A Beginner’s Guide to CRM Systems

Imagine a tool that not only keeps all your customer information in one place but also enhances your interactions, streamlines your sales process and boosts your marketing efforts. That tool is real and it’s called a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

It acts as your ultimate assistant, helping you manage customer relationships more effectively and making every interaction count. Whether you're a growing business or part of a large corporation, a CRM system is your key to unlocking a more organised, efficient, and profitable business strategy. Let’s dig into what a CRM system is, its key features, its benefits, and how to choose the right one for your business.

At its core, a CRM system helps manage customer data. A CRM system helps businesses keep customer contact details up to date, track every customer interaction and manage customer accounts. It’s also designed to help businesses improve customer relationships and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

A customer relationship management (CRM) system helps manage customer data. It supports sales management, delivers actionable insights, integrates with social media and facilitates team communication. Cloud-based CRM systems offer complete mobility and access to an ecosystem of bespoke apps.

CRMs can help every team work better. Let’s break down how:

Sales teams use CRMs to manage leads, track sales opportunities and organise customer interactions. Service teams use it as a unified platform for managing customer support tickets and service requests for faster resolution times. Marketing teams automate and manage marketing campaigns across multiple channels for targeted efforts. Commerce teams manage inventory, and integrate purchase history and customer preferences to personalise shopping experiences. And data teams provide analytics and reporting tools for deeper insights into customer behaviour and trends.

CRM systems can be categorised into three main types, each serving a unique function in managing customer relationships:

• Operational CRM: This type focuses on streamlining day-to-day operations involving direct interactions with customers. It includes automation of marketing, sales and service operations, helping businesses efficiently manage customer touchpoints. It's designed to simplify processes and enhance the customer experience from initial contact through acquisition and retention.
• Analytical CRM: This type is centred around the collection and analysis of customer data. Businesses use analytical CRMs to understand customer preferences, behaviours and patterns by analysing the data accumulated from various customer interactions. This insight allows for more informed decision-making and strategic planning, aiming to tailor services and marketing efforts to better meet customer needs.
• Collaborative CRM: This system enhances communication and collaboration among stakeholders, including partners, suppliers and teams, as well as customers. By enabling internal and external sharing of customer information, collaborative CRM ensures a unified approach to customer service. This integration helps deliver a consistent customer experience and builds stronger customer relationships.

And the good news is that Salesforce delivers all three types in one unified platform. By streamlining operations, offering AI-powered analytics, and collaborating with every team, you’ve got the power of all CRM systems in one.

CRM systems come equipped with a variety of key features that help businesses manage customer relationships more effectively. Here are some of them:

Contact management allows businesses to store and manage customer contact information, such as names, addresses, phone numbers and social media accounts, in a centralised database. Organising this information in a way that’s easily accessible to various teams facilitates better communication and service delivery.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in CRM systems can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of customer relationship management. With generative AI (GenAI) it can automate routine tasks, provide predictive analytics and personalise customer interactions by analysing data.

Sales management streamlines all phases of the sales process, from lead generation to closing deals. It includes tools for tracking sales opportunities, managing sales pipelines and forecasting sales. This helps sales teams to be more organised and focused, increasing their productivity and success rates.

CRM systems record every customer interaction, including emails, phone calls and meetings. This information is crucial for understanding customer needs and preferences and provides a comprehensive view of the customer journey. It enables businesses to tailor their approach to each customer.

Workflow automation in CRM refers to the use of software tools to streamline and automate routine business processes within customer relationship management to enhance efficiency and improve customer service. By automating repetitive tasks and workflows, CRM systems alleviate the workload on employees and reduce the chances of human error. This feature streamlines business processes and ensures that important tasks are completed on time.

CRM systems offer advanced reporting and analytics tools that provide insights into customer behaviour, sales trends and overall business performance. These analytics are available on customisable dashboards that let each team pull in the information that is most relevant to them. These insights are vital for strategic planning and can help businesses adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs.

