3.01 CRM benefits

So, what benefits can you expect for your business once you implement an appropriate, well-planned customer relationship management program? Take a look at what CRM can do for you. It can:

• Help you identify your most valuable customers.
  By tracking and organizing customer information, you can determine which customers spend the most with your business now as well as which customers have the potential to spend the most with you in the future. This allows you to prioritize where you spend time, money, and effort, and to create special programs and perks for your VIPs.
  
  
• Provide you with opportunities to create targeted marketing campaigns.
  The more you know about your customers and their changing needs and wants, the more you know what kinds of marketing communications they will respond to. This allows your business's marketing team to create targeted marketing campaigns that reach out directly to those customers you most want to establish long-term relationships with.
  
  
• Allow your employees to perform their jobs more efficiently.
  Let's say your company makes and sells office equipment, such as printers and copiers. You have a call center available with several operators on stand-by to answer questions and to help solve problems with the equipment. The right CRM program will include technology that allows these operators to track and organize information for the customers who call in. That way, if a problem occurs twice, an operator can easily know what solutions the customer has already tried and what help to offer next. This saves time and minimizes frustration on both ends.
  
  
• Increase word-of-mouth advertising.
  Modern customers tend to prefer relationship buying. When a customer is satisfied with your business, they will often tell friends, family, and co-workers about you. Word-of-mouth advertising can be an invaluable asset to your business, creating more opportunities for you to establish long-term customer relationships.
  
  
• Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
  Customers will be more satisfied and loyal when a business has taken the time and effort to establish positive, long-term relationships with them. Over time, the value of these customers to a business can be incredibly high!
  
  
• Increase sales and profit.
  You might think that running your business with a customer-centric philosophy will distract you from what you really want to do—make money! But, over the long term, focusing on your customers and establishing relationships with them will increase your sales and profit. After all, customers are the lifeblood of your business. Their loyalty is what creates your success.

In his article “Benefits of CRM Software and How to Choose a Platform Links to an external site.,” Jayson DeMers outlines some of the specific advantages of the tech side of customer relationship management.