CRM software solutions are now front and centre for all customer-facing teams across businesses, regardless of size or industry. With customer service and CX taking top priority among companies that are striving to stay relevant amidst tough competition, a CRM system ensures no customer is missed, while valuable insights can be extracted at every interaction.
As a result, custom CRM software development is now of equal importance to business leaders. By building a customised CRM system, teams are well-positioned to tackle customer quandaries with all the tools necessary to make a great impression, while providing customers with the timely resolutions they seek. At EFutures, we understand the importance of custom CRM software development and make sure every client requirement is considered before a system is put into place.
Therefore, CRM software development in Sri Lanka is a significant industry that operates via the offshoring model, catering to local and international clients. By utilising exceptional talent and hosted infrastructure, building a custom enterprise CRM solution is now in great demand as businesses emphasise meeting even the most niche requirements with a specific set of tools and applications.
With most customers now present online, companies are able to narrow down their target audiences and reach them without hassle. However, the online space has levelled the field for competing brands as well, with multiple names now vying for the same customer’s attention. In such a situation, brands are finding it increasingly hard to stand out, as customers now become spoilt for choice and brand loyalty gradually diminishes as a result.
By incorporating the correct set of features in your CRM system, your business has the potential to stand out to customers, while empowering your employees to be at their most productive.
Campaign management
Campaign management is one of the most common features in a CRM system. Working hand-in-hand with contact profiling and management systems, marketing teams can orchestrate campaigns of their choice (from email to SMS) in order to reach customers with messaging that’s timely and relevant at the same time.
Campaign management systems also integrate with various digital platforms such as websites and mobile apps, with interactive calls-to-action. As landing pages from marketing campaigns attract traffic, leads can smoothly flow through the funnel and into a lead or deal management system for further vetting.
Lead management
Lead management systems are a must-have CRM feature for B2B organisations. Whether it’s conducting the basics such as lead registration and distribution or using enrichment credits to augment existing leads, lead management systems are an indispensable module for CRM systems of all organisations that depend on gradual lead nurturing for eventual conversions.
Additionally, lead management systems can also offer lead scoring, so sales teams are informed about the potential of specific leads (or a lack thereof) – well before they begin a pitch. Insights can also enable teams to calibrate how they approach prospects, so the probability of conversions can be increased.
Pipeline management
Another common CRM feature, pipeline management engages sales teams with step-by-step processes on what needs to be done once a lead enters the CRM system. From conducting routine formalities to vetting for opportunities with the help of AI, pipeline management modules within CRMs ensure no item of information is missed, and all relevant teams (including those outside of sales and marketing) are involved where necessary to ensure a smooth prospecting journey.
While pipeline management systems focus on contacts on an operational level, they integrate closely with sister modules of a more strategic nature (such as campaign management) in order to deliver every formality with accuracy, and on time.
Territory management
Territory management systems within CRMs help distributed teams get managed effectively while offering real-time performance monitoring on an individual level. Teams may be distributed either in terms of product lines, specialities or geographical region. Territory management systems can therefore be utilised to keep tabs on the targets and timeframes of every sales rep, via interactive dashboards and custom analytics.
Territory management systems can also predict performance based on historical data, especially with the integration of AI and machine learning. This can help managers identify teams, product lines and regions of high potential, while also determining any underutilised resources. In turn, managers can adapt by reinforcing improved strategies for goal-oriented results.
Event management
Event management modules form an integral part of businesses that need to coordinate events, be they online or offline. While businesses across the spectrum of specialities (from educational institutions to wedding planners) depend on event management systems, they all benefit by having it integrated with a CRM system.
As events continue to be a key driver of valuable leads, recording every attendee via a relevant user touchpoint that’s facilitated by an event management system can enable sales and marketing teams to fill their funnels with leads that aren’t just high in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality.
Discount/promotion management
With a discount/promotion management system, build seasonal campaigns that start and end at a designated date and time – all within your CRM. However, discount management modules can offer much more than a routine promo code to entice last-minute shoppers; it can be a valuable gateway towards determining new target audiences, while also being able to revive dormant customer segments.
Discount/promotion management systems can also be part of a customer engagement or retention strategy. By offering new or dormant users an offer, these systems can help sustain customers who may otherwise have fallen off the pipeline, or who may never have entered the pipeline in the first place.
Omnichannel communication
Leading CRMs today are seldom complete without omnichannel communication functionalities. As customers now make use of multiple communication channels to reach your business, your customer service teams also need to stay on par with every phone call, message and notification that comes their way.
Omnichannel CRM capabilities greatly streamline communication streams from various online and offline channels, so your customer service agents need not scramble between multiple devices and applications in order to keep up with customer inquiries. Access interactions across all modes of communication within a central customer record, and use a single, unified interface to call, text or email a customer – while having logs of all interactions within the same record.
Workflow automation
Workflow automation has now become a highly popular feature across enterprise software in general, let alone CRMs. While workflow automation can be executed by applying custom rules
for handling customers and tasks, top CRM vendors help take things to the next level by using AI to identify usage trends and make intelligent recommendations to managers on how tasks can be streamlined for better efficiency and productivity.
Additionally, workflow automation capabilities can be incorporated across any CRM function, from campaign orchestration to appointment scheduling. The versatility that it provides can, therefore, be leveraged to make sure employees are freed from busy work, and are able to focus on tasks of a more strategic nature – especially those that can truly benefit your customers.
Conversational AI
Conversational AI is a subset of AI that maps phrases and words spoken, to identify trends and tonalities. Upon identifying sentiment and context, conversational AI can be used to power chatbots that can interact with customers in a manner that emulates real human communication. As chatbots/live agents/virtual assistants proliferate the CX space to engage with customers 24/7 and without any downtime, top conversational AI vendors strive to stay at the forefront of integrating with the existing CRM systems of their client businesses, so they can drive real-time, contextual interactions that require zero human intervention.
Depending on what your business specialises in, conversational AI chatbots can be trained with your company’s data to identify key patterns, and then apply the same for interactions with customers. More incoming data offers more chances to hone conversational AI chatbots, so customer service teams can delegate common inquiries while tackling the tougher ones.
Sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyse text and gauge whether opinions about a certain product, service or topic are positive, negative or neutral. Extensively applied to social networks, marketing teams are able to gauge customer sentiments that occur outside of regular business pages and other official accounts.
By integrating your CRM with sentiment analysis capabilities, analyse social media effectiveness across all your campaigns, so enhancements can be made for future iterations in a mindful manner. Additionally, sentiment analysis can be applied to other reporting capabilities, such as a Customer Distress Index (CDI) score, or for market research endeavours.
In conclusion…
Understanding which CRM features are essential for your CRM system is an undertaking that needs to be done with much attention to detail. By connecting the dots between business objectives and CRM features that are within reach (in terms of budget and expertise), your
various business teams and software development team can work hand-in-hand to ensure the best CRM features are chosen to streamline employee duties while delighting customers at the same time.
