In an increasingly globalized and inter-connected business environment, one that is constantly evolving through new strategies and improving upon itself with rapidly advancing technology, it has become nigh essential for an organization to employ effective and successful Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
Customer Retention with CRM does not only help an organization survive in a fiercely competitive world. Rather, it allows the company to thrive by both understanding and anticipating, and thus not only meeting, but on occasion, exceeding the ever-increasing expectations of modern consumers. Furthermore, a successful CRM strategy, if applied effectively, can help the company enhance its sales, garner greater customer satisfaction and complement the overall success of the organization.
The Greatest Advantage of Improved Customer Retention with CRM
Perhaps the single greatest advantage that an improved CRM process offers to any organization is that it helps transform one-time customers into lifelong clients. Certain estimates by business analysts and experts suggest that as much as 80% of a company’s total revenue is generated by a mere 20% of its customers, and this 20% is comprised almost entirely of repeat customers.
If these estimates are indeed true, or even if they are close enough to fact, a streamlined CRM process takes on even more importance for businesses worldwide. For the core purpose of CRM is to help create and maintain mutually beneficial and profitable relationships between an organization and its customers. So, how does improved CRM encourage customers to keep coming back for more?
The Turn of the Screw
Essentially, CRM works by providing the customer everything they need, want, and expect from a company, whether it’s about products, services, or customer support. Successful CRM focuses on maintaining strategic, comprehensive relationships with customers and clients, placing their needs above the organization’s own, in an effort to build sustainability.
Consider the following scenario:
A customer calls, or walks into, a company and expresses the desire to purchase a particular product or service. With an effective, streamlined CRM process, the company’s representative would then be able to access the customer’s information, granted they had purchased from the company previously. If they have, the representative would then be able to view the customer’s name, age, personal preferences, and when and what they purchased before. Equipped with this valuable information then, the representative would be able to make the best possible recommendation to the customer, one that is most suitable to their stated requirement.
Now, consider the alternative, where the company had no previous data on the customer, and thus had to make a random suggestion which might have driven the customer away, possibly to never return again. A picture starts to form then, of how crucially valuable an improved CRM process can prove to be for any organization.
The Journey from Potential Customer to Lifelong Client
For, if a random suggestion is made, the customer walks out and the company has lost not just the one sale, but at least one possible source of steady revenue in sales for years to come. Yet, if an educated recommendation is offered to the customer, they would most probably make the purchase, and in doing so, would most likely be satisfied enough to return again and purchase more products and services.
The Weight of Modern Expectations
In an increasingly social world, people expect organizations, particularly their favourite brands, to be socially active and approachable. The age of the aloof, giant corporation is long past. Today, customers not only expect, but demand interaction and engagement with the companies they purchase from and they insist on being a part of the overall process.
Modern organizations can thus choose to ignore these universal trends and expectations, at their own peril, or they can go along with their customers’ wishes and desires, ensuring in the process not only their survival in a competitive environment, but maybe even sustained growth and stellar business success.