Customer Relation Management or CRM tools are of increasing importance to businesses today since they help build and maintain an intimate relationship with customers, streamline processes, take care of the entire buyer journey, manage marketing campaigns, and improve profitability, all from one central platform.
What is a CRM platform?
Just from the time a lead is generated, the CRM keeps track of the customer and helps the enterprise turn the lead into a prospect. CRM platforms also keep track of all the conversations that a customer has with an organization and enable salespeople to close deals faster. A CRM allows businesses of any kind, whether it’s sales, customer service, business development, or marketing to deal with interactions and relationships that drive success.
CRM trends in 2023
The CRM market is constantly evolving and several key trends are shaping the industry. Here are some of the major trends in the market.
Focus on Customer Experience
One of the biggest trends in the CRM market is the focus on customer experience. In today’s competitive marketplace, small businesses need to provide a personalized experience to their customers to stay ahead of the competition. Customer Relation Management vendors are developing solutions that focus on delivering a seamless and personalized experience across all touchpoints. They are also incorporating advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into their solutions to help businesses gain insights into customer behavior and preferences. This enables businesses to deliver more personalized experiences to their customers, thereby improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Integrate with Other Systems
Another trend in the CRM industry is the integration of CRM solutions with other systems, such as marketing automation, e-commerce, and ERP systems. This trend is driven by the need for businesses to have a complete understanding of their customer journey across all touchpoints. CRM vendors are developing solutions that can be easily incorporated into other systems, either through native integrations or through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This enables businesses to have a thorough knowledge of their customers, from their initial interactions with the company to their purchases and post-purchase interactions.
Cloud-based CRM
Cloud-based CRMs offer several advantages over on-premise solutions, including scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. Cloud-based solutions also allow businesses to access their CRM data from anywhere, which is especially important for businesses with remote or distributed teams. CRM vendors are developing cloud-based solutions that are easy to deploy and manage. Many vendors offer both cloud-based and on-premise solutions, giving businesses the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their customer needs.
Mobile CRM
With the growing use of mobile devices, businesses need to be able to access their CRM data from anywhere. Mobile CRM solutions allow businesses to access their CRM data from their mobile devices, making it easier for them to stay connected with customers and manage their sales pipeline on the go. CRM vendors are developing mobile applications that enable businesses to access their CRM data from their smartphones and tablets. These mobile apps offer a wide range of features, including lead and opportunity management, contact management, and task management.
AI and Automation
AI and automation can help businesses streamline their sales and marketing processes and enhance their customer experience. AI and automation can also help businesses identify patterns and trends in customer behavior, allowing them to make data-driven decisions. CRM vendors are incorporating AI and automation capabilities into their solutions. These capabilities include predictive analysis, chatbots, and automated workflows, which can help businesses automate repetitive tasks, such as lead scoring and lead nurturing, allowing sales teams to focus on more high-value activities.
For instance, AI-powered chatbots can help businesses offer round-the-clock customer support, answer frequently asked questions, and even handle simple transactions. This can help businesses reduce response times, improve customer satisfaction, and free-up staff to focus on more complex tasks.
Another example is predictive analytics in CRM, which provides deeper insightful data into customer behavior. Predictive analytics acquires customer information and makes predictions based on them, thereby helping to forecast the future behavior of potential and existing customers. This evolution in today’s technological era can benefit businesses in several ways.
Voice-enabled CRM
Voice-enabled CRM makes use of natural language processing (NLP), which is a subfield of AI, and voice recognition technologies to allow customers to interact with businesses using voice commands. This can improve the customer experience by reducing the need for customers to type in data or navigate complex menus. Voice-based CRMs can also help businesses improve their productivity by allowing sales teams to update their CRM data using voice commands, rather than having to manually enter data.
Blockchain-Based CRM
This can help businesses improve their data accuracy and reduce the risk of data errors or duplicates. Moreover, blockchain technology can provide a way for businesses to securely share customer data with partners and vendors, thereby improving collaboration and efficiency.
