UNIT-5

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

UNIT-5 Topics will be covered

1. CRM trends- challenges

2. CRM trends- opportunities
3. Artificial Intelligence
4. Artificial Intelligence& CRM
5. Social CRM
6. Mobile CRM

1. CRM trends- challenges

Introduction:

A few years ago, customer relationship management (CRM) efforts were reported as failures in
terms of generating revenue, and the strategy was thought to be on the decline. But the ride isn't
over for CRM software. With the advent of social media and smartphones, businesses are
reconsidering and re-evaluating CRM initiatives. The marketing and sales landscapes are
changing to adapt to customer behavior. CRM trends are bound to change how businesses deal
with customers. But regardless of the technological landscape, successful CRM entails the
observance of best practices and continued innovation.

CRM Then and Now

CRM has evolved over the decades. The term became popular in the early '90s, when it began to
be used to refer to front-office applications. Several people and organizations were credited with
coining the term, including Tom Siebel, John Anton and Gartner Inc.
Prior to the '90s, database marketing was used to gain insight into customer behavior through
statistical analysis. The late '80s saw the introduction of PC-based contact management software.
This system eventually developed into sales force automation (SFA).

Through the years, the CRM industry relied heavily on technology and software developments.
Siebel, Oracle and SAP became early leaders in the market. E-CRM providers like Kana,
Broadbase and e.piphany emerged a few years later, as use of the internet gained ground.
Salesforce also joined the CRM market around this time as a software-as-a-service (SaaS)
provider.

Top CRM Trends to Explore

Social networking sites are always changing user and customer experience, and innovating to
meet customers' changing demands. Customers now have the tools to express their opinions on
anything, at any time and anywhere in the world. This has changed the role of customer
feedback, and made it much more important; after all, customer feedback over social media has
been known to make or break businesses. As a result, business entities are increasingly growing
aware of the power of social media as a method for engaging customers and potential customers.
Mobility is also creating technology and marketing trends thanks to the emergence of
smartphones and tablets.

1. Cloud-Based CRM

Cloud computing services continue to rise, and CRM has not been left behind in this area.
According to Peter Coffee, Salesforce.com vice president and head of platform research, cloud-
based software is a cost-efficient means of gathering customer data. Unlike before, on-site
resources no longer need to scout for leads to input into a system for future sales calls; sources of
customer data are already available. Cloud-based CRM will gain momentum as cloud-based
applications continue to progress. (Read more about cloud computing in Cloud Computing: Why
the Buzz?)

2. Social CRM
In 2008, Comcast was one of the first companies that took to Twitter to interact with customers,
confirming the power of social CRM. Social media marketing remains on an uptrend and
companies are paying attention. Consumers are empowered by social networking sites to
influence product or brand image and perception. Negative feedback no longer simply routes a
call to customer service; businesses can expect feedback to reach potential markets before they
do. Software vendors are now responding to social CRM needs. Social media
optimization and gamification are gaining traction as marketing strategies, keeping customers
engaged with the brand and company. (Learn more about the role of social media in business
in Jedi Strategies for Social Media Management.)

3. Centralized Data

Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian once said that "Datarati are companies that have the edge
in consumer data insight." CRMtrends.com asserts that CRM will continue to aim to understand
customers through extensive data collection and analysis. Batchbook president Pamela O’Hara
also notes that by centralizing customer data through CRM, businesses will be able to target and
engage customers more effectively. CRM data won’t end with generating leads for the sales team
but will be a continuing process that also includes maintaining relationships with a growing
customer base. (For related reading, see Using Product Management Features in a CRM
Solution.)

4. Mobility

Forrester vice president and analyst William Band observes how mobility has turned into a
critical corporate component. Customers are no longer bound to PCs and are constantly
accessing data on the go. Frontline employees and customer service resources will increasingly
be empowered by mobile devices for support. On the other side of the coin, customer perception
will also be shaped not only by real-world involvement, but also by online and mobile
experiences.
5. Flexibility

In 2004, SugarCRM was launched as a CRM vendor in open source. Clint Oram, company co-
founder and VP for product strategy, contends that flexibility for CRM users is key because it
allows them to customize the software to meet their needs. Ease of integration and multichannel
publishing are key corporate considerations. As a result, a flexible and accessible CRM platform
is becoming increasingly important for users.

7. Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing involves obtaining work, information, or opinions from a large group of

people who submit their data via the Internet, social media, and smartphone apps. People
involved in crowdsourcing sometimes work as paid freelancers, while others
perform small tasks voluntarily.

With customers gaining voice through social media, enterprises are increasingly able take
advantage of crowdsourcing for business improvements. Tapping current customers for fresh
ideas, solutions and expectations can help employees across an organization provide the
innovation and interactive relationship that a growing number of customers now expect. This
means that CRM will no longer be just for lead generation and marketing, it will also provide a
source for new innovation.

CRM TRENDS- CHALLENGES

Why CRM Implementation Fails?

1. Lack of Communication

CRM implementation decisions are taken by the top management in all organizations because of
the budget and the process changes which will happen after the CRM implementation. This
decision and the process afterwards, needs to be communicated to the whole staff and the top
management needs to be supportive of the plan throughout the implementation process. Lack of
communication can give rise to insecurities and mental barrier in the minds of the staff. Lack of
communication also happens when the CRM is implemented and still the salesforce cannot
update the CRM on the go with their meeting details and rely on their support staff to do the
same on their behalf. Here, the CRM does not eliminate the problem but gives rise to new ones
as double effort is required on the salesperson’ behalf.

2. Lack of Organization Wide Use

Introducing CRM as an important and time saving tool will encourage the users to make use of it
on a wide range. Managers must make the CRM software an important medium to make or
record all the interactions done by the Sales team on a daily basis. Making your sales
representative believe that CRM is not just a tracking tool but very much efficient to help you
keep updated with the upcoming appointments, open customer cases, top opportunities, as well
as staying updated with the CRM notes of the latest communication done with the client will
help manage their time.

3. Lack of Technology Integration

Nearly all the processes in the company have some or the other software to take care of the
manual work. The problem arises due to the fact that all these systems are not connected with
each other and the data flow between them is absent. Understanding the need of the business and
employees is the major facet to finalize a CRM software tool for the organization. A successful
CRM implementation must guarantee that the CRM will meet the needs of the every level of
employee may it be a Management User, a Sales Representative, a Service Executive or a
Marketing Manager.

Sage CRM is one such CRM software that allows the users to seamlessly access their enterprise
database thereby avoiding the need to enter duplicate data into system. Gaining full access to
information of the Customer, Products, and sales – analysis etc. helps the staff to do their job
more effectively. Data Management in Sage CRM not only helps to maintain the data security
but also helps the user to identify what they need to close the sale on the go from any device,
anytime and anywhere they might be.

What are the CRM Implementation Challenges?

1. Cost

One of the greatest challenges businesses face when implementing a CRM solution is cost. Yes,
it might turn out as a costly affair if done in haste and without a robust planning. Here, it is
advisable to decide as why your business needs a CRM. This should give out a clear picture
about the type of CRM implementation techniques required eventually helping to set a budget for
the same. So simply diving in imitating your competitor’s CRM strategies is a lot like shooting
in the dark that might lead to total disaster. So it is always a sound thing to discuss the total cost
of ownership, IT resources, hardware or software, etc. with all the shortlisted CRM providers.

2. Set Clear Objectives

Defining clear objectives that a business intends to achieve with the system is one of the secrets
for a smooth and successful CRM implementation. Further, it is advisable to work towards
making these objectives as measurable metrics. Failing to do so might make it difficult to
evaluate the ROI or core benefits of the system. Next, it’s time to reckon on the functionalities
you expect from the system. For this, ask yourself: do you intend to have it for sales, marketing,
customer service or all of them? What problems you aim to address with the system? Having a
clear idea about the objectives and key functionalities required in the system is a crucial step
towards seamless CRM implementation.

