Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a vital aspect of any business. The term covers every aspect of building and maintaining relationships with those who buy your products or utilise your services. When businesses are small, managing customer relationships can be done on an individual level. You perhaps know all your clients personally; you can drop someone an email whom you think may be interested in your latest product. However, businesses soon grow out of this initial stage where CRM is manageable at this level, and that is the time to implement a CRM system that takes over the hard work for you, and brings you results you simply cannot attain alone. Here are 7 signs you should look out for, that signal your business needs a true customer relationship management solution…
1. You’re struggling to keep up with lead flow
Having lots of leads is great, it’s all potential business, but it’s only valuable if you follow them up and turn them into real business. A CRM system will help you to sort and prioritise leads, ensuring no lead is forgotten and the potentially most lucrative are explored as priority.
2. Locating data can often be hard and time consuming
Have you ever received some important information then been unable to find the details? Was it sent in via email? Perhaps it was a phone call and you jotted the information down somewhere? This may well be how many businesses start out, but it soon becomes a huge headache. CRM systems ensure that all your data is sensibly recorded in one location with total ease of access whenever and wherever you need it.
3. You have to actively look into what your sales teams are up to
Your sales team are a big investment, and so it’s important to keep track of what they are doing. This may be their location, or it may be their performance. A CRM system will be able to connect to your sales team via mobile app, ensuring you’re abreast of their progress at all times.
4. Customer service experience could use a boost of enhancement
There’s nothing that puts people off returning to a business more than poor customer service. With a good CRM system, customer needs can be anticipated in advance and your team will have a better overview of each customer’s journey. This in turn allows issues to be rectified quickly and efficiently, and plans put in place to ensure problems don’t occur again.
5. Managing valuable and long-term accounts becomes a priority
Many businesses have those special customers that you like to give priority to. Long term accounts that you really would hate to lose but you risk this if their queries are not responded to. With a CRM system is place, these VIP accounts can be flagged so you’re made aware if they place an order or register a query. You can set the system to alert you to events or milestones so you can send out relevant communications to boost sales and solidify the customer experience.
6. Reporting process is meandering and time consuming
Reports can be very valuable, but they can also be incredibly time consuming. With a good CRM system in place, inputting data becomes a much more pleasant experience for your sales team, and all information is collated centrally, giving you instant access to a wide range of data. Duplicate information can be automatically removed, and missing data inserted.
7. You don’t have a clear growth path
Are you concerned that you can handle your business just fine now, but perhaps you’d struggle if you suddenly had a large increase in demand for your services? It would be such a shame to have to let down customers simply because your business is unable to expand quickly to meet the extra demand for greater capacity. Perhaps it’s time to put a CRM system in place, one that will grow with you and be able to cater to your needs now and in the future?
Is it time to find out more?
So, if these issues are starting to sound familiar to you, it’s time to take a look at your options with regards to customer relationship management solutions, in order to maintain and support the customer relationships you’ve already built, as well as creating new relationships. A great customer experience is vital to ensure people are loyal to your product or services and a good CRM system can give you the insight you need to achieve this; enabling you to deliver a relevant, personalised service to every individual.
Supernova Consulting are a well-established and highly regarded business offering customer relationship management solutions perfectly tailored to your own unique requirements. For more information and personalised advice, please get in touch today. Our experts are looking forward to helping your company take control and transform its customer relationship management.
