees need to understand why. Book a refresher course with your CRM provider, and extend the invite beyond your sales team. If there isn’t time for a face-to-face meeting, ask about the possibility of signing staff up to a web clinic or see if your CRM provider has a YouTube training channel.
5. Promote collaboration
The most successful brands deliver consistent, joined-up customer experiences across a number of channels and, in the process, sustain customer loyalty. A CRM system that is accounts-integrated, with the ability to link up with ecommerce and emarketing consolidates the omnichannel approach throughout the business and promotes a collaborative approach across all departments with the customer experience at the fore.
Speak to your CRM provider about extending your CRM system to encompass other business processes, but keep in mind that integration and “integration” are two very different things. A truly integrated solution is a moving feat; it’s about seamless and efficient processes, not simply data transfer.
