Working with customers can be challenging. Your customer service team may feel overwhelmed by staying in touch with customers, correctly diagnosing any problems, and ensuring that they are satisfied.
CRM software can automate much of the work in both business and sales. It is critical to use a platform with the best CRM features. We've compiled a list of CRM Features to get you started.
Marketing and sales are the lifeblood of any company. They assist you in generating leads and educating customers about your product. A strong sales pipeline and marketing department can help any company gain customer retention.
There may be numerous channels and touchpoints to communicate with your prospects. It can be difficult to manage all of your customer's individual needs. CRM is useful in this situation. CRM tools can help businesses improve sales efficiency and maintain positive customer relationships.
A CRM Solution that opens up new avenues for growth can benefit both small businesses and large corporations. Businesses must now carefully manage their prospects and customer interaction.
We have evaluated numerous CRM systems and spoken with over 500 businesses about their CRM needs. This has taught us that before purchasing or implementing a CRM system, you should know the various functions and features available.
What is a CRM?
Before we proceed with the selection process, let us first define CRM. CRM refers to any strategy, tool, or technique a company uses to retain, acquire, and develop customer engagement. Sales and marketing representatives can use these tools to automate the customer lifecycle.
These solutions assist critical CRM functions by centralizing customer data in a repository. This enables business processes to be automated, relationships to be well-organized, and productivity to be increased.
Who uses a CRM?
A CRM system can be applied to almost any business segment. CRM functions can be used to manage relationships and external interactions to achieve success in customer communications service, sales pipeline, recruiting, business development, marketing, and others. You can create a contact list, identify sales opportunities, manage marketing campaigns, and track service issues using prospect and customer information.
Relationships with Customers can be made available to any company employee who requires them. With adequate visibility and data accessibility, sales representatives can collaborate easily. This will boost productivity and business growth.
Primary Benefits
The CRM market was worth $58.82 million in 2022. From 2023 to 2030, it is expected to grow at a 13.9% CAGR. CRM tools are widely used because they are among the most effective tools for acquiring and retaining customers. A smart CRM will assist you in understanding your target audience's location, preferences, spending habits, feedback, and brand engagement.
A CRM system can also be a great help:
- Streamline and Automate Processes: Standardizing and improving the coordination of marketing, customer service, and sales workflows and processes is possible.
- Create Smarter Offers: Recognize promising leads and focus on them to increase conversion rates. You can better understand your prospects and make your offers more relevant by being in touch.
- Enhance Customer Service: Loyal customers are more likely to return more often and remain loyal. It is vital to ensure that all current customers are happy. Find out why your customers aren't satisfied and make changes. A CRM platform can be used to collect customer satisfaction data. Some products include customer service capabilities that help customers even more.
- Increase Sales: CRM software features enable you to learn about your customers' birthdays, addresses, ages, and industries. This allows you to personalize both your communications and your offers. You can increase your ROI by making the right offers to customers at the right times.
- Remote Access: All users can work together through a cloud-based CRM system. Remote access allows sales reps to update and check data while moving and can work remotely.
- Reduce Costs: A cloud-based CRM platform can be quickly implemented without requiring additional hardware or installation. This reduces IT costs by eliminating the need to manage version control and schedule updates and lowering IT expenses. CRM pricing is determined by the number of users and the features required, making it a cost-effective solution.
- Maximize Customer Value: Learn about your customers and look for cross-selling and upselling opportunities to help you build long-term, profitable relationships.
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Software Selection Strategy
The choice of the right CRM is critical to customer success. It all comes down to two major points. To choose the best CRM, you must first know its key features. Then, you should be aware of the specific skills that your team requires.
The following is a comprehensive list of CRM functions to assist you in addressing the first issue. We have created a CRM list to assist you in identifying your requirements. It is important to note that not all platforms will have the same set of CRM software features. As a result, you must define your needs and conduct research.
The Key Features
1. Contact Management
Contact management is one of the most important CRM functions. It enables you to organize your contacts into groups in order to better serve them.
This CRM feature will enable you to collect critical customer data and improve your marketing strategies for introducing new products. This CRM capability also enables more personalization, which makes customers feel valued and cared for. This is critical for customer satisfaction.
2. Management of The Sales Team and Customer Opportunities
Customer Relationship Management has a basic feature that allows you to quantify your sales team's opportunities with customers. It is also known as lead scoring. Users can use this to identify customers who are most likely to convert. This can help your sales and marketing teams become more efficient and optimize your sales process.
3. Leadership Management to Determine High-Quality Leads
No CRM feature set is complete without lead management. Based on demographic and psychographic data, this technology enables businesses to identify the most promising customers to follow up with. It functions similarly to lead scoring in that it assists you in focusing your sales team on the right leads at the right time.
4. Dashboards and Reports
Reporting, business intelligence, and dashboards were once considered business intelligence tools. Users can view statistics visually appealing and engaging with customized dashboards and reports. These reports provide real-time updates and are accessible through a variety of portals. This facilitates employee access to the platform. Management can use these reports to make data-driven business decisions. An investment in CRMBI is a long-term investment.
