Have you outgrown your CRM?

The CRM industry is constantly evolving. New features are introduced, user interfaces improved and automation capabilities added. This evolution is happening at an even faster pace with solutions becoming cloud-based. Updates can now be deployed more regularly. There could be signs that the CRM you purchased a decade ago, no longer fulfils your present business requirements. We've decided to point out some of the clear signs you've outgrown your CRM.

Lacks the flexibility to manage other processes

Your CRM does the basics right.

It manages contacts, activities and sales but lacks cutting-edge capabilities such as new processes your organisation needs. You may want to manage events, new projects, support cases, work orders but your solution doesn’t support it. Instead, you’ve tried to handle this outside of CRM using other solutions such as Excel.

The problem is you start to have a decentralised system again, with data that isn’t tracked and spread across many applications which often means details are forgotten or lost.

If you’re in this position, and you can’t extend your CRM any further, consider upgrading immediately.

Your CRM can’t integrate with other applications

CRMs need to join up with other business tools that your organisation uses. This could include email, accounting software, appointment applications, web portals and many others. If all your systems are their own island, you won’t get the most out of them. Consider developing software that bridges these gaps, or if this is no longer a possibility – maybe it’s time to say goodbye to your current CRM and look for a new solution.

Customer expectations

In 2018, customers expect a quality service when they engage with an organisation. This means your staff need to be empowered with the right tools and information to support customer queries. This could include the capability to quickly bring up policy documents, service level agreements, knowledge base articles, integrated live chat tools and more.

The last thing your organisation wants is to have customer queries not being dealt with efficiently as the CRM is slow and difficult to navigate for the service desk operator. Delivering an inconsistent and inadequate customer service.

We’ve observed a shift of customers wanting to do interactions on their own terms, with time to digest relevant information. This is why customised web portals are the way forward – it enables an organisation to provide customised information to users that were previously locked away and only available to be retrieved from a customer-facing employee. Can your current CRM do this?

Customers that are satisfied and receive a consistently high-quality service have been shown to remain loyal to your organisation and this will increase your retention.

Baln and Company reported a 5% increase in customer retention can result in increased profitability by 75%

Marketing Metrics also released a study which found it’s 50% easier to sell to existing customers than new ones.

Reporting is limited

Inaccurate, time-consuming and non-meaningful insights lead to bad business decision making. Management wants to rest easy that the decisions they make are based on sound evidence. Can you tell is leads are being properly followed up? Are the reports fully connected with other systems? Can you customise data visualisation? Your management staff deserve to feel confident in the data they've been provided, and not rely on guesswork to fill in your data gaps.

We would highly recommend Power BI, which tightly integrates with other systems. It's highly customisable with user-created dashboards. It’s also excellent for presenting. It can be embedded in websites, mobile, email and can use a live feed so the data you publish in the boardroom is always the most accurate and up to date.

Not used outside the office

Your CRM might be effective inside the office and carries out all the duties it needs. But mobile employee’s such as salesman, business developers, product demonstrators might not have the same level of access. The data they need might be the most important and may need to update their accounts on the go.

A salesman may need to do some last minute fact-checking, or tailor data for the customer when they present their pitch. They might also want to add feedback after the meeting but were unable to and therefore scribbled it down in their notes. 

Mobile, tablet and remote access are vital for your workforce to perform to the best of their abilities and so a responsive, fully mobile friendly CRM system is critical in 2018. If your current solution isn’t catering to an increasingly mobile workforce – it’s a clear sign you need to upgrade.

Keeping track of customer interactions

Your CRM at the very least must be an adequate address book with customer and contact details. But does it record every interaction it has with your business? For customer service reasons, your staff may want to understand the full picture of the customers' query. 

Customers having to repeatedly explain the details of their query because they are dealing with a new member of staff will quickly become frustrated. They will feel like they are being pushed from pillar to post and undervalued.

Has it grown with my business?

You bought your CRM 10 years ago as a long-term IT solution. Since then you have grown significantly. You have more employee’s, new products, services, policies and more. Technology has moved on too. Your competitor’s solutions are in the cloud and they can use their system on the road, working from home and only pay for what they need.

Their CRM can perform complex reports, business rules, queries, and can automate your processes. They might have added a web portal, so customers don’t need to rely on staff to find a solution to repetitive queries, significantly alleviating the strain on your telephone support desk. Unfortunately, whilst you may have added a few modules here and there to try and keep up you are starting to fall behind.

It might be becoming clearer to you that whilst your CRM has served its purpose in the past, it longer fulfils your business requirements for the present.

If any of the above examples apply to you, consider speaking with a qualified UK CRM partner who can understand your requirements and can deliver the competitive advantage you deserve.

We understand a migration or upgrade isn't an easy decision to make. You may have concerns that a new system won't be able to carry out the very custom duties your old CRM did, or the data will not be compatible. You also might not want to train up your staff on a new system and that it will be too complicated. These are valid concerns but these issues can be overcome. 

You should consider if the cost of being left behind by your current solution outweighs the initial short-term costs of a new CRM. As specialists in CRM and a leading UK partner, Serversys can support you in your decision making and we will understand your business environment so you can plan for the future. Feel free to get in touch with us today.