Acticsim

3 easy rules for successful use of CRM

1️⃣ All business decisions are made only based on data from CRM.

👉🏻 It is the foundation of the basics. Otherwise, nothing will work. When the company stops using this information, its quality automatically declines.

2️⃣ CRM should be a manager’s assistant.

👉🏻 It means that all the functionality and processes within the system are aimed at ensuring that the employee performs his tasks more efficiently.

3️⃣ Training, involvement and mentoring.

🙌🏻 Employees need to be prepared to work efficiently with CRM. Employees need to go through some sort of training, such as corporate courses, where they will understand how to use the system. You can also distribute instructions and some other materials at the implementation stage.

How to use analytical CRM tools to solve common problems?

👉🏻 Problem: It is required to exclude the loss of a customer complaint.

🙌🏻 Solution: When a complaint about the quality of a product or service is received, the CRM system records the date of its receipt, the nature of the complaint, and the person responsible for its processing.

🌟 Suppose it is necessary to analyse the complaint of employees of various company departments. In that case, the responsible person can transfer the complaint to them for consideration using the CRM system.

👉🏻 Problem: A unified procedure for dealing with customer complaints is needed.

🙌🏻 Solution: in order to automate the analysis of the client’s complaint, a typical business process for the analysis of the complaint is launched, which regulates the procedure, responsible persons and terms of work on the complaint.

👉🏻 Problem: It is required to control the number of complaints, their status, and the timing of their analysis.

🌟 Solution: The manager can build a report at any time and see at what stage of the analysis any client complaint is or how many complaints were received for a certain time interval and their reasons.

Top 5 features to look at in a CRM solution.

☎️ CRM does not just organise customer contacts. A proper set of features turns the system into a powerful marketing and sales optimising tool. It provides valuable insights into customers’ needs, allows for planning sales, and maintains customer loyalty.

There are five must-have features of a functional CRM 👇🏻

1️⃣ Workflow automation.

📞 A CRM can come with automation features such as directing a customer application, an automatic response, a notification in case of no response, etc.

2️⃣ Customisation.

☎️ Customisation helps set the CRM up to the business’s needs and optimises costs allowing to pay only for the features necessary for the team. Advanced customisation means that certain features can be set to operate for the needs of the managers.

3️⃣ Third-party integration.

📞 Connecting a CRM with the solutions already in use in your business will save you much time and effort. It will also eliminate manual data transfer and reduce the risk of human error.

4️⃣ Employee tracking.

☎️ Advanced CRM solutions offer employee activity and performance tracking as hours, tasks, meetings, sales numbers, goals, and other items.

📞 For supervisors, the CRM provides dashboards that let them view employee performance, goals, and progress.

5️⃣ Lead management.

☎️ This feature allows tracking of the customers’ actions across the sales funnel. The feature gives you insights into the sales cycle, lead generation, and the aspects requiring improvement.

5 mistakes in using CRM

1️⃣ Collecting useless data.

👥 CRM is a flexible tool that can collect any data about customers. It is all about setting the system. However, not all data is valuable for business. Useless data adds variables to the analysis and can misrepresent the results.

🙌🏻 The best way to avoid information overload is to review what data matters for the business thoroughly. By keeping only necessary information, you will also keep your employees focused.

2️⃣ Collecting incomplete data.

👥 Leaving some fields empty turns the data into a useless asset. Missing information decreases marketing potential and leads to spending more time searching for a necessary customer entry. As a result, the efficacy of crucial marketing tools gets reduced.

3️⃣ Not using collected data.

🙌🏻 Many of our customers never use the complete data set that the CRM can collect. Moreover, some companies do not use the data at all. They do not analyse data, do not make data-driven decisions, and do not use the data for successful marketing.

👥 The Acticism CRM offers an inbuilt advanced analytical tool that automates data processing and offers valuable insights that help better understand customer needs, estimate the efficacy of marketing, and optimise the strategy.

4️⃣ Not integrating CRM with other sources of data.

🙌🏻 A CRM can become a centralised hub of customer data. However, most companies use CRM separately from other sources of user information. Without integration, you will have separate data clusters that are hard to analyse and draw results.

👥 Neglecting the integration leads to incomplete data compromising the team performance, the quality of service, and the marketing efforts.

5️⃣ Lack of employee training.

🙌🏻 The success of CRM integration depends on the quality of staff training and the level of their skills in CRM usage. If the employees do not know how to use the key and additional features, the business will not benefit from the integration.

👥 The absence of knowledge, skills and relevant training result in a frustrating experience. Without proper training, employees can slip back to the tried ways of collecting and managing data.

Why the lack of a CRM system for sales can lead to losses

☎️ Sales managers and business owners cannot and should not control their employees every step of the way. Salespeople get valuable information about customers during phone calls, meetings and online presentations.

🙌🏻 Unfortunately, this data can be too fragmented: it is stored in handwritten notes, computer memory, or only in salespeople's heads.

☎️ In addition, customers can interact through a wide range of platforms, including phone, email or social media. In the flow of information, solving the problem can be significantly prolonged, and many details can be missed, which, in turn, can cause dissatisfaction among the performer.

🙌🏻 Managers lose track of what their teams are doing and promptly fail to provide customer support. It is difficult to determine who should take responsibility for the situation. Therefore, not only do sales suffer from the lack of CRM, but also the quality of customer service.

☎️ Even if the team carefully collects all the data, the person using it may have difficulty finding and understanding it. And things can be much easier when you rely on a system that provides centralised management and customer relationship support.

What is social CRM?

Social CRM is one of the most significant trends in the development of CRM technologies, aimed at integrating CRM into social networks and using Social Software elements in CRM.

Social CRM is based on three ideas: 👇🏻

📞 Many company clients constantly communicate on the Internet, discuss products, advise each other, ask questions, and share ideas. Social CRM allows you to control this process and intervene when necessary. It is an excellent opportunity to increase sales and loyalty and get feedback and new ideas.

⚖️ Having up-to-date information about interesting online conversations, for example, on Twitter or Facebook, a company employee can intervene quickly and answer a potential client’s question, causing delight with such a quick response.

📞 An integral part of any social CRM system should be its client community or portal where clients can communicate with each other and company employees. All discussions on this portal are part of the customer relationship history.

⚖️ In addition, through this portal, customers should have access to information stored in the CRM system - first of all, their orders, knowledge base, helpdesk and information about the company and its employees.

📞 The third idea is to have social tools in CRM for the company’s employees. If the CRM system works as an internal social network, valuable customer information is less likely to be lost.