A satisfied customer base is the necessary condition for any business to thrive in today’s ultra competitive markets. The current consumer is being bombarded with a multitude of similar products and services, and delivering tailored services is the only way to grab their attention. Businesses should not be aiming for one-time purchases but rather they should implement CRM strategy that help to establish a fortified relationship with their customers. This encourages repeated purchases and brand advocacy.
When establishing a long term relationship with customers, there is an additional challenge of managing the various phases in the customer lifestyle. Managing it manually can be quite the hassle, which is why businesses should look to invest in good CRM tools so they can strategize to deliver customer success.
Keep reading to learn more about CRM strategies that can help empower your business.
Understanding Customer Success and CRM.
Before delving into the topic, it would be a good idea to understand what customer success and CRM mean.
Customer Success
Customer success refers to all strategies and processes that aim to help a customer achieve their goals when using your product or service. At its core, customer success is aimed at giving a highly tailored service which will encourage customers to stay loyal to your business and advocate for your brand. It includes understanding the customers goals, assisting their onboarding, giving proactive support and then managing their renewals. In a nutshell, customer success strategies target all the phases in the customer lifecycle.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
On the other hand, CRM is a business strategy which helps manage customer interactions to improve retention rates, customer satisfaction and, as a result, the overall health of business. In common usage, CRM is used to refer to the software which is used to implement the strategies. There are many CRM tools on the market and while their specifics might differ, they all have a few common features. These include, customer databases, workflow automation, customer segmentation, integrative solutions and customer support.
Choosing The Right CRM Strategy
Regular work processes can be greatly improved by harnessing the power of automation. This is why CRM tools can prove to be helpful in achieving customer success. The right CRM strategies will help businesses understand the needs of their customers, so they can deliver upon them. This will make the customer feel valued and such customer-centric approaches encourage loyalty and retention. Here are a few examples of CRM strategies that will ensure customer success.
- Analyzing Customer Behavior: CRM softwares are equipped with features that record the data of both actual and potential customers. Efficient monitoring and analysis of customer activity can be very beneficial for businesses because it can help gain key insights into customer behavior and preferences. These softwares can record metrics such as number of website visits, timing of access and features used. These can help understand the buying patterns of customers. Moreover, it can also give a sense of the needs of the customers.
This information can be compiled into neat tables or expressed in real time through graphs and charts. This gives a clear picture to the marketing and sales teams so they can optimize their strategies which can help capture the needs of the customers. This can also be beneficial for development departments who can narrow down upon features that need optimization or other tweaks.
- Rewarding Customer Loyalty: Giving a good service is not enough for customers to keep coming back. As mentioned earlier, customers are being bombarded with tempting offers from your competitors who can provide them with equally good service. Under such circumstances, businesses should always be on the lookout for strategies that can help them to incentivise customers into making repeated purchases. Customers should always feel like they are being valued at your business.
Customer loyalty programs are a brilliant way of encouraging customers to stay with your business.This will also increase brand advocacy as loyal customers are more likely to refer your business to others and create a goodwill of your brand. CRM tools have integrative capabilities that allow you to integrate automatic loyalty programs. These programs can automatically give customers discounts and other benefits depending on the amount of time they have stayed with your business. Moreover, CRM softwares can also keep a track of the effectiveness of loyalty programs, so businesses can know if their loyalty programs are working
- Engagement Through Value Added Content: This strategy is especially beneficial for businesses operating on a subscription based-model. Most of your customers will already be managing multiple subscriptions alongside your service. Under such circumstances, businesses should always be strategizing to stay relevant to the customer. You don’t want your subscriber to realize that they have your subscription when they are automatically charged for their subscription renewal.
Use subliminal messaging to stay relevant as it has a positive psychological impact on your customers regarding your business. Invest in good content creators that can create engaging content in the form of blogs or video messages that can keep your subscriber updated about your business. CRM softwares are also equipped with features that can regularly share these updates with your customer and help them keep interested.
To Sum Up
Hopefully this was an educational read, and it helped you gain a better understanding of CRM strategies. Remember, that customer-centricity is the prerequisite for delivering a good customer success. This is a mutually beneficial process because it not only helps the customers achieve their goals but it allows businesses to gain a loyal customer base that will advocate for them. Moreover, by harnessing the power of automation within a CRM framework, business can do a much better job at delivering customer success.
