And how it can help to grow your business
You have probably heard of CRM frequently while looking through corporate websites, marketing startegy plans or job postings. But what exactly is this CRM-thing? The abbreviation itself stands for the Customer Relationship Management, which is an important part of many businesses nowadays. It focuses on properly building and maintaining a correct relationship with a client in order for a brand to fully meet their needs and requirements. Thanks to this approach the customers find the brand more reliable, seeing that their order is in good hands and that they are being well taken care of at all times. According to the CRM philosophy, clients are the highest value in any business and it is the fulfillment of their needs that should be constantly strived for. Furthermore, maintaining constant contact with the customers is the fundamental principle in creating a stable and reputable brand image, which is crucial to obtaining high customer retention and positive feedback from the clients.
What should CRM contain
Technically speaking, CRM is a database that enables all of the above-mentioned things. Its main task is storing information such as customer data, concluded contracts, information regarding interactions and other data directly related to customers. The last category may include e-mails, correspondence, arranged and held meetings information, various remarks and comments. Some more detailed contract-related information is also stored in a CRM database, such as arrangements, endorsements, ideas and other details. CRM usually holds information about advertising and sales, too. It is an important part of communication with clients and may include posters, banners, information about future and past events and references. The last thing that should be stored in such a database is information about the brand's competitors, preferably as accurate as possible, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals.
When and why you chould implement CRM
You should think of starting a CRM as soon as a number of your customers starts increasing. Generally the more customers you get, the higher the risk is that some data gets lost or dispersed. The increase in popularity may be quite dynamic, so it's definitely better to implement the changes upfront, while there's still time. Another situation that may require starting a CRM is when you want your business to develop more quickly. Since CRM enables many analyzes and forecasts, it can help you become the customers' best ally, perfectly matching their needs and hitting their tastes. At the same time you can quickly assimilate all remarks and comments and use them to instantly implement any changes that will satisfy your customers. This will drastically increase the customer satisfaction, making people want to use your service or buy your goods again and recommend them to their friends on the way. It won't remain unnoticed for other companies who may want to become your business partners/purchasers/customers, or for the potential investors wanting to contribute to a reliable, customer-focused company. Don't worry if you are not familiar with the implementation process — you can always outsource CRM to an agency like ours to make sure you get it done in the most time-efficient and fully proffessional way.
How it has helped us
For our company, CRM is a great friend we can't imagine to get by without. It has helped us adapt to the tastes of our clients, facilitate our work, mobilize every member of the team to work and keep everything organized. Now everyone knows what to do, which clients need to be taken care of and how. Our customers will never feel neglected by us, since we have dedicated team members working only for their sake. In fact, many of our clients are so satisfied with our work that we have been asked directly to further cooperate on the next projects.
It makes us really proud and has a strong motivating effect to see our hard work being appreciated. More importantly, it shows that CRM is a faithful helper of an organized workplace, which is often an irreplaceable and invaluable thing. We definitely recommend you to consider implementing CRM into your business, as it can help you grow, build your brand image and keep your customers satisfied. After all, customers are our most valuable asset — let's take good care of them!
This article was originally published on the Digital Colliers Blog. Digital Colliers helps DACH and UK companies implement AI — see our AI consulting services or contact us.
