It has been a trend for the past few years, business platforms are all resonating with the same buzzwords and 'obsessions'. Customer Centric, Customer Success, Customer Experience, Customer Relationship. Customer, customer, customer.

If anything, this 2020 has strengthened what dawned on many enterprises – big and small – all around the globe: the focus needs to be on the customer, because without the customer there is no business.

Because of that, many systems have sprouted and grew as big as behemoths, all built around this Customer Centric strategy. We now call them Customer Relationship Management systems, or CRM.

What exactly is a CRM?

There are a few definitions out there and they all have their slight angle depending on who is talking.

For example, here is Salesforce’s definition of a CRM:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is all about putting you in control of your business so that you can keep track of sales, leads, customer interactions and much more.

Crm.org, a more neutral resource sharing platform, is similar to Salesforce one, devoid of any terminology connected to a potential product tool:

A CRM gathers customer interactions across all channels in one place. Managing centralized data helps businesses improve customer experience, satisfaction, retention, and service.

And continues:

CRM allows businesses of all sizes to drive growth and profits.

Growth being another gigantic buzzword of the past decade.

In layman’s terms, a CRM system – when well-constructed – is generally a software that allows the company to gather different types of information that relate to their customers, and provide several tools to manage crucial aspects of the business such as sales, account management, billing, analytics, marketing, and support. The additional kicker is the focus on the communication aspect: a CRM should make it easier (i.e. streamline) for businesses and respective clients to talk to each other.

Why do I need a CRM?

We could have an exceedingly long conversation around the early days of CRM, who started using it, how it became more and more popular, and why it is still gaining momentum after decades (that’s right, decades). Should you be interested, here is an easy-to-read account from Salesforce themselves, talking about the history of CRM.

While IT companies were the first ones to adopt CRM solutions, and database marketing became a thing, nowadays we can safely say that anyone could benefit from having a CRM.

Are you a SaaS company? Get a CRM.

Are you a Retailer who is finally pivoting towards OmniChannel? Get a CRM.

Are you a Non-Profit Organisation that provides a service to the community? Get a CRM.

Are you a Farmer who goes around markets on Saturdays and Sundays and has direct contact with customers? Get. A. CRM.

Once again, crm.org puts it beautifully:

Anyone doing sales, marketing teams, service, support, or running a startup, managing a community group, non-profit, or volunteer organization, and editorial teams, ad agencies, and art projects or productions can benefit.

What about Salesforce?

Salesforce is one of the most comprehensive, long lasting, widespread, integrated, cloud-based software solution available today.

They have different packages available to cater to most businesses, from the smallest ones to the biggest enterprises.

According to figures from 2018, Salesforce offers services to 99 of the 100 companies on the Fortune 100 list. They do not stop there though, with their 150,000+ customers they do cater for small businesses too.

The fundamental point here is, with Salesforce you can have 1 or 2 users and stick to the low end of the product offering, and you can scale up as much as you need.

Salesforce scales with you no matter your company size, meaning you will never have to worry about swapping software, with all the heartaches that come with it.

You can stick to out-of-the-box solutions or pursue custom solutions in multiple ways. If you are gearing up to get to the next stage of your growth you might have a little allocated budget to call upon consulting agencies (a-hem, like Ao Collaboration, right?) who will help you stretch the software to cover your business like the perfect blanket.

You can also upskill yourself, if you have the time and the inclination, as Salesforce provides state of the art training.

You can hire a Salesforce Administrator too, should that be your preference, and keep a consulting contact (again, just saying, like Ao Collaboration) for when it is necessary.

Need more reasons yet? Alright.

• Cloud-based

• Highly customisable

• Exceptional reporting tools

• Data Security

• Integrations

• Automation capabilities

• AppExchange to get additional solutions that solve specific business issues

• Team collaboration

• Scalability

• Customer support and wide community

There.

Still on the fence, or thinking about it? Get in touch with us, tell us about your business, and we will find a sustainable way to help achieving your goals.