3. Deployment Type

This is all about on-premise vs. cloud! A perfect escape plan here is to compare the set budget vs.
the total cost of ownership that should include cost for all the resources required, maintenance,
upgrades, infrastructure, etc. before making up your mind of whether to go for on-premise or
cloud. This further boils down to business preferences, type of industry the business operates in,
etc. Form a dedicated CRM team within the organization including people from top
management, IT department, senior executives, customer support and end-users to discuss about
their daily struggles, reasons leading to inefficiencies in their work, suggestions to boost
productivity, etc. This should give a good picture about the type of deployment type best suited

for your business.

4. Training

Another widely encountered challenge during CRM implementation is the company-wide

training it summons up. This calls for involving all the potential users right from the early stages
itself. In fact, if possible it is good to involve all the would-be users of the system right from the
decision-making process. Pick key personnel from each department, who can be trained
extensively. Eureka is these personnel turning evangelists of the newly rolled-out CRM system,
which helps significantly to educate their fellow team members.

5. Plan out Integration Needs in Advance

Integrating CRM system with other business management solutions such as ERP, payroll, etc.
tops the ‘wish list’ for most of the businesses opting for CRM implementation. Nonetheless, it is
advisable to plan integration needs if any well beforehand to avoid CRM implementation
overkill and information overload to your employees. A smart thing here is to plan a phase 2 for
integration needs post company-wide adoption of the CRM system.

6. Hire the Right CRM Solution Provider

Roping in the right CRM solution provider or partner is the crux for successful implementation.
Preferably, go with a partner that helps in both implementation as well as pre-implementation
strategy. Moreover, it is imperative that your partner puts down all the implementation risks on
the table well before you sign on the dotted line.
RM Implementation is an important and a crucial step in the CRM buying process. It is a make
or a break situation where it can totally go kaput or be seamless. It is in this stage too that all the
data is migrated to the new platform and since the data is of a crucial nature, utmost care needs to
be taken during the migration.

What are the top CRM Implementation Disasters?

1. Lack Of leadership

It’s like riding an Aircraft without a pilot. It is only the leader – CEO, CXO, Founders, etc. who
have the required insight and the direction that they need to steer their business towards. They
will be the ones who will be able to provide the ERP vendor with the exact requirement and can
overlook the implementation effectively. When the task of implementation or any critical process
needs to be handled by mid-level staff, expect that the implementation will not be a smooth one.
They have insufficient business knowledge and might also not be authorized to access important
data like finances and sales. Hence, the role of a company leader is not restricted to just selecting
the CRM Software. In fact, it stretches to implementation and post implementation helping and
motivating the company staff to use the new software.

2. Absence of Clearly Defined Goals:

More than 50% CRM implementations fail due to lack in clearly defined goals. Before buying a
CRM system, there is a brief plan laid out that the company wants to grow, expand in future and
hence, they need a CRM software for it but a clearly defined goal gives way more information
than that – How much transaction will happen, how many security levels will you need and how
do you manage the gap between what your company does and the software provides, etc.

If goals are well-defined and handy then you can measure the success or failure of the CRM
implementation. Also, important factor is that the complete organization or users need to be in
sync with the understanding these goals and know pre hand what they should expect from the
system.
3. Too Much IT Involvement:

It is not always important that the IT team is involved in every phase important. Though they are
integral in understanding the technicalities and the functional aspects, it is not sensible to be
completely dependent on them for everything. The sales and marketing team need to have a
better understanding of how the system should behave in order to accomplish the future goals
since these departments are the key users for the CRM system.

Today, there are many ERP vendors who provide Cloud access as a basic feature in their CRM
software which assists in the managers to access their client data remotely. This helps in closing
deals faster and being where the business is actually happening. Now, for these functionalities,
the IT team may or may not be available always to show the way around. Hence, all teams
should be equally participating during implementation and data migration period.

