What is a CRM system? Before you read an overview of a Customer Relationship Management system, you may want to check out other blogs on digital transformation, change management, or business strategy, such as scenario planning and Porter’s five force analysis.

What is a CRM system?

CRM is an acronym for customer relationship management, and businesses worldwide are implementing this system. It is built to allow you to manage your relationships with current and potential customers.

When we think about Customer Relationship Management, this topic can be mentioned in different ways. For example, CRM as a strategy will be a business’s focus on how they are going to strategies around building relationships with customers and managing current customers. CRM as a process is how a business will embed a system to manage these relationships. However, we are going to focus on CRM as technology today, where these businesses will implement a CRM system to deal with customers effectively. 

How does a CRM system work?

This technology is built to effectively allow you to manage interactions with your customers and potential customers. 

The system will allow you to pull all your customers’ data, such as email, phone, and other relevant information, into one place. It will then organise this data so that you have a complete record of your customers, also helping you better manage returning customers. 

This system focuses on building and supporting your business’s relationship with its customers by streamlining processes to deliver more value and maximise sales. Capable of capturing all customers’ interactions with the business, this technology system will then allow you to have more control and focus over your conversations with your customers. 

Why is having a CRM system important for your business?

As business owners, we know that in order to scale and grow your business, you need to build strong relationships with customers. Customer retention and ensuring that your customers return again and again is also crucial. A CRM system is a tool that helps you achieve this. For agencies, a CRM system is particularly valuable as it can streamline client management and improve service delivery. By providing detailed insights into client needs and project statuses, it enables agencies to deliver more personalized and effective solutions.

This technology system also allows you to become proactive and encourage forward thinking. Therefore, businesses looking to strategize toward the future will find that a CRM system promotes this vision by streamlining processes and fostering deeper client connections.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a CRM system 

Advantages of a CRM system

• Can help grow your business
• Encourages collaboration across your business
• Allows you to make better use of data and results (improved decision making)
• Heightens productivity amongst various teams 
• Reliable reporting

Disadvantages of CRM systems 

• Can become reliant on one tool to do everything
• Can be security and customer protection issues
• It may not suit all types of businesses
• It can take time when implemented correctly

Examples of CRM Systems on the market today

• Hubspot: Hubspot strive of connecting scaling companies with what they require to deliver the best results for their customers. This platform is suitable for marketing, sales and customer service, connecting each to help your business grow.
• Salesforce: This system is built to give companies and customers a single view of all the information you need. Having all resources in the one place will allow companies to make better decisions for the future.
• Pipedrive: The Pipedrive system is developed to allow you to get more leads, generate and manage sales, and grow your business. Therefore, driven by data insights, you can make key decisions to increase profit margins.
• Monday sales: Monday sales system is a highly customisable CRM tool which allows you to effectively manage customers from the begging of the relationship right through to the fulfilment process.

When should you implement a CRM system

Normally when a business starts out and they begin to generate new leads of customers they will save this data and information onto a spreadsheet. This works fine at the beginning but as the business grows, as will this spreadsheet making it more difficult to hold customer data and produce effective reporting on this.

As time goes on, it can become easier to loose important information and if someone forgets to update the spreadsheet, inefficiencies benign to creep in. therefore, adopting a CRM system sooner rather than later will ensure you keep on top of your business and deal with the most important part of it effectively, your customers. 

How to select an appropriate CRM system for your business

The following five steps is considered the best approach to take when selecting a CRM system for your business;

1. Identify your needs
2. Do your research
3. Evaluate ROI and Scalability
4. Test and Pilot
5. Negotiate Terms

Following each of these steps will allow you to consider all CRM technology providers which are out there and effectively score and shortlist each of these down to the vendor which is best suited toward your business. In addition to the popular proprietary CRM systems mentioned, businesses can also consider CRM open source solutions, which offer the benefits of customization, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, making them suitable for organizations with specific requirements or limited budgets. If you would like some more information on how you may do this, check out the following video.

How CRM systems can match different types of businesses 

• Marketing: CRM systems normally come in with a built-in Kanban view, allowing you to map out the customer journey from the beginning of the relationship until the end.
• Sales: A CRM system can effectively help understand a sales pipeline, where progress can be easily tracked and you can see when a deal is going to be won. 
• Client or customer service: These types of teams can become more effective when a CRM system is implemented. The system will ensure that no interactions go missing, as they can offer instant replies to queries and deal with issues in order of priority.
• Human Resources (HR): A CRM system can improve the speed and performance of onboarding processes and track staff performance. 

Summary

That summarises an overview of a Customer Relationship Management system and how they may be relevant to your business today. If you enjoyed this article and want to view more content like this, make sure and check ProfileTree’s Youtube out for more. Thank you!