Customer Relationship Management is a tool by which companies interact with the potential and prevailing consumers. It is a software which supports a large amount of information of everyone and basically everything. It is based on a detailed survey concerning the consumers’ experiences with the organization. It ultimately focuses on customer retention and driving Sales growth.
The following essential features are the Pillars of any CRM:
1. Information Management
CRM software provides a centralized hub where one can track everything that is needed to run a business; in a faster and smarter way, from contacts and accounts to Sales deals. To do it one only needs a web browser; a mobile device can work as well. And it is easily customizable.
Once a user logs in, he can find information regarding anything he wants from Contacts to Sales deals, Reports, and Business dashboards. Here are few features:
The user can display what he is working on, can open a chatter feed to get knowledge about consumers’ deals, accounts, documents and can collaborate with co-workers.
Just like Facebook, the user can also follow his business interests.
The software also provides real time tracking which includes total leads, the status of his team’s deals.
Other tabs include the Tasks and Calendar features, in which one can set up a reminder or kind of a to-do list which easily syncs up with Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar.
The user can review a particular task by simply hovering over it and ergo can view the full information like previous business interactions and other small details. Any changes to this dashboard are directly reflected in real time.
2. Customer Service
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) focuses on accumulating customer information and data, their purchases and pattern. It yields the collected information to the concerned departments. This makes CRM data an essential component of customer service. All the major departments of an organization inclusive of the Sales department, Marketing team, and the Management personnel are expected to take steps for development of their awareness and understanding of the Customer needs and their complaints too. This undeniably makes the business or the company deliver quick and perfect solutions and assistance to the customers. It also caters to consumers’ individual needs which increase the dependability and trust of the customers and people on the organization.
3. Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management takes into account the effective and correct use of human resources and prowess in a contrasting situation. This necessitates that the skills and intellectual levels of the professionals match the tasks undertaken by them according to their job profiles. CRM has its beneficial effects not only on the large scale corporations but also the medium industries as well.
- Compensation calculation and reward program management
- In-house training for all employees according to required skill sets
- Performance calculation and managing employee behavior
- Portfolio management
- Transformation and change management
- Structuring hierarchy of employees
- Employee relationship management
4. Marketing
Marketing through CRM is a business process in which client relationships, customer loyalty, and brand value are built. CRM allows businesses to develop long-term relationships with the present as well as new customers while helping with efficient corporate performance.
5. Lead Management
Lead Management is defined as a set of methodologies, system, and practices to generate new potential business clientele. It generally operates through a variety of marketing campaigns or programs. Lead management assists a business’s connection between their advertising for potential and existing consumers and the responses of the targeted audience to that advertising.
The established connectivity due to Lead Management boosts business profitability, as it helps in the acquisition of new customers. The organization benefits from existing consumers by increasing their sale and creating a market brand. This process has also been accurately referred to as Customer acquisition management. The general principle of this is to create an ordered structure for managing volumes of business inquiries frequently termed as leads. It lets the users qualify leads and assigns them to appropriate Sales persons.
6. Workflow Automation
Workflow automation is a created sequence of automated actions for the steps in a business process. It is used to improve everyday business processes.As an organization’s workflows, it can concentrate on getting more done and focus on the things that matter. Workflow rules are a way to automate a process which can include actions such as alerts, field updates, tasks and web hooks. They are executed when certain specified conditions are met. These rules automate the process of the actions when a rule is triggered. They facilitate automated tasks which otherwise would have become repetitive and a waste of time.
For example, If a manager wanted to follow up with each of the Sales rep, to determine if they had any big leads come in, and then remind them throughout the week to follow up with them, that would take a lot of time and effort for the manager to complete. Instead one can set up a workflow rule to automatically notify him if any sales rep adds a new lead as well as automatically create a follow-up task for the Sales rep.
All type of organizations benefit from the vast field of CRM, be it SMEs, large enterprises or individual handles. The benefits of CRM are as vast as its implementation. The above mentioned are the strong foundations on which CRM software has built its vast empire. There are various other unfathomable features of CRM software which amaze their users every single time.
Article By Utsav Upadhyay – utsav@softwaresuggest.com
I am currently advising clients how to create and manage effective advertising campaigns in accordance with the principles of Inbound Marketing. I offer Inbound Marketing auditing services, which are a great way of determining what your company’s strong and weak points are. I also provide Inbound Marketing training and consultation sessions via callhippo Marketing Sessions. In Free time I research about restaurant and hotel management services.