4. “It’s My Way or the Highway” Mentality

When any organization decides to implement something new, people often reject it saying that
they are not comfortable with the software, however to avoid the ‘it’s my way or the highway’
mentality, the management needs to convince and train them efficiently on the new system that
would be well fitted in their current comfort zone to get more growth and stability. Likewise, the
management should make sure that the software needs to be user friendly and easier to navigate
around.
 CRM TRENDS- OPPORTUNITIES

1. Maintain lines of communication with customers: While efforts should be strategic,

coordinated and consumer-centric, this is not the time to back off on outreach. Use customer
insights along each stage of their journey to drive decisions about how, when and where to
engage with target audiences. This data will be a critical input for leaders as they design and
execute an omnichannel customer experience strategy.
2. Create a sense of community. Still, it is not enough to simply pepper customers with constant
emails and social media posts. Most companies have upped the ante on their customer outreach
as global consumers have increased their time spent online. To cut through the noise, interactions
should feel meaningful, customized and familiar to customers looking for a sense of community
in a virtual world that can feel cold and isolating.
3. Use data to get to know customers better. By integrating and cleansing enterprise data,
businesses can deliver insights that enable organizational agility in the face of constant change.
For years, businesses have pursued a 360-degree view of their customers, but if achieved at all,
it was often limited to data collected by marketing or sales and housed in the organization’s
customer relationship management (CRM) system. By integrating more data sources (not just
those that are directly customer-facing) across enterprise functions, companies will be better
equipped to meet the needs of today’s customer and also anticipate the demands of the future.
4. Build or enhance digital trust. Building digital trust with consumers is a critical differentiator
for businesses operating in a virtual world. According to a 2019 survey, more than half
of consumers said they may hesitate to use a product or service if the company is perceived to
be lax on privacy. The time is ripe for businesses to start repairing lost trust with their customer
bases.
5. Modernize and integrate legacy systems. Today’s consumers expect seamless experiences.
Businesses still leveraging outmoded or siloed technologies are destined to fall behind. Leaders
in this space are reinventing customer experience by investing in state-of-the-art tools that
enable meaningful interactions and insights that attract and delight both internal and external
customers.
6. One easy to access location: Centralizes your customer data and makes it available across
departments. CRM systems store information in one place that leads to improved analyzing of
the data as a whole easily integrated with different tools or plugins, having the ability to generate
 automatic reports to maximize your time. Hence, companies can use this data to learn more
about their customer’s buying patterns and cater their strategies to meet the best scale of profit.
7. Standardized sales process: It provides a step-by-step roadmap for closing deals, reducing the
length of sales cycle, accurately predicting your sales and win rate, and sending automated
reminders to reach out the leads at the right time. This is helpful so that potential customers are
never lost, identify the root cause of the stalled deals, and makes training sales reps fast, simple,
and nearly foolproof.
8. Refined Marketing: A CRM generates tracking reports and what outreach tactics are most
effective. It integrates numerous marketing tools to create effective email nurturing campaigns,
landing pages, forms, and advertisements to keep prospects moving steadily through the funnel.
9. Better Integration: CRMs with customization help matching your business needs uniformly and
sync with the existing business environment providing a quality result. Personalizes your
dashboard views to locate information needed like customer information, sales goals, and
performance reports to reach untapped opportunities. With better reporting data, we can make
resourceful and effective decisions to reap the rewards in customer loyalty and profitability in the
long run.
10. Improved Customer Service: Access to customer’s notes and interaction history through
CRMs helps to see the person behind each ticket leading to consolidated customer
communication activities. It’s personalized customer interaction boosts customer satisfaction and
helps in providing relevant information to them. Good CRM systems enable segmented email
lists and send targeted content to particular customers reducing customer churn and
improving customer service.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Examples of AI and CRM

Salesforce Einstein

It is the first comprehensive AI for CRM that is designed for business to be smarter and more
predictive about prospective customers. Einstein is powered by deep learning, Machine Learning,
Predictive Analytics, and Data Mining.

