Regardless of what industry you work in and what products or services you provide, customers are the key component in generating revenue. Given that it can cost a business up to 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer, once you have them, it makes sense to do all you can to keep them happy. This means learning all you can about their needs, behaviours and motivators, which is where customer relationship management (CRM) comes in. Using a CRM solution has been shown to increase customer retention by as much as 27%. As well as enabling you to collect and organize customer data, for example about what they buy, how often, any special requirements, and more, Salesforce CRM can transform your business in many other ways.
Optimizing Informational Organization with Salesforce CRM
The first step in any customer retention strategy must be to efficiently collect and organize customer data. Gone are the days of filing cabinets bursting with folders of scribbled notes and print outs. Today, advanced CRM technology can store records of every customer interaction, in one place and in a consistent format. What’s more, you can make it accessible to every relevant employee, whether they work from the office, at home or an overseas business trip. With such information at your fingertips, you’ll always know just how to create a positive customer experience.
Harnessing Insights: Building Reports and Dashboards
Once you have the data stored and sorted, you can use it to understand the company’s situation at any given time. Using your CRM system to create customized reports and dashboards allows target-focused management and sales teams to identify factors such as which team members are performing the best and who needs to up their efforts, who your customers are and where they are located, and which are your most profitable months of the year. An analysis of these findings reveals actionable insights that you can then use to help boost your business.
Streamlining Operations: Automation with Salesforce CRM
Many of the everyday tasks you carry out manually can be automated to save time, improve operations, drive efficiencies, standardize quality and cut costs. A tool like Salesforce process builder goes a step further, allowing you to define processes that update records or data automatically, across multiple systems. So, for example, where a change in customer status has a knock-on effect on other data, you can be sure that all necessary follow-on changes are made automatically, eliminating human error and ensuring that all your records are accurate and up to date.
Tailoring User Experience: Customizing Layouts
Your CRM is likely to be used by different teams across your business, for a range of purposes. For example, whereas your sales teams will want to access data in terms of leads and opportunities, your support team will want to see information about customer tickets and their status. To make sure that everyone can quickly and easily get what they need out of your CRM, you can customize the fields that appear on screen, according to user.
Expanding Functionality: Adding New Capabilities with Salesforce AppExchange
Even if you have an in-house development team, it can be complex and time-consuming to create software solutions to meet the changing needs of your business. One reliable shortcut is to download relevant apps from the Salesforce AppExchange. This online market place offers a vast range of add-on solutions that allow you to expand your use of the platform to new areas of your business operations. One example is Docomotion, an app that automates document generation, enabling you to create and send out documents such as quotations, orders, contracts, renewals and more, in any format, at the click of a button. The recipient can read the document, make comments, sign and send it back to you, all within Salesforce, shortening many processes, reducing the amount of manual work required and eliminating human error in document drafting.
Investing in a quality CRM tool allows you to work smarter, not harder, to achieve more across your business. Using Salesforce CRM to streamline processes not only saves you time and resources; it also enables you to deliver superior customer service, which is what keeps them coming back for more.
