The customer relationship management (CRM) industry has gone through a lot of changes. Dating back to early days, CRM measures were considered ineffective and failing when it comes to customer service. Maybe because of an inaccurate supply of data and irrelevant strategies implemented for the belief that customer preferences will be secured. But that is in the distant past, since new developments have emerged to better the image of what CRM has to offer. In fact, more and more providers of CRM solutions entered the market and have proven useful to customer-facing companies and organizations.
Ever since CRM first appeared, businesses have been looking for the most effective way for making their customers happy and satisfied with their products and services, and CRM saw a lot of changes before it evolved into a vital part of the business planning process. The financial crises which started in 2008 will never be forgotten, as the world’s most trusted CRM providers such as SugarCRM grow bigger and bolder. It might be worthy to understand how such crises affected the CRM industry and to know the new developments in the industry.
Here, we will look at some of the notable trends for the year 2012.
Better Customer Experience
Customers will never be content with what they can have unless the services they receive are enough to make them satisfied. Every customer has his own preferences and in time they may become more demanding. In response to this, CRM providers have created a wide variety of options that all customers can choose from. The industry has decided to embrace an infrastructure wherein smart communication and knowledge sharing are integrated for better customer experience. Traditional customer services are slowly faded away by the advent of online and mobile CRM solutions, which are now preferred by many, most especially those who often have no time to go offline.
Increasing Use of Social Media
With more and more people getting online, there’s no doubt that the online community is becoming modern world of the new era. Finance for social media marketing is increased because of the fact that internet users are potential customers. Efforts of companies vary and they include supporting search engine optimization through the use of social activities. Online marketing has proven useful when it comes to CRM solutions. The integration of famous social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin dramatically increased the chances of marketing to potential customers.
Enhanced Customer Insight
Customers are where the income of a business lies. It is amazing to know that the solution to maximize customer service also comes from customers. This is achieved through better understanding of customer preferences. This information is gathered by companies for their business analysis. With that, businesses can easily come up with better strategy on how to keep customer satisfaction high.
