10 Best Practices For Using A CRM In 2021
Abe Dearmer
May 04, 2021
∙
8 min read
CRM
In this article, I will discuss CRM best practices for businesses to effectively manage customer relationships, streamline processes, and stay ahead of the competition. By following these guidelines, you can make the most of your CRM solution and enhance your company's growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Choose a CRM that meets your business's specific requirements and objectives
- Automate processes to increase efficiency and free up time for more valuable tasks
- Make data-driven decisions based on the insights provided by your CRM
- Simplify workflows and processes for improved efficiency
- Adopt a flexible and scalable approach to your CRM system
- Utilize KPIs to measure performance and make improvements
- Leverage AI-based predictive analytics to anticipate trends and challenges
- Be proactive with new opportunities using intelligent CRM analytics
- Select a user-friendly CRM solution tailored to your needs
- Gain a competitive edge with social listening for insights into customer interests and industry trends
CRM software offers an unmatched ability to access and use insightful data to help businesses grow. It has expanded into one of the biggest software markets right now and is expected to reach a revenue of $80 Billion by 2025. Such a rapid growth rate and the above high numbers have pushed companies to realise the real benefits a Customer Relationship Management software has to offer.
CRM solutions have evolved well past just being a contact storage system. They now offer cloud-based and mobile-based technologies that are gaining momentum due to their ease of use. This further helps companies cater to customer demands by using multi-dimensional insight and tools aimed at simplifying tasks and increasing productivity.
Today, it is extremely necessary for businesses to use CRM solutions that provide the best customer experience. But using a good CRM system should also be supplemented with some industry best practices.
Here are the top CRM best practices to keep in mind for 2021.
Choose a CRM that meets your business's specific requirements and objectives
The first and most necessary aspect of investing in a CRM is to ensure that it meets your needs thoroughly. The best practice to do so is by narrowing down the different software available by picking one that has the required features and integration capabilities.
Don't go for what has the most features, but for a software that has just what you need. A scalable software will allow you to expand later as needed without overwhelming you in the present.
Automate processes to speed up manual tasks and increase efficiency
While technology has made our lives potentially easier, not utilising it in the right way can make it pretty useless. Reap the complete benefits that new-age tech has to offer by using it in the right place and at the right time. It is a best practice to assess your company's requirements and weed out redundant and repetitive tasks that slow down your processes and workflows.
Efficient CRM systems offer automation features that make it easier for reps to complete these tasks in a timely manner. Automating mundane and time-consuming tasks can free up a lot of time and help them use it more efficiently.
Take calculated, strategic, and data-driven decisions
Collecting data on prospects, market trends, target audience, customers, and more is the bread and butter of businesses these days. The newest CRM best practice is to optimally make use of said data for taking calculated and strategic data-driven decisions.
This allows you to implement the required strategies and resources to target your audience in the right way. After all, the benefits you reap from CRM analytics are based solely on how you utilise the data collected and stored.
Make workflows and processes easier
With demanding consumers and an emphasis on instant, efficient customer interaction and satisfaction, businesses sometimes end up using unnecessarily complicated workflows. With a CRM that offers not just automation but also several task management options, it is much easier to simplify the everyday ongoings of your company.
Make things simple by implementing changes that simplify tasks, integrate processes on a single platform, combine sources of customer communication, make collaboration for sales and marketing reps easier, and much more.
Adopt a flexible approach for your CRM
All businesses change and evolve with time and so would the various processes and systems they use. Similarly, adopting a dynamic and flexible approach with your integrated CRM is the best way to stay relevant and updated for customers. Using a scalable and versatile CRM software that is also customisable can greatly help in managing processes and keeping up with the times.
Use KPIs to measure performance and make improvements
Using KPIs as a way to gauge employee progress and growth is a valuable factor in monitoring progress. A CRM offers efficient features for establishing and properly defining relevant KPIs that help companies make significant and measurable improvements to task management, team growth, and efficiency of processes. It provides you with quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure performance and make the required improvements to fill in the gaps.
AI-based predictive analysis
AI-based predictive analytics is a growing trend in the industry and with years, the technology has only bettered. It is a great way to keep track of how your processes are working as well as the growth and adversities faced. Additionally, it helps businesses prepare for contingencies and takes care of brand damage.
Be proactive with new opportunities using intelligent analytics
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, being proactive and seeking new leads and opportunities is the way to go. A CRM best practice for 2021 is to ensure your reps are equipped with the necessary efficient solutions that can use to capture your target audience and serve customers better.
The use of intelligent CRM analytics is a great way to search for and successfully identify new opportunities for your business. This also allows you to address and solve any customer concerns in a proactive manner. Such analytics provide detailed and insightful data that help uncover new market opportunities as well as provide your company with a competitive edge.
Choosing a user-friendly solution
Many companies make the mistake of picking a CRM solution that is the best rated or popular but get stuck with something that isn't actually what they need. A best practice is to choose a CRM software that is best suited for your business and is a user-friendly option. Instead of picking based on what is rated best, go for a solution that helps you manage your everyday business problems, offers easy installation, as well as straightforward usage.
Gain a competitive edge with social listening
Social listening is a comparatively new but rapidly growing trend in the CRM industry and is definitely a best practice that can help you gain a competitive edge over your competition. Available as a feature in CRM software, social listening is a great way to gain insight into social conversations, competitor information, customer interests, industry trends, and more.
The end goal of employing a Customer Relationship Management solution is to create strong client relationships and experiences that span multiple channels. Such a software used along with the best practices forecasted for this year can help businesses stay prosperous throughout the year.
FIVE CRM is such a solution for businesses that not just helps with the above but much more. Our all-encompassing system provides top-class features such as customer support, workflow automation, analytics, social CRM, email marketing, reporting, social listening, contact management, and more.
Get in touch with us to know more about our comprehensive software and how it can help you.
Michael King says...
"I can’t think of a time where a client has requested something that we weren’t able to do with FiveCRM. Unlike most systems, it has a lot of flexibility."
Managing Director, Senior Response
JAINE HUSBANDS SAYS...
“Each client, and each of their campaigns, has its own unique specifications. We essentially needed to set up mini CRMs on one platform to meet those requirements.”
Operations Director, Team Telemarketing
Why wait?
Start improving your outbound efficiency now, with the most customizable Telesales solution on the market.