Zoho

Zoho has a conversational AI assistant called Zia. It assists customers with everything from
simple responses to complex analytics. We, at Oodles ERP, integrate Zoho products with
enterprise applications to manage products, sales, marketing, recruitment, social media and more.

Zoho Creator is cloud software for creating custom applications without any coding experience.
Custom apps built on Zoho creator manages data and automates business processes. Our experts
use Zoho Creator for custom app development on Zoho platform

Sugar CRM

Sugar CRM has recently launched an AI product called Hint. It automatically searches, tunes, and
inputs personal and corporate profile details of prospective customers.
 SOCIAL CRM

MEANING:

Social media is no longer just the place to connect with friends and share photos. It's where
businesses and brands connect with the public. Nowadays, there are social media management
tools that slide into larger CRM platforms

What is social CRM

Social customer relationship management is part of the greater CRM family. With its unique
position as the interface to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more, social CRM is a multipurpose
tool helping your business with marketing, sales, and service.

When it comes to marketing, most social CRM lets you plan and schedule all your social posts,
plus get reports on how each post is doing. Anyone engaging with your content gets streamlined
into your growing network, which feeds back to sales.

The two types of social CRM?

There are two main types of tools that combine CRM and social media management. Nowadays,
many of the best social CRM platforms include elements of both. What’s more, through
integrations and extensions, there’s no limit to what one social media CRM tool can do that a
social media CRM software cannot, and vice versa.

1. Social media CRM tools

Common social CRM tools are usually understood to be a set of social features inside a CRM
software. That means the platform is first and foremost about customer relationship management,
but will include a suite of functionality to help with social CRM strategy, as well as other tools
like marketing strategies and sales lead generation.
2. Social media CRM software

Sometimes you don’t need the whole CRM package. That’s why there are social media
management platforms that aren’t full-on CRMs, but they are tools whose main purpose is to
plan, post, schedule and manage branding and marketing content on social media, as well as to
unify all social engagement. Most will integrate with your favorite CRM to streamline any social
CRM strategy.

Benefits of social CRM software

Fast er customer service

Using social CRM doesn’t just allow service reps to speak directly with people, it enables them
to listen to what people are saying among each other. With social listening, you never miss the
chance to reach out and respond to anyone who’s got a question or issue. Plus, customers prefer
to communicate through their social media profiles, so it’s best to have a presence there.

Build new relat ionships

When any online profile engages with your content or uses keywords you’re monitoring with
social CRM, that’s an opportunity to expand your network. Some great social CRM tools also
help you find the right target audiences to reach out to. And since you can easily stay up-to-date
with their info and activity, you can offer them more personalized experiences.

Bett er underst and customer needs & issues

There’s a lot of data that builds up in the social sphere every moment. A social CRM helps
navigate this info by giving you a broad-metric analytical overview of all the latest hot topics
coming from around the globe on every social channel. It also lets you zero in on demographics,
or pick up on specific categories of content that might be super relevant to your potential
customers.

Build & improve brand reput at ion

When people complain about crummy products or lousy service through a post or a tweet,
chances are they want to be heard. What better way to signal to the greater community your
brand’s willingness to listen than not shying away from criticism? Instead, show gratitude for the
feedback. Social CRMs also let you publicly reward loyal customers, as well as re-share their
praises, so that even more people get wind of your unsolicited awesomeness.

Improved cont rol over social presence

Social media channels are proliferating. Beyond the basics of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and
LinkedIn, there are platforms for image sharing, video posting, texting and messaging, news
curation, and content creation. A social CRM can translate to fewer man-hours because it unifies
multiple accounts across every channel, helps you plan and post content at one time for many
outlets, gives you a single inbox for all communication, and offers across-the-board analytics and
reporting.

Br ing social media closer to market ing, sales & service

Once upon a time, a social media department was hardly significant enough to warrant more than
an intern working in isolation. Those days are over. Social media insights are valuable for
planning new products and services. Social channels are key avenues for marketing campaigns.
Social contacts and connections are all potential leads on the way to successful conversions.
Finally, social media is the preferred communication medium for customers seeking assistance.

