By logging every interaction they have with you, you’ll build up a fuller picture of your clients. That will inform your conversations and let you be much more accurate in your communications targeting.

A great CRM also means if your account lead is on holiday, anyone else in the team can quickly get up to speed and seamlessly handle customer inquiries.

Today’s best CRM systems have modern designs, simple and intuitive user experiences, integrate correctly with your existing systems and are accessible anywhere including on mobile. That makes them genuinely useful tools that become central to your company’s workflow.

Here’s some of the best things about a great CRM.

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1. Build customer loyalty

Long-term relationships are built on mutual understanding. When you show a client you remember important interactions and apply that to your current conversation, they feel valued and listened to. That builds trust and loyalty, ultimately increasing retention and sales.

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2. Bring some automation to your workflow

A good CRM can remind you who should be followed up with - and when. That means you avoid missing essential conversations and losing potential sales.

You can add fully automated communications, like sending a series of tutorials or links to your best free content after a customer takes a given action. Design seasonal relevant content and make sure your retailers, for example, get handy ideas and tips at just the right time, for example.

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3. Segment customers in a smarter way

A good CRM lets you design many lists that cut across your customer base in targeted ways. Build this up over time, and you’ll have an increasingly accurate targeting of your marketing and communications.

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4. Consistently better client interactions

By centralizing what you know about your customers and keeping accurate records of all your engagements with them, you can improve the consistency of your conversations. When a client gets in touch, no matter who talks to them, they’ll get the level of service they expect.

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5. Gain opportunities to upsell and cross-sell

By recording what your customers needed from you and when they needed it, salespeople will be better able to offer relevant products and services at the right time.

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6. Deepened team collaboration

The best CRM implementations are used by everyone in the team, including management. Often, leaders will have the greatest insight into customer relationships from high-level conversations. When that information is shared in a systematic way, communication with clients get better.

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7. Long-term cost savings

A new CRM can come with a significant investment upfront, as well as ongoing costs. Sometimes, it’s not easy to measure the ROI. In 2014, Nucleus Research’s report found that CRMs were returning $8.71 in value for every dollar spent. Check that out to see how a CRM improves the bottom line.

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8. Get feedback and learn about customer journeys

A good CRM will help you analyze the way people interact with your company from the first contact through to repeat customer. More data means more opportunities to refine and optimize your systems to increase retention and spend less on new customer acquisition.

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What now?

Are you considering implementing a new CRM system but don’t know where to start? Despite their huge potential, many CRM implementations fail to deliver the hoped-for results. Usually, that comes down to the wrong software choice. If the CRM is cumbersome, unintuitive, or doesn’t play well with existing systems, the staff are likely to end up bypassing it.

Talk to us about what you’re trying to achieve. We’ll gladly assess your needs and what integrations you might need to successful embed a CRM into your existing systems. We’ll also help you think about the right software solution, and whether a custom or off-the-shelf installation will better suit your needs.