CRM solutions are one of the largest and fastest growing categories of enterprise application software. In 2019, the market for CRM systems was valued at $41.93 billion. The market is projected to grow to $96.39 billion by 2027. That is, its compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2027 will be 11.1 percent.
More and more companies are using CRM solutions to collect leads, improve the sales funnel, increase productivity and improve customer satisfaction. Many of these companies, however, have encountered problems ranging from cost overruns and CRM integration issues to system limitations. These problems can be avoided; to ensure success, put the customer first.
It’s critical for companies to have an integrated, complete and customizable view of what solutions/products their customers and prospects are interested in, their customer service needs and their purchase history. A good CRM system provides that insight. All data is stored centrally and can be viewed through optimized dashboards.
In addition, with CRM solutions, marketing professionals can orchestrate personalized campaigns for marketing and lead generation. These systems track interactions across all channels, from customer engagement to purchase completion. Mature cloud-based CRM solutions can do even more. They fully integrate with back-office solutions to support the entire customer interaction cycle, or “customer journey.”
Encompassing customer and prospect interaction points across all channels, the CRM system serves as an information source for all marketing and sales activities, providing the comprehensive (“360-degree”) view of the customer needed to create a truly omnichannel customer experience.
There are many vendors offering different types of CRM systems. However, any such system must:
Be easy to use, otherwise people won’t want to work in it
Fit into your budget and provide an acceptable return on investment
Integrate well with your other software systems
Collect accurate, consistent data to build that 360-degree view of each customer