The customers are the single valuable asset of any eCommerce business, regardless of how big it is and what product/service it offers. As such, customer satisfaction should be in the center of a company’s development strategy. And this means more than simply respecting your clients – it means understanding them.
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In order to meet the needs of the digital age, enterprises need a solution that would help them reorganize their business processes so as to build a bridge between businesses and customers. Fortunately, the solution was found – Automated CRM systems, specialized software that provides eCommerce sector with the ability to facilitate everyday tasks, improve customer retention, get new customers and retain the existing ones.
CRM technology has undergone a progressive evolution in the eCommerce space. Nowadays, you hardly can find a prosperous company not using CRM. In fact, this market is expected to grow up to 35 billion by 2023, according to the latest research.
In this article, we will tell you what benefits a CRM platform can bring and why customer relationship management systems and eCommerce businesses are a match made in heaven.
Better customer visibility
If your sales reps still collect information about the customers bit by bit from different sources and type the collected info in an Excel document, you are losing your money. With CRM, all the customer-related information will be stored safe and sound in one place so that nothing will fall through the cracks. Moreover, due to CRM integrations, your sales reps can easily collect information from various sources, including the existing databases, social media, and other third-party services. For instance, with Salesforce CRM + LinkedIn integration, you can find out all business-related information about potential leads, including their job title, business contacts, industries, interests, and more. All the information will be recorded in the contact account within the CRM environment and organized properly. Your team can use the collected data to deliver a super personalized approach to the customers, as well as re-engage those who have already bought something from your online store.
Sales Automation
Time is one of the most valuable assets of any business. According to Forbes research, sales agents spend only 35,2% of their time selling and more than 65% on administrative, problem-solving tasks, and everything else. Needless to say that this kills your sales and business performance.
CRM platforms were designed to help business owners to automate their processes and save their sales agents time to let them focus on the clients’ needs rather than managing a great amount of data manually. The usage of a CRM system enables smarter solutions and more revenue in the long run.
Efficient Sales Pipeline Management
Finding a lead is a challenging task. However, guiding this lead through the sales pipeline is even harder. With CRM systems, sales reps get a consolidated view on all the existing customers and potential ones. As a result, your team can track the lifecycle of potential customers and see at what stage of the pipeline every lead is. With that, it is possible to predict customers’ behavior and determine what your future steps should be to push the prospects to action.
Efficient sales pipeline management providing by CRM systems will help your team to prioritize deals and close them faster, save time, and establish long-term interactions with the clients. Moreover, some CRMs, such as Salesforce or Zoho, allow their users to create reminders on calendars to never forget about vital meetings and important events in clients’ lives. This allows business owners to deliver a great customer experience and re-engage inactive clients.
Deep Analysis of Payment Data
For eCommerce websites using multiple payment channels, analyzing payment data can be a challenging task. With a CRM platform implemented in your store, you can handle everything from billing and invoicing to payment failures. Besides, some CRMs allow integrations with payment gateways to charge your customers’ credit card directly from the website and manage the data received.
As far as most CRMs offer advanced analytics, tracking payment trends empowers you with the ability to analyze:
- Highest valued customers
- Best sources of revenue
- The metrics that can help business owners improve their services and correctly customize their stores.
Better Customer Service
In the competitive eCommerce world, it is crucial to remain responsive to customers’ concerns and inquiries. If your customer experiences a problem that needs immediate resolution, they are going to be unsatisfied until the issue can be taken care of immediately. The stats say that 55% of customers stop doing business with a store if their questions and complaints are ignored for a long time.
With a CRM platform, as soon as a customer contacts a service agent or sales rep, all activity concerning this account will appear, including preferences, previous purchases, personal information. As such, your company representatives, armed with a history of orders and other customer-related information, will be able to provide a relevant response and resolve any issue within a few minutes. As a result, customers’ complaints are likely to turn out into glowing reviews.
Final Word
CRM platforms are powerful performance drivers for any eCommerce business, regardless of its type, size, and the product it sells. However, implementing CRM in an eCommerce website can be a challenging task requiring solid coding skills, especially when it comes to such advanced CRMs as Zoho, Salesforce or HubSpot. Besides, having someone you can call with a Salesforce support issue is important for business growth.