Sponsored content: Niall McCaffrey, managing director of ProAptivity, on how customer relationship management software can help your organisation
CRM, or customer relationship management, is a technology that helps organisations manage their relationships and interactions with all their stakeholders.
A good CRM solution allows an organisation to optimize client relationships, enhance service delivery and provide key insights into the organisation’s performance.
There is a perception that the costs outweigh the benefits of CRM for third sector organisations. This is in fact incorrect. Third sector organisations can elevate their competitive advantage and realise great client experiences through implementing a simple CRM solution.
Research reveals that