Importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Small to large scale companies must understand the importance of Customer Relationship Management. Customer relationship management is not only pure business but also ideal strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of bonding drives the business to new levels of success.

Once this personal and emotional linkage is built, it is very easy for any organization to identify the actual needs of the customer and help them to serve in a better way. It is a belief that more the sophisticated strategies involved in implementing the customer relationship management, the more strong and fruitful is the business. Most of the organizations have dedicated world-class tools for maintaining CRM systems into their workplace. Some of the efficient tools used in most of the renowned organization are Batch Book, Salesforce, Buzz stream, Sugar CRM etc.

Looking at some broader perspectives given as below we can easily determine why a CRM System is always important for an organization.

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

A CRM system consists of a historical view and analysis of all the acquired or to be acquired customers. This helps in reducing searching and correlating customers and to foresee customer needs effectively and increase business. CRM contains each and every bit of details of a customer, hence it is very easy to track a customer accordingly and can be used to determine which customer can be profitable.

In CRM system, customers are grouped according to different aspects according to the type of business they do or according to the physical location and are allocated to different customer managers often called as account managers. This helps in focusing and concentrating on each and every customer separately.

A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system, which is also called, ‘an Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal. All this is very easily and efficiently done by an integrated CRM system.

COST EFFECTIVE

The strongest aspect of Customer Relationship Management is that it is very cost-effective. The advantage of decently implemented CRM system is that there is very less need of paper and manual work which requires lesser staff to manage and lesser resources to deal with. The technologies used in implementing a CRM system are also very cheap and smooth as compared to the traditional way of business.

All the details in CRM system are kept centralized which is available anytime on fingertips. This reduces the process time and increases productivity.

Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them what they actually need increases the customer satisfaction. This increases the chance of getting more business, which ultimately enhances turnover and profit. If the customers are satisfied then they will always be loyal to you and will remain in business forever resulting in increasing customer base and ultimately enhancing the net growth of business.

In today’s commercial world, the practice of dealing with existing customers and thriving business by getting more customers into the loop is predominant and is mere a dilemma. Installing a CRM system can definitely improve the situation and help in challenging the new ways of marketing and business in an efficient manner. Hence in the era of business, every organization should be recommended to have a full-fledged CRM system to cope up with all the business needs.

CRM FOR SALES & MARKETING

Customer churn is too high. Existing accounts aren’t segmented effectively and staff isn’t prompted to proactively follow up and engage with customers.

Data is stored in different places, which prevents anyone from seeing the full picture. This results in poor communication and weak service when important customers can be easily identified and relationship information isn’t readily available.

Service requests aren’t being dealt with efficiency and customer issues are frequently missed due to poor visibility and reporting of outstanding items.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE.

Decision-making is based on ‘gut feel’ and guesswork because reports aren’t trusted, or easily compiled. You can’t confidently predict cash flow, project delivery or production requirements because supporting forecasts aren’t available, or are incomplete.

Key performance indicators aren’t being measured so some problems are being swept under the carpet and high achievers aren’t consistently recognized.

MANAGING CONTACTS & PROCESSES

Teams are using a mix of systems but none of them connects. As a result, many processes are being duplicated and time is wasted throughout the business.

People are less effective when they’re away from the office because they can’t get access to the information they need.

Many processes and checks rely on the manual intervention of a small group of people, or just one person, which are prone to failure when these individuals aren’t available.

Many workflows consist of repetitive, time-consuming processes. Routine tasks are taking too long to fulfill resulting in uncompetitive operational costs.

Your client data isn’t secure. Any team member can easily copy customer lists into a spreadsheet.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF CRM IN B2B

Before we get to understand the growing importance of CRM in B2B, it would be better if we had a reasonably good understanding of B2B. Though most of us are aware, B2B is nothing but business activities that are being undertaken by two business entities and not between business houses and customers. There is no doubt that the value of transactions and the volume of transactions are much higher in B2B when compared to sales of business houses to individual customers.

Hence, the complexities and challenges involved in B2B activities are totally different from those in B2C. While there is no doubt that customer relationship management is important in B2B activities it cannot be the same both in terms of scale and methods when compared to B2C CRMs. In this article, we will try and find out why CRM for B2B should be given as much importance as we find in B2C.

The Importance Of CRM In B2B.

IS CRM REALLY NEEDED FOR B2B TRANSACTIONS?

Since the volumes of transactions are quite high and the value per transaction is much higher, there is a common question that often comes to mind. Is there really a need for CRM for B2B transactions? The answer is ‘yes’ for a number of reasons. Though the number of end users may not be as huge as retail customers, there is a need to monitor the buyers given the competitive business scenario that the sellers are into.

