Does your business need a CRM strategy?

If you don't, a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy might just be what you need to boost your business. Here's what you should know.

CRM in a nutshell

When you boil it down, every business is essentially about engaging as many customers or clients as possible. So, in order to see your business thrive, you need to continue to find new ways to generate those all-important leads. A CRM strategy is designed to help you do that by building and nurturing customer relationships with the help of data.

What goes into a CRM strategy?

All CRM strategies usually incorporate three key aspects:

1. Learning about the customer and collecting data on them

2. Organising that data to inform your sales process and marketing initiatives

3. Optimising your customer interactions to increase customer satisfaction

That said, not all CRM strategies are created equally. According to Forbes, there are three ways you can go about it, depending on your objective:

• Operational: An operational CRM strategy typically uses past customer data, such as previous marketing campaigns, purchases and customer feedback, to optimise future communications. For retail and e-commerce businesses that have a short sales cycle, an operational strategy works because it can make CRM much more efficient.
• Analytical: If you operate in a highly competitive market, an analytical CRM strategy could be the right fit. It detects customer needs and service trends through data mining pattern recognition, which can give you an edge over competitors and increase your customer satisfaction levels.
• Collaborative: Sometimes, a better solution can be to join forces with another business. That's when a collaborative CRM strategy can be the right choice. It involves sharing customer data with each other so you can expand your insights with an additional set of eyes. This can allow you to spot oddities and trends you might not have seen otherwise.