No one is more important to your business than your customers. You look to build trusting relationships with them and for them to become loyal customers and even brand ambassadors. In light of this, you should always look for ways to improve things for them by making the customer journey and experience smoother, boosting their trust in you and their loyalty toward you.
CRM (customer relationship management) systems are popular for a reason—this powerful tool can provide tremendous support when it comes to improving trust and loyalty in your business, and contains a record of all your customers’ interactions with you. For this reason, it is crucial to stay on top of emerging trends that will assist you in keeping up with customers’ evolving needs and expectations.
This article will explore some new CRM trends that you should be looking at to further improve those relationships.
What is CRM (customer relationship management)?
Your customer relationship management system stores all your customers’ information, including any interactions they have had with you, such as phone calls or emails, and their transaction history. This can be extremely useful for your sales or customer service teams, who can personalize conversations with the information on the CRM.
Your CRM software solution benefits everyone; it can streamline your processes and boost profitability. For your customers, it improves their customer experience and makes them feel more valued.
CRM has been around for nearly three decades and was the first SaaS system. Many see CRM trends as useful for identifying what might happen in the SaaS market.
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Trends in CRM
As with any technology, CRM is constantly evolving and changing, and new features are added (or old ones are improved) regularly. The question is, which CRM trends can you use to improve the customer experience and boost customer loyalty?
1. Automation
Automation has come a long way since its inception and continues to grow and make things easier for organizations and customers alike. It can take your staff away from repetitive and routine tasks and allow them to focus on other things instead.
As your workforce is the most valuable resource you have, enabling them to be more productive can increase their job satisfaction.
The use of automation related to your CRM will help you in several ways:
- Score leads. You can prioritize already-qualified leads by giving them a score relating to how likely they are to move to a purchase. This can help your sales team focus on quality rather than quantity.
- Welcome email. When a customer has moved through your sales pipelines and buys a product or service, an automated welcome mail from your marketing teams can be a good idea.
- Reminder emails. If a customer is on a subscription, such as with a SaaS system, your CRM can send a reminder email when that subscription is due to expire.
- Assignments. There are times when a lead doesn’t want to wait for information and service. You can assign customers to sales agents via your CRM to cut down on waiting times.
Automation will continue to be a growing trend in your CRM. If you haven’t already introduced it to your CRM, it would be a good idea to do so. And if you’re already using it, keep an eye out for new ways to apply it.
2. Artificial Intelligence
2023 may have been AI’s ‘coming out’ year, but 2024 is the year it can shine. Software developers and SaaS providers are finding new and innovative ways to use AI in your day-to-day business operations. New SaaS products—and updates to existing ones—are now coming with AI features built into them, so you don’t need to think about it.
AI can help you connect better with customers and can boost their satisfaction levels. From cutting down waiting times in call centers using CRMs with AI-powered chatbots to identifying the subject lines in marketing emails that will capture attention, AI really could be your new best friend given its ML (machine learning) and NLP (natural language processing) capabilities.
In your CRM, consider the following key trends to apply:
- Forecasting. AI can analyze data and identify patterns very efficiently, in this way providing valuable insights. Predictive analytics can forecast what products and/or services may be in demand in future quarters.
- Grading leads. How likely is a lead to make a purchase, and what (approximate) value will that lead have, both in terms of any initial purchase and in terms of CLV (customer lifetime value)? AI can help you identify priority and high-value leads.
- Email content. Beyond automated welcome emails, AI can help create or identify content that will improve personalization and that will resonate with the recipient.
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3. Integrations
In today’s digital era, it’s crucial to connect with customers on the channels they use. However, it can be intensely frustrating to have to switch between systems or tools to get a 360° view of a customer’s previous interactions and buying history. If your CRM system isn’t already integrating well with other tools and systems, then it’s time to change that.
For example, let’s say you are using a tool for insurance appointment setting. If that tool doesn’t integrate with your CRM, then it can be extra work for a salesperson to see everything about a potential customer on different customer data platforms.
From the perspective of customers, having seamless customer interactions that covers all their touchpoints is always going to help with satisfaction and loyalty. Connectivity between all your platforms and all the social media channels that customers use is key to a better customer journey. Look at how well all your current tools integrate and how well your CRM integrates with the channels used by customers.
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4. Personalization
Favoring a personal touch is nothing new, but the combination of your CRM with automation and AI can take personalization to the next level.
Every personalized experience starts with quality data, and that’s something your CRM should have vast amounts of. From what a customer has bought in the last two years to any problems they have had, you can then personalize any conversation with them from the actionable insights your CRM provides.
Your ability to offer personalized experiences with information from your CRM goes way beyond conversations with agents, though. Want to send out a marketing email about a new product line? Personalize it by linking previous purchases to the new product. Want to upsell or cross-sell? Then do the same; for example, “This product would really complement the one you bought in January.”
By customizing messages and product recommendations to customers, you are better meeting their expectations and are more likely to see your customer retention rate increase. The more you use data and identified algorithms from your CRM to personalize your marketing efforts, the better competitive advantage you’ll have.
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5. Self-service
The value of the self-service technology market is expected to reach $92 billion by 2030. While you may think of self-service options as being separate from your CRM work, integrating the two can bring dividends. Having a self-service option within your CRM framework can be both cost-effective and very user-friendly.
One of the big benefits of self-service CRMs is that they require less IT input and support than a standalone business management system. This means that they are ideal for small businesses or sole traders. If you worry about what happens if your business grows, then don’t. These self-service CRMs are cloud-based and, thus, very scalable. They will grow as you do.
Integrating self-service capabilities with existing CRMs means you can maximize your efficiency and streamline your processes, something that will appeal to the smaller business. These businesses are always looking for ways to save money while still nurturing business growth. And, of course, making things easier for your customers means happier customers.
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6. Mobile-friendly
Some CRM systems have been prohibitive for smaller businesses due to complexity and cost. There has also been an issue of accessibility for any salespeople who are on the road. You will now see an increasing number of CRM systems that are mobile-friendly, which means you or your staff don’t need to be at your desk to get all the benefits.
When you are more connected to the data on your customers and potential customers, you not only make your job easier, but you are providing a better service to people. Your sales team (or person) can make more sales, which will help drive business growth. Moreover, customers will recognize and appreciate your efforts and are more likely to remain loyal.
The takeaway
Smaller businesses face many challenges, both when it comes to survival and when it comes to business growth. They don’t have the budgets to compete with larger businesses when it comes to either marketing campaigns or buying helpful tech. Newer CRM systems offer many advantages in terms of cost and accessibility, which can help even the playing field to an extent.
You can also look at SaaS CRM systems; these allow you to select a subscription-based model more suited to your budget. By following the trends most relevant to your business model, you can better serve your customers, which will mean they are more likely to be loyal to you. Making the processes and touchpoints seamless will also increase customer satisfaction by making the customer journey easier.
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