What is CRM Software?
The customer relationship management (CRM) process involves an organization managing relationships with its customers, typically by using data analysis of vast amounts of data.
What exactly are we automating?
Below are some business processes that a CRM system can help automate:
- Customer relationship management (including integration with telephony);
- Customer base segmentation;
- Sales process automation;
- Pricing management;
- Management of marketing companies;
- Employee work management;
- Knowledge management;
- Workflow automation.
The lack of a tool for automating many business processes in a company can slow down development, lead to an increase in management costs, a decrease in the service provided to customers, lead to headaches, and, as a result, all of the above, a drop in sales.
CRM-system can be used wherever there are customers. The usage profile will, of course, depend on the type of business. A beauty salon, a car service, or, for example, an online store can use various CRM software. I propose to dwell on this point in more detail and analyze what tasks can be solved within the framework of these businesses (a beauty salon and a car service are almost identical in terms of the functionality used).
Online-store:
- Customer contact management;
- Customer’s purchase history;
- Offering relevant products;
- Integration with delivery services;
- Order management;
- Monitoring the work of managers (in terms of sales, the number of contacts with clients, etc.);
- Integration with web analytics systems;
- Loyalty program management;
- IP telephony.
- To help you decide on the right solution for your business, I suggest looking for answers to the following question:
And how do you choose a CRM system?
Functionality selection.
As discussed in the paragraph above, the usage profile of a system can vary significantly from business to business. Therefore, before making a choice, I recommend analyzing business processes that will be 100% present in your company. A feature of the CRM software market is the presence of solutions tailored to a specific business. For example, I know ready-made systems for beauty salons, fitness centers, car washes (services, salons), dental clinics, veterinary clinics, and online stores.
Choice by type of solution. We are talking about a cloud solution or on-premise (installed on your computing power).
The first is supported by the high deployment speed, low entry threshold in terms of competencies in IT technologies, and the absence of the need to install software product updates. However, there are risks with an unstable channel to the Internet, i.e., when the connection is interrupted, you lose the ability to serve customers. From the point of view of legislation, additional threats are borne by the placement of private information about you and your customers in cloud storage. The law on personal data has not been repealed, And about security.
Modern means of protection are pretty reliable, and an unscrupulous competitor is unlikely to find out who lowered the suspension in the case of on-premise; the advantages are the ability to refine the program code (within the limits that the solution provider allows) to expand the functionality, the ability to work in the absence of the Internet (of course, provided that the server with the CRM system is running somewhere in the next room) and additional privacy.
Choice of possibilities of integration with external systems. Modern CRM software in Pakistan systems provides ample opportunities for interaction with their modules and third-party systems. Below I will talk about the key integrations.
Telephony integration.
I would say must-have simply because it can make life easier for you and your employees. Entering information into the system after a call to the client (provided that the telephony and CRM software are separated) can be sabotaged by your employees for various reasons. It will be expensive to deal with this. It is easier and more reliable to make it so that a person does not have the opportunity not to mark contact with a client in the system and not write any comment;
Integration with email and SMS mailing systems.
Notifying customers about marketing promotions, congratulating them on their birthdays, sending promotional codes for a discount as part of a loyalty program, fixing customer requests – this is an incomplete list of things that can be quickly and simply automated. In addition, they can direct these mailings towards employees to notify them about the upcoming work shift, send information about salary or the planned corporate event in the nearest bar;
Integration with the website and engines of popular CMS software. It will allow you to instantly enter leads from the feedback form on the site into the database, upload goods, and product balances, and update prices on the location of the online store;
Integration with web analytics systems.
Downloading reports from Google Analytics or Yandex. Metrica to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or profiling your website visitors;
Integration with social networks.
Monitoring the activity of the audience of the page in social networks, processing communications, and registering leads when a message arrives from the social network;
Integration via API (Application Programming Interface).
If integration through the API of a third-party solution is allowed in a CRM system, this immediately declares its flexibility. Unfortunately, not all modern CRM software have such functionality. The API can set up communication and export/import data to other systems (for example, with your website or a self-written system). The import function will help you save time when filling out CRM for the first time or when migrating from another system.
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