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Is It Time for a Smarter CRM?

Jul 2022

What is CRM?

CRM – or Customer Relationship Management – has changed. It is no longer a term used to describe a contact management system – an electronic record card system used by salespeople to record details of their customer’s likes and dislikes or to schedule calls and meetings. It’s now about every customer touchpoint.

According to Wikipedia, it’s expanded to become “the process by which a business (or other organisation) administers its interactions with customers”.

This means it has to compile information from a range of sources including:

  • Telephone Calls
  • Meetings
  • E-mail
  • Website/Blog Activity
  • Messaging Systems
  • Social Media

It now encompasses users in sales, marketing, management, project management, service delivery, customer service and finance. CRM is a tool for an entire business geared to finding and delighting the next customer in a landscape that is evolving ever more quickly.

We believe that Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the single most important financial metric in business and that everything we do should be about improving that.

Happily, the recipe for enhancing CLV is simple: 

  • Find the Right Customer
  • Solve their Problems
  • Exceed their Expectations
  • Make them feel Valued.

"CRM is a philosophy coupled with a system - usually software - to build and maintain better customer relationships."


CRM is about developing processes to delight customers.CRM

CRM software should streamline and automate processes across every customer touchpoint to increase sales and marketing productivity. Its goal will be to improve customer service, delight customers, generate more sales, and ultimately increase profitability.


No software ever came with a free strategy, however. That’s why software on its own is useless.

For our small business heroes – the B2B teams – there will be a number of challenges ahead in order to realise the vision of a more streamlined sales and marketing operation with more productive salespeople, happier customers, and more profits.

  1. The Customer Relationship Management Problem - are we managing relationshops effectively now and if not, how will a new software system help? Is it possible we could improve our customer relationship thinking before we implement new software?
  2. The CRM Software Problem - 52% of businesses want more than their system gived them. Why? There are four common reasons
    • It was implimented without clear goals, expectations or a clear definition of what success looks like.
    • Its simply become an outdated legacy system, no longer relevant in an online world.
    • Its users dont like it, don't understand it or don't want it and have taken to doing the absolute bare minimum - rendering the software near worthless
    • The business has outgrown it.
  3. The Pitfalls of the Implementation Journey - You'll do it better the second or third time around than you do the first time, but you may not have that luxury. What can you learn now that means this time around will be a great experience?

If you'd like to know more about CRM and Why it's important for your business, check our blog!

 

If you'd like to read more, download:
Our CRM Whitepaper
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