Start the new year off right: Add value and increase bottom line with CRM

As the new year rings in, many people make resolutions—new habits, self-improvements, changes for the better. Whether or not you ascribe to New Year Resolutions, here’s a change your business can make to kick off this year and build up your bottom line: invest in CRM. A Customer Relationship Management system is a tool that, when added to your tech stack, can return massive ROI by improving your sales and marketing performance and potential. In fact, in 2014, every dollar spent on CRM returned between $5.60 and $8.71 (Nucleus Research).

Worldwide, CRM software revenue was the largest of all software markets in 2017 (Gartner, Inc), and that’s not projected to wane. This means there’s big demand for CRM and lots of companies are either already using it or preparing to implement it. By the numbers, it’s safe to say that CRM is widely used for good reason, so let’s dig into exactly that: How can CRM meaningfully benefit your business, and why should you make it your New Year’s Resolution to implement CRM in your organization?

Siloed information: The perennial problem, fixed

Whether it be sharing customer info between departments or individuals within the same departments struggling to share their client info with other team members, information has historically been siloed and hard to make available to all who could need it.

Think of these examples: a customer service rep aids a client with an issue that could be solved with another product the company sells, but the sales rep doesn’t know the customer has that need.

With CRM, all prospect and customer information is accessible in one place and updated almost instantly. We’re talking email communication, meeting records, contact details, prior purchases…and the list goes on. Forget the days when employees struggled to find or access data they needed to help a customer, and say goodbye to the frustration caused to customers who swear they already told you x or y. No more lost or forgotten information, no more digging through a saturated inbox to find that key detail, and certainly no more question about your customer outreach and engagement timelines. Keep all team members up to date with accurate data and give them the tools they need to do their job well—that’s value for the company and the customer.

A CRM is the height of collaboration and communication within and across departments or teams, the first domino in a mosaic that leads to quality customer relationship management.

Breaking the barrier to strong customer service

It’s partially due to the centralization and organization of prospect and customer data (i.e. removing information silos) that makes outstanding customer service easier to obtain. With reduced barriers to customer data—such as their purchase history, past communication, outreach, etc.—every customer service representative can do their job quicker and better. In addition, CRM can include tools for customer service, like case management, self-service portals, AI-based chat bots, and more that make it easier than ever to help the customer quickly and in a personalized manner.

The takeaway: Customers will feel more valued, get their problems resolved faster, and will have a positive experience with the company, even when something goes wrong. Talk about increasing customer loyalty.

More ROI from your efforts

With a more satisfied customer, organizations see increased repeat customers, as well as stronger cross-sell opportunities. Marketers and salespeople can use details such as customer history and marketing analytics (such as email and social media) to curate outreach to customers with targeted, specific product suggestions or offers via the customer’s ideal channels at opportune times. This unique understanding of the customer’s history, desires, and patterns means your marketing and sales efforts gain more traction.

But the value is not just for current customers: the tools within a CRM help companies gain more leads via various channels, market more effectively to those leads, analyze KPIs to gain actionable insight on their strategy’s effectiveness, make meaningful shifts based on that data, and ultimately win more prospects.

What’s more? Many CRM (such as Microsoft Dynamics 365) are building in automation and artificial intelligence. We all know automation and AI are the game changers in today’s drive toward digital transformation.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based suite of business solutions (both ERP and CRM) that work and integrate seamlessly with other Microsoft applications (such as Teams, Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint…) as well as third-party applications. Dynamics 365 CRM enhances an organization’s ability to manage customer relationships at all parts of the sales and marketing pipeline, from gathering leads to winning a prospect to servicing the customer post-sale to creating a loyal repeat customer. Available Dynamics 365 CRM modules include Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Project Service Automation, and Field Service.

Here are some of the prime abilities of each module, available individually or together as the Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement plan:

Ready to boost your bottom line?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM breaks down data silos and barriers to customer service while making the employee’s job easier. Without doubt, this makes for better customer experiences, increased loyalty, and bigger ROI for your effort.

Though it’s a great New Year’s change, any time is ideal to implement a CRM system. Reach out to our skilled CRM consultants by clicking the button below. We will listen to your needs, show you a personalized CRM demo, and answer all your questions. If you’re ready to commit, we’ll be here every step of the way—from a rapid implementation, in-depth employee training, and quality support after go-live.