Social CRM features

Customer profiles

Get a complete picture of everyone you’re connected with across all your social media accounts,
including age, location, demographics, engagement history, and links to their other social
profiles. A good social CRM can scan your networks and auto-update anyone’s profile when
they make changes. The more you know about your fans and followers, the better you’ll be able
to offer them improved personalized content.

Social list ening

Social CRMs have tools that allow you to monitor the online conversation in real-time with
certain keywords that are relevant to learning about potential leads and mastering your industry.
It’s also crucial that you never miss a mention of your brand or product no matter when or where
it’s typed up. Social listening features mean your eyes and ears are ever stalwart in the digital
content universe.

Sent iment analysis

With sentiment analysis tools, you get a more nuanced picture of how people feel about what’s
going on, whether in the world at large, or within the intimate spaces created by your brand
experience.

Social selling

While we’re all on social media for a variety of reasons—professional and personal—a
company’s presence on social media should never lose sight of its ultimate goal of converting
leads into customers and boosting ROI. A lot of social CRM platforms streamline customer
interest directly to your sales staff or to an online shop, especially through Instagram, Pinterest,
and Facebook.

Social media management

A single social CRM platform syncs numerous profiles from many social media platforms. A
single post can find its way to every relevant channel at the ideal post time via simple scheduling
operations. The unified inbox collects all engagements and messages, showing fuller social
profiles for each conversation. Finally, it gives you thorough comparative analytics for all posts,
posters, profiles, and platforms.
What is a Mobile CRM – Importance, benefits and challenges

What is a mobile CRM?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is a system that stores customer data in
one central location. It makes it easy for businesses and salespeople to keep track of and manage
their customers, build better relationships and increase sales.

A CRM can be as simple as a phonebook app, Excel spreadsheet, physical notebook, or as

complex as enterprise software (Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics). If you’re putting
information about your customers in it, you’re using it as a CRM.

A mobile CRM ensures your customers and relationships are always at your fingertips via a
mobile app. Unlike traditional CRMs made for desktop usage, mobile CRMs are made for people
who need full access to their customers on the go.

Why is a mobile CRM important?

A mobile CRM’s goal is to grow sales. It does this by increasing productivity, streamlining
communication, and building stronger client relationships.

But different groups (businesses, their employees, and their customers) benefit in different ways.
So let’s see how mobile CRMs help each set.

a. Mobile CRM benefits for employees:

1. Maintaining one central database:
A mobile CRM solution lets you and your team store, track, and manage all your lead and
customer details in one central database. It makes it very easy to find customers data, past
conversations, and interactions when needed. Even if you work alone, isn’t it ideal to have a
single place to keep track of your customers
2. Accessing real-time data on the go:
Everyone uses the same platform to input customer information, so a mobile CRM always
has the most updated version of a client’s details. You can access all their information from
your phone, no matter when or where you’re meeting a customer.

3. Getting detailed customer insights(power)

A mobile CRM sorts your leads and customers into different groups based on their
requirements, personal preferences, background, etc. giving you detailed information for
each of them. With these insights, you can personalise pitches and recommendations to
make more sales.

4. Increasing individual productivity:

A good mobile CRM automates low value, repetitive tasks, saving you time and effort on
manual data entry. It reminds you of customer meetings and follow-ups, and tracks
everything you’ve shared with whom. All these things help increase your individual
productivity.

5. Preparing for meetings better:

A mobile CRM helps you prepare well for customer meetings. Say you’re having a busy day
and are about to meet a customer whom you haven’t spoken to in sometime. You can update
yourself about who they are in seconds by looking them up on your mobile CRM.

6. Following up with customers consistently:

Mobile CRMs allow you to set follow-up reminders, prompting you to reconnect at the
correct time. This way, you always know whom you need to reach out to and when. They
also help you track what you’ve said and shared with each client to plan next steps.

b. Mobile CRM benefits for businesses:

1. Making customers happy:
 When businesses use mobile CRMs to build relationships and offer personalised service,
customers feel valued. When customers are happy, businesses enjoy repeat orders and
referrals. This helps them maintain a good brand reputation. The result, more sales.

