Customer relationship management software is one of the most effective tools that most businesses have integrated into their MarTech stack to enhance the customer experience.
Customers are one of the most valuable and crucial assets for every business, irrespective of their size, type, and industry. Even though the implementation of the CRM tool is to streamline the customer experience, it won’t be possible if it isn’t used effectively by presales, sales, and aftersales teams. Implementing a CRM system in the MarTech stack will be expensive for businesses that need to make the most out of it to get a higher ROI. Many CRM vendors are available in the market with various features to streamline revenue operations. But the question is, will all the features offered by the vendor be valuable to the business operations?
Following are a few must-have tools and features that IT decision-makers should consider before implementing or upgrading CRM systems into the MarTech stack:
Workflow Automation
One of the significant ways businesses can leverage CRM software is to streamline their presales, sales, and aftersales work processes. Hence one of the essential features that business leaders need to look out for in customer relationship management software is workflow automation. Businesses need to look for a tool that allows them to set custom rules and has built-in salesforce automation to improve productivity. The CRM tools should be able to enforce the regulations wherever required based on the potential triggers or events. The best workflow automation features can enable businesses to eliminate tedious tasks and allow the teams to focus on interacting with the customers.
Customization
A one-size-fits-all CRM tool will not be able to deliver the expected results. Every business has unique needs, workflows, and goals that they need to accomplish by leveraging customer relationship management software. Hence, implementing an off-the-shelf CRM solution can negatively impact workflows and result in reduced productivity. Business owners must select a CRM tool in their MarTech stack that allows them to customize the tool to their business needs and scale with them. While fixing or upgrading customer relationship management software, businesses need to look for a vendor that enables them to customize the tool per their needs.
A few CRM vendors allow businesses to choose the features that need to be integrated to accomplish their goals. It is crucial to partner with a CRM vendor that enables companies to customize their extensions, plugins, and other add-ons to enhance the software’s capabilities. Businesses with complex CRM needs should look for a solution provider offering advanced customization options leveraging the APIs. This feature enables developers to access the entire technical specifications and customization code for the CRM software. These APIs allow businesses to seamlessly integrate the CRM tool with all the other business solutions integrated into the IT infrastructure.
Email Marketing Integration
B2B businesses rely heavily on email marketing to accomplish their presales goals. Because most B2B enterprises rely on content marketing to penetrate the total addressable market, email marketing is another feature the customer relationship management software should have. A CRM system with integrated email marketing features will help marketers centralize the marketing operations, gather the results, and evaluate them. Email automation tools are a must-have to increase the reach of the target market and keep them engaged with the content.
Data Analytics and Accurate Forecasting
Businesses gather tremendous customer data today, which can have valuable information to make accurate business decisions—having adequate data analytics tools integrated into the MarTech stack to collect and analyze data. Many CRM software has inbuilt data analytics capabilities that help decision-makers make accurate business decisions. Hence, Data Analytics needs to be one of the essential features while implementing or upgrading a CRM solution. One of the crucial applications of CRM tools is determining a metric to ensure success. Enterprises need to implement a technology that enables them to make accurate sales predictions based on demand and market data. Customer relationship management software with practical data analytics features allows businesses to drive actual business predictions.
Lead Management
Any customer relationship management software will not be complete without lead management.
Every CRM tool will have lead management features inbuilt into the solution to streamline the presales, sales, and aftersales operations
But the efficiency of the feature might differ from vendor to vendor. The lead management feature should be able to segment the customers based on their demographics and other psychographic factors. Businesses must select the right CRM tool with customer segmentation capabilities to identify high-quality leads. The customer relationship management tool integrated should have lead-scoring capabilities that help the revenue operations teams to focus on the right prospects to improve efficiency.
Third-party Integration
Businesses use multiple tools in their IT infrastructure to streamline the operations of various departments. Seamless Integration of the CRM solution with other devices in the IT infrastructure is essential to make the most out of the implementation. One of the crucial capabilities that CRM software should have is the ability to integrate with the other tools in the IT infrastructure seamlessly. CRM systems that do not seamlessly integrate with other systems might create multiple disruptions in the workflows rather than strengthen the processes.
Also Read: Top Marketing Tech Trends for 2023
Employee Tracking
Even though customer relationship management software is leveraged to enhance the customer experience, this tool is used by the presales, sales, and aftersales. As different departments and resources leverage the CRM tool to help customers resolve their queries. It is crucial to have a CRM solution that keeps track of the employees to determine their performance. Revenue operations teams need real-time performance tracking to make strategic changes to improve their overall productivity. Implementing or upgrading a CRM tool with an employee tracking feature will help monitor the customers and track the employees.
These are a few features that customer relationship management software should have to improve business efficiency and productivity.
