Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the largest growing software segments on the market today.
There are a vast number of reasons why a business needs a CRM system and the list below highlights five of the most important reasons that are applicable to all businesses.
Every business gathers a wealth of information, all of which needs to be saved and recorded. By putting this information within a CRM system, not only does it mean you don’t have to remember it, it also means that all the information is connected and linked. From marketing campaigns to sales follow-up emails; from customer complaints to delivery information – by tying this all together you can start identifying trends, inefficiencies and truly gather a 360 degree view of your business. This also removes the confusion of ‘where is this stored?’ and brings together disparate systems. What’s more, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, your systems can be integrated and automated with accounting, intranets and even your website so you can use technology to your advantage.
Sales is key to a successful business and you need to know how well your sales team is performing. As the whole business would use CRM, Marketing and Sales become tightly connected and give Sales complete visibility into the marketing campaigns that are going out. By arming your sales with a wealth of information, historical data and giving them visibility over that last points of contact they are more informed and better equipped to close the deal – while giving their manager detailed insight into their progress. Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes with offline access and mobile apps, so they can even access CRM when on the road. Additionally, CRM can automate many tedious tasks, such as sending follow up emails or creating orders and quotes, which allow your sales team to reduce the amount of administration and focus on what they’re meant to do – sell.
All information entered within CRM can be retrieved and used when needed. Having access to this historical data is not only great for auditing purposes but also for sales, marketing, customer service and the general running of your business. Sales can easily see last points of contact with a prospect and marketing can find out which email campaigns were most successful. By building up a wealth of detail, you can start analysing past trends and build a more detailed and accurate prediction for your business model. With all this data at your fingertips, you have access to all the information needed to quickly identify any weaknesses and to continually improve.
When accessing historical data or current data you want to easily see status updates, past trends – everything! Microsoft Dynamics CRM has complex reporting, allowing you to pull together information into easy to digest and visual reports. From personalised dashboards that anyone can create to exporting data in Excel spreadsheets, you can see whatever information you need to know quickly and easily. All reports are security-based allowing managers to gain complete visibility over all their staffs’ performance, such as sales closed or customer service cases still open. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is fully customisable too, so you can create reports that are completely tailored to your business needs and business processes – adapting the software to fit your business and not the other way round.
For any business the key to success is its customers and implementing a CRM can build customer loyalty through excellent customer service. Your staff can access the complete history of the customer from within one screen – from their first point of contact with marketing, to becoming a customer, to their order history, delivery information and even personal preferences. It also allows anyone in the business to see that latest status of any customer service issues, which ensures business can continue to run smoothly even if there is staff sickness or departures to future-proof your business.
Having an effective CRM system is not just for your sales team – it’s for everyone within the business to make their jobs easier and faster while giving business owners and managers the complete picture.