Transforming Customer Relationships: The Power of CRM Platforms for Small Businesses and Key Implementation Strategies
Nova Junior Consulting | NJC
Nova SBE's student-run Consulting Firm & Junior Enterprise
“Knowing who your customers are can drastically help your business. If you can think like them, you can increase your sales.”[1]
Costumers are the key for any business to succeed: regardless of how big or how small organizations are, they all have one thing in common – a sustainable customer base. The secret to achieving that goal?is building a working relationship with consumers for them to feel safe and connected with the brand. According to a PwC study?, “73% of all people point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions.”.?
The need for in-depth and integrated customer knowledge appeared and along with the emerging technologies in the last couple of decades, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software came into action. This valuable tool helps organizations collect and transform large volumes of data into actionable information, streamlining sales and marketing processes.
In this article, we will focus not only on the importance of CRM software but also on how to implement it and measure its impact, focusing especially on small businesses where having this tool is vital.
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CRM software is essential especially when talking about small businesses. At this stage, companies often find it challenging to identify and acquire customers. The software in question helps these small companies to stay organized and functional, bucketing the consumers in optimal and suboptimal segments and making it easier to redirect the marketing campaigns to the optimal segment. This will allow organizations to save on costs, which is crucial for these low dimension companies, and to reach more easily and efficiently their potential clients.
Besides this, small companies are still establishing themselves in the market and so it is critical for them to have a strong and established connection with their buyers without the risk of losing them to the competition due to a sense of disregard. CRM software helps fostering this strong relationship by tracking client data and enabling a tailored customer experience. By providing the latter efficiently, companies boost customer loyalty and retention, which should eventually result in an increase in sales.
The implementation of the software itself in small businesses is usually much easier as these corporations are more agile thanks to their smaller dimension: can move quicker and implement faster.?[2]
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As stated previously, CRM platforms can be truly beneficial for companies in many of their processes. Nevertheless, it needs to be implemented following the right strategy that fits their unique business.
At a first stage, the focus should be on the choice of the platform. Identifying the right CRM platform requires evaluating the company’s needs. In fact, companies should avoid “any hasty investment in specialist tools before (…) the company’s customer interactions are fully understood,” warns Natalie Cowen, head of brand and communications for First Direct, the UK-based HSBC banking subsidiary. It will not be necessary to implement such platform if all the company’s processes are already working effectively. Companies should understand the pain points of their processes to set realistic goals for the new platform.
At a second stage, a smooth Integration process should be undertaken. Feedback from the company’s staff will be crucial in helping the company adapt to their needs and provide a feeling of belonging. Furthermore, companies should try to connect their existing software to the newly purchased one. This will not only make it easier for workers to accept and work with the new system, since it will still have some familiar components, but also give use to the investment made in the current software. Additionally, the company should understand if it has the internal resources and technical knowledge needed for implementation and, if there is any constraint, it should look to the CRM vendor for support.
At a final stage, the Implementation takes place and there are a few key factors to look at. When creating teams, there are key members that need to be present, since they will take a big part in the implementation process. This includes, for example, a project manager that leads the team and a developer that carries out data migration and cleansing. Companies should calculate budgets since the purchase of the new software will not be its only expense. Workers will need to get familiarized with the new system, which will lead to training costs as well as costs for their absence. The absence of workers due to the time spent on understanding the new system must be considered and teams should adapt to this new reality.
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After the successful implementation of the CRM software, it is crucial to evaluate how it is performing and where the potential problems are so that the company can adjust and solve the aspects not performing at their optimal, specially at the initial stage of a company so that there is no money being wasted.
But how can the performance of the Customer Relationship Management system be measured? The answer is on the CRM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be used to evaluate the performance of the software in achieving its main purpose – delivering satisfaction to all the organization’s customers’ needs. There are some important KPIs that are commonly used by businesses when evaluating the customers’ satisfaction such as the customer retention rate, the increase in sales and the increase in response rate.
Nevertheless, there are many other KPIs that should be defined by each business. The measurements that lead to customer satisfaction can be unique for each company and so the KPIs that are applied should be chosen according to that.
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Authors Take:
领英推荐
It is clear the benefits that CRM platforms bring to a business. With the right research and team, it is possible to integrate such platforms successfully and feel the positive results of such investment. Technology will continue to shape the future, and companies should be versatile enough to utilize technologies to gain a competitive edge on their peers. At the end of the day, your consumers are the key drivers of your business: get to know them, get to know their tastes, get to know how they think, and you will succeed!
Joana Alvarinho and Maria Laranjo,
February 24th 2023
Further readings:
“Do small businesses really need CRM?” :
“Creating A CRM Strategy That Will Help Your Business Thrive”: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/creating-a-crm-strategy/
“What Is CRM? The Ultimate Guide (2023)”: (Puthiyamadam & Reyes, 2018)
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Sources:
KPIs In Customer Relationship Management. (2018, March 2). Retrieved from Aptean: https://www.aptean.com/en-NZ/insights/blog/kpis-customer-relationship-management
How to Successfully Implement a CRM. (2020, February 3). Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/02/03/how-to-successfully-implement-a-crm/?sh=29efbc43a59e
Social CRM mirrors rise in customer power. (2012, January 31). Retrieved from Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/16f71a68-4c45-11e1-b1b5-00144feabdc0
Benefits of CRM software for small businesses. (n.d.). Retrieved from Evolved Metrics: https://evolvedmetrics.com/benefits-of-crm-software-for-small-businesses/
Perez, M. (2021, March 12). What is customer knowledge and 5 ways to get it! Retrieved from Moment: https://www.momentcrm.com/blog/customer-knowledge/
Types of CRM Applications. (2022, December 27). Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/types-of-crm-applications/
Puthiyamadam, T., & Reyes, J. (2018). Experience is Everything: Here's how to get it right. PwC.
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