Today, most companies have some form of software to help them keep track of and manage customers. And while it is important to have a system to capture customer data, especially in today’s multichannel retail world, having a database of customer names, contact information and purchase history is not enough. If you truly value your customers, you need to not just focus on customer management but on building long-term relationships.
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Following are 11 CRM best practices that can help organizations – specifically their marketing, sales and customer service departments – do just that.
1. Make sure your customer data is reliable and up to date.A CRM system is only as good as the data that’s in it. So constantly make sure any data entered into your CRM system is accurate – and regularly review and scrub customer data, to eliminate redundancies and ensure the information (e.g., the customer’s name, address, preferred method of contact and purchase history) is up to date.
“Inputting accurate and useful data into a CRM database enables your sales and marketing teams to acquire a more robust understanding of your customer,” says Bruce Swann, senior product marketing manager for Adobe Campaign. “For example, [if] someone already subscribes to your newsletter, there is no need to continue inviting them to do so. If a person regularly attends your webinars, it’s a faux pas for your sales team to call inviting them to attend. This kind of insight can help all future engagements with the client.”
2. See that everyone who interacts with customers knows the history. “Know the customer's purchase history,” says Mark Draper, an independent project management consultant experienced in CRM. “It is important to have a detailed summary of the customer's purchase history including dates, quantities and terms. Customers will often want to repeat a previous order and nothing looks as bad as not knowing what and when.”
Similarly, it’s important for companies to “know the past issues/problems with the customer and how [they were] resolved,” he says. “Most customers want to continue working with you and want to be able to convince themselves that past issues/problems have been resolved and will not happen again.”
3. Know how and where your customers are interacting with you. “Today consumers can reach out to a company via email, social media, chat, bots, or the tried and true phone call. If [a] company really values [its] customers, [it] will be there,” wherever “there” is, says Mayur Anadkat, vice president, product marketing, Five9, a provider of contact center software. “Furthermore, by understanding their customers’ preferences, history and context at all points in their journey, companies can really engage with their customers at a personal level. It shouldn’t matter where a customer is reaching out from. By implementing the proper infrastructure a customer will experience the same great service every single time.”
“Engage with your customers where they already are,” says Eric Bensley, director, Product Marketing, Salesforce. “In today’s hyper-connected world, every company is expected to provide a seamless, omnichannel service experience. And customers want to engage with brands where they spend their time – whether that's Facebook Messenger, Twitter, video chat or in-app,” he says. “Companies that engage in these channels not only create loyal, happy customers, [they] can leverage these service interactions to get even smarter about their customers.”
4. Understand where customers are in the purchase process/cycle. “People buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell,” says Clate Mask, cofounder and CEO, Infusionsoft, a provider of sales & marketing software. “By using a CRM tool to organize and analyze lead data, you can determine who is a hot lead, and who is in need of nurturing so you can guide them towards making a purchase.”
“With a CRM you are able to track where someone is in the sale funnel but also view previous consumer data for your clients,” says Michael Heiligenstein, marketing manager, Fit Small Business. “If you have a product that has a fixed or even semi-predictable life cycle, you [can] estimate when the consumer will be purchasing again. Then you can use your CRM to schedule a follow up exactly when they'll start considering another purchase.”
5. Provide the personalization customers crave. “Sending relevant, personalized emails based on timely and accurate customer data can increase click-through rates by up to 50 percent,” says Jason Rushforth, vice president & general manager, Customer Experience Business Unit, Infor, an enterprise software company specializing in CRM. And “with geolocation, sellers can send personalized messages and offers to customers as they approach a store location.”
Similarly, “delivering personalized website content and recommendations based on data from all of a customer’s interaction channels, both online and offline, improves engagement rates,” he says.
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