Given the many advanced features that the modern customer relationship management (CRM) solution of today has, it does so much more than simply organize your contacts, emails, and records of your customers. To keep up with the competition and ensure top customer service at all times, a CRM solution is now a must-have for every business.
Once you’ve decided to search for a CRM solution, however, you’re guaranteed to come across so many different tools or software. Each of these has its own pros and cons, so it could only cause you even more confusion as to which CRM solution to go for. A good starting point is to know what the characteristic features of a good CRM software are.
As you narrow down your search for the best CRM solution for your business, be sure to be on the lookout for these five features.
1. Ease Of Integration
Customer data and processes are usually located across different departments of your business. When you sign up for a CRM solution, this should have ease of integration across all the other tools and software your business already has. With that kind of feature, the flow of information and data across all the departments in your business becomes smoother.
In today’s business climate where customers are demanding for more efficiency, to produce better quality and more products within the same time frame, your CRM solution should meet that need. Otherwise, you may not end up with a higher cost of production and longer project timeline.
2. Workflow Automation
One of the very core reasons why businesses switch from a manual to an automated system has to do with automating the necessary workflow. Your chosen CRM solution should make that option available so as to help you and your team become even more productive.
A good CRM solution with an automation option will be able to perform specific actions based on underlying events such as the following:
- During the completion of a task by a customer service representative within your team, the CRM software should automatically be able to report the completion of those tasks to upper management and the supervisors.
- Upon the customer filling up your automated forms or the pop-ups on your website, whatever information the customer inputs should be automatically saved by the CRM solution and directed to the proper department concerned.
- Upon the completion of calls made by the customer service representatives, the CRM solution should automatically take a log of all those calls, messages, and other correspondence and keep track of all the communication that took place.
3. Ease Of Use
No matter how advanced the features and capabilities of a CRM solution are, these should never get in the way of ease of usage. Your team can’t maximize the CRM’s ability if they can’t operate or maneuver it well enough as they aren’t familiar with its usage.
As you test and go through every option of a CRM solution available, one of your first instincts should be to analyze the entire user experience. If the design is easy to use, your team’s efficiency and productivity, in terms of customer relation matters, will significantly improve.
As much as possible, you’d want to steer away from overly technical CRM solutions, which no one would even learn how to properly operate because of all the difficulties that come along with them.
4. Customization Features
A CRM solution should have customization features to meet the business’ specific needs. When it comes to customer service and customer relation matters, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Different businesses serve different demographics of customers. Then there’s also that inherent difference in the needs of businesses and their preferences. This brings about the need for good customization.
This begins with the company mapping out all its pain points in business. From there on, the CRM software should have change management abilities to modify the systems and accommodate any of the fast-changing needs in the industry. A CRM solution with the option of customization can keep up with those business needs. Hence, all other factors considered, a good CRM solution is one that’s easy to customize so it can best serve the needs of each business individually.
5. Customer Service
Providers of CRM solutions are in the customer support industry. So it’s just but fitting to expect the highest standards of customer service being done by those businesses. When a CRM tool can help you keep, acquire, and retain new customers by giving excellent customer service, should you have any concerns with the provider, its own customer service team should be of top-notch quality, too.
The last thing you’d want is to have glitches or problems in your CRM solution during a busy workday and that when you contact your CRM solution or tech provider, it’s out of reach or unresponsive. Try to look for the following characteristics, which are telling signs that a CRM solution comes with good customer service:
- Presents the availability of premade email templates and calls support to make the resolution of customer pain areas more efficient, accurate, and responsive;
- Presents a thorough overview of the clients, such that there’s now easy information showing everything there is to know about customers from the first point of contact until a sale is closed;
- Enables the ability to send customer receipt acknowledgments and responses to customer queries or concerns so they won’t feel as if their issues are simply ignored;
- Enables the option of having a separate customer reference code for every call or message query solved so these are well recorded.
Conclusion
In your pursuit of signing up for the best CRM solution for your business, be mindful enough to check for the presence of these features. There’s a bevy of CRM solutions you can now choose from. And if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you may only end up in a never-ending circle of confusion. When your CRM software is one of the business tools you’re going to pay for regularly, it’s important to ensure you end up with the best one for your business needs and preferences. The features above will lead you to that decision.
