Customer Relationship Management is arguably the largest and fastest-growing enterprise software category. It’s projected to hit an eye-watering $64 billion by 2025 in the US alone. Regardless of what kind of business you have, you can benefit from CRM software immensely.
With such a huge market size, there are numerous types of CRM software for businesses to choose from. Different variations support different business goals from different angles.
This means you need to understand all those different types of CRM and what they have to offer. This is exactly what we’re going to address in this post. We’ll discuss everything you need to know about CRM and help you understand the different types available.
What Is CRM?
CRM or customer relationship management is a software geared towards helping businesses automate repetitive tasks. There are plenty of benefits that come with using highly professional CRM software for any kind of business.
CRM software is your friend if you want to make sense of all the large amounts of data you gather about your customers. It’ll make it easy for you to optimize your sales and marketing tactics. If you’re looking to start using CRM software for the first time here are the different types of CRM systems.
1. Operational CRM Software
This type of CRM is exactly what it sounds like. It will assist your business in managing day-to-day operations like marketing, customer operations, and sales. This is the most common type of CRM among different businesses in a wide range of industries.
Operational CRM covers three different features to achieve different goals. These features include marketing automation, service automation, and sales automation.
Marketing Automation
The marketing automation feature allows you to automate different aspects of your marketing strategies. It helps you target customers at various stages of the sales funnels more effectively.
For instance, you can use the marketing automation feature to take care of predictable tasks. It could be anything from initiating email campaigns to distributing content offers.
One of the best things about this feature is that it can automate a lot of tedious tasks that would otherwise take up a sizable chunk of your time. Some operational CRM software will go a step further to deliver marketing analytics.
They can offer personal insights into individual leads, and track the ROI of your online advertisements. Some high-end, state-of-the-art CRM systems can help you with specialized marketing challenges like SEO.
Sales Automation
Sales force automation is a significant component of most CRM systems. It’ll help your business nurture leads, manage new pipelines, and acquire new customers with ease.
With the sales automation feature, you can automatically track a contact. You can update their status from prospective customers to qualified lead once they complete certain actions.
For instance, you can have a CRM system that allows you to automate multi-step marketing campaigns. You only have to do is decide the activities and interactions that will trigger the campaign. The CRM software will automatically take care of the rest.
Service Automation
The service automation feature is designed to provide incredible customer service. This type of CRM system will provide your customers with helpful information. It can be through text messages, emails, and phone helplines, depending on what your customers prefer.
One of the best things about this is that it offers an exceptional and consistent customer experience. Even better, it frees up your time, and you don’t necessarily have to have team members taking care of this stuff.
2. Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM systems are geared towards management processes. It could be anything from customer acquisition or retention and keeping track of customer details. This is the best type of CRM for large companies that want to collect and analyze tons of data.
There are three main categories of analytical CRM. These include customer acquisition, customer retention, and data management. Customer acquisition is about turning prospects into buying customers and up-selling whenever possible.
Customer retention involves keeping your active customers happy. Managing data involves tracking your customer interactions to improve your bottom line.
The thing is, you will have more data on customer pain points, behaviours, and patterns. This will put you in a better position you will be in to tailor your marketing strategies to their needs.
You will have a better chance of closing sales with both new and existing customers. Additionally, examining customer data will help you identify clogged areas of your sales funnel.
You get to highlight any problems that your customers could be facing so you can rectify them. Analytical CRM is the type of CRM system that will give you all the information you need. That information will help you devise a better way to communicate with your customers.
3. Collaborative CRM
The collaborative CRM software is geared towards improving customer experience. It streamlines communication for everyone involved. This includes your company, customers, and any departments or stakeholders involved.
This type of CRM will allow you to track and share customer data with everyone. From suppliers to vendors, marketing managers, and technical support.
The thing is, you must make this information available internally. It'll strengthen the relationship you have and keep all your customers happy. It will also allow you to provide an incredible multi-channel experience across all contacts.
Collaborative CRM systems use interaction management and channel management. Interaction management involves tracking all interactions between the business and customers. It could be through emails, phone calls, social media, or face-to-face interactions.
Channel management takes it a step further. It uses all the information gathered to identify and pursue the best communication channels.
It will help you understand whether your customer service unit should use chat or email. These are the kinds of questions that channel management will help you solve.
The Best Types of CRM Systems: Understanding the Basics
These are the different types of CRM that you need to know about. It’s easier to make a choice when you understand what’s on offer. Are you looking for a professional company that will provide you with high-end digital services, including CRM?
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