One of the first steps to analyzing a CRM is to fully understand buy Phone Number List what a CRM is and how it fits your business needs. Once you understand what you need from a CRM, you will want to review the latest innovations in CRM software. Software and hardware are evolving at a revolutionary rate. CRM companies are integrating these new technologies and concepts to meet customer demands. You will want to make sure that the CRM you choose continues to improve and follows the trends I have listed below. I recommend using resources like G2 and Capterra to help with this process. These are review sites that use carefully vetted customer and professional reviews to provide a complete picture of each CRM software.
A quick overview of the five topics is available in the infographic below. You can also click here to view the full infographic.
5-CRM-Trends
1. Artificial Intelligence
Have you seen Blade Runner or Ex Machina? Those are two of my favorites. I always have a soft spot for sci-fi movies. If you’re not familiar, AI and technological advancements are developed at an astonishing rate in these movies. AI is shown as a potential danger to society because humans have allowed AI to become sentient. Fortunately, this fatalistic depiction of AI is very far from its real-life uses and capabilities in modern software.
Today, CRM software companies are using AI to improve productivity. Using AI in CRM software often involves analyzing the emotional state of a call or meeting based on historical data. This analysis is a great way to understand how an opportunity is progressing. Another common use of AI is for accurate Lead Scoring . These insights allow a salesperson to quickly deduce which prospects they should focus on and which require further conversation to better understand the company’s BANT .
Additionally, AI is used in a variety of other powerful ways to make CRM easier to use , such as recommending the best time to call based on previous interactions and automatically collecting customer interaction data, freeing up more time for sales reps.
The possibilities of AI seem endless as companies continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with its application. I am very excited to see where AI will take the industry, and I think many will agree when I say AI is here to stay.
2. Using mobile CRM
I’m not old enough to remember the first cell phones, but I often think of the stories my dad likes to tell. He remembers being in high school and being one of the first to get a blocky, single-color cell phone. Back then, everyone had to either memorize phone numbers or keep a written list of their friends’ and family’s numbers. It didn’t help that many of his friends still didn’t have a cell phone. He had no one to call.
It’s incredible how much cell phones have changed in just a few decades. I doubt many people could have imagined how integral cell phones would become to society in the 1980s. Now, everyone is expected to have a modern smartphone that not only makes calls, but also has internet access and an unimaginable number of apps. In the eight years from 2011 to 2019, smartphone ownership increased from 31% to 81%, according to PewResearch . It’s no wonder that app development has become such a priority for many CRM companies.
Inoppl Technologies conducted a study that found that 65% of sales reps who implemented mobile CRM achieved their sales quotas, while only 22% of sales reps did not adopt the system. With these direct benefits in mind, CRM companies have created and improved mobile apps for their software. These mobile apps provide access to all the core features available in CRM via smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices of the agents’ choice. While travel is currently down, it is important to look to the future. As countries begin to open up, business travel will increase. Access to CRM on the go will be a must-have feature for all companies looking to adopt CRM.
Below are just a few of the direct benefits that mobile CRM brings to users:
Add meeting notes on the go, which can improve the quality of data in your CRM
Quickly ask for customer or lead information to have a more meaningful conversation
Plan your day by viewing the locations of clients and prospects in the app and checking in when you arrive
Quickly add and attach documents
Access your CRM records offline
Mobile phones will continue to be an important part of business communication in the future, and CRM companies are innovating to become a significant part of that usage.
3. socialization
While I wasn't directly involved with CRM's innovations, I was impressed by Arby's intricate artistic creations that use their food and paper products as art pieces. The marketing campaign demonstrates how the company can relate to its customers while still promoting its product on social media. Using these marketing campaigns is where CRM can help.
Social media has become a new way for businesses to communicate, both small and large. It is both a free and easy way to market your product or service to the right demographic and location. With its large user base, it is easy to see why.
Facebook is a very large social network for both individuals and businesses. Over 80 million small businesses alone currently have Facebook pages, and the site is visited by 1.73 billion users daily. It’s not just Facebook that advertises such a large number of users. YouTube has around 2 billion active users per month. LinkedIn can see over 310 million active users per month, and is also the number one content sharing channel for Business to Business marketers. Twitter also has a very large user base, especially with 186 million monetized daily active users.
With such a large audience, if you haven't already, you should start social media marketing and collecting those leads and conversations in a CRM tool.
Many CRM software applications offer Facebook integration , which can make it easy to move Facebook conversations and leads into your CRM. This includes both lead generation through Facebook Lead Ads and moving Facebook Messenger conversations into your CRM so they can be followed up in the CRM by your support or sales team.
I view LinkedIn as a professional form of social media because many business professionals have accounts and post regularly. LinkedIn is an easy platform for sales reps to find leads and new customers. However, sales reps don’t want to waste their time manually entering each lead into their CRM. Luckily, LinkedIn offers LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This tool allows for better lead generation on the platform. On top of that, the CRM software has both direct and indirect integrations that allow you to generate leads into the CRM software.
Beyond LinkedIn, CRM companies are starting to build integrations for all available social media platforms with Gmail Add-ons and other CRM integrations. These tools can help you generate leads quickly. Companies around the world are finding new and innovative ways to use social media, and it’s exciting to see how communication continues to evolve for both companies and consumers.
4. Real-time support
Improving customer satisfaction, especially for subscription services, is a great way to reduce turnover.
Customer satisfaction and reduced turnover are directly related to the quality of customer service. Verint conducted a study that analyzed the relationship between customer service and customer retention. In this study, they found that the speed and convenience of customer service is what drives customer loyalty. Specifically, 46% of respondents linked their positive customer service experience to the speed with which it was completed. This convenience and speed can be achieved by offering multiple channels through which a customer can contact your support team.
Live chat via your website or product is one way to offer your customers real-time support. Most CRM companies have a Live Chat feature available through external integrations, while fewer offer it directly within the CRM itself. Live chat still requires the customer or prospect to first visit your website or platform and stay there for the duration of the conversation. In addition to the live chat feature, it is best to offer additional text-based communication methods through third-party messaging apps.
WhatsApp has become one of the main communication platforms. 1.5 billion users in 180 countries. Many CRM companies have noticed this trend and created direct integration with WhatsApp through CRM. Although communication must be initiated by the leader or customer, having this additional communication method allows for greater flexibility.
While my last feature, phone calls, has been available in CRM software for a long time, CRM companies continue to add new integrations to their system. Many systems allow you to create custom integrations via API if a direct integration with your phone system is not available.
Additionally, call recordings can now be linked directly to a contact record in the CRM. These recordings allow sales and support reps to quickly look back on previous interactions.
Standard outreach methods are also available through CRM software, such as email. Using these and many other communication channels can further improve customer service and sales outreach.
5. Ease of use
I know I've been disappointed by products before. Some have a high learning curve, while others just have poor UI design. I recently found a great example of poor UI design when using a manual crank to read the Terms of Service.