With the right CRM strategy and the right tools for the job, business growth is seamless. Using a CRM system offers a range of benefits that can enhance business operations and customer relations. Here are just a few:

• Improved customer satisfaction: CRM systems help businesses provide a high level of service by maintaining detailed records of customer interactions, preferences and customer feedback. This enables personalised communication and services tailored to individual customer needs.
• Increased sales and efficiency: By automating sales processes and providing tools for managing sales pipelines and customer data, CRM systems enhance the efficiency of sales teams. This streamlined approach reduces the time spent on administrative tasks and allows sales teams to focus more on selling and less on managing data.
• Better collaboration: CRM systems facilitate better cohesiveness within and across teams by providing a shared platform where all customer-related information is accessible. This ensures everyone is on the same page and can work together more effectively to meet customer needs and achieve business goals.
• Enhanced data organisation and accessibility: With a CRM system, all customer information is stored in a centralised database that’s organised and easily accessible. This eliminates data silos and ensures that valuable customer information is available to all relevant stakeholders.
• Better customer retention rates: By understanding customer behaviours and trends through detailed analytics, businesses can proactively address issues, anticipate customer needs and foster positive relationships. CRM systems help identify at-risk customers and implement retention strategies, which helps reduce churn.

Choosing the right CRM system for your business depends on a number of factors.

Every business has unique needs. A CRM system should adapt to specific processes and workflows. This is particularly important for businesses with specialised products or services.

Consider whether the CRM system can grow with your business. For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the system might need to handle fewer customer interactions initially, but right from implementation, it should be capable of scaling up as the business grows in size and complexity.

Look at how well the CRM system integrates with other tools you already use, such as email marketing services, social media platforms and accounting software. Seamless integration reduces complexity and boosts productivity.

The ease of use of the CRM system is important, especially for small to medium-sized businesses that may not have the resources to train staff extensively. A user-friendly interface ensures higher adoption rates.

With the increasing need for remote access to business tools, ensure that the CRM system offers a mobile version or app that allows your team to access customer data and perform tasks from anywhere.

Customer support and training for CRM involves providing users with the necessary assistance and educational resources to maximise the tool's benefits for improved customer interactions and business operations. Good customer support and training resources are essential for helping your team make the most of your CRM system. This is particularly important for businesses that are new to CRMs.

And, compare the total costs against the benefits. A simple way to estimate return on investment (ROI) is to subtract the total costs from the total benefits and then divide by the total costs. This will give you a percentage that represents your ROI.

Beyond immediate financial gains, consider the long-term strategic value of implementing a CRM system, such as staying competitive, adapting to market changes more quickly and building a more resilient business.

Salesforce is a great example of a world-leading, cloud-based CRM software system. It offers a range of innovative and far-reaching CRM solutions that can be effectively customised for businesses of all sizes. Key advantages include:

• Cloud-based: Because Salesforce is a cloud CRM that runs entirely on its own sophisticated and secure remote infrastructure, there’s no need to spend precious time maintaining hardware and software. Plus, the setup is fast and cost-effective.
• AI capabilities: Powered by AI, Salesforce provides advanced analytics, predictive insights, personalised customer experiences and automated task management to enhance decision-making and efficiency across various business processes.
• Scalability: With Salesforce, pricing is based on the number of users — a business just pays for what it actually needs. Additional users and applications can be added as a business expands, so the CRM system grows with the organisation.
• Ease of use: Salesforce makes it easy to log in from anywhere, view and update customer data and work with colleagues, at any time.
• Customisability: When a business wants to add modules or fields, create sales processes or change workflows, it’s all just a click away.
• Collaboration: Businesses use Salesforce to smartly manage and harmonise many key functions of their operation, including sales, marketing, customer service, human resources, ecommerce and more. And, using Slack for collaboration enables teams to communicate in real-time, share files and integrate with apps for a more connected and efficient work environment.
• Automatic upgrades: Users benefit from automatic software updates of the best new features across the platform while keeping their data secure.
• Mobility: The Salesforce app is available for smartphones and tablets, with more than 7,000 apps available from the Salesforce AppExchange ecosystem.
• Integration options: Salesforce’s robust APIs make it possible to integrate the platform with almost any other software.

Choosing the best CRM system for you is crucial for enhancing business operations, improving customer relationships, and driving sales growth. It's important to consider a platform that fits your current needs and scales with your growing business.

By choosing Salesforce, you can ensure that your team has the tools they need to succeed, backed by reliable support and continuous innovation. Explore Salesforce today to discover how it can transform your customer management and propel your business forward. Try it out for free.

Caylin White is an Editorial Lead and Growth Manager for Small Business at Salesforce. She has written content for over 15 years for many SaaS industries, like WordPress and BuzzSumo. She specialises in SEO but is sure to add a human-centric angle to every piece.