What is a CRM System and Why is It Essential for Your Business?

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Marina Iermolaieva in Data & Analytics, Logistics, Operations & Fulfillment, Order Management, Order Processing with 0 Comments

Whatever industry you are working in, you’ve probably heard about customer relationship management systems (or, CRMs).

However, for most ecommerce professionals who are not directly involved in sales and marketing, this term might sound meaningless.

This is unfortunate, as today’s CRM systems are not important for only marketing or sales.

In plain language, a CRM solution allows businesses to manage business relationships, processes, data, and information associated with customers. As reported by Software Advice, 74 percent of CRM software users have observed improved access to customer data.

What’s more, today’s CRM systems are capable of connecting and adjusting all processes related to sales, marketing, support and service in a way that helps service agents keep track of marketing and sales opportunities all in one convenient location.

Any business’s top priority should be their customers and a great relationship with them. As your company expands, the business processes will hopefully grow more personalized, not less.

If you want your company to be successful and profitable, you should not just be looking for that one short-term sale. That’s exactly why CRM systems can be so valuable for fast-growing companies.

If you are still not sure whether your company can benefit from a CRM system, here’s a list of 5 reasons you should change your mind:

1. Organize Your Business

You may be thinking that if your company is using a bunch of tools for business processes management, like Google Docs, email clients, task management software solutions, and calendar systems, you’re all set. But you’d be wrong.

Most likely, you are missing the overall, big picture of what’s going on with your business when your data is scattered across so many different tools.

Client Relationship Management solutions have all the aforementioned tools already built in, which allows pros to manage tasks, events, and email newsletters all from one platform.

Moreover, storing all your data into one ecosystem will give you and your customer team a more complete picture of your customer’s needs, wants, and information. This will help you uncover facts about your business that you never knew before.

2. Stay in Touch While on the Go

Your sales pros are working on the ground, cultivating leads or closing deals. The information and feedback they gather is priceless for the whole company, but the problem is your business might get this information far too late.

Some of this data can even be handwritten, which makes it accessible only to a limited amount of employees. Fortunately, top of the line CRM systems provide mobile applications for all major operating systems: iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and others.

This allows businesses to sync data instantly, so necessary information is available to the needed employee in seconds after being uploaded.

3. Reduce Spending Dramatically

If you think CRM systems are just a waste of time and money, you’re still missing the big picture.

If you tally up all of the expenses of business processes and data management, you will likely be shocked with the numbers on the old-fashioned ways of management.

Conversely, recent research by Nucleus Research shows that, on average, every dollar spent on CRM solution pays back $8.71, so a business should not consider CRM implementation as a financial impediment. In fact, for most companies, it is actually a very sound investment.

4. Predict Your Future

Strategy and planning are irreplaceable parts of the business development process. However, business forecasting can be a challenging task even for the experts, since market conditions are shifting constantly.

A good CRM can give you a legitimate picture of what to expect in the future and what your company should prepare for. This data is based on the previous evaluation on how your company has met the KPI’s and fulfilled business goals. Having easy access to this data will empower your company to make better decisions more quickly.

5. An Agile Approach

A growing team is a sign of a company’s growth. But expansion means much more than just a growing number of employees.

As you grow, the way your company runs must change as well. A good CRM solution grows with you, which means you can easily increase the number of team members and create a personalized, social-like platform for internal and external communication and collaboration.

Company growth means changing processes related to the way your customers interact with your brand as well. In this case, you will need an adjustable CRM system that allows the customization and enhancement of any customer-facing process to the customer’s specific needs.

The benefits of using a CRM software are evident, so join the list of companies that have already taken advantage of using CRM and bring your company to a new level.

Questions or comments about your own CRM experiences? Let me know in the comments!