Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – Using Data to Understand Customers and Boost Sales

Equal to technology and strategy, CRM is about using data to better understand customers and boost sales. Its success is contingent upon the business establishing and implementing a strategy to implement CRM tools.

CRM is a tool for software that allows companies to keep track of prospect and customer data to monitor interactions to automate marketing campaigns and create reports. CRM also lets you to connect and communicate with prospects and customers via a variety of channels, such as phone, email, text message or other social media platforms.

Although most people associate CRM with sales but the truth is that it can be used by any department in an organization. For example finance and billing departments can utilize CRM to monitor commissions, analyze contracts, and reconcile sales forecasts with actual revenue. Marketing departments can also make use of it to track trends that will help them target customers better.

Every time a sales team speaks to a client or meets with a new lead or follows up on an existing lead, they generate floods of data. The data was previously stored on paper media, such as notebooks and online sales promotions laptops, or in the heads of team members. CRM systems permit data to be gathered and stored in a central location which can be shared immediately to all company employees regardless of the channel they use.

The most advanced CRMs are now integrated with AI and machine learning to interpret the data and provide actionable insights for each opportunity. In this way, businesses can improve their customer experience, drive engagement, and increase retention and loyalty.