5. Sales Analytics
Regarding reporting, sales analytics are one of the most important features of CRMs. Users can create more effective sales campaigns by analyzing hard data from previous campaigns. CRM enables you to collect data from social media, polls, and website traffic and then analyze it with the same software.
6. Mobile CRM
Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone, so it only makes sense to use this incredible technology to help your business. You can manage customer relationships remotely using mobile CRM apps and programs. Mobile devices enable employees to view data and receive important campaign updates.
7. Automation of the Sales Force
One of the many advantages of CRM is the ability to automate certain processes. Outgoing calls, follow-up campaigns, and data organization to make future campaigns more efficient are all part of this. These repetitive tasks can be automated, allowing employees to concentrate on more difficult tasks.
8. Sales Forecasting
Creating a success metric for customer relationship management is essential. Forecasting allows you to establish a benchmark that will assist you in determining whether your results are on track. This information can help you decide where to focus your future efforts.
9. Integration of Email Clients
Do not rely on Outlook and IBM Notes anymore; find a CRM that can do double duty. Your reps will be able to quickly pull up previous interactions and information to provide the best customer support possible.
10. Approvals and Workflow
Optimizing workflows is one way your company can immediately improve its efficiency. CRMs enable optimization by automating data collection, analysis, and marketing campaigns. This CRM function provides reporting and analytics to assist users in identifying and improving problems.
11. Sales Data
One of CRM's best features is its ability to organize customer and sales data into manageable chunks. After the raw data has been stratified, it can be transformed into the visualizations required to make decisions. Identifying pain points, quantifying key performance indicators, and making data-driven decisions are possible.
12. CRM File/Data Storage
Data must be properly stored to be useful. CRM's core function is a proprietary data storage method. This enables users to gain quick access to the data. CRM files, such as proposals and quotes, are stored and managed by CRM. This CRM includes security features that safeguard your data and prevent potential security breaches.
13. Files Sync and Sharing
CRM is a synchronization platform allowing you to connect with many other programs. Outlook allows you to upload emails, sync with Google Drive, and import spreadsheets. CRM's sharing capabilities allow you to view all your feature sets from one platform.
14. Inside Sales Terminal
Inside the sales console is a platform that enables you to improve sales performance through a more efficient user interface. CRM systems improve customer experience by providing optimized user interfaces and data analytics.
15. Management of Sales Performance
Sales performance management is a CRM feature that provides numerous advantages to sales teams. Managers can see which aspects of their sales team are succeeding and which need to be improved. Sales representatives and other quantifiers can organize data. The platform enables you to track the performance of your sales partners and ensure that your team is operating at peak efficiency. You can identify problem areas and provide factual data to address them more effectively.
16. Integration of Marketing Automation
Marketing automation enables you to more effectively and strategically target the right audience in order to sell your product. A good CRM platform lets you control which parts of your marketing program are automated.
17. Chat Integration
Chat is an important feature for modern users. Integrating a chat program into your CRM, such as Olark or LivePerson, allows you to chat with customers, partners, and employees from a single UI.
18. Automation and Integration of Call Centres
CRM's key feature is its ability to integrate third-party programs into one platform and control your call center via your CRM UI. You'll have less chance of getting lost or confused if you don't use as many systems as possible.
19. Integration of Web Analytics
Web analytics is more than just tracking who visits your site. This tool analyzes your raw data, identifies problems, offers suggestions, and provides insight into how your users interact with your website. The CRM feature lets you easily access and collect these statistics directly from your UI.
20. Automated Support
As AI capabilities improve, customer support features such as chatbots, FAQ pages, and email correspondence are becoming increasingly automated. Users can control the output of customer support features through your UI.
21. Cloud-based CRM or On-premise CRM
CRMs are classified into two types: web-based, also known as SaaS, online CRM, or web-based. On-premise CRM systems are created with highly customizable onsite hardware and software. To store customer information, these systems require software licenses. Cloud CRM solutions are managed remotely by the CRM service provider, which includes software updates, hardware upgrades, backups, and security measures. Each has advantages and disadvantages that you should weigh before making your choice.
Read More: Customer Relationship Management Software Explained in Detail
22. Product Level Quotes
A CRM is an inventory database that stores your products. You can keep track of the prices for each product you sell. Learn which products are selling well and what is not. This information is accessible from desktops, handheld devices, and other devices.
23. Role-based views
For added security, you can restrict employee access based on their roles within the company. You can restrict what users see in your CRM to prevent data leaks or security breaches. This CRM feature allows you to manage employee activity based on their level while protecting your customers' data.
24. Testing Environment
This CRM feature allows users to test new capabilities using tests such as multivariate or A/B before rolling out. You can make it easy for your employees to handle the changes. Customers can also explore and provide feedback. And you can collect data about every interaction. This will prevent customer frustration and increase conversion rates. It also helps you to make educated decisions.
