Are you an SME (small-medium enterprise) owner? Or, are you perhaps a C-Suite manager of a large corporation? How are you managing the association between your customers and your business? Is there a structured process, or is it a haphazard, hit and miss process?
Client relationship management is one of the pivotal elements of any successful business. Hence, it is essential to put mechanisms into place to manage this rapport with the care and consideration it deserves. Succinctly stated, if a business does not prioritize its customers, it cannot expect to sell its products or services. And, in the worst case, the business cannot expect to grow or even remain open, especially during tough economic times like the current global pandemic caused by the coronavirus, COVID-19.
At the outset of this discussion, let’s consider a definition of customer relationship management as well some of the key benefits to pivoting your business to use a customer-centric model and method.
CRM: Driving sales growth and organizational development
Wikipedia.com defines Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as “an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers.”
The CRM business model “uses data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.”
This description describes the purpose and function of the CRM method. It uses historical data to improve the relationship between the customer and the business with the primary aim of retaining customers and driving sales growth. This sales growth justifies the costs of the implementation, and it increases the ROI and the company’s bottom line.
Consequently, the most important benefit and the raison d’etre for implementing the CRM methodology is that it manages the customer-business relationship with the ultimate aim of driving sales growth and increasing the company’s profitability metrics.
At this juncture, it is reasonable to ask how to determine which CRM software is best suited to your business model. The best way to determine which is the best software for your company’s purposes is to read reviews on the different brands available today.
CRM: Improving customer interactions
Email marketing is still the most successful form of digital marketing. Statistics show that over 90% of all marketers use email marketing as their primary channel to connect with their brand’s target audience. 59% of all brand marketers state that email marketing has the biggest ROI out of all the available marketing channels.
Additionally, one of the biggest benefits of using CRM software is that it uses historical data to recommend future actions for each client. Therefore, if the business combines this statistical forecasting combined with benefits of email marketing, it will be able to send targeted emails to specific groups within its larger consumer base; thereby, increasing its marketing penetration, converting more visitors to returning customers, and improving existing clients’ repeat-buy statistics.
Final thoughts
Implementing a robust CRM business model with the associated software is a proven way to improve customer retention metrics and drive up sales figures. Without this implementation, your business runs the risk of losing customers and sales; neither of which your company can afford, especially at this current moment in the world’s economic history.
