In pursuit of optimizing their workflow, a lot of companies are trying to find the most suitable automation solution in accordance to their business objectives while staying within the limits of their budgets. Every company wants to upgrade the efficiency of its business processes in order to establish a stronger connection with their customers and increase revenue. Unfortunately, having a dream team of employees is simply not enough. Your marketers, sales representatives and customer support teams need to be equipped with the best set of automation tools so that they candeliver customer service of the highest quality. That way, they will be able to put the needs of their customers above anything else and satisfy even the most demanding clients. However, while defining the business goals and determining business strategy, many companies are struggling to choose between a cloud based contact management and a CRM system.
At its core, the most important differentiation between these two solutions is the scope of the software. As you know, C-R-M stands for customer relationship management. And cloud based contact management is a more simplistic version of that relationship management. Generally, the smaller companies that do not require features beyond customer data tracking and storing will find this software to be a go-to choice. CRM, on the other hand, is a natural progression of it and turns the valuable customer related data into an actionable insight, giving your company the opportunity to constantly improve all customer-facing processes and align your marketing, sales and customer support activities. Take a closer look at the main differentiations between CRM and cloud based contact management:
Mobility
Oftentimes, contact management solutions are not supported on mobile devices and do not operate offline, while CRM systems are very flexible in terms of availability. In a world of ever-rising competition, the speed of your business activities becomes one of the most important indicators. Obviously, the beauty of SaaS deployment is that you do not require hiring additional IT management staff or purchasing your own servers to host an automation solution. All you need is a web-browser and a steady internet connection. But the benefits do not stop there, a truly efficient CRM solution offers iOS, Android and Windows mobile applications as well. Moreover, mobile CRM apps are capable of operating offline and instantly synchronize all of the data as soon as you get online.
Customization
Usually, contact management software is very limited in terms of customization as the adjustment you can make are very cosmetic and your impact on the settings configurations will be very minimal. CRM automation provides open configuration and substantial API to allow any integrations and customizations needed for your business. You will be able to adjust every business process and tailor the system specifically to your business. Simultaneously, it is critical for a CRM solution to be user-friendly and intuitive. The best case scenario is when a user can instantly figure it out. Usually, CRM solutions are designed to make the process of exporting, importing and data integration trouble-free. You do not have to be a technology specialist to perform imports and exports.
Analytics
Contact management software is a great tool for data management, however it does not provide any in-depth reporting or analytics. Going for a CRM deployment would be a much better choice as you can collect valuable customer related data and use it to your company’s advantage. CRM solutions apply various indicators to scan through vast amount of data to provide an insightful report on every aspect of your business activities. That way, you will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing activities and sales strategies. Also, you may monitor the productivity of individual employees and the whole team overall.
Information
Unlike contact management software, powerful CRM systems like bpm’online create a holistic overview of your customers. Website behavior tracking and pre-built social media integration enable your employees to truly understand who your customers are and where they are coming from. Having this important information at your disposal, you will be able to build effective personalized communications. You will be able to exceed your customer’s expectations and offer them relevant content to motivate their interest in your product or service. In addition, the system will constantly keep your database up-to-date and cleanse it for duplicates.
Various businesses have come to realize that maintaining a unified database of all accounts and contacts in an organized manner is simply not enough to drive your business forward. You would have to go for a full CRM implementation. The automation of key business processes has transformed the way companies treat information and the customers they interact with. CRM implementation actually gives your business a competitive edge and you will get the opportunity to understand your prospects a little better. You can also check out more information here – Advantages of cloud based contact management in bpm’online.