Customers are the means and the end of any business…. the alpha and the omega ….the bread and the butter …No business can survive without a pool of loyal customers.

CRM practices for beginners, SMBs and startups are the first and basic stride in forming a customer-oriented approach. CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a customer-centric marketing process.

Find more about CRM in the white paper ‘Factors to consider while evaluating CRM’ and get up and about leveraging the platform for best results!

What does CRM do?

CRM prepares and stores your customer’s entire report card, from the point of time a customer approaches you, through the conversation, engagement, sale, follow-up, service, after-sales support, etc.

It is the repertoire of your customer’s particulars, the communications you have had with them, every timeline, each customer’s progress, purchase history, likes and preferences all of these information kept in one place.

In this digital age, CRM is available to businesses as a tool that stores details about every interaction you have with your customers.

The process of CRM revolves around marketing, sales, support and follow up which are the key handles of the process of managing long-term relationship with your customers.

CRM Process Flow

Why do you need CRM?

The objective of CRM is to maintain relations with your existing customers and to gain new customers.

For beginners, millennial entrepreneurs, small business owners and startups, here are 8 best CRM practices that you can follow for long-lasting relationship with your customers.

1.Contact management system:

A contact management system which maintains and updates all your customer related information is the basic and foremost practice.

A robust contact management system will

• Tell you which customers are most valuable and which are dormant.
• Update and manage your contact list.
• Communicate differently to different customers.
• Score your customers using analytics.

Lead management system:

Businesses will need intelligent CRM that can simplify their work and lead them to take sound business decisions. Capture your leads from social media through call-to-actions, twitter cards, contests or sweepstakes.

You can also capture your walk-in or on-site leads with few clicks on any device. A CRM platform also enables you to design a lead capture form with a personal touch as per your business needs.

An intelligent CRM platform will

• Automatically capture website leads and qualify leads.
• Differentiate between leads
• Use machine learning algorithms to score leads
• Rank leads
• Treat leads differently
• Capture all customer interactions
• Nurture leads

3. Pipeline Management:

Most deals fail to fructify because sales people don’t follow up regularly. Communication is vital to develop and maintain fruitful customer relations.

Many a times, you get reply from a customer you had contacted 6 months or a year back. You will never know from where your lead would come

So, communicate… communicate…communicate!

4. Customer Segmentation

Segmenting your customers on the basis of their buying patterns, prominence, transaction behavior, etc. helps you to take targeted marketing decisions.

CRM allows you to do a comprehensive customer profiling which will identify similar customer segments and clusters for personalized and target marketing.

Slice and dice mechanism along with micro-segmentation allows you to serve your customers according to their specific needs.

Statistical modelling and data science enables you to identify customers who are likely to churn.

CRM also identifies the factors that lead to customer churn. You can then run targeted campaigns to reduce or curb the churn.

5. Sales Forecasting

Make use of statistical sales forecasting to help your sales team take suitable corrective measures.

Monitor the success of your sales efforts through 24/7 automated tracking.

CRM platform like zigihub provides sales success insights which reveal:

• Funnel efficiency, channel efficiency
• Stage wise pipeline, win-loss ratio on individual and aggregate level
• Activity details at individual and aggregate levels
• Sales performance at various evaluation parameters

The platform provides scenario based forecasting and statistical forecasting.

6.Leverage Analytics

Predictive analytics predicts patterns and trends by mining data from existing datasets.

zigihub is a CRM platform which leverages data science and machine learning for data discovery and uses statistical modelling to give best business results.

Analytics is used to perform two pivotal tasks:

• Identify and convert high potential leads.
• Provide insights to grow and retain existing customers.

Technology platforms perform these tasks automatically using analytics. SMBs and startups can leverage these analytics to grow and obtain fast results.

7.Deal Management

• Track all your deals as they move through your pipeline and stay updated on how close you are from winning a deal.
• Keep a tab and follow up every move your team takes to win a deal.
• Record and manage all interactions and communication done in the process, including notes, emails, reminders, etc.
• Rate your deals which allows you to focus on high priority deals.
• Get timely notifications of the activities related to a deal.

8. Account Management

• Manage all you accounts and related information at a single place.
• Add account information like, contacts, deals, task, activities, interactions, notes and manage them as it progresses.
• Easily add contacts, deals, tasks, etc. related to an account.
• Timeline view enables complete chronological display of interactions, events and activities related an account.
• zigihub mobile app lets you quickly add notes about meetings, conversations, feedback, or anything else you need to add against an account.
• You will be able to view and edit your notes on the go.
• No need to worry if you don’t have an internet connection, you can access zigihub’s mobile app in offline mode and sync as soon you connect to a network.

Conclusion

For small businesses, startups, beginners and early entrepreneurs, CRM is a window of opportunities. Finding new customers and managing existing customers is a challenge for any business.

As a beginner or Mid-market firm, you must take this opportunity to maximize your serviceability and to further scale your operations. zigihub’s unique CRM predictive analysis leverages data science to help beginners, small businesses and startups retain and grow their existing customers.

Find more about CRM in the white paper ‘Factors to consider while evaluating CRM’ and get up and about leveraging the platform for best results!