Social CRM
Social CRM makes use of social media platforms to engage with customers, respond to customer inquiries, and promote products and services. Social media platforms offer businesses an opportunity to engage with customers in real time, providing a more personalized and interactive experience. Social CRM can also help businesses monitor their brand reputation and track customer sentiment. By analyzing social media data, businesses can gain insights into customer preferences, identify trends, and improve their marketing efforts.
Market Outlook
The CRM market is expected to exhibit strong growth in the coming years. This growth is attributed to factors such as increasing focus on customer engagement for a long time and increasing use of customer relationship management software in small and medium-scale enterprises globally. In addition, the digital transformation in enterprises due to the COVID-19 outbreak, increasing adoption of bringing your own device (BYOD) ecosystem due to the increasing use of smartphones as well as the high operational efficiency and less operational cost of a CRM software are likely to create opportunities for growth in the CRM market. Allied Market Research predicts that the global CRM market is expected to accrue a sum of $96.39 billion by 2027, thereby growing at a CAGR of 11.1% during the forecast period 2020 to 2027.
Recent Developments in the Customer Relation Management Industry
To stay competitive in the market, players in the CRM market are focusing on helping companies in various industries to enhance their operations and increase their overall efficiency by improving their customer relationship management capabilities. They are adopting strategies such as product launches, acquisitions, partnerships, and more to grab a market share and fortify their position.
Success stories in CRM
RealPage
For instance, in September 2022, RealPage, a company that provides property management software and data analytics to the real estate industry, announced its decision to acquire Knock CRM (Knock), a developer of customer relationship management technology. The acquisition brings together the latter’s range of products and the former’s capabilities in AI, yield management, and smart property management solutions, and enables the companies to develop an operating platform to accelerate net operating income (NOI) for the multifamily sector’s multi-trillion dollar asset class.
Dana Jones, CEO of RealPage, believes that the deal drives their plan to offer a next-generation front office platform that supports centralized leasing. Knock enables them to cater to their customers’ demands with a connected platform that enables an AI-driven virtual operating model.
Capgemini SE
In September 2022, Capgemini SE, a multinational information technology services and consulting company acquired Aodigy, a CRM consulting company that provides expert advice and implementation services focusing on Salesforce. The acquisition of the latter allows Capgemini to strengthen its regional capabilities to provide end-to-end digital transformation at scale. This is because, through the acquisition, Capegemini has access to Aodigy’s range of Salesforce ecosystem’s customer engagement products, such as cloud migration, customer interaction, sales optimization, and business process automation.
According to Tjioe Yeow Chong, Co-Founder and Partner of Aodigy Asia Pacific, their capabilities in customer relationship management, business, and technology complement well with Capegemini’s expertise in digital transformation. Hence, the acquisition allows them to provide new career opportunities for their skilled resource and allow access to Capgemini’s end-to-end business solutions to their Singapore and Vietnam customers.
Microsoft Corporation
In June 2022, Microsoft Corporation, a U.S.-based multinational technology company introduced its Microsoft Viva Sales, a new seller experience application. The application enriches a CRM system with customer engagement data from Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams and makes use of artificial intelligence to give personalized insights and recommendations, streamlining the seller experience. It provides sellers with the advantage of closing deals faster as they are able to customize their interactions with their customers more efficiently and connect deeply with them. With Viva Sales, sellers do not need to do data entry manually, which helps save sellers time, and provides the organization with a thorough knowledge of a customer.
All in all, Customer Relation Management has great potential and is likely to play a tremendous role in the success of future businesses. The market is constantly evolving, with novel technologies and innovations emerging to measure customer engagement and sales enablement. The future revolves around how organizations put CRM systems to maximum use and reap the benefits by knowing their full potential.
BIO
Sharmistha Bose has always had a keen interest in reading and writing. An engineering graduate, she forayed into the field of writing due to her love for words and the urge to do something different. Allied Market Research has given her the chance to gain knowledge about different subjects as a Specialist Content Writer.
