Ready to deepen your customer relations? Incorporate a CRM system.

When you want to show your amazing clients that you appreciate their business you may send them a personalized thank-you note or offer them a discount on their next order. On special occasions you may even send a box of chocolates. Whatever tactics you have used or use to acknowledge your gratitude, your actions help retain a relationship with them.  

But is that enough?

To be competitive in today’s market, the way you approach your client relationships needs to go deeper than just a thank you note (although that is a thoughtful gesture,) and instead allow it to become a strategy that builds your business, makes your operations run smoother, and helps your clients achieve their goals. Going deeper means having the ability to collect strong data points across multiple sources and channels while meeting their needs and delivering superior service. While managing your customers’ experience sounds like a full-time job, if you have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place you can do all these things and more.  

Using CRM technology allows you to oversee your company’s relationships and interactions with current and future customers. It offers you the ability to manage the relationship across the entire customer lifecycle. It takes your marketing efforts and sales numbers, the customer’s digital footprint, and your interactions with them and compiles the information in one place. A CRM system can integrate the different streams of data coming in from sales, customer service, marketing, and social media monitoring and turn it into something tangible that you can understand so that you are better at reaching your goals. Having a CRM system gives you the ability to find new customers, get their business, and keep them happy because it organizes information in a manner that helps you build stronger, deeper relationships with them.

There are a variety of different CRM providers, but I’m not here to endorse any brand. I am here to encourage you to consider using one in your business. As a small business owner and marketing consultant, I incorporate my clients’ CRMs into their marketing plan and have found that it helps them strategically manage their operations.

There are lots of benefits and uses for a CRM system, but the main goal is to deepen customer relations and cultivate new ones. While collaborating with my clients, I have discovered three important reasons for why a CRM system is good for them.

1. You get detailed analytics. As a marketing consultant, I need data! Numbers don’t lie. Once you have the data though you need to be able to understand it so that you can plan or pivot. CRM software has a built-in analytic capability that will take the information and put it into context, which makes it easier to understand so you can make decisions. Whether it’s capturing click-through rates or uncovering demographics you will be able to determine how your marketing strategies are performing (or not) and understand who your customer is.  
   
   
2. You will become more efficient. If you don’t have a dedicated marketing person or a marketing consultant on standby, executing your marketing tactics will take up a ton of your time. CRMs allow you to automate some of your marketing tasks, which frees up staff time so they can get back to performing their roles.  
   
   
3. You will make customers happy! A CRM system manages your entire list of contacts, compiles their information, and records their touch point experiences within your organization. Everyone in your organization can access the client’s information, which means your clients don’t have to repeat their story over and over again to the new voice on the other end of the line. Let your business be the kind of business where clients feel like they are truly being seen and heard!
   

If you are ready to take your customer relations to the next level, consider a CRM, I am happy to answer any questions you have about this important technology!