The most important relationship you could ever create for your brand is the one with your customers. After all, they hold the success of your business in their hands. Even if there’s just a small segment of people who enjoy and stay loyal to your products and services, you can be sure that your enterprise can grow and thrive through the years.
With that said, it’s crucial for you to understand how you can develop your relationship with consumers further.
What is CRM?
These days, customer relationship management (CRM) is more than just convincing buyers to try your merchandise. You must get to know them on a deeper level so you can create content and new products or services that will resonate with your target audience.
One valuable tool to invest in, if you want to achieve this goal, is a CRM system. This type of software allows you to get up-to-date and reliable information on various departments, particularly sales, customer service, marketing, and even social media. With this data, you have a clear overview of the customers you’re attracting. (1)
Even the simplest CRM system can do wonders for your business. Just make sure that you look for a tool that specializes in your industry. For instance, plumbing service providers would do well to invest in plumbing management software like the one developed by Jobber. This way, you are assured that your pain points as a contractor, especially estimating and dispatching, would be solved by the app.
In this article, you’ll earn some must-have features in a small business CRM.
- Contact management
First, you must take a close look at the contact management system of a potential CRM. The tool would serve as your address book for your existing customers. It should collect information like your customers’ names, phone numbers, and email addresses. It must come with basic functions like adding new contacts and editing your current database.
The app should be able to record the interactions between your representatives and customers as well. A note-taking feature is also a must. This way, you can personalize and improve your customers’ experiences.
- Lead management
While the contact management feature is intended to keep track of your current customers, lead management focuses on potential clients. With this function, the app must be able to record and monitor where each lead is at in the process. This way, you can customize your interactions with these prospects, especially based on their readiness for conversion.
- Campaign management
Aside from keeping track of individual interactions, the CRM you choose must also allow you to monitor the success of your campaigns. It should help you target the different segments in your contacts as well as determine various deployment strategies.
One feature of campaign management that you ought to prioritize is email tracking. The technology enables you to see the open rate for each email as well as monitor how many clicks internal links have received. There are also basic functions such as importing contact details and forwarding.
- Social media management
Social media is very useful for small businesses. Your CRM must allow you to integrate your social media channels so you have a centralized location for your marketing insights. This function can also let you post content and answer messages right on the software.
- Mobile app
These days, mobile apps are a must, even for business software like a CRM. It’s estimated that the mobile CRM market will rise to about 11% globally this year as brands aim to reach more consumers through their smartphones and tablets. (2)
For consumers, a mobile app will make filling up forms and accessing their transaction history with your business more convenient. On the other hand, your employees can benefit from being able to access customer data across multiple devices, especially when they’re meeting a client in person. It also makes the process of updating information more seamless.
- Analytics
Your CRM must also provide you with efficient reporting and dashboards. Since it’s a central location for all of your customer information, it should make the process of analyzing information more straightforward by automating the creation of charts and graphs. This way, you just need to interpret the insights that you have so you can improve your products and services.
Conclusion
One of the top tools that small businesses should invest in is a CRM system. It serves as a one-stop shop for all information pertaining to your customers. The software offers a myriad of functions, which is why you should find one that’s specifically developed for your business.
References
- “CRM 101: What is CRM?” Source: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/crm/what-is-crm/
- “18 CRM Statistics You Need to Know for 2021 (and Beyond)”, Source: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/crm-software-statistics/