2. Keeping employees happy:

When employees use mobile CRMs to automate tasks, they have more time to follow up
with customers. This helps them close more deals and increase their sales (and
commissions!). When employees use CRMs to coordinate on leads, they streamline
interactions, leading to a positive working environment.

3. Generating reports and analytics to predict trends:

Mobile CRMs can create reports, graphs, and charts of customer data and trends. Seeing
customer information visually, helps salespeople improve their performance. They
understand what strategies are working/not working, what products are selling/not selling,
and what kind of customers are buying/not buying.

4. Viewing sales pipelines to forecast growth:

Mobile CRMs help salespeople track where each customer is in the sales pipeline so they
can see what they need to do to close the sale. It organises customers into various groups –
like hot leads, warm leads, and cold leads. This helps salespeople analyse each group, use
different strategies to sell and say how many deals they’ll get.

5. Understanding the business better:

Mobile CRMs create customer reports giving management an overview of everything. By
seeing what is selling well, businesses can consider new product innovation. They can also
fix what isn’t selling with discounts (or discontinuing them).

6. Storing all customer information in-house:

Mobile CRMs keep all customer data within the firm – so it doesn’t matter if someone is on
vacation, is busy with meetings, or leaves the organisation. Say your colleague’s client
 suddenly drops by the office while they are busy, you can cover for them by checking the
client’s details on your mobile CRM.

c. Mobile CRM benefits for customers:

1. Maintaining better customer relationships:
Mobile CRMs give on overview of customer pipelines across various teams in the company,
making it easy to track customer relationships. This ensures that customers receive
personalised interactions and follow-ups, leading to much better experiences.

2. Getting personalised customer service:

One of the main benefits of a mobile CRM is that it can group customers depending on their
needs, interests, past purchases, and more. So, you can make good recommendations based
on what they’re looking for – nothing irrelevant or spammy.
3. Preempting individual customer needs:
By storing, tracking, and retrieving customer data from a central database, CRMs make it
easy to predict future needs. Take the example of getting a car loan from a bank. Once the
loan department processes it, the insurance team can offer automobile insurance plans.
How to use a mobile CRM?

If you’re new to the world of CRMs, it may seem like a scary place. But don’t worry, most
mobile CRMs have similar goals – increasing sales and productivity. They will work alongside
your sales process, helping you close more deals.

Here is how to use a mobile CRM:

1. Import customer details – First, make sure to import your existing customer details into
the mobile CRM. This is your customer database’s new home.
2. Connect lead sources – Link all your lead sources (Google ads, Facebook ads, website
contact forms, etc.) to the CRM. This ensures your database is automatically updated when
new leads leave their details.
3. Follow up with new leads – When leads submit their information, try to contact them as
soon as possible. Preferably within 15 minutes, to increase the chances of them responding
to you.
4. Track and manage leads – You can track and manage new and existing leads to see where
each one is in the sales pipeline. This helps you determine your next steps to make a sale.
5. Nurture and engage leads – Use built-in features like calendars, notes, reminders, and
messages to follow up with leads and keep them warm.
6. Convert more leads to close deals – When you keep leads warm and engaged, they will
reach out to you when they are ready to buy. This ensures you get the deal (not your
competitors).

What are the features of a mobile CRM?

CRMs help create customer profiles, record customer interactions, track sales pipelines, generate
custom reports, and forecast growth. Their ultimate aim is to help you increase sales. Mobile
CRMs make it easy to do all these things on the go.

Some essential mobile CRM features include:

1. Customer profiling:
A mobile CRM contains individual customer profiles based on their needs, likes, interests,
budget, etc. This gives you personalised insights for each customer, so you can recommend
the most relevant products.

