CRM software is a valuable tool for improving customer relations and making businesses more streamlined. Of course, choosing the best CRM platform takes some thought, as you don’t want something that weighs your teams down.
In this article, you’ll learn why CRM software is useful for businesses and how to pick the best platform for your needs.
CRM software stands for customer relationship management software. In short, it’s a platform that lets a business keep track of communications with customers. For example, it might be a platform that brings all communication methods together, such as texts, calls, emails, forms, quotes, and so on.
Although it might sound like just another thing to add to your software list, not using a CRM platform can lead to numerous problems. These include:
The bottom line is that a CRM platform shouldn’t add bulk to your customer service efforts. In fact, a lightweight platform should make things easier.
It might already be obvious why CRM software is necessary. The benefits are:
If you’ve started digging into the world of CRM software, you might have also come across the term CEM. It stands for customer experience management. While they might sound like the same thing, there are subtle yet important differences.
First, there’s the difference between relationship and experience. CRM software focuses on your relationship with the client and how you can improve it for business gain. CEM, on the other hand, focuses on the experience from the customer’s perspective.
This involves using experiential data (feedback) from customers to improve their journey. For example, after making a sale, you might ask the customer for a review on how you could improve the service. This is CEM.
So, what should you consider when comparing CRM and CEM?
Importantly, they’re not the same thing, so comparing them isn’t very helpful. If you have to invest in one over the other, it makes sense to go with CRM software. This is because, without a customer connect and relationship, you won’t have any experience to optimize.
You can always incorporate aspects of CEM into your CRM platform too. For example, centralizing communication methods makes it easier to send out survey and review templates, which are typical CEM methods.
Picking the best CRM software isn’t too difficult once you understand the landscape. Consider these factors to help you make a decision.
An obvious place to start is with your business needs. For example, if you often find yourself lacking data and insights, turning leads into sales, or retaining customers, pretty much any CRM platform will work.
Start by listing your company’s pain points regarding your customer relationships. Even the most well-established companies have them, so don’t be afraid to be harsh with yourselves. From there, you can figure out which are the most relevant features and benefits you need from CRM software.
With a rough idea of what features you need, you can start to look at the different types of CRM. There are 3 broad categories:
If you’re a small business or don’t need much support to maintain customer satisfaction, an operational CRM platform will be best. However, if you have targeted needs, either analytical or collaborative CRM platforms will do the job.
Finally, you should consider cost. You must balance cost against the return on investment, as there’s little point in paying for the best CRM software if you won’t use all its features.
Alternatively, consider trialing CRM software using a free platform. If you’re happy with the changes, switch to a paid version.
Textr Team provides an excellent lightweight CRM platform. It’s ideal for remote teams because it enables collaboration and takes the effort out of sharing customer insights. Better yet, it’s ideal for communicating with both team members and customers.
You can look up and manage phone numbers in the app, and save and share contacts with relevant information among team members. Plus, you can set up several numbers, allowing you to separate personal and business contacts. This feature is ideal if you use your personal phone for work but don’t want to share personal details with your customers.
Download the Textr Team app today on Android, iOS and for web browsers to see how it can improve your customer relationships.
