Introduction
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Manager. It is a powerful business management tool that unites several activities in one place in order to streamline business functions such as sales, marketing, and customer support. CRM refers to customer management computer software which are used by the customer-facing teams of any organization. It serves as a repository which helps in the smooth collection and management of customer data.
CRM systems or software can be useful in each and every stage of sales right from customer lead to conversion and even after sales support. By using CRM systems you can achieve the highest possible customer satisfaction and retention rate. Some of the very popular CRM systems are — Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Monday.com, Salesforce and Pipedrive. In this article, we will learn everything about CRM.
Categories of CRM Systems
CRM systems can be broadly divided into three categories, which are:
- Collaborative: This category of CRM ensures effective collaboration between different departments of an organization. It works as a link between employees from different departments such as sales and marketing. By using collaborative CRM you can ensure the interconnection of departments responsible for sales and related activities.
- Operational: These CRMs provide various tools for the sales team to effectively do their functions. It also provides automation features which can offload some burden from the shoulders of the employees freeing them up for creative work. Operational CRM assists you in almost all of the sale stages right from lead management to conversion.
- Analytical: This category of CRM helps you gain significant insights by analyzing your customer data and customer behaviour. It helps you identify trends and patterns which can be used to plan the sales and marketing strategy.
Should You Get All Three For Your Business?
The category of CRM you should choose depends on the size and scale of your business. Generally, it is advised to invest in all three categories of CRM because they work more efficiently when combined. However, if your business is small or has been incorporated recently, then your business won’t have enough data for analysis. Hence one should only invest in analytical CRM when their operation is of such nature that it requires data analytics. Therefore small businesses should only be investing in the first two initially.
Types of CRM Systems
Now that we have understood the categories of CRM. Let’s talk about the various types of CRM. There are various types of CRM systems and all of them can make your sales processes seamless and introduce automation in various sales activities. CRM provides the right information to your sales team at the right time to efficiently bring in more customers. Various types of CRM systems are as follows:
- On-Premise CRM: As the name suggests those CRM systems which are restricted to the business premises are on-premise CRMs. This means they can only be accessed when inside the premises as the data servers are also maintained within the business premises. Such CRMs are very costly because you will have to maintain the servers along with licencing a CRM software. However, the benefit is that your customer data will be kept safely and won’t be shared with third parties.
- Cloud-Based CRM: These CRMs on the other hand are cloud-based, having servers far away from business premises. These CRMs are cost-effective as the only cost you would bear is the licensing fee. These CRM systems store data on third-party servers which are prone to cyber-attacks and data leaks. Therefore choosing a reputed CRM server is advised.
- Industry-Specific CRM: As far as businesses are concerned, there are no one size fits all solutions. Therefore for some CRMs generic ones were not very useful and that is why industry specific CRMs were developed. For sectors such as insurance, financial services and healthcare industry specific CRMs have been developed.
- All-in-one CRM: These CRMs provide 360 degree solutions and are very popular as they are feature rich and cost effective. Such CRMs are a mix of all types of CRMs and include a variety of tools. Such CRMs might be useful for small businesses because they will give access to major CRM tools by subscribing to only one software.
- Mobile CRM: If your business is of such as nature that you require to use CRM software on the go, then this type of CRM might be the best pick for you. Mobile CRMs are light and equally effective. They work across all the internet-enabled devices including smartphones and tablets.
Benefits of CRM
There are various benefits of CRM systems, some of which are mentioned below:
- Increase productivity of customer-facing teams
- Introduces automation to various sales processes
- Enables efficient collaborative links between different departments
- Sets up a centralised repository of customer data
- Smooth collection of customer data for trend and behaviour analysis
- Provides important insights to plan acquisition and retention strategies
- Help in making informed decisions
Key Features of CRM Systems
CRM systems offer various unique features some of the key features are as follows:
- Leam Management: CRM systems help in recording and managing leads.
- Managing Contact Information: CRM records all the contact information for contacting prospective customers.
- Managing Deals: CRMs can manage all the deals so that executives can learn from every deal no matter if they were successful or not.
- Automation: CRMs bring automation to so many sales and marketing activities, which will increase the productivity and efficiency of your team.
- Analysis: CRM systems not only collect and retain data, they also do the analysis to extract useful information for your business which can be used to develop strategies and make effective decisions.