2. Calendar and follow-up reminders:

Good mobile CRMs make following up with customers easy with built-in calendars and
reminders. They make it stay in touch with customers and keep your relationships warm,
increasing the likelihood they’ll buy from you in the future.

3. Calls and messaging:

Mobile CRMs make it easy to contact your leads and view past conversations from one
place. There is no need to switch back and forth between WhatsApp, SMS, iMessage, phone
calls, and email just to send a simple follow-up message.
4. Customer timelines:
Mobile CRMs track all your customers no matter where they are in your sales pipeline,
giving you a detailed timeline for each client. This includes notes about the customer,
personal information, a history of past interactions, and follow up tasks.

5. Lead integrations and alerts:

Many mobile CRMs have integrations to connect your lead sources (Facebook ads, Google
ads, or website) to alert you of new leads and save them into your client list. With new lead
notifications you can respond to people while they’re still interested.

6. Facilitating actions:
A mobile CRM is a System of Action – that is, it helps you take actions such as calling or
messaging a lead. These in-app actions increase your productivity and reduce your manual
effort, letting you reach out to more customers in less time.
What are the benefits of a mobile CRM?

The most important benefits of a mobile CRM are to increase sales and productivity. Overall,
they help achieve the following:

1. Business growth:
Mobile CRMs increase revenue in two ways: (1) giving employees detailed customer
insights to offer better customer experiences, and (2) freeing up their time so they can focus
on selling to more leads.
 When employees have detailed customer data, they can offer them personalised service.
This ensures customers are happy as they get relevant recommendations that match what
they are looking for. As a result, you get more sales and referrals.

By offloading low-value work to the mobile CRM, employees win back more time in the
day and can focus on closing more deals. Both of these outcomes help businesses grow
quicker.

2. Improve productivity:
Mobile CRMs help employees automate repetitive and manual work. As a result, they
increase the number of leads they contact and follow up with in the same amount of time.

CRMs also minimise the time employees usually waste trying to coordinate on leads with
their colleagues. Since all employees work off the same, shared database, everyone is
always on the same page.

This newly found time in the day helps employees do what they’re supposed to – follow up
with leads to close deals. The outcome, more conversions.

3. Stronger relationships:
Mobile CRMs provide deep customer insights that help employees create personalised and
memorable customer interactions. This lets sales reps avoid sending the same generic
messages and offers to everyone in their database.

Instead, customers receive unique communication based on their needs, making them feel
special and valued. CRMs also streamline coordination within teams, making sure the same
customer isn’t contacted twice.

All in all, businesses maintain positive relationships within the firm (employees) and outside
of it (customers).
What are the challenges of using a mobile CRM?

1. Smaller screen size:

The most obvious challenge of using mobile CRMs are that you won’t be able to see a lot of
information at one time as their screen sizes are smaller than desktop monitors. You also
won’t be able to view data across multiple tabs simultaneously, like you would on a large
laptop or desktop screen.

So, if you are always at your computer and need to analyse a lot of data, a mobile CRM may
not be ideal for your situation.

2. Harder to handle complex workflows:

Mobile CRMs typically act as a ‘system of action’ – that is, they help you take actions such
as calling or messaging customers. Since they’re built for easy usage on a mobile phone,
they may not be able to handle complex workflows or detailed reporting dashboards. A
desktop-based solution would be much better suited for this.

3. Lacking powerful email features:

Mobile CRMs are built for people who mainly use their phone and apps like WhatsApp,
SMS, iMessage, and phone calls to interact with their clients. While this is ideal for mobile-
first communication, mobile CRMs may lack some of the more powerful, email-based
features such as automated email drips and one-click bulk mail merge & sending.

4. Single device access:

Some mobile CRMs may only work on one device or may only support being used on one
device at a time. This means that you won’t be able to access your data from other phones,
tablets, or laptops at the same time (or at all!).

However, some mobile CRMs support multi-device usage, automatically syncing your data
across devices. So, if you use many devices for work, make sure to choose a mobile CRM
supporting multi-device access.