Many people are under the impression that CRM software is about contact management. But it’s more than that, a study reveals that 83% of online shoppers need customer support before completing a purchase.

CRM software can generate leads, streamline sales processes, manage all customer information, drive revenue growth, and enhance employee productivity and customer satisfaction.

Given all these benefits, it’s no surprise that companies choose to invest in various types of unified CRM systems like business development, marketing, sales, and recruitment CRM software. Using these CRMs effectively can help businesses achieve significant results.

But on the other hand, some companies fail to reach anywhere near their expectations. On the contrary, they face problems like poor user acceptance, integration challenges, and cost overruns.

These problems are easily avoidable only if the CRM implementation is well-designed and executed. And if you want to make your CRM solution effective, implement CRM best practices.

In this blog, we will discuss the 7 most common yet effective CRM best practices. Let’s get started.

Choose a CRM that fits your needs

No two CRMs are going to be the same. You have to analyze a CRM for both its strengths and weaknesses as well as its advantages and disadvantages for your business. You do not want to end up committing to a system that is unfit to fulfill your business needs.

And to find the right option, you have to ask the right questions, like:

• Do you want a CRM that works on-site or via the cloud?
• Do you want to buy an entire software system that seems expensive upon installation or are you in need of a service-based contract?
• Can your business work with a CRM system that only provides basic functionalities or do you need to use more complex or even customized features?

You have to weigh your options against your requirements and ask such questions that help you pick the Customer Relationship Management System that fits your business needs.

Train your workforce well

According to Nucleus Research, the CRM system pays back somewhere between $5.60 to $8.71 for every dollar spent on it. But sometimes companies fail to gain these returns on their investment. Because their workforce isn’t trained well enough to use their CRM systems.

While implementing a CRM system, you have the responsibility to help your employees understand the information presented in these systems. After providing adequate training, you can test your employees to see what they have learned and where they have queries.

You can also offer a specific period for retraining and testing to make sure that your employees become proficient at handling CRM systems.

Lay down some rules

Training the employees to work with CRM is not enough, you have got to see to it that the employees are using the CRM to its full potential. Otherwise, you won’t be getting those expected returns on your investment.

You have to set up some rules regarding the use of CRM and make sure everyone who works with CRM knows about the rules and is on the same page about it. You can also make it a company policy that every new lead must be processed through the CRM with no exceptions.

Make your workforce aware of these rules during their training sessions. When the employees effectively implement the right way to use the CRM, better outcomes are guaranteed. It also promises a smoother transition of a customer from being a lead to being a happy and satisfied customer. In the end, you will have a more efficient and unified team.

Rely on automation

When it comes to customer relationships, CRMs do most of the heavy lifting to help businesses. This includes automating various tasks like data entry and more.

Businesses should grab every chance they get to automate mundane and repetitive tasks. Because it will reduce the error rates of those tasks which is very beneficial for the business. Relying on automation for mundane and repetitive tasks frees up the employees to focus on core business operations.

Focus on collaboration

One of the most important advantages of using CRM is that it can improve cooperative efforts. By providing the same information to multiple departments, a CRM system effectively eliminates the confusion that happens through communication channels across the departments.

According to the Customer Service Barometer, around 26% of customers experience being transferred from one desk to another without getting any closer to solving their problems. This leads to customer frustration and that results in the loss of business revenue.

While using a CRM, it wouldn’t matter which salesperson a customer is talking to. Everyone in the company would have access to the same programs. They would also get up-to-minute information they would need to provide the best possible customer service.

What this means is that despite having intra-company collaboration, the results will be as consistent and efficient as if it was managed by a single employee.

Mine the data

CRMs are built to gather and handle huge chunks of data. The real problem arises when the company doesn’t know how to leverage those large amounts of data to drive more sales and generate more revenues.

The best CRMs come with built-in analytic features. These features use advanced programming to mine the data and generate valuable insights that can help make informed business decisions in the future.

If you don’t analyze the data compiled by your CRM or even fail to do it properly, then all that information will do nothing more than take up your storage space.

Keep it simple

Sometimes people confuse feature-rich systems for being more effective systems. Having more features and functionalities doesn’t mean getting more work done or getting better outcomes.

If you opt for a CRM system that comprises more features than you need then it is only going to complicate your work and you might spend way too much money on features you will not use, anyway.

So, it’s best if you keep things simple and shop for the things you need. A system that fits your requirements will be both more effective and uncomplex to use. This will also ensure that your team takes full advantage of the system without getting dragged down by all the unnecessary features.

Moreover, you have to be willing to make necessary changes to the CRM policies. You can measure the effectiveness of daily operations to determine if it is working up to expectations. If not, then you have to improvise.

Final words

CRM systems are revolutionizing the way businesses interact with customers. But to make that work you have to do your part and that is; using the best suitable CRM and implementing the best practices for it.

These are the two things that can help you make the most out of your customer relationships. Otherwise, it won’t matter as you wouldn’t be effectively transforming your customer relationships into profits in the long run.

The best practices we discussed on CRM implementation are the most basic yet most effective tips that can help businesses generate more revenue. I hope this helps you too.

If you enjoyed reading this article, then please follow our blog. You can also join our SAP community to read and learn more about similar topics.

Thank you!