9 reasons to prove why you need a CRM system

Struggling to manage your customer information because it’s stored in disparate systems/documents? Experiencing high customer churn? Or perhaps your teams are spending too much time on admin tasks, such as manually creating sales forecasts or segmenting leads. These are just a few of the challenges a customer relationship management (CRM) system can solve.

Here are the nine top reasons that explain why you need a CRM system.

1. Quick and easy access to customer information
2. Easily tailor content
3. Provide better customer service
4. Better segmentation
5. Easily anticipate customer needs
6. Better customer conversations
7. Boosted productivity, thanks to automation
8. Boosted overall team efficiency
9. Improved data and reporting

Benefits of CRM

1. Quick and easy access to customer information

Because a CRM system stores all the information you have on each customer in one place, that makes finding what you need so much easier. That means your sales, marketing, customer and field service teams (and any other customer-facing roles) can quickly and easily access the key information they need.

From customer names and dates of birth to sales/purchase histories and even what they’ve interacted with on your website, you can truly get to know your customers - probably better than they know themselves!

2. Easily tailor content

When you know your customers inside and out, you can offer tailored content that they’ll be interested in. For example, personalised product recommendations and useful blogs and eBooks they might be interested in.

Send your customers (potential and current) content that’s tailored to their interests and preferences rather than generic spam and you can boost satisfaction, trust and loyalty. If your business relies on commerce, the right CRM system can integrate with your commerce platform and use AI technology to intuitively offer content based on your individual customer’s preferences and habits. No manual work required!

3. Provide better customer service

No customer ever enjoys having their query passed around several customer service representatives. But if this does happen, they certainly don’t want to have to repeat their question/issue multiple times.

In fact, 68% of consumers in the UK expect customer service reps to know their contact, product and service history even if they haven’t spoken to the rep before.

This is where a CRM system comes in. Because data is centralised, customer service reps can easily pick up where the previous team member left off and the customer can experience a seamless service.

4. Better segmentation

Segmenting your contacts into target audiences makes it much easier to know who you’re trying to reach and what they want to hear. And there’s not much out there that can do segmentation as well as a CRM system.

A CRM system can break down data based on different categories and criteria so it’s easy to create focused lists. You can then use these segmented lists to:

• Run customer marketing and account-based marketing campaigns
• Better analyse your sales process and lead pool
• Tailor your offers, services and products
• Tweak your sales and marketing tactics (including your sales pitch)

All because you know your customers better. Thanks to a CRM system and its nifty segmentation features, you’ll know which of your customers are interested in what you have to offer, which are on the fence and which aren’t interested at all.

5. Easily anticipate customer needs

It’s easier to up or cross-sell to a customer if you know their buying habits and preferences.

A CRM system consolidates all of your individual customers’ information into one place - whether that’s their purchase history, conversations with customer service or even how they’ve interacted with various aspects of your website (such as their search history).

This makes it much easier for your sales team to successfully sell to customers. If they know what a customer’s been searching for or their purchase history, for example, they can offer personalised offers that the customer is more likely to be interested in.

In essence, a CRM system helps salespeople become more proactive and sell more.

6. Better customer conversations

According to a Microsoft survey on the current state of customer service, 92% of consumers in the UK believe customer service to be pivotal in their choice of a brand. Plus, two of the most important aspects of great customer service are a knowledgeable agent and the issue being resolved in one interaction.

As you can see, how quickly customer queries are answered and how efficiently/successfully they’re resolved play huge roles in the overall quality of a company’s customer service.

A CRM system can help with that. You’ll gain access to a set of ready-to-use, customisable templates for emails, newsletters, proposals, quotes, invitations and more. You’ll also be able to draft messages (such as emails and texts) and schedule when they will go out, whether it’s a few days or months in advance.

When it comes to customer service requests, speed is vital and a CRM system can be a huge help.

7. Boosted productivity, thanks to automation

From forms that need to be completed to reports that need to be sent, many little tasks come after a customer has agreed to commit to a sale. These tasks, though vital, can be very time-consuming and fraught with human errors due to their manual nature.

A CRM system can take this burden off your sales team’s shoulders - thanks to automation. Your sales reps can focus on closing leads and solving customer problems while the CRM’s automated features can take care of the details.

8. Boosted overall team efficiency

Automation, centralised data, ready-to-use templates - these are just a handful of the CRM features that can boost your team’s overall efficiency and productivity.

Centralised data is a big plus here because rather than having to trawl through various disparate systems and spreadsheets, everything your team may need can be found in a single location. That extends to multiple teams - sales, marketing and customer service teams can share information so they’ll all have a complete view of customers and create better marketing campaigns, close sales more successfully and offer enhanced customer service.

9. Improved data and reporting

Centralised data doesn’t just boost efficiency and customer visibility. It also means improved data analysis.

Because all of your data will feed into a single system, you can easily generate automated reports, personalise your dashboards to quickly find the information you need and more. When you can access better data and reports, you can make more informed business decisions to boost customer loyalty and overall revenue.

Discover the statistics to back up the benefits of a CRM system

No matter what your industry is and what products or service you sell, your customers are one of the most valuable assets of your business. Their happiness matters which is why you need to do more than simply appreciating them. You need to truly understand them and what it is that makes them tick.

However, customer expectations are constantly changing. To help you gain a snapshot idea of what modern-day customers currently want, we trawled the web for recent reports and studies, and created a visual graphic based on what we discovered.

Download it below to discover precisely what customers are expecting nowadays and how the right CRM can help you meet these demands.