Friday, May 23, 2014

CRM Features That Give Your Company a More Customer-Centric Experience



Since vendors began developing customer relationship management (CRM) solutions users have gained great use from the various tools that allow them to provide better customer service to their business processes. However, like many solutions that are complex, CRM features often go unused, which means users are only getting a fraction of what they pay for.

Vendors are creating vastly more complex
CRM features today. These features allow companies to gain insights into customer behavior, giving them the knowledge they need to deliver on what the customer wants. Long gone are the days where the company dictates what the consumer wants – today it’s all about delving in to the behavior of the consumer and getting insights that give you a glimpse into the future.

The best CRM vendors are giving their users a solution that gives them tools for marketing, sales and service. When used correctly, the CRM can be used across the enterprise to come to the same conclusions about the current status of customer relationships and where they will lie in the future. Putting the sales department in this mix is vital to the information flow. In fact, since the salesforce is often the part of the company that is directly in contact with the consumer, making sure they have a CRM workflow that is easy to use is extremely important.

When you think about an enterprise-wide solution, you have to consider that the marketing team and human resources will also have to be clued-in to the best uses of the CRM solution. For instance, marketing can utilize information sent through sales reports by the salesforce to create profiles and maintain the contact information. The marketing staff can also maintain surveys, subscriptions and activities.

Not all CRM features are customer-centric. For instance, human resources use CRM features to better track their benefit inquiries. Using CRM features, employees can use their phone or use email through the CRM system, which are then routed directly to the HR staff.

Of course, with today’s customer-centric focus, CRM features are certainly robust enough to provide a fully customer-centric experience. However, many companies are lacking the buy-in from their salesforce. The reason, it seems, is that while the tools are certainly varied and numerous, when it comes to filing sales reports, most CRM features don’t provide a very user-friendly experience. It’s obvious to most sales reps that the CRM tools available to them weren’t designed by anyone who has ever had experience in sales.

If you’re going to get the most out of your CRM, you need to have consistent reporting from your salesforce. Adding a mobile solution, which offers your salesforce an option of filing their report directly from the field on their smartphone or tablet computer, is the solution of today.

Front Row Solutions, a company built by former sales reps, has created a mobile app that gives sales reps the opportunity to file a sales report in 30 seconds or less. Furthermore, we’ve included a camera feature that gives them greater flexibility to communicate with the home office while in the field. Visit us online today and find out more about what we have to offer.