5 steps for a successful CRM process

What are the 5 steps of the CRM process?

1. Introduce them to your business

The first step on how to introduce prospective clients to your business is by building brand awareness through effective marketing campaigns. To start this step, you should segment audiences by analyzing their consuming habits and qualities, such as:

• age,
• gender,
• hobbies,
• salary, etc.

Thus, you understand them and have a clear perspective on their likes and needs to captivate them when contacting them for the first time.

? Tip: for the overall CRM process, data compilation is the most important part, since it allows the marketing and sales team to have a picture of their targeted users. This allows them to make better-informed decisions according to the needs of their audience.

2. Engage them

Following the marketing campaign, the engagement part can and must be made via all communication channels in a unified way: mail, SMS, telephone, social networks, etc. However, being multi-channel does not mean replicating your communication on all media. It is a question of adapting one’s communication according to the different spaces of exchange.

? Tip: users feel more engaged with the brand when they make quick responses or comments on social media. Ex: friendly banter, daily jokes, sudden offers, etc.

3. Converse them

This is the step where you actually see the profits of an effective CRM approach. The purpose here is to convert an audience or lead to an actual client. For this step, you must be very cautious and do extensive research on future clients, in order to offer a quality service.

? Tip: a very important part of client retention is the whole service experience. Every day, it is more difficult to achieve brand loyalty, because of new competition. This is why offering a unique value experience becomes imperative.

4. Provide quality customer service

This is the step where you should really use CRM as a motto instead of a function. After the conversion period where clients received their goods or services, it is of extreme importance to know the client’s user experience in order to optimize your offer and understand what changes to make for the improved customer journey and customer experience.

? Tip: this is an imperative step for maintaining consumer relevancy, a measure that, if not taken to account, can lead companies to bankruptcy and overall profit loss, due to a lack of innovation and not understanding consumer trends, making users lose the interest in what they have to offer.

5. Invest in Loyalty and Upgrading

Finally, the key step in the CRM process is the support you provide to your customers. By definition, customer relations are cyclical: your objective is to reduce your attrition rate (loss of customers) to a minimum by offering customer support. When it is responsive and when requests are well managed, it can be a strong brand loyalty factor, making the customer feel valued and grateful for the special attention you’ have given them.

In addition to retaining customers for increasing profits, another way is to focus on upgrading their purchasing order by switching their shopping habits to more luxury products or services. This way you are offering the users a unique and valued experience while increasing customer spending.

Average returns from companies that invest in CRM technology are $8.71 for each dollar spent.