Managing customer relationships is much more than having technological platforms or software: it includes defining strategies, analyzing data, and everything necessary to achieve business objectives.

What is CRM and how can it boost your business?

The widespread growth of technology brings several positive aspects for commerce, industry, and transportation development. Solutions that were once available only to large companies or those able to make significant investments of time and resources are now within everyone’s reach.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems allow for comprehensive management of sales, marketing, and customer service across all touchpoints, both digital and physical.

Among all the technologies that have proliferated throughout the global retail industry, those focused on capitalizing on customer habits and data to turn them into useful information, CRMs have seen considerable growth in use.

In fact, in Spain, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), “more than 62% of Spanish companies have a CRM to analyze available customer information within the company for business and marketing purposes.”

Thanks to the expansion of eCommerce and the proliferation of hybrid purchase models—combining physical and online stores—companies can manage their relationships with current and potential customers more effectively and efficiently through a CRM.

5 KEY FUNCTIONS OF CRM

While there are various tools for managing customer relationships, most share certain aspects. For example:

1. Store Current and Prospect Customer  Data:
2. E-commerce
3. From names and emails to purchase history, touchpoints, interests, visits, app usage, and all interactions that allow for analyzing their behavior and preferences.
4. Eliminate repetitive tasks: Thanks to the current wave of process automation, employees can free up time to focus on what they do best: guiding customers through their customer journey.
5. Personalization of the customer relationship: By leveraging vast data sources, companies achieve a high level of specificity in their campaigns. This includes, for example, the products and services to be offered, as well as the channels and times to deliver them. More personalized campaigns lead to higher sales percentages, lower cart abandonment rates, and happier customers.
6. Create behavior patterns: The extensive analysis of large amounts of data allows organizations to create buyer person models and thus anticipate their customers’ needs. Additionally, by creating behavior patterns, segmented campaigns can be developed for specific user profiles based on their common characteristics.
7. Centralize information: This way, all members of the company, regardless of the team they belong to, can access the same data in real-time and from any device. This directly impacts the communication and coordination of efforts among all involved parties, making processes more efficient and effective.
   

5 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING A CRM

Regardless of industry or organization size, companies wanting to start using a CRM should consider the following aspects to achieve success.

1. Plan in stages: It is easier to control small processes before entire projects. Breaking it down into phases allows for time compliance analysis, resulting in valuable learnings and continuous optimizations.
2. Set clear and measurable goals: Goals should be as quantifiable as possible. “Wanting more customers” or “selling more” is not a precise goal. Instead, setting specific objectives like “increase the customer base by 50% in six months” or “double revenue in three years” allows for measuring success and acting accordingly.
3. Subordinate technology to strategy: “There’s no use in having cutting-edge technology to push a cart.” The best solution doesn’t necessarily have to be the most expensive. Understanding the strategy and available market resources to execute it at the lowest cost is more important than spending a fortune on something just because it’s trendy.
4. Involve teams: The success of any implementation has three main components: the company making the technological leap, the partner providing consulting, strategy, and support throughout the journey, and the digital tools supporting the project. All these stakeholders, with their roles and responsibilities, will work more cohesively if they are involved from the beginning.

To achieve a proper CRM implementation, it is crucial to have a technological partner to guide companies in their digital transformation journey. Zentricx, for example, has several years of experience and experts working on tailored solutions. Additionally, it has strategic partnerships with leading companies like SalesManago, which offers one of the most complete CRMs.

If you want to learn more about how CRMs can help enhance your business, or if you want to receive a product demo, we invite you to contact Julio César Blanco, Innovation Director & Head of Spain Office at Zentricx.

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At Zentricx, we care about your overall security and making the most of various resources. Contact us to discover how we can help your organization operate effectively and intelligently. Fill in your details, and we will be in touch with you shortly.

By Julio Cesar Blanco – December 20, 2021