Building strong customer relations is the lifeblood of any business. In today’s Digital Era, the competition is reaching the sky, and adapting to emerging changes and trends is essential because customers are losing loyalty.
Imagine losing half your customers every year. No less than a nightmare, right? Sadly that’s the reality of most businesses today struggling with customer retention.
A mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profitability by up to 95% [Source: Bain & Company: “The Loyalty Imperative: How Customer Loyalty Drives Growth” (2022)]
That’s definitely a motivation for the owner to work whole night.
But getting out of delusions and fantasy world, it’s not a child play to retain customers. Businesses face various problems that should be solved before they ruin everything.
The most common problems can be:
- Competition:Too many options to choose from, so customers can switch anytime.
- Personalization paradox:Too little or too much personalization.
- Fatigue:Too difficult process or ineffective customer service.
- Less value:For a customer to return, your product must solve their problems.
And many more!!!
This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes into discussion. It is a powerful tool to help people manage and expand their businesses at a much greater pace, nurtures customer interactions, and develops deeper connections among them thus making a business successful.
An ideally designed CRM can enhance customer interactions, process the data, builds stronger relation with customers and results in the growth of business.
Let’s understand with an example;
MR. X provides great services, he has a good website and a proper system to promote his services. Still, he faces a problem of less customer retention and loyalty. The customers either don’t return or tend to think they don’t require the services. Even after having a perfect set up, he fails to elevate the business.
Now here is Mr.Y, who has done everything that X has done but he uses CRM. He gets a perfect idea of the interaction of customers with his services and what they actually need. Now he can perfectly plan how to promote onwards and provide them with the best to meet their needs.
CRM provides great ability to companies about understanding customers. Imagine having a customizable dashboard that tells customer’s previous history with the company, their purchase patterns, sales representatives being able to see everything in one place in an organized way and any details required to take the business to the next level! Interesting, isn’t it?
A great example of this is Amazon’s Recommendations system: Amazon’s famous product recommendations rely heavily on CRM data, resulting in a 55% increase in conversion rates on recommended products. (Source: McKinsey & Company)
Now you have an idea of how useful CRM is for your business. We will discuss in detail about using CRM to be better than all your competitors. This Guide will provide you with all the necessary stuff you need to know and give you a roadmap to design a perfect CRM.
Unlocking the CRM Vault:
A solid foundation is the key to any development. Planning is the most essential step before doing any sort of thing, business is no different.
A real-life example can be taken from the super famous Domino’s Pizza;
Domino’s adopted Zendesh as their CRM platform to centralize customer interactions across chats, social media, calls, and customer service.
They implemented their automated chatbots to enquire about customers. The data collected from Zendesk was used to improve menu options, delivery service, and online ordering experience.
To make it more effective they started
Personalized communication. Domino’s
started sending targeted promotions and coupons to individual customers based on their previous order history and preferences.
The result? Domino’s experienced a 27% increase in sales and a 50% increase in online orders due to improved customer service and personalization.
Similarly, you have to make an effective plan before taking a step ahead. In the case of CRM, you need to ask some questions about system goals, requirements, and functionality, and industry experts from different departments will provide the answers.
You will have to create something like a full “CRM Guide Book” which can be referred to when working on CRM development.
We will discuss all effective ways to implement a CRM in your system effectively. You need not to switch anywhere else for more information.
We’ll dive deep about:
- What you need to start CRM Design
- Why does a good CRM experience matter
- How to effectively design a CRM
- Mistakes to avoid while designing a CRM.
Stay tuned!!!
What do you need to start CRM design?
Here is a list of aspects to consider before implementing CRM in your business:
1) Business goals:
Studies show that CRM usage can increase sales by up to 29%, enhance productivity by 34%, and improve forecast accuracy by 42% (Finances Online, 2023). Saw that impressive potential? You definitely don’t want to waste it. Hence having business goals before implementing CRM is essential.
You need to have a clear idea of what are your Business objectives. Whether you want to boost your sales, improve customer services, have advanced marketing campaigns putting emphasis on marketing with automated services or implement a new strategy based on customer analytics or customer retention.
In simple words, have a clear idea of what improvements you want in your business with the help of CRM.
2) System requirements:
Make a list of CRM features you will critically need to improve your business. For example, speed of work, scalability, automation, analytics, user-friendliness, etc.
All your requirements should be listed before heading to the development process. Analyze your data needs and choose a CRM platform that offers perfect features to scale your business. Cloud-based options offer flexibility and security.
