Customers have always had influence on businesses, but it has never been as powerful as it is today. The increasing awareness of customers towards products/services and exposure to various knowledge resources are becoming a greater advantage for them in terms of their buying preferences. Their association with a business has a direct impact on the success and growth of the business.
This evolution has made businesses realize that simply building great products is not enough to drive growth, but the secret to survival lies in building strong customer relationships. They need to re-imagine their approach to building strong customer relationships and enhancing them at every touchpoint of business processes. Instead of dealing with customers in silos, modern enterprises should apply intelligent technology such as CRM solutions to understand customers’ needs individually.
A CRM system segregates customers based on historical data and their interaction with the product. Business organizations use the data to target potential customers and engage them throughout the customer life cycle management. However, the value of CRM can be double-folded when it is integrated with other applications or software. CRM embedded with other tools helps to decipher customer needs on a granular level and reduce the complexities in managing other software discreetly. If business enterprises have specific integration requirements, they can customize the integrations with the API (Application Programming Interface) developer access.
There are many tools that can be integrated with the CRM system, but organizations should choose CRM tools that make sense for their business type and size. It should not exceed the budget and offer a higher ROI. There are few software integrations that organizations can consider for their CRM tool. If you have invested in a customer relationship management system already, or are planning to invest in one, it is time to check whether your CRM system is compatible with other systems.
Most Popular CRM Tool Integration to Optimize Business
E-mail Integration
By merging CRM with emails, users can have better visibility of their customers and save time in manually gathering customers’ emails from various sources. Email integrated with CRM can help to organize the contact and automate email marketing campaigns. The sales team often looks to the marketing team to provide qualified leads to sell products. CRM integrated with email can provide leads that are likely to convert by analyzing the email responses such as open rate, click-through rate, and any other actions customers have taken. Based on these, the sales team can target the customers and boost sales. They can even push a personalized targeted campaign to increase sales. CRM supported with emails can help the sales and marketing team to collaborate better and improve the organization’s bottom line.
Integration with communication tools
CRM systems integrated with communication tools such as video conferencing tools, internal messaging tools, or live chat tools can be productive for users. For instance, a sales team can interact with customers using these tools, and all the information can automatically log into the system. These tools are even useful in generating reminders and follow-ups. Further, these tools can be helpful for internal communication and reduce the communication gap within the organization.
E-commerce integration
With the boom of e-commerce business, the CRM system that integrates with e-commerce stores can derive great value to it. It gives a holistic view of the customer’s interaction with the product. With a clear view of various customer activities, the business owner can forecast sales better and execute their future business plan accordingly.
Integration with social media
Continuously engaging customers on social media accounts can increase the sales opportunity. Today customers prefer sharing their views and product preferences on social media accounts. They also tag industry experts (CEO/CFO) to know their perspective and get maximum ROI on the product. Social media has become a popular medium to explore products and services. If the organization can integrate a CRM system with a social media account, they can track the customer’s viewpoints in real-time and analyze what kind of relationship customers are with brands. For instance, the CRM tool picks up the customer reaction to increased product price or changes in policies. They can position themselves as a domain expert and help them to solve their issues. By integrating CRM with social media, business owners can do value addition to their brand.
Integration with document management tool
CRM integration with document management tool can quickly transfer the contract document and speed up the approval process. There is no need to toggle back and forth to check the contract status. Business owners can send proposals and contracts to customers for e-sign straight from the CRM software.
Integration with task management system
CRM integration with task management tools enables users to extend the functionality of the CRM tool. They can take complete control over the tasks and maintain the records of all completed tasks. Users can schedule the task as per the priority and receive notifications whenever tasks are completed. When tasks are collaborated well and finished on time, it could help in the timely delivery of goods or services to the customers.
Integration with accounting system
By integrating the accounting tool with CRM, the accountants can keep track of invoices and payments accurately. It helps them to record the income sources right through the CRM tools. It eliminates the error rates usually encountered due to manual data entry and saves an ample amount of time.
Integration with invoicing and billing system
By integrating the billing system with CRM, the business owners’ work gets pretty simple. Businesses can fetch customer details easily with the CRM system and automate various activities such as generating invoices, accepting payments, and sending alerts to customers for late payments. It facilitates cash flow and tracks the business revenue accurately. Besides that, it helps minimize the error of billing the same amount twice to customers and any discrepancies related to payments.
CRM and ERP integration
CRM system deals with the front-end system such as managing customers, marketing, and customer service, whereas ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) takes care of the back-end process, which includes billing details, accounting information, supply chain, and logistics details, etc. For instance, the sales orders are placed into the CRM system, but the billing process for the sales order is done on ERP. If there is sync between ERP and CRM, the order can be fulfilled quickly. By integrating CRM with ERP, users can streamline business processes and increase productivity. CRM-ERP integration also reduces the burden of maintaining additional applications as they both cover many features of tools otherwise integrated separately.
CRM software that supports the integration of a wide range of tools can add great value to business operations. But it is essential that companies consider their CRM integrations based on their requirements and budget.
Conclusion
Businesses can perform well when all the processes are integrated, and there is seamless communication among them. Technology has been a critical component in keeping the business processes unified, specifically, The customer management system software that spans through various business processes. The customer management system has become the backbone of today’s businesses, and most enterprises are focused on strengthening customer relationships through CRM tools.
A CRM system can be a valuable tool in gaining a 360-degree view of customers, and it could do wonders when it is integrated with other tools. CRM integration can assist an organization in serving the customers better and unlocking the value of customer satisfaction. When integrated with third-party tools such as ERP, e-commerce platform, or communication tool, CRM systems can simplify business processes, bolster revenue, and retain more customers.
Author’s Bio:
On this side Jason Adam, Jason and I have 5+ years of experience in content writing & content marketing at GoodFirms. GoodFirms is reviews and ratings of Top Service Companies & Software Products like CRM Software.
