Businesses all share one value: the bottom line. Revenue doesn’t mean much if your overhead costs are chipping away at your profits, but businesses shouldn’t rest on their laurels when it comes to customer relationship management (CRM) investment. It is, however, imperative to make sure that whatever CRM solution you’re investing in adds to your bottom line, not subtracts from it. How do you determine how much you’re getting from your CRM solution?
First things first: why invest in CRM? One of the prime benefits of using a CRM tool is obtaining better customer satisfaction. By using this strategy, all dealings involving servicing, marketing, and selling your products to your customers can be carried out in an organized and systematic way. You can also provide better services to customers through improved understanding of their issues and this in turn helps in increasing customer loyalty and decreasing customer agitation. Investing in customers is always a righteous step, but not all CRM solutions are created equal, so figuring out how to get the most is what’s going to help that bottom line.
The folks over at GetVoIP discuss some approaches to determining the ROI of CRM, and have some helpful checkpoints that should be on your list. According to a recent blog post, GetVoIP says that the first step is to gather your data. What data, exactly? Data like looking at a before and after snapshot, meaning take the data from before CRM implementation and compare it to data gathered after and see how the numbers stack up. From there, you’ll be able to tell if it’s working for or against you, and can make a decision which way to go next. Clearly, if the numbers are not in your favor, it’s best to not stick with your current set up.
Of course, not all CRM data is what’s considered “tangible,” meaning look at your customer retention and consider how this adds considerably to your revenue stream. This kind of data is considered an “extra” and should be factored in with the utmost consideration. Repeat and loyal customers are necessary for business success.
A CRM system is not only an integral part of the sales and customer support workflow, but is the lifeline of the sales and support process, providing reps with the right information for the right customer at the right time.
Edited by Alisen Downey