You may believe your business is too small to need customer relationship management tools. The reality is no matter how small your business a good CRM will let you:
Create a Single, Comprehensive Record
Often, a small business’s customer data is fragmented. One team member has corresponded with a customer over the phone, the next has followed up over email. Order history is kept somewhere else. By using a quality CRM system, you can ensure that every piece of information you have about the client is kept in one convenient place. This simple feature alone has a wealth of benefits for your business, allowing you to better serve your customer.
Foster New Business Growth
In a recent study by Market Tools, businesses increased sales by an average of 29% after implementing CRM systems in their business. A quality CRM system gives many opportunities for growth:
- Marketing automation. Follow-ups with prospects and existing customers become effortless and based on simple pre-defined rules you set up.
- Increased upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Having a customer’s entire history in one place makes it easier to predict what other items they would be interested in, allowing you to upsell based on those interests.
- More data for your sales reps. When your representatives talk to customers, they will know more about the customer and have the information needed to make a sale more likely.
Increase Productivity
When your customer data is well-organized, your business becomes more efficient. Your employees spend less time trying to locate information. When a client is talking to your customer service representatives, your reps already know account history and issues, so less time is spent going over the same information. And as a bonus, your customer feels they are being heard, leading to a happier customer service experience. A proper CRM tool also allows you to create business workflows that put the right customer issues in the right hands, reducing internal transitions.
Become More Responsive
In today’s customer-centric environment, quality service is more important than ever. In fact, many experts say that customer service is more important to your company’s growth than any other marketing effort. Consider these facts:
- As of 2011, 86% of customers reported that they have stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service.
- 78% say they have abandoned an in-process purchase because they felt they were not getting proper attention.
- On social media, 80% of brand mentions are negative with most customers saying they expect a response within an hour.
When all of your information and interactions are recorded in one place, customers no longer fall through the cracks.
While many small business owners may feel that they cannot afford a CRM system, the productivity gains and increased effectiveness allow the right CRM implementation to pay for itself in a matter of weeks to months. Talk to someone at Oro today about how our CRM can work for your small business!