As a starting point, even if the numbers of buyers are a handful, it is important to have a database of the same. It is a must and if sellers do not have a database they should better get started immediately. This is the foundation on which the best of CRM modules are developed. Without a database, the company will be groping in the dark and will be firing blind shots in the air as far as CRM efforts are concerned.

WHY CRM FOR B2B CAN BE VERY HELPFUL

As is the case with CRM for individual customers, there are certainly a number of benefits as far as CRM for B2B is concerned. First and foremost, as mentioned above, a CRM solution helps to store information in an easily retrievable database rather than having them stored haphazardly. Many B2B companies still lag behind in this, mostly because of complacency and the fact that there are only handful customers to handle.

However, it is important to keep in mind that these few customers contribute to their entire turnover and in terms of volume as well as value, it would certainly be very high. It is therefore very important to monitor their buying habits very closely and minutely. Missing out even on small details could prove to be very costly. Even if one buyer walks out temporarily and starts buying from some other supplier it could create a big dent in the overall sales and revenue for the seller.

GOOD CRM FOR B2B HELPS ORGANIZATIONS BECOME MORE EFFICIENT

When you decide to purchase a CRM module for your B2B venture, the first thing you have to do is obtain all the information related to your customers in the single place and preferably in a single server. This will go a long way in a better storage of information and easy retrieval. Furthermore, the information will be stored in scientific storage modes and devices instead of depending on excel spreadsheets and other such primitive storage modes.

Organizing data is very important if you are looking to monitor your buyers and any CRM module that searches for information about customers cannot be called a CRM module at all. When data is stored centrally, there won’t be any problem retrieving it at any point in time and all the stakeholders can view the information just at the click of a button. Organizing your data is perhaps the biggest reason why organizations should go in for CRM for B2B.

CRM MODULES HELP KEEP TRACK ON PROGRESS OR REGRESSION

As a sales force in the market, real-time information on product movement, buyers’ behaviors, and patterns are of utmost importance. It should be available instantaneously so that the right preventive and corrective action can be taken without any loss of time. It will help the marketing team find out whether they are moving on course as far as their main objectives are concerned.

The objectives could be short term, medium term, and long term and therefore only well thought out CRM modules can help the marketing and sales teams. The business environment also is ever changing and fluid. Hence, timely availability of information through a time-tested and robust CRM module will certainly help swim successfully against the tide when needed.

IT WILL HELP IN IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING ROLES

Any marketing and sales effort can be successful only if there is a well-defined role for each of the marketing and sales personnel. Apart from defining of roles it should also be easy to identify the persons or groups that are responsible for their specific roles and responsibilities. This can be done only with the help of a well thought out and well structured CRM module for your B2B setup.

There is no point in moving up and down various silos in search of information that will help fix roles and responsibilities. This should be totally automated and the roles and responsibilities must be available at a click of a button. This will save precious time that is so important in today’s competitive business scenario.

IT HELPS IN SHARING INFORMATION AND INCREASING KNOWLEDGE BASE

Another important reason why it makes sense to have a good CRM module for our BRB venture is because you will be able to drag out relevant information irrespective of the location or the hierarchy that you are in. It will not only help the marketing team but also will be useful for the human resources team, the accounting team and even the compliance and auditing team.

This will help the entire company to work as a team with one specific objective in mind instead of working at cross-purposes. For example, an accounting staff will be able to learn more about the latest happenings in the marketplace and hence the marketing strength of the organization as a whole will increase quite dramatically. Last but not the least, when you have the right CRM in B2B it will go a long way in increasing the knowledge base across departments and across hierarchies.

IMPLEMENTING A NEW CRM SOLUTION

The most successful organizations exploit their CRM applications to great effect. Many teams increase the effectiveness of their CRM technology by first utilizing a CRM consulting specialist.

The objective of a CRM partner like Crest InfoTech is to help your business develop CRM practices – or enhance those already in place. The result is reduced operational costs, better client retention, and CRM-driven growth. Contact Crest InfoTech to discuss your requirement and receive CRM advice from our consultants.

In a nutshell, CRM has become indispensable to businesses in their quest for outstanding customer relationship management in the categories of customer satisfaction, customer delight and customer “wow” are terms that are frequently used to describe the heights to which businesses can attain in their customer management process. It is evident that actualizing these superlative levels of customer satisfaction is possible with the use of CRM. The adoption of social media and integration of Web 2.0 into CRM systems is bound to transform the customer relationship process.

Finally, with Big Data and Predictive Analytics, the entire customer management process is being revolutionized and this is where the future of CRM lies.

In conclusion, customer delight and customer wow are no longer simply superlatives in the dictionary but meaningful and easy to actualize with the use of CRM.