Emerging Trend in CRM
CRM is probably one of the most discussed theories for global competition. It is a well-known fact that CRM is currently applicable to most of the companies which are strongly and firmly becoming global competitors. CRM is a simple philosophy which believes in increasing customer satisfaction by serving them as per their needs and requirements.
CRM can be fully successful if it is applied strategically which means it should aim at understanding the need and desire of customers and providing solutions to their problems using smart tools and technology. The initiative to start CRM is though not easy but can be done by launching it effectively and using an interface to understand the newest trends in the competitive market.
Table of Content
Let us discuss some of the top trends in CRM.
Customer experience
The experience that customers gain after using an organisation’s products and services has become a vital brand differentiator for organisations. Customers always go where the best experience takes them. As a natural human tendency, the majority of people are always willing to try out new products and brands. Acquiring a new customer is far costlier than retaining an existing one. On the flip side, a poor experience leads customers to spend less or stop spending at all. Thus, it is important for an organisation to deliver a better experience than competitors.
Not only to draw new prospects but more importantly to boost customer loyalty and avoid revenue loss. Today’s CRM platforms are much more robust than previous iterations. With a CRM implemented, sales, marketing and customer service teams have a host of tools at their disposal that can empower customer experience initiatives. CRM platforms built with intelligent, real-time capabilities allow organisations to take the next step toward a more connected, customer-centric approach.
Amazon is known for providing the customers with all things that they need, all in one convenient space. What has since become called as ‘the Amazon Effect,’ the company has successfully managed relations with millions of customers worldwide without ever meeting them face-to-face. Amazon’s CRM also tackles most of their customer queries before reaching the stage where human involvement is required.
Customers can easily access their order history, current status in the delivery process and how much they have spent on it. Their returns policy is similarly automatic, significantly reducing their need for customer service staff and the costs associated with them.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The term Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think such as humans and mimic their actions. One of the main advantages of AI is its capacity to take over tedious, time-consuming manual tasks. AI also powers conversational features such as chat bots and voice assistants and brings predictive analytics capabilities and data intelligence.
The integration of AI and CRM can help an organisation better understand customers in terms of what they buy, how often, how much, their need for support and more. This, in turn, can create a better and more personalised experience for customers.
Mobility
Mobility has long been a central component of sales activities. As processes become more involved, the workforce becomes more scattered and customer demands place more pressure on sales representatives to perform. The COVID-19 pandemic also emphasised the increased need to adopt mobility. In such cases, putting the power of CRM to be easily accessible by workforce anytime and anywhere is the direct road to success.
Generally, mobile CRM solutions have the following features:
- Strong security features
- Intuitive interfaces
- Apps that work across platforms
- The ability for sales professionals to transition between online and offline environments with ease
Amazon’s Zoho standard CRM is geared towards sales departments, and its suite of features reflects that. It’s one of the most powerful resources on the market for any sales team interested in a dynamic CRM with components like conversational AI and real-time reports and insights – all of which hold up in its mobile application.
Digital age
Digital platforms have a lot to offer in terms of safety, speed and convenience. Social media allows companies to better connect with their audience in real-time and build brand equity where prospects and customers are already spending time. It also enables one-to-one marketing and the personal attention customers crave.
Integration
IoT/CRM integration will allow companies to take advantage of feeding more data into the system for deeper insight that leads to more strategic marketing efforts.
Meesho is an Indian-origin reseller marketplace. While resellers play on the front foot and act as Meesho’s backbone, they are firmly backed by suppliers (also called vendors) in the back-end. Meesho acts as a medium connecting the suppliers and the resellers, where the suppliers take their inventory online and the resellers market those products to the end-user.
The company’s CRM aligns the supplier onboarding process. Once a new supplier lead is captured, it gets added to system. The onboarding process begins with the auto-distribution of the leads to the salesperson depending on the city or region they work in. The salesperson gets notified for the same.
Factors Influencing the Future of CRM
There are various factors that influence CRM. To improve the functionality of CRM, it is important to understand the global market. Research must be carried out by experts to analyse the market structure and recognise competition in the market. This research will help in updating CRM technology and providing better results.
The CRM helps in understanding the better market scenario as it also helps in examining the past data and records. With the evolution of market, the CRM has emerged as fast emerging service. It has become an important structure for companies as implementing customer relationship management system helps to solve several important business-related problems.
The factors that affect the CRM are:
Internal Factors
- Management: The management of an organisation must imply to its employees that CRM is an easy system to ease the process of their work and helps in customer building relationships. The management must communicate that this system is not a menace but is an important element in the business strategies by involving activities that are beneficial to the company.
- Organisation: An organisation must help employees to deal with the changing culture and to adjust to new developments. Employees must participate in uplifting the company business and to promote the products to customers.
- Finance: An organisation must set up a team to monitor company finances. For the implementation and development of any new process such as customer relationship management must require proper finances and stable economic situation.
- Growth: An organisation must analyse the system of development so that it can check at every level that new processes are properly working and dispersed.
External Factors
- Market: The global market has a great impact on CRM. With so much competition in the market, the behaviour of the customer and their preferences tend to change. This put a lot of pressure on the company to deal with the changing market situation.
- Technology: The advancement of technologies is also an important factor to enhance CRM. With changes in technology, the functions of CRM must be enhanced accordingly.
- Security: The threat to society is its personal data spread to unwanted persons. The company needs to protect personal information of customers so that in future no harm to customers as well as to the company is done. The company must ensure security to gain the customer trust and to maintain the reputation of the company.
