” A business absolutely devoted to Customer Service Excellence will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” – Sir Henry Ford
Analysts and experts opine that in 2016 Customer Relationship Management is about a what business does to retain the old customers, acquire new ones and at times losing a few. In today’s market, once the consumer decides to make a purchase, he does his bit of research using his mobile or tablet devices. Above all, he expects a great post sale customer service. If he is unhappy with the customer service, then he is likely to talk about it to his friends and family and it will affect the sales of a business because of word-of-mouth is a vicious cycle.
As per Cyber Sphere Security reports, 30% of the marketers opine that one of the main reasons many businesses cannot get useful insights about its customers is because, they do not have the complete data regarding its customers. Another study reveals that 79% of the leads are never converted into warm, qualified leads.
These stats make it clear that every small business should consider integrating a CRM system with its present system and leverage its benefits to create an impact on its sales and marketing, and of course the customer service experience.
Let’s take a look at what CRM statistics reveal for the year 2016 and how following the present day CRM trends can help the entrepreneurs to take the business to the next level.
- A market research study by Gartner, reveals that the market for CRM products will be approximately $36 billion in the coming year.
Capterra, a market research firm carried out a survey involving 500 CRM users to find out the experiences of using CRM software. The research revealed that 50% of the companies implemented CRM software within the first five years of starting the business. Further, it revealed that two-third of the businesses who participated in this study had minimum 100 customers at time they adopted CRM software. - Capterra also revealed that 47% of the CRM users agreed to the fact that by integrating CRM solutions in 2015 helped them able to achieve significant impact on customer service. The various business aspects that had impact were customer retention, customer satisfaction, sales revenue and upselling/cross-selling.
- Studies by Brainshark’s Anne Lamber as well as Forbes Insights show that 53% of the businesses have invested in CRM system to propel sales productivity.
- VentureBeat, a research firm and a leading source for technology news, revealed that 80% of business that adopted CRM solutions were able to increase their leads while 77% of the firms saw an increase in the conversion rates.
- A survey conducted in 2014, showed that 74% of the businesses that used CRM said that their CRM solution offered better access to customer data. This has remained unchanged.
- There has been an increase in the usage of mobile devices by both the consumers and the sales/marketing personnel. A study by Innoppl Technologies reveal that 65% of the sales personnel on field who used mobile CRM were able to achieve their sales target with ease. However, only 22% of the sales representatives were able to achieve their sales quota using non-mobile CRM.
- Studies also show that 81% of the salespeople are currently accessing CRM system using multiple mobile devices such as laptop, smartphone or tablet. Of which 48% users access CRM using smartphone while 45% login into their CRM system using a tablet.
- Wurlwind, a B2B sales and marketing consultant for small and mid-sized businesses, opine that 37% of the B2B buyers post their queries regarding their purchases on the social media platforms. Integrating CRM with social media channels makes it easier for marketing/sales personnel to engage the prospects.
Year 2016, is the year of the customer. And the above mentioned stats as well as the research points towards the importance of using CRM on the cloud. Studies show that 80% of consumers research the product they want to purchase online before making a decision. Also, it’s been revealed 87% of them will use their mobile device to shop. They will use several social platforms to interact with the brands.
Therefore, to engage with the potential prospects across various channels, you need relevant customer data. Using a CRM that allows you to create 360-degree overview of each prospect will help to connect with them seamlessly.