3) Design specifications requirements:
Outline the features and functionalities required for your CRM. Plan about how the working departments will use a CRM for their targeted business goal.
Consider, Lead Management, communication channels, reporting features, etc. Your CRM should have parts for each of the department and its employees. It’s important to consider this because each department has different work and ways to complete a task.
4) Data Infrastructure:
Establish a strong data infrastructure to achieve the best analytics of your business. It should be used to collect, store, and manage consumer data and information. The data includes customer profiles, interactions, and transaction history.
Companies that leverage customer data effectively are 23 times more likely to outperform their competitors. (Source: McKinsey & Company)
Once you have a proper idea of how the customers are interacting with your services, you can implement personalized marketing campaigns and new features.
4) User Training:
Ensure that your entire team is well-trained in using the CRM system. Using to use this system to its maximum potential is essential or you will miss out on many opportunities for customer conversion.
A well-trained expert team maximizes the benefits of CRM by utilizing its features effectively.
Why does a good CRM user experience matter? Harness full productivity potential:
Implementing a CRM can deliver a return on investment (ROI) of up to 245%, boosting profitability and exceeding expectations (Nucleus Research, 2023). This Massive profit makes CRM a worthy investment for businesses.
Your CRM might have best features, but if customers are unable to know how to use it, all your efforts will be wasted. Hence a good UX design is essential and it should be user-friendly.
To make a good UX design, designers research UX to understand what people tend to like in their CRMs and how they use them. After collecting enough data, designers can build an ideal UX design for a great user experience. UX designers build user flows, customer journey maps, and prototypes.
But as easy as it may sound, the work still isn’t done. User testing is equally important to find out the flaws in the design. User feedback can be used to improve flaws and make the user experience even better.
Here we will discuss why good CRM user experience matters and the benefits it provides.
1) Lead tracking:
Companies that don’t use CRM or have or have bad UX often face loss in leads. Due to inconsistency of follow-ups from the marketing and sales team, they fail in lead generation.
80% of companies using a CRM saw an increase in sales according to a Salesforce report (Source: Salesforce). Hence it’s highly important to customize a good CRM.
2) Time-saving:
Imagine wasting your valuable time only to figure out complicated workflows and still having an output of flaws. Definitely Irritating!!!
A good UX enables your CRM users to be more productive thus saving time.
3) Communication consistency:
One of the best benefits of CRM. All your marketing campaigns and efforts will be in vain if you don’t organize your crucial information about a lead properly. Forget about profits, you won’t even see a customer revisit.
74% of customers would consider switching brands after a bad customer experience. (Source: SuperOffice). Providing a great customer experience should be your priority.
UX of an ideally designed CRM makes it accessible for everyone to get the required information easily.
4) Personalized Customer Engagement:
CRM helps you to gain a 360-degree view of your customers. It gives you information about their purchase history, preferences, and communication history.
80% of customers say they are more likely to do business with a company that offers a personalized experience. (Source: Salesforce)
Businesses can communicate with customers through a personalized experience based on their interests and needs providing a more satisfying experience. A Game Changer!
5) Improved Communication and Sales Process:
Communication across various departments can be fluid and better customer interactions can be ensured which will be well-coordinated and consistent.
Responding to queries and solving them can become easier thus boosting efficiency. Quickly resolved issues results in stronger customer relations, builds trust and generates more leads for sales and opportunities.
6) Data-Driven Decision-Making:
Utilize the data collected by CRM in the best way to make better business decisions. It can be used to frame marketing strategies, emerging trends and product development.
When you’re ready with the preparation stage, it’s time to move to the designing phase of CRM. Here’s what you need to get started.
The Customer Journey Treasure Map. Effective CRM Design Process:
A well-designed CRM is the soul of your customer-facing operations. It has the potential to understand your customers and provide them the best and increase your sales.
But poor design might prevent you from experiencing the best result. Worry not! We will discuss all the frameworks and knowledge to craft CRM that aligns with your business aims and provides you with the best output.
1) Analysis of features:
Try to understand the features of the tool and understand what you require the most. Make a detailed map of what you need and what you don’t.
Enlist features based on your goals. It can include marketing automation, customer support ticketing, social media integrations, or analytics dashboards.
Prioritize the features that make best use of customer data. Companies that effectively manage their customer data are 60% more profitable than those that don’t. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
2) Competitive research:
To figure out what features you need the most, run research on your competitors. Analyze the top businesses in the market. Try to understand what and how they have organized their overall structure.
