Is a Custom Client Management System Really Worth the Investment?
Whichever products you sell or services you provide, handling clients is one of the most important tasks. The way you interact with your customers is crucial and defines the success of your business. Sure, you want it to be successful and making your customers happy is one of your primary tasks. Knowing what your clients want and how to present this to them in the best way possible is another one.
How can you become even more efficient in satisfying already existing customers, attracting new ones and boosting your profitability? By using a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM for short).
CRM is the tool that companies use to manage interactions with customers, both existing and potential. It helps build a close connection with your clients, improve your services, and streamline your processes. In turn, it can help boost the profitability of your business and bring new clients thanks to the word happy customers spread.
There are a lot more benefits to client management systems, especially if you use a custom CRM that is tailored to your market niche and business needs. This article deals with the way a CRM system works and its main advantages.
Kinds of CRM Systems
There are different types of CRM software and each has its own features and benefits.
Operational CRM
Usually applied by companies with high customer turnover, this system deals with sales, support and other client-facing processes and services and helps solve problems in a business-client relationship.
The benefits of online client management applications are remarkable. Since most operational processes are automated and equipped with artificial intelligence, they are not complicated for the company to implement and use, and bring numerous advantages to the customers.
Collaborative CRM
The main aim of this type of CRM is to make the processes and workflows in multifaceted organizations more smooth and simple. This type is all about the interaction between the structures supporting customer relationships within the organization.
Collaborative CRM simplifies and improves the cooperation between these entities by automating the most processes which leads to increased productivity and profit.
Analytical CRM
Even though this type of CRM is focused on customers, it is not visible to them. Its major task is to study and understand client behavior and provide insights into individualized patterns and broad demographics. Understanding the customer purchasing power and requirements can help make the key decisions (e.g. sales targeting) about the products and services provided by the organization.
Custom Software vs Off-the-Shelf Options
So what advantages does a custom CRM have over a ready-made one? Here are the four major ones:
- It Gives a Competitive Advantage
How many companies similar to yours are in the segment you work in? All of them can apply one and the same CRM system. Therefore, employing a custom solution created specifically for your needs you can get a competitive advantage over your rivals that are using an off-the-shelf product. - Tailored to Specific Business Needs
Using custom client management software is like wearing an haute couture dress or suit — it is made specifically for you and takes into account all your requirements. It means that you can start applying the CRM, in this case, straight away without the need to make any adjustments to your business practices to enable the ready-made solution to work for you. - Better Security
Anyone can buy an off-the-shelf solution, which might ease the access to the system to potential cybercriminals. Since a custom product is created for you by a development agency, all data is stored on their server. Unlike when systems are on third-party provider server, a custom-made one is less vulnerable to unknown cyber attacks. - Scalable
Having a CRM software made for you allows it to grow alongside your business’ growth. You can easily add the necessary components at any time when your company expands and your needs change.
Although an investment, developing a custom solution for your business can definitely bring any benefits of an off-the-shelf item to the next level.
Benefits of a Custom Client Management System
So, why use client manager software? It offers a set of features that benefit interactions between your business and your clients. Here, we’ll discuss how CRM systems improve your work with clients, inside the teams, and how they can boost your profits.
Client-Side CRM Advantages
First, we are going to look at the advantages of this system on the clients’ side.
- Better client relationships
Having a sufficient amount of information about your clients’ needs and desires allows you to create a strong and long-lasting connection with them. - Determining client needs
Being aware of what your clients actually need will help you provide them with the most desirable products and services. That’s exactly what a CRM system is responsible for — identifying clients’ needs in order to offer them the best value. - Identifying the profitability of your clients
CRM can also help you understand which clients will make a profit to your business and which won’t. After that, you can form progressive customer relations with profitable ones and look for ways to increase the profitability of others.
4. Increasing client retention
With the help of CRM, you can anticipate problems and deal with complaints sooner or before they even become an issue. Your clients will no longer have to solve their problems with multiple employees from different departments — the process can become more straight-forward.
CRM for teams
Apart from customers, client management software can also contribute to your team by making its operation easier and more productive. The advantages are as follows:
- Cross-team collaboration
CRM simplifies cooperation between the different departments of your company enabling their employees to work together and achieve goals in a more dynamic way. This, in turn, will benefit both the organization and its clients. - Automatization of everyday tasks
CRM can automate the most routine tasks of those your employees perform on a daily basis allowing your representatives to deal with customer complaints and work on their satisfaction instead. - Reliable reporting
A functional CRM system will always ensure that all the reports are detailed, factual, and done correctly. Automatization of the reporting processes will give you transparent data so your team can become more productive.
3. Enhanced productivity
If the follow-up emails are generated automatically, you will always have the up-to-date details of the client meetings. Consequently, the customer service staff will be able to learn more about the client’s background without the need to call them.
4. Stronger data security
It is always better to store all the confidential customers’ information in a centralized custom client management system on an online and well-protected cloud rather than on offline desktops. It allows you to secure your data, access it from different locations with a password and protect the most valuable parts of by restricting access to certain files
CRM for Sales
When all is going well for your company, it’s only natural that your sales and profits increase. Here is a list of advantages you will gain if you use a Custom Client Management System.
- Empowerment of Sales Management
The performance of your sales managers will improve if you provide them with the data that can help analyze the customer relationships and assess the viability of the deal according to the financial environment of your business. - More Accurate Sales Forecasting
CRM helps your sales managers make more correct forecasts as they will have a single source of reliable information. Moreover, understanding the customers' data allows you to anticipate possible customer behavior. - Better Sales Metrics
CRM enables you to learn more about the needs of your clients and turn them into effective conversions. This leads to the emergence of new opportunities for your company from already existing customers and, consequently, to an increase in sales. - Improved Marketing ROI
One of the greatest advantages of client tracking software is that it helps companies understand what marketing campaigns work best with different kinds of customers. As a result, it maximizes the marketing budgets and provides better ROI. - Enhanced Products and Services
Gathering data from your company's various internal and external sources can provide a better understanding of your customers' opinions about your goods or services. Knowing them can help you find the gaps in your business, customize and develop better products and services. - Cross-selling
The better understanding of your customers, the better fitting cross-selling products you will offer them. This could be the alternative products or improved ones that will bring you an extra profit.
And the list can go on. There can be more advantages based on what features you intend to add to your custom system. And experienced teams that offer client management system development can help you create well-functioning CRM software to improve your business.
Here’s an example we can vouch for — ShootQ
This company was nothing but successful for over ten years, but the technology it had been using was out of date. We developed a brand-new app utilizing cutting-edge technologies. This allowed for a number of improvements:
- Simplified payments
- Comfortable leads tracking
- Automatic online booking.
As a result, the total content usefulness score of ShootQ has grown to 4.7/5 according to the survey over 340 users have participated in. Such big names in the sphere of photography as Sara France, Mike Larson, Lukas & Suzy Vandyke choose ShootQ for handling their tasks.
It’s not our only encounter with CRM software. We also developed a project management tool — Transpose — with CRM features, such as entering customer information into a database and tracking them. One of the major pros of Transpose's CRM capabilities is a user-friendly, manageable tool that allows users to create custom databases, analyze and manipulate data to fit their business needs.
Read Also: Future trends in CRM
Wrap Up
Clients are becoming more and more informed and demanding. Knowing what they want and when they expect to get it can help your business thrive. Client management solutions, in this respect, are indispensable helpers that push your company to the top and leave competitors far behind.
If you have ideas on creating an awesome CRM system for any business niche or you need a custom solution to fulfill your company’s needs, consult professionals on the best ways of making those ideas a reality.
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