Posted in: CRM Success, Integration
Customer relationship management is one of the keys to success for any organization. CRM helps you better manage interactions with customers, making it possible to improve business relationships and retain your most valuable customers for as long as possible. When you combine CRM with other tools, such as email, calendar software and social media, it’s even more effective. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of CRM integration for your organization.
1. Marketing and Sales Automation
For best results, your sales and marketing teams should be in contact with prospects at every step of their customer journey. CRM integration makes it easy to automate sales and marketing activities, ensuring team members have more time to spend connecting with prospects and customers. Automation reduces the amount of time it takes to personalize your website, determine when leads are qualified and get the information needed for salespeople to follow up with prospects effectively.
2. Improved Reporting
If you don’t have your CRM software integrated with email and other tools, you’re missing out on the opportunity to gain insight into what your team is doing and how customers are responding. CRM integration enhances your reporting capabilities, making it easier to calculate lead conversion rates and determine whether customer retention rates have improved as a result of your recent marketing activities.
3. Increased Productivity
Without CRM integration, your team members spend a lot of time switching between your CRM system and the other tools they use for sales, marketing and customer service. This wastes valuable time that could be better spent on other activities. CRM integration increases productivity by eliminating time-wasting processes and ensuring your team members have immediate access to the information they need to better serve your customers. For example, integrating your CRM system with your email eliminates the need to enter new contacts manually, as you should be able to transfer contacts from your email account directly into your CRM.
4. Better Customer Experience
If you’ve ever talked to a salesperson who didn’t seem to remember your previous conversations, you know how frustrating it can be. When you keep explaining the same thing over and over again, you start to think that maybe the salesperson isn’t listening to you and doesn’t really care about meeting your needs.
CRM integration makes it possible to create a better experience for prospects and customers, as it gives salespeople and marketers immediate access to notes from previous conversations. Your team members can easily see what happened during each contact, ensuring they never have to tell a customer they don’t remember what they need. CRM integration also helps marketers keep track of how many contacts they’ve had with each customer, allowing them to adjust their approach during the next encounter.
5. Detailed Customer Views
Whether you run a for-profit business or work at a nonprofit organization that uses a CRM for donor relations, it’s important to have access to a detailed view of each customer. CRM integration gives you a more complete view of each customer, including purchasing habits, total amount spent with your organization each year, and activities they engage in when visiting your website or using your mobile application. It costs more money to find a new customer than it does to work with existing customers, so these detailed customer views can also help your organization save money.
6. Increased Customer Retention
It makes people feel good when you remember your conversations with them and suggest products and services that can improve their lives in some way. Because CRM integration gives you a more complete view of the customer, you can use it to increase customer retention rates. Each time a customer calls or emails, your team will have all of the relevant details they need to deliver a positive experience that’s customized according to the customer’s unique needs.
7. More Opportunities for Upselling
CRM integration makes it easier to determine when a prospect is ready to buy, which could give your firm more opportunities to engage in upselling. If a salesperson tries promoting additional products or services on the first or second contact with a prospect, then that prospect may feel your company is more worried about making a quick sale than it is about delivering excellent customer service. Waiting until the prospect is ready to buy, however, creates natural opportunities for upselling.
8. Personalized Messaging
Personalized marketing has several benefits, no matter what industry your business is in. When you offer a prospect something of value, such as a white paper or a discount on their first purchase, they’re more willing to provide their name and contact information. Personalization also helps promote brand loyalty and makes it easier to identify which channels customers are most interested in using. CRM integration makes it easier to personalize your marketing messages, helping you reap all of the benefits of personalized messaging without wasting time.
9. Better Security
CRM integration improves data security in several ways. First, depending on which integrations you choose, you may be able to access a wider range of security applications, preventing unauthorized users from accessing your data. Second, integrations typically use APIs to access data. API access allows data to be transmitted between applications without storing the data elsewhere, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. With CRM integration, it’s also possible to restrict users from accessing certain pages, fields, objects and forms, ensuring everyone has an appropriate level of access to customer data.
10. Increased Revenue
With enhanced CRM reporting, it’s easier to track customer behavior and move people through each stage of the sales funnel. For example, CRM integration makes it possible to track the source of a lead or determine how people behave when they’re filling out forms on your website. This additional insight makes it possible to adjust your sales and marketing strategies, resulting in an increase in revenue.
11. Consistency in Sales
Your sales team is at its most effective when it’s consistent. If you contact a customer once and then don’t contact them again for six months, your company’s name isn’t likely to be top of mind if they need a product or service you sell. CRM integration makes it easy to consistently connect with customers and keep them informed of new offerings, which can help you reach your quarterly, monthly and annual goals.
Learn More
LinkPoint360 offers CRM integrations to help firms in all industries save time, reduce costs and increase profitability. If you want to maximize the power of your CRM software, contact us today to learn more about LinkPoint Connect for Salesforce. Call 732-212-8401 to discuss your needs with one of our knowledgeable professionals. You can also schedule a live demo or take advantage of our 14-day free trial.
