What is CRM and How Does It Work?

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
What is CRM and How Does It Work?

According to the Digital Trend Report 2022, produced by Cheetah Digital, 1 in 3 consumers feel frustrated when brands do not recognize their purchase history or loyalty.

Customer retention is very important for companies, in the end, “winning a new customer costs 5 to 7 times more than keeping a current one,” according to Philip Kotler. But, what is the best way to manage these relationships?

Check this article:

  • or what is CRM?;
  • How does CRM work?
  • types of CRM;
  • Why is CRM important?
  • stages of customer relationship management;

What does CRM mean?

CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management, which, in Portuguese, means Customer Relationship Management. This term encompasses all the actions, practices and strategies used in managing the relationship between brand and customer.

Or what is CRM?

It is very common to think that CRM is just a customer management software, but in truth, It is an integration system between the marketing, sales and customer service sectors.not like all the parts involved non-client focus.

Basically, CRM allows you to record and organize all the information and contact points that a consumer has with the company, so that everything in your history with the brand is accessible to optimize your experience.

How does CRM work?

A CRM platform provides information about customers and prospects of the company, such as name, address, contacts, activities within the site and contacts with the brand, so that these data are organized and brought together in a single place, regardless of all people. wrapped possam ter accesso.

This information can be transferred from other software or recorded manually. Thus, if your company already uses a marketing automation tool, the information about two leads that are checked at the end of the funnel can be automatically transferred to the CRM. See how this integration works:

In addition to organizing information in the daily work schedule of the company, CRM offers the possibility of building and customizing more efficient approaches to win over your customers.

Using CRM, you can:

  • actively track the actions of your clients and prospects within your site;
  • capture personal information more intelligently;
  • connect everything to your computer, on different devices, with information available to everyone;
  • build reports and obtain direct insights from the platform;
  • simplify the team’s day-to-day tasks and use lead information in a more assertive way in your actions;
  • Expand and add new data queue fields, when necessary.

All these possibilities are only useful when you intend to create a closer and lasting relationship with your clients.

  • I also read: Google Analytics, Facebook Ads and CRM: Why are my data not working?

Types of CRM

There are basically two types of CRM: o local (ou CRM On-Premise), which is maintained on a physical server in the company, or CRM in the cloud (ou CRM Cloud), which uses remote access.

The local CRM requires some costs, such as the purchase of servers or the hiring of IT time to carry out hardware maintenance, however, this model offers greater internal control over resources.

Thus, the most used model (and most recommended), is the online CRM, but not all of the infrastructure is managed remotely. As the model uses a new armature, simply access the login page of some device to access the information.

Why is CRM important?

The registration of client information is not something new, as companies use different tools to carry out this management, such as plans, notes in documents, conversations in applications or in agendas.

These alternatives will work for a long time and, possibly, can still work when you are starting a new business and there is no longer a high volume of consumers and sellers in the company.

However, as time goes by and the company increases, these relationship management techniques become obsolete or, at the same time, are trapping or advancing sales proposals. Ultimately, information noted on sheets or agendas may be lost or misinterpreted.

Also, these tools are difficult to share with other team members. In this way, communication between sellers, or even between the sales time and marketing of the company, ends up being compromised.

With a CRM tool, it is possible to automate the processes and reduce manual effort with the preparation of sheets and forms. With information about leads organized in software operating the processes, your team will have more time to dedicate themselves to what really matters: the client.

Advantages of using CRM

Some two benefits of CRM, according to the research carried out by the Software analysis platform, Finances Online, are:

  • Using CRM software can increase sales by 29%;
  • the productivity of teams that use CRM is 34% higher;
  • o CRM offers 42% greater precision in sales forecasts than other software;
  • 74% two executives interviewed said that CRM helped increase brand relationships with customers;
  • o CRM helps increase conversion rates by 300%.

Furthermore, the use of a CRM software brings highlights in the commercial stages and in customer service, helps in the integration between the Marketing and Sales teams and offers greater control over the flow of tasks.

Stages of Customer Relationship Management

The management of relationships with leads is carried out in stages and it is important to know how CRM meets the needs of each stage:

1. Acquisition

The acquisition consists of mapping new people for your lead base, placing your information in a place where it will be accessible for consultation.

Want to know how to attract more qualified leads for your business? Check out our complete article on how to get qualified leads.

2. Transition

The transition is the transformation of leads into clients. This change is done through the nutrition of the future customer and, also, through the sales team, which must be prepared to intervene when the lead is ready to make a purchase.

3. Service

The functions of CRM make it possible to establish personalized service for the customer, answering their questions, returning contacts or sending emails with instructions for use, for example. In addition to offering many other ways to stay connected to the consumer.

4. Retention

With the automation of your customer relationship management, you can also establish contacts that guarantee your long-term relationship.

An example of what can be done at this stage is: awakening the sense of urgency regarding the purchase of a product or service, through a mental trigger, anticipating a client’s action.

When should I implement a CRM tool?

After knowing how this tool works and its benefits, you may be wondering: do you NEED a customer relationship management tool?

The reality is that all companies can take advantage of the benefits of CRM, whether small, medium or large. In the end, managing better relationships with clients makes your company grow, achieve more sales and, many times, reduce the sales cycle time.

If your manual processes are no longer working and you want to win over more clients, CRM is the best investment for your business!

Be a Master of CRM!

There’s no need to hire a CRM and you don’t know how to explore it to the fullest!

If you are reluctant to invest in a CRM tool because you are not sure that you will be able to take advantage of the benefits, or you have a software, but it is not extracting the best results, we are afraid that you need it.

See how to increase productivity and sales of your commercial time through the implementation of a CRM. Conheça o Mestres do CRM, a 100% online course, developed by our CEO Fabio Ricotta, and come learn as the master does not matter!