The growing importance of social media in marketing has made all businesses today focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In fact this has become one of the best business strategies as it adds a lot of value to business areas such as sales, marketing and customer support. It plays a very important role in reducing the risks of the business in building the brand of the business and in improving its growth. Most businesses that have adopted the contact center technology have implemented customer relationship management solutions to enhance customer experience.
In order to boost productivity, businesses have to leverage CRM solutions in the right manner. There are a few solutions you can consider:
Outsourced solutions: There are many service providers you can contact who can offer Customer Relationship Management solutions that are web-based. These providers are professional and well-experienced to understand your requirements and provide the right solution within a short span of time. In case you are looking at e-commerce, this could be a very good alternative for you. Most IT companies and businesses that use the contact center technology go for this option. However, it always depends upon your requirements and the size of your company to decide whether you want to outsource CRM-related activities or not.
Off-the-shelf solutions: Many software companies come up with CRM applications which can successfully integrate with their existing packages. You could even use a cut-down version of this software if you are looking at an affordable solution. However, such software may or may not meet your requirements perfectly.
Bespoke software: Most software engineers and consultants can create a customized CRM system for you and even integrate the same with the software system that you may have. Although this could be an expensive option, it can give you exactly what you want and meet each and every requirement of your business. It is always better to get a few quotes and compare them before making your decision.
Managed solutions: While bespoke software is on the expensive side and outsourcing is not that useful, you can go for a managed solution that comes in between. Here, you rent a bespoke package of customized CRM applications. This could work out quite cost-effective.
CRM Tools:
If the above solutions do not suffice your requirements, you can go for some successive CRM tools that you can align with your business strategies. These tools include:
External community applications: These can tie CRM-related activities with communities and support forums either manually or in an automated manner.
Internal Community Applications: Such applications can help in the collaboration of your team members in specific accounts.
Social media publishing tools: Social media plays a very important role in marketing today. Through these social media publishing tools you can push the digital marketing campaign content on to the social networks.
Social Media Engagement Applications: These applications work well with social media publishing tools, provided you don’t go for the traditional CRM.
Social analytics: These are usually used in market research to track how interactions on social media can affect conversions. These are great to evaluate the effectiveness of business campaigns.
Although it is not always easy to integrate these tools with your existing business applications, it has to be done in order to boost your productivity and create better customer experience.
