If you want to expand your brand’s customer engagement, grow loyalty and increase sales, you need to add a customer relationship management tool to your SMB’s bag of tricks.
Sales, service and marketing are the holy trinity of any successful business but whilst many SMB owners have a plan for sales and marketing, the majority are falling down when it comes to service. Managing all touchpoints of your customer’s journey can be tricky but with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool in place you can say goodbye to multiple systems, diary notes and post-its once and for all.
CRM software makes it easy for you to manage all your critical customer information in one place. A CRM gives you visibility over every interaction you and your staff have with clients and gives you a single source of your client’s history.
Staff turnover is less of an issue when you have an integrated CRM system. Why? Customer contacts and information are no longer tied to your sales team but stored centrally. A CRM application can be easily accessible to everyone. And if you have staff that are frequently on the road, a CRM can be extremely useful. It allows them to easily access any information they need about a client on the fly. They can also update details via their laptop or smartphone and the changes are reflected instantly back at your office.
Most small businesses know that competition to attract and keep customers can be fierce. For your sales and marketing to be truly effective, you can no longer take a one-size-fits all approach. Personalisation is becoming increasingly important to customers and it should be equally important to SMBs. However, as the marketing process becomes more and more automated, maintaining personalisation across all your brand’s touchpoints can be difficult. But with a CRM, managing the personalisation process is simple. CRM gives you the ability to centrally manage all your touchpoints to deliver a great customer experience.
In a world where brands can live or die by their engagement, CRM helps SMBs facilitate an omnichannel approach that is consistent. CRM puts the customer centre stage in any transaction.
Targeting your marketing and sales tactics is easy when you have a CRM in place.
A CRM will also allow you to identify your most important customers, forecast sales based on your customer’s past purchases and can deliver real-time data. If you’ve ever sent an email to a customer offering a product they have already bought or asking them to sign up for a new service when they are in the midst of a customer complaint you will know how damaging this can be to your brand’s reputation. With a CRM, you can say goodbye to these costly screw-ups.
In a world where social media is King and customer reviews are the currency that can make or break a business, delivering exceptional customer service is becoming mandatory.
Capturing customer responses and mitigating negative reviews is easier too if you have the right tools in place. A CRM can integrate with social listening tools to monitor for brand mentions and help you respond faster to negative and positive feedback. It provides you with the technology you need to engage with today’s always-connected customer.
A CRM will also give your business an advantage over your competitor. It allows you to follow up leads faster, meet customer inquiries easily, provide solutions and feedback within minutes and frees up your time to focus on scaling your business.
While CRMs have been previously associated with the enterprise and big end of town, cloud-based solutions and SaaS offerings now make CRM an extremely affordable and essential solution for small business owners. For any SMB wanting to get ahead, the question is less ‘Why do I need a CRM?’ and more ‘How do I sign up now?!’
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