As we look ahead to 2023, an air of normality is returning to life and business in general, and some of the ‘pandemic dust’ seems to have settled. With this in mind, business owners and managers are encouraged to look at how customer relationship management (CRM) is able to assist with their business’s new year resolutions, as they review the past year and look ahead.
We only have to look back on the January 2021 and 2022 respectively to know that around the world, business owners still remained wary as the COVID-19 pandemic continued rolling forward, with unknown outcomes still lurking around the proverbial corner. This, of course, made business planning very uncertain. Fortunately, CRM systems can help to fast-track an organisation’s systems to provide information that is useful for planning strategically and operationally.
In any business, as managers and executives begin anticipating a new calendar year of operations, questions will likely be asked, such as:
- How can we create relevant and accurate organisational processes?
- How can we categorise our customers’ information better?
- How can we improve our customer communications?
All of these – and other questions and issues – are valid, and a good CRM system will be able to assist you in addressing them.
Business begins and ends with your customers
Business planning always comes back to keeping in touch and not forgetting who your customers are. You might wish to begin with your CRM system’s business analysis overview – a reporting and analytics tool – to kickstart the process of analysing your most happy and least happy customers.
I believe it is useful to remember the so-called ‘80/20’ rule: namely that 80% of your business is generated by 20% of your customers. Your CRM system should help you identify this important 20% and unpack issues such as whether they are happy with your service and, if not, how to improve this state of being? For example, at a simple level, your CRM solution functionality should include a call scheduler, which allows you to manage your customer contact and schedule service, follow-up and courtesy calls.
Conversely, your planning overview should also allow you to look at who your least happy and also least profitable customers are, so that you can identify them with a view to improving or adapting your services, creating a win-win and retaining them.
Useful tools for business intelligence
Because effective CRM software consolidates your customers’ information and documents these within a single database, you can collect the necessary information and extract valuable strategic and operational metrics and business intelligence from it.
A good CRM system will include tools such as the following (to name but a few):
- Opportunity management tools: To inspect quotes submitted, accepted or rejected;
- Logging who your competitors are: To assist with a win-loss analysis;
- Call scheduler: To plan targeted communications; and
- Marketing tools: To assist in sending out communication campaigns for new year product or service offerings, with personalised delivery tracking and opening functionality built into the tool.
As we look back on 2022, it is true that some post-pandemic issues – not to mention the economic impact caused by the war in Europe and the power crisis locally – have negatively affected the planning and outlook for many businesses this year. However, I trust that with considered and strategic use of your CRM system, your new year planning for 2023 will prove significantly better: promoting client retention, while also driving and supporting sales growth.
Here’s to CRM success!
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Camsoft Solutions
Camsoft Solutions has been in existence for some 30 years and proudly offers an internationally-acclaimed CRM system that is supported by local expertise. We have built up deep knowledge and longstanding client relationships, with an ability to pre-emptively anticipate and meet our clients’ requirements.
Camsoft Solutions has partnered with international, world-leading OEM software supplier Maximizer’s CRM solutions, which provides the business intelligence, profiling and understanding that allows our clients to benefit from a 360-degree view of their clients.
This assists them in drilling down into the greatest detail about their customers. With this comes an easy integration of information across different divisions within a company. The net result is the ability to share information and maximise customer service, improving sales and financial returns as a result.
Camsoft Solutions works across a wide range of industries - there is no vertical industry where our CRM system and service offering will not be able to assist businesses in improving sales, productivity and ultimately, their bottom line. Our client portfolio features companies in varied industries as engineering, banking and renewable energy, to name a few.
We offer longevity of relationships: many of our team members have worked in our company since the year 2000, and the founder since the mid-1990s. In turn, many of our clients have been with Camsoft, using Maximiser CRM, for over 2 decades.