A website is often the focal point of any business and the place where your customers will be redirected to when they visit your social media, pick up a leaflet or simply browse the web. In such a technology driven society, it may be in your best interest to spend a lot of time cultivating a responsive interface that allows the user to find the information they require with as little hassle as possible. But what happens once these visitors become a paying customer? How do you plan to maintain an ongoing relationship with existing clients? Read on as we explain what is meant by the acronym ‘CRM’ and how this piece of software can be used effectively within business and marketing…

What is a CRM?

CRM is an acronym that stands for ‘Customer Relationship Management’ and is used to describe a piece of software that allows you to store all the information you could possibly need about your customers, both existing and new, in one simple and easy to find location. This may include previous orders, payment dates and any communication they have made with the company. A lot of businesses tend to use a CRM to increase revenue and improve their pipeline, which isn’t exactly wrong; however, we want to focus on the relationships aspect. After all, the primary focus of the software is contact management. We’ve listed 3 ways that a CRM may help you succeed in improving customer relationships:

Improve and expand your customer knowledge

Storing all the information about your customers in one place makes it very easy to see where your efforts may be best directed. After all, it becomes glaringly obvious which clients may be being neglected and which ones may be being inadvertently given special treatment. A large business can have a big pipeline so this is often inevitable, however using a CRM allows you to expand your knowledge on each client and give them a personalised service accordingly.

Build relationships with existing and new clients

We know that you know how important it is to treat every client with the same respect regardless of their invoice price, a piece of information typically stored in a CRM, so having each customer's history collated together will allow you to track how often each client is contacted regarding the services you provide. In fact, their responses can even be tracked and assessed in the CRM too. As such, you can build up a mutually beneficial relationship with your clients that should only improve their levels of satisfaction overtime.

Speedier communication between clients and staff

Although a CRM isn’t an intranet system, it does allow businesses with a moderate-large customer base to keep all the information about each client in one designated location. In fact, a CRM can also be accessed and used by other members of staff which can improve workplace productivity and provides a solution to slow communication between staff and clients as well as colleagues. After all, the entire history of every client can be found listed in the CRM in seconds. Again, customers appreciate timely responses so making this a priority will always work in your favour.

Here at Owl Tree, we believe that every successful business with a client base should make use of CRM software if they want to maintain a high degree of customer satisfaction. Clients often return for one of three reasons: a high-quality product, web design that is engaging and trustworthy, and a positive one-to-one experience with the business owner or staff. To ensure that you tick all of the boxes, remember to consider taking advantage of a CRM in order to boost customer relationships effectively.