For a business to succeed, it needs to create the proper relationships with various parties. From their clients and customers to their vendors to other businesses they work with, the average business has a lot of contacts they need to manage – which is why a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application is so valuable.
Let’s go step-by-step and examine a few different scenarios that a CRM can help you avoid.
1. Communication Issues
Communication is critical, regardless of the business in question. Take a few minutes to consider how much communication is likely happening in your business and the issues that could get in its way.
Naturally, this communication is happening between your business and your clients. Look at it from their perspective for a moment – have you ever worked with a business that, if you were to reach out to different departments, you would have to provide them with the same information repeatedly? Not to confirm it, but actually give it to them for their department’s records?
It can be a real pain to do so – and it doesn’t exactly give the business your vote of confidence, does it? Internally, communication is crucial to keep information spreading appropriately. Hence, all involved people have access to the information they need, such as when a client was last called and what was discussed. A CRM allows your employees to access this kind of information. Thus, allowing them to provide a better service and generate a better impression.
2. Overlooked Opportunities in Customer Relationship Management
Based on the products and services that a given business offers, they may work with the same clients over and over or see various clients. However, there is one thing that they all share: each one of your clients and customers is seeking to have a given need or responsibility fulfilled in a timeframe that is reasonable to them.
Therefore, part of your job is to spot these patterns. Then, as often as possible, use them to proactively meet (or prepare to meet) the client’s expectations.
A CRM can help, as you can use it to track your customers’ behaviors. Thus, identifying trends and timeframes as the data is captured. This allows you to anticipate the behaviors of similar clients and provide them with improved services. So, if Adam, Larry, and David all want to sign up for a given service after each of them experienced a similar event in their businesses, chances are pretty high that Paul will want to do the same. The CRM can help you predict when that will be, allowing you to prepare.
3. Business Disunification
When a business is first getting started, chances are pretty high that it will be pretty small. This allows it to fall into habits that aren’t going to work once it grows a bit. Notes scribbled on scrap paper and buried in someone’s desk drawer aren’t going to help someone else who needs that information to do their job properly. By implementing a CRM, you can avoid this issue almost entirely.
Assuming that it is used properly, your Customer Relationship Management software can become your company’s database. It can include the people you work with, built up and referenced by everyone with access. In this way, it’s a crib sheet that you can use to track your relationships and ensure they are properly handled.
One more thing to think about – depending on the types of customers you do business with, you may fall under certain regulatory compliances. The GDPR, for example, empowers your customers to request to be forgotten. This means you must be able to remove sensitive information you have on them thoroughly. If you have been using spreadsheets across the company to manage your contacts, that will be a lot harder to do. Most modern CRM systems have this in mind.
WheelHouse IT can help you put a CRM in place in your own operations. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call (877) 771-2384 today!
