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10/06/2016 - Posted by Emily Healey
Customers are an integral part of any business and no matter how big or small that business is, you will have to manage your relationship with your customers in some way or risk losing them. If you don’t currently use CRM software it’s worth considering investing in it. Last week we broke down what CRM is, but in case you’re still a little weary, we’re going to go over a few circumstances when it pays to switch to CRM software.
Multiple employees deal with the same customer. For some small business owners, all their customer information is in their head and they work hard to foster a relationship built on authenticity. This is a wonderful thing to do but it does have its downfalls. If any other employee is required to interact with that customer their lack of familiarity and knowledge of the customer can be frustrating. Having a database of each customer’s history with the company, special requirements or any new notes goes a long way to making each customer feel valued even if a different employee than usual has to serve them one day.
You’re expanding or training new staff. Similarly, if a new employee needs to learn about your clients, having a record of customer information for them to access makes the process goes a lot smoother. Many businesses have chosen to digitise their training and induction processes to ensure all new staff gain the information they need before beginning work. Not only does this mean every employee gets consistent training, but if they forget a particular detail they can easily refer back to the system. This works especially well in the case of learning about important clients or regular customers as it allows staff to conveniently and discretely bring that customer’s information back up, even if they are with the customer at the time.
Client records are integral to your business. Some businesses more than others rely heavily on repeat customers and need to know what happened when the customer last came in. If, for example, you own a salon and need to know what colour hair dye was used last time to perform a touch up, or perhaps a medical practice that needs to let patients know when to come in for a follow up treatment. Digital records are great for this as they can be backed-up to ensure you never lose important information, there are many ways to keep the information extremely secure and tamper-proof, and you can design the system to send appointment reminders to customers or display relevant information when a customer is due to arrive.
You need an easier way to gain insight from customer data. If you want to start utilising your customers purchasing habits and patterns to grow your business, automating the process through customer analytics is very easy way to do so. A good CRM system has the ability to record, track and analyse large amounts of customer data to provide a business with easy to understand, evidence-based information about consumer behaviour. This information can be used to determine what products to promote, to identify market segments, to choose new services to introduce and much more.
These are just a few of the many ways it pays to switch to CRM software. If your business is in a similar situation to any of the scenarios described above, you should be seriously considering how you can improve your business processes. How your business handles its customer relationships is a deal breaker for many people and with great CRM software becoming more commonplace and more affordable, there’s no reason not to use it.
