The world of sales and customer relationship management has been changing rapidly, just like everything else around. Here are the CRM trends to get prepare for this and next year.
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Mobile CRM functionality
Lucky are those who can forget about work once they cross the office door. But the reality is – many professionals keep on accomplishing tasks beyond regular 9 to 5 and from any place, also while commuting. Another thing is that even office workers aren’t necessarily in the office all the time – as the saying goes, “if your salespeople are in the office, they are not selling”. This puts a huge emphasis on mobile devices. And more CRM functionality on portable devices required by customers’ increasing need for connectivity.
A pitfall here though is security. What if a mobile phone is lost or stolen? Will it put customer data or correspondence at risk? CRM systems producers need to prepare to mitigate the risks. And employees of high-security enterprises like financial institutions or the public sector meanwhile can leverage
CRM Integration with Everything
Marketers use up to 12 different sources of data for customer relationship management. And a typical employee makes 134 copy-and-paste actions each day,
In 2020, we can’t possibly waste so much time switching between apps and doing other unnecessary things. Integration is another hot trend for CRM which simplifies and streamlines the production process through the day.
CRM systems can provide much better results faster when integrated with:
- Project management software
- Storage/warehouse
- Supplier Systems and Purchase Order systems (POs)
- ERP system
- An inventory management system
- A product lifecycle management system (PLM).
- A data warehouse
- Sales orders.
You can custom develop such integrations or use
Check an example of
CRM going into the cloud
Another side of being connected 24/7 and accessing your data from any place and device means deploying the customer relationship management in the cloud.
But what if you are stuck in the 90-s with the on-prem systems?
There are
CRM and the IIoT
The Internet of Things has been giving huge revenues to those who can leverage data via CRM. But let’s take a step further to the bigger brother – the Industrial Internet of Things and automation of the processes.
IIoT devices can transfer information about performance issues and maintenance to the equipment producer. Similarly, IoT-connect CRM software can help companies proactively detect product performance issues and identify potential problems with customer satisfaction – thus providing predictive maintenance,
Get yourself familiar with
CRM security and reporting with blockchain
Financial and legal audits usually cause a lot of eye twitching to business managers. They cost a lot of money, preparation for audits require a lot of effort, and also it usually interrupts the workflow. A
Take away
Time and technology are changing, so is CRM. But unlike other fickle trends, mobile connectivity, integration and cloud tech, the Internet of Things, and new ways of proving authenticity are here to stay with us in 2020 and develop even more in 2021. So make sure to keep your customer relationship management up with the flow.
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Written by Anastasia Mazur from
Customer relationship management stays a colossal piece of the game, and remaining in front of CRM trends can help give your business an edge over the competition.