25. Integrations with Third-Party Parties
Integrations are an essential feature of CRM software. Integrating any other software, such as ERP, BI, or HR, with your CRM is necessary. Integrating other programs into your CRM can provide additional functionality and streamline operations.
26. Campaign Management
You can manage all aspects of your sales campaign from a single interface. This includes scheduling, Advanced analytics, campaign ROI, and so on. The CRM combines data collection software with analytics tools, providing you and your employees with multiple access points.
27. Customization Options
Although customization is a basic feature of CRM, it can have far-reaching consequences. The CRM will be more flexible if you have more customization. Before you make a purchase, it is important to understand your requirements regarding customization.
Can the software be tailored to your business? Is it compatible with and adaptable to existing software? Is it compatible with desktop productivity tools? Can it be changed as needed? You may require more adaptable software if you answered "no" to any of these questions.
28. Integration of Email Marketing
While some companies are satisfied with CRM's email marketing capabilities, others may require more power and control from an email campaigns marketer. Rather than importing an existing email marketing system, such as Constant Contact or Mailchimp, you could integrate it into your CRM. Although most CRM products support this type of integration, double-checking is critical.
29. Integration of Social Media Management
The CRM user interface can manage dedicated SMM efforts. Integrating with management platforms like Oktopost or Hootsuite will simplify social media management. This will allow multiple team members to collaborate from various points of access.
30. Case Management
Another popular CRM function is online case management. It enables you to manage sensitive information securely. Protect sensitive customers and lead information from prying eyes who might use it for identity theft or other harmful purposes. This is critical in order to avoid data breaches and cybersecurity issues. Data security issues are the last thing any company wants.
31. Automated Customer Service
CRM software aids in the management of customer relationships. Users can manage each customer case individually to increase customer satisfaction and track, close, and reopen any existing cases. It offers automated services that allow clients' communications to be personalized. It enables you to access consolidated support information quickly.
32. Tracking
This CRM feature allows you to track customer journeys, from initial contact to purchase and ongoing interactions. You can also monitor company-specific metrics like win rate, lead source, and customer lifetime value.
33. Project Management
Missing meetings is extremely inconvenient. Instead of jotting important dates down in Excel spreadsheets, CRM's Project Management capabilities allow you to manage client meetings easily.
With real-time alerts, you are kept up to date on upcoming events and any changes to sales documents made by your team members. You can quickly review all pending projects to ensure no missed deadlines.
34. Territory Management
Leads or accounts can be routed based on the customer's geographic location. CRMs enable account segmentation based on "territories," such as geographical location, product type, or industry. This CRM software feature can create hierarchies based on zip codes, countries, cities, and states.
Organizing accounts into territories allows you to easily see which sales reps have been assigned to which territories. This makes it easier to track sales representatives and compare performance across locations.
35. Pipeline Management
CRM's pipeline management function is critical. It provides complete visibility into your sales funnel. It allows you to see where a customer is at any point. This data can be used to plan your next move, identify weak points, forecast revenue, and analyze sales rep performance.
36. Quote Management
There will be no sale if you do not send a quote to potential customers. This CRM function allows you to streamline the quoting process using pre-designed templates. Enter the necessary customer information and send it to them!
Next Steps
A CRM is essential for buyers to manage their customer relationships. All the most requested CRM functions revolve around improving customer relationships and streamlining the process.
Buyers need CRM features to manage client information, interactions, and movement throughout the lifecycle. This includes contact management, interaction tracking, and pipeline management. They want to increase automation in their sales process by automating workflows, sales force activity, and marketing functions. They want an integrated system that is simple for their customers and users.
These are the key points to remember:
- CRM providers must prioritize buyer outreach and education as part of their sales process. This reduces buyer confusion and ensures that customers receive exactly what they desire. Buyers should be proactive in gathering information about CRM software features. They seek to match them with the appropriate CRM system.
- Buyers are increasingly looking for a unified, all-encompassing software solution. This is a distinct market trend. Although some software is excellent for specific industries, buyers prefer to have all their marketing automation, contact management, and reporting requirements met on a single platform. Centralization and integration were the most requested CRM functions in 2011, so vendors should consider these needs as they design products for next year.
- Automation has arrived. Buyers understand that automation can help their businesses run more smoothly and effectively. Automating sales and marketing tasks is no longer a luxury. Any CRM system that does not provide basic marketing automation or sales force automation functions will be obsolete in a few years. These features will be required for any company that does not already have a CRM.
Conclusion
A CRM system is used by nearly 90% of businesses with more than ten employees today. This demonstrates the importance of CRM systems in business. CRM Software is critical for growing your business and developing strong customer relationships.
It can be used for various purposes, including automated email responses, work reporting, reminder systems, contact management, and sales analytics.
These points should have provided you with a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of CRM software. You should also be aware of additional factors when purchasing CRM software.
