What Types of Companies Use Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

1. Startups

Using an automated system from the get go is something that many of today’s start ups aim to do. With a CRM, a new business can hit the ground running and run smoothly; it helps businesses store customer data and track their business growth at the same time. This improves customer relationship, forecasting, and keeping track of sales and inventory. A CRM like Salesforce is a highly customisable system that gives you the freedom to modify it, whenever the need be. This kind of flexibility makes it possible for startups to develop a CRM system from square one, so they can build a software that grows with their business.

2. Medium-Sized Businesses

Many businesses who’ve been around for some time are catching up with newer technology by starting to automate their systems. As these types of businesses are likely to have more diverse and complex management systems, implementing a CRM system can tie all lose ends and streamline their processes, including communication and collaboration between teams in and out of the business. If the business has existing systems, including an ERP, integration with a CRM can be made using an ESB – a hassle-free method of allowing multiple systems to communicate and share information. If your business is currently at this scale and currently doesn’t have a CRM system in place, now is a good time to start implementing it so you can manage the retro and current work involved in automating your business.

3. Enterprise Level Businesses

Established and long-time businesses that started with manual systems and work processes have taken the leap into the digital world of business management. Companies with other brands under its umbrella, those with multiple locations, and those who cater to local and international market know the importance of having a CRM and understand the value it brings to the business. Big names like Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Toll, and Cotton On are capitalising on the power of a CRM system.

4. Online and Offline Business Set up and Purely E-commerce

Businesses who are branching out into e-commerce must have a CRM to effectively manage the brick-and-mortar and digital side of their business, if they haven’t started using one at the current physical location. Some of the popular online merchants and powerhouse e-commerce sites who use a CRM include Etsy, Amazon, the Dollar Shave Club, Target in Australia, and Big Red Group; and social media sites like YouTube and Facebook. Here’s a success story from Big Red Group (BRG), showing how a powerful system like CRM has transformed their business by improving the way they connect with their customers, suppliers, and with teams within their organisation.

And more importantly, here are two reasons to start using a CRM system, no matter the size of your business.

Your Customers are Your Priority

Whether it’s your internal customers (your employees) or your external customers (your clients), a CRM is a vital tool to ensure that both sides feel valued and supported. A CRM is an essential communication and planning tool that can be shared by your marketing and sales team. It also organises, manages, tracks, and stores customer interactions, allowing your teams to provide them with better service and the right products that suit their needs. It ensures a complete understanding of your customers, so you can create meaningful and lasting business relationships with them.

You Want to Be the Best in Your Field

If you want to be the best in what you do as a business, you must put your customer service at its core. And it all begins with a well-equipped and empowered team within your organisation. By making sure that your teams are equipped with the tools that they need to perform their tasks efficiently and effectively, you’re enabling them to deliver excellent customer service to every customer. Utilising a CRM system leads to a more effective collaborative work between the sales and marketing team, along with the logistics and financials group. Effective communication allows your teams to develop marketing strategies to better address your current customers’ needs and attract new business. It also helps front-facing teams to better assist your customers and provide them with the right products and services that they need, whether through renewal of services or cross- and up-selling to them based on their current needs. It creates a more personal connection between the business and the customers; key ingredient in customer loyalty.

So no matter where your business is at this point, here are the reasons that remain true and why you need to use a CRM to help you manage your business with a 360-degree view. Take your business to the next level and create a better, more efficient way to do things with the help of a CRM.

Get inspired by these CRM success stories and take your own entrepreneurship to a bigger scale.

Further Reading