The growth of online marketing means businesses everywhere are able to reach customers in hundreds of ways. This high rate of competition means customer service is more important than ever.
If you want to attract and retain your customer to build a stable turnover and start increasing profits, improving your customer service should be top of your to do list
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been developed specifically to help businesses understand how, when, where and why customers are communicating with the brand to tailor the overall service.
Better customer service doesn’t just benefit the customer, either. Easy access to organised customer data could save you time and money. By giving staff access to more detailed information and tools to support their working, a CRM system could improve internal performance, leading to increased conversion and customer retention and ultimately, a boost in turnover and profits.
It’s a win-win situation.
Below are 5 ways that a CRM system could improve your customer service and business performance:
Understand and cater to your customers
Your customers are at the heart of your business. By understanding your customers’ demographics and interactions with your business, you can begin tailoring your service to meet their needs. By personalising each approach to your customer, you will give that all important human touch to increasingly digital interactions and make them feel like a valued part of your business.
By understanding exactly what your customers want and need from your business, you can use this collective information to tailor your marketing, products and services and overall brand.
Build your knowledge and adaptability
Every customer is different and should be treated as such – but even when you know your customers, it’s important to recognise that they changes their mood and mind. This personal understanding of your customers will help your business to become more adaptable and knowledgeable. Being able to answer inquiries or direct customers to the right department will keep staff in sync with the business but also means customers will benefit from the most timely, up to date information from staff who really know the business.
Review touch points and pressure points
Assessing how and where customers are interacting with you, as well as pinpointing any areas of the customer journey that consistently causes issues, you can make targeted and justified improvements. Not only will this improve the journey for potential future customers, but it will help returning customers to see that the business is moving forward and listening to them.
Follow up when a problem is solved
Dealing with complaints or issues from customers is a great learning opportunity for any business. Once you have handled an issue, seek to understand how it was dealt with and share that information with the team. Learning from your customer interactions can help you to address any initial problems before they occur again but will also enable the team to offer more timely resolutions in the future.
Allocate resources and attention effectively
A CRM system will give your staff the tools they need to quickly access the information they need about a customer. You can identify customers that are likely to convert or complete a sale as well as those who need a bit more persuasion. This information will help to focus your immediate efforts and find those quick wins.
Not only can you improve your immediate customer service but you can reap ongoing benefits from your new approach to communications. This could include benefits such as improved your brand identity, standing out against your competition, more on and offline customer referrals and streamlined your internal processes.
The Superfast Business Wales Software Directory highlights some of the Customer Relationship management platforms that you might like to review for your business. These are selected specifically for SMES.