7 Reasons for a CRM

Find out:

• What advantages does a CRM offer?
• When does a CRM effect in the customer journey?
• What are the 7 reasons for you to work with a CRM?

The three magic letters that stand for Customer Relation Management should be familiar to you as a retailer. Why? Because you live, benefit and grow from your customers and your relationship with them.

Perhaps you have already implemented one for your store and your team or have at least thought about it. However, when you read our article why you need a CRM as a retailer, you already know how important a CRM is nowadays with the variety of contact options and data provided by those.

The goal of a CRM is clear: It is a system that allows your business, or more specifically you and your salespeople, to efficiently and effectively track interactions with potential or existing customers.

Which advantages exactly does a CRM offer?

“Basically, with a CRM, you not only have the complete history of each customer available, but the data is also no longer recorded redundantly. Everything can be viewed transparently and is therefore measurable and plannable for the future. Today, a good CRM must be able to collect and store all data from all contact points on the entire customer journey. In the past, a lot of data was recorded manually, which led to errors and to extra work. But today manual records are simply no longer possible due to the shortage in labor and the variety of fragmented data.” Markus Demirci, Founder and CEO of mPocket.

How does the today’s customer journey look like and when does a CRM come into play?

The customer journey is the entire process that your customers go through when discovering, evaluating and purchasing a product. A CRM accompanies and simplifies this process and helps to evaluate the results which were achieved. We can distinguish between three phases in the customer journey: awareness, consideration and decision:

1. Awareness: In this initial phase, customers become aware of a need that needs to be met or a problem that needs to be solved. Companies now have the opportunity to address and sensitize their potential customers. In this phase a CRM only plays a subordinate role, but an analysis of past interactions and successful purchases can already be used to attract as many interested parties as possible. Targeted research can also be used to identify potential leads and provide the possibility to address them.

2. Consideration: Your potential customer is aware of his problems or needs and is now weighing various alternatives. Now your goal is for the potential customer to decide in favor of your offer. To do this, he must first become a lead and establish an initial connection with you, e.g., by contacting you via social media. The decisive advantage of a CRM solution lies in the automatic storage of contact data. In addition, you save yourself time-consuming and extensive market research based on empirical data. Are your customers more interested in posts on Facebook or are the newsletter campaigns received better? Such questions can be answered after a very short time using user data. This allows you to implement personalized offers that lead your leads to the next phase: The decision.

3. Decision: You used the CRM to filter the qualified leads that are likely to make a purchase. Now offer them optimal support and personal connection by assigning them to one of your salespeople. In addition, a CRM tells you how to approach certain target groups. From the available data, it can be automatically read whether your customer prefers personal advice, for example, or prefers to receive product comparisons by email. Individual advice and customer loyalty leads to more sales and thus to more turnover.

7 reasons for a CRM for you as a retailer

1. Transparent and fast procurement of information: With a CRM you and your team have an overview of all data from customers and prospects. Not only important contact data such as telephone number, email address or social media profiles, but also the entire history of each customer. By linking documents, campaigns, etc., you can build quality relationships through transparent communication with your customers.

2. Connecting sales and marketing: With a modern CRM, all information can be connected across departments or branches. This makes clear which information is currently of interest to which (potential) customers and enables an aimed approach to the target group.

3. Centralized information for the entire team: The main advantage of a CRM is that all data is available centrally. This means that not individual employees carry the knowledge with them. In this way, any colleague can step in if necessary and individual team members cannot be excluded from the internal information flow. Like this, your customers are optimally cared for. Ideally, a CRM can be accessed from any location. 

4. Efficient work: Well thought-out workflows optimize your sales and marketing processes. As a result, time-consuming documentation and organization are reduced and you have more time to focus on your important tasks – your customers.

5. Digitized processes: These are not only transparent, but also simplify many things. Not only will your customer service be improved, but the collected data will also make it possible to evaluate it and use it for your company to make decisions based on facts.

6. Avoidance of errors: Thanks to a central CRM system, all data only must be entered once, which not only reduces the workload but also the error rate.

7. Decisions instead of guessing games: The evaluation of offers, sales figures or feedback from your customers on certain campaigns enables decisions based on facts. Instead of acting almost haphazardly on instinct, you can implement planned strategies.

Customer loyalty with the help of a CRM – how does that work?

The customer buys something and that’s the end of the story? But you actually want him to come back? It is important for you to know that a CRM and the importance of customer relationships do not end with a purchase decision. Because now the work on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty begins. Now you and your team have the chance to turn customers into loyal fans and advocates who will recommend the company and come back and buy again.

With a CRM you can identify re-, cross- and upselling potential and with the help of your collected customer data and excellent customer service you can achieve successful retention marketing. Bind your customers in the long term with a CRM.

Are you curious, but also a bit cautious because of the possible additional workload for your already small team? Don’t worry: A right CRM tool can also be uncomplicated and simplify your daily work. Just have a look at our website or contact us directly at hallo@mpocket.io.

*For reasons of better legibility only the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is not used. All personal names apply to both genders.

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