Such research will give you valuable insights that you can implement in your business. To take your research to the next level, try communicating with active users and what they prefer.
3) User interviews:
Conducting research on users can be a good decision as they already have experience with the tool. They can guide you about the shortcomings and benefits you can have.
You have to identify your target users to optimize the experience in the most influential way. It’s important in user-centric design.
4) User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design:
This plays a crucial role in the overall system. Ensure it has the elements mentioned below.
- Data Visualization:Data should be presented clearly and systematically. Make use of charts, graphs, and dashboards.
- Customizable Dashboards:Users should be allowed to personalize their workflows and dashboards with relevant data and reports for higher efficiency.
- UX/UI: Give utmost importance to your customers and employees. The interface should be user-friendly, intuitive, easy to navigate, and accessible across devices.
- Mobile Accessibility:Make sure your CRM is mobile-friendly. Many users often use mobiles. It will empower your team to manage customer interactions seamlessly.
5) Data Security, Privacy and Integration:
Implement powerful security measures to protect customer data and uphold privacy regulations. Make it clear with users about how you use their data and ensure it won’t be misused.
Ensure seamless integration with existing systems such as email, accounting software, e-commerce sites, marketing automation tools, etc, and keep researching new and better ways to avoid delays or manual work.
6) Ongoing Maintenance and Improvement:
Monitor usage and user feedback: Implement the system and improve it as per data collected from users and adapt it as per their needs.
Regular updates: Staying up-to-date in the industry is the most underrated aspect. You must have a clear idea about new features and user demands to keep your CRM valuable.
7) Wireframing and prototyping:
Customer Segmentation: You should have personalized interactions with customers. Categorize them based on demographics, behaviors, and preferences. This allows personalized and targeted interactions.
8) Start small and scale gradually:
Avoid trying to implement everything at once.
Start with basic and core features and increase them gradually and as per requirement.
After having the required experience, you can implement new features and improve the usability of existing features.
9) Focus more on data quality:
Effective decision-making should be ensured with accurate and consistent data for valuable insights.
10) Promote user adoption:
Encourage users to engage with it and reward them. It will subconsciously give them motivation to use it even more.
Top mistakes to avoid in the CRM Design Process:
1) Confusing navigation:
The more user-friendly the navigation is, the easier users can find all the required information and features.
If you have a messy interface and the user struggles to find necessary information, they might not return because they have to put too much effort for a basic thing. A good UX is all you need. The simpler, the better.
2) Missing email integration:
Making the process of sending and receiving emails from CRM will make the daily work easier for both parties. Due to workload, sales and marketing people might miss some important updates someday. It would be much more convenient if CRM allows tracking of important updates through emails.
3) Neglecting Customer Feedback:
Customer feedback is your biggest guide to run your business successfully. If they aren’t satisfied with your services, you are going nowhere. Listen to your customers and collect their feedback to continuously improve your CRM.
4) Unclear data representation:
The data presented should be easily readable and understandable. If the data is tough to analyze, it can result in unnecessary issues.
5) Limited accessibility:
If your CRM can be accessed only through certain browsers and devices then this will be the last thing the digital world users want.
CRM UX should be equally convenient when working from the office or any other way. Limiting accessibility will have a negative impact on the system.
6) Poor Data Quality:
Incomplete or outdated data reduces the effectiveness of CRM. Cleaning your database and staying updated with your data is crucial.
7) Ignoring Scalability:
Ignoring scalability may lead to the need for an issue in the system in the future. Choose a CRM that grows with your business.
8) Feature Overload:
Don’t overstuff users with too many features. Some of them might be unnecessary.
Give more importance to core functions and keep a simple and clean interface.
Conclusion:
Developing and implementing a CRM system is a complex process and it requires a well-planned approach. This tool is an investment in your business to provide the best experience to customers and use the highest potential of your business.
It prioritizes user needs and analyzes insights, and by using it in the perfect way, you can build stronger customer relations and grow the business.
So after reading all this, many of you might be planning to implement CRM in your workflow.
But confused about how to find the best services? Don’t worry you don’t have to wander the internet, we got you covered!
At Revival Pixel, we provide the best UX/UI designing services to make you outshine and better than your competitors. We have worked with numerous clients who have seen satisfactory results with unimaginable growth.
Also, we have everything on our website about UX/UI you want to know. The more you explore, the more you will gain valuable insights about this fantastic topic.
Feel free to contact us on our email mentioned on the homepage for any services.
So make the best possible use of CRM to make your business grow 10x
