How to choose a CRM tool for your customers

You want to develop your business with a CRM tool but you don’t really know which one to choose. Here Saalz explains how to choose the right CRM tool.

A CRM tool must be adapted to the adopted strategy

This is the first step. The CRM strategy is a management-level plan to ensure that the CRM process and the chosen technology can achieve the company’s goals.

Analysis of the situation

The company conducts an analysis of the situation taking into account internal and external factors. It is in fact a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) that aims to determine how the company is doing.

The company is doing well in order to examine the readiness to implement theCRM tool for CRM: Customer Relationship Management. Managers analyze and evaluate the existing customer strategy, the market segments served, the company’s position in the market, the marketing channels, etc. They try to find answers to questions such as:

What target market does the company serve?

What are the company’s customer objectives?

What is the company’s position and market share?

What is the cost of customer management?

How effective are current customer acquisition and retention strategies?

What products/services does the company offer in what category?

How well do customers know about these products/services?

Who are the company’s competitors, and what are the profit margins?

What channels are used for product distribution?

Which channels are effective? Which ones are becoming obsolete?

How do channel partners feel about dealing with our company?

Will the company buy, lease or create its own CRM?

What is the feasibility of each option?

Thus, the situation analysis serves as a basis for knowing what managers want to achieve by implementing CRM.

Building the foundations of a CRM project

Before implementing CRM projects, it is necessary to make various changes to the company’s environment, such as:

Changes in work culture present in the company’s organization. Since theCRM tool can mean different things to customers in different areas, it is necessary for the company to start training staff on CRM tools.

The company’s leadership also sets the vision of how CRM will transform the company into a customer benefit. The company needs to start training its staff on customer relationship management systems. Clear priorities are established for objectives and activities such as improving the customer experience, reducing costs, increasing revenues, etc.

Goals (qualitative outcomes) and objectives (quantitative outcomes) are set.

Customer Relationship Management

The expert governance structure is formed, which is essential to identify and allocate resources and responsibilities appropriately. The organization’s internal IT staff is responsible for performing several roles related to the CRM tool: such as networking, database management, front-end development, systems integration, etc.

Management identifies change and project management needs in the organization, as well as risk factors.

Identification of business processes

Processes are the means by which the company gets things done. The processes can be of the following types:

Vertical: They are located entirely within a department. For example, customer acquisition is just a marketing process, while annual revenues and tax calculations are accounting processes.

Horizontal: they extend over several departments of the company. For example: the manufacturing of a product is transversal to R&D, finance, materials management, sales, etc.

Primary: they have a major impact on the company’s costs or revenues. For example: picking up and delivering packages are primary processes for a courier company.

Secondary: They have a minor impact on the company’s costs or revenues.

Front-Office: They meet the customers. For example, the processing of complaints for the after-sales service.

Back-office: They are where the technicians are directly involved. They are not known to the customers. For example, database management, purchasing, etc. The company must anticipate which existing processes may be affected and to what extent.

• Customer relations cannot be improvised. You need the right tools and then the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is improved. Among these tools is the CRM software.

There can be multiple definitions of a CRM from different perspectives:

– From a management perspective, CRM can be defined as an organized approach to developing, managing and maintaining a profitable relationship with customers.

– Equating the term with technology, IT organizations define CRM as software that facilitates a company’s marketing, merchandising, sales and service operations.

– According to Franics Buttle, the world’s leading CRM professor, it is a core business strategy that integrates internal processes and functions, as well as external networks, to create and deliver value to a target customer in a cost-effective manner. It relies on high quality customer data and information technology. The main objective of a CRM is to increase customer loyalty and thus improve the company’s profitability.

Here are some of the important ingredients of a CRM:

– Analytics: Analytics is the process of studying, processing and representing data in different graphic formats such as charts, tables, trends, etc. in order to observe market trends.

– Activity Reports: Activity reports include specific reports on sales, customer service and marketing.

– Customer Service: Customer service consists of collecting and transmitting to the appropriate department the following information about customers:
o Personal information such as name, address, age, etc.
o Past buying habits.
o Requirements and preferences.
o Complaints and suggestions.

– Human Resource Management: Human Resource Management is about employing and placing the most qualified human resources in the right place in the company.

– Lead Management: Lead management involves keeping track of sales leads and their distribution, managing campaigns, designing custom forms, finalizing mailing lists, and studying customer buying habits.

– Marketing: Marketing is the development and implementation of sales strategies by studying existing and potential customers in order to sell the product.

– Sales Force Automation: Sales force automation includes forecasting, sales recording, processing and tracking of potential interactions.

– Workflow Automation: Workflow automation involves the streamlining and scheduling of various processes that run in parallel. It reduces costs and time, and avoids assigning the same task to several employees.

The objectives of customer relations with a CRM

The most important objectives of using customer relationship management (CRM) methods are:
– Improve customer satisfaction
– CRM contributes to customer satisfaction, as satisfied customers remain loyal to the company and spread good word of mouth. This can be accomplished by encouraging customer engagement via social networking sites, surveys, interactive blogs and various mobile platforms. – Expand customer base
– CRM not only manages existing customers, it also creates knowledge for potential customers who have not yet converted. It allows you to create and manage a huge customer base that promotes continued profits, even for a seasonal business.
– Improve business sales
– CRM methods can be used to close more deals, increase sales, improve forecasting accuracy and suggestion selling. The CRM allows the creation of new sales opportunities and thus contributes to increase the company’s revenues.
– Improve workforce productivity
– A CRM system can create organized work methods for a company’s sales and sales management staff. Sales staff can view customer contact information, follow up via email or social media, manage tasks and track salesperson performance. Salespeople can respond quickly to customer inquiries and solve their problems.

Characteristics of CRMs

CRM systems are divided according to their main features. There are four basic types of CRM systems:
– Strategic CRM
– Operational CRM
– CRM analytics
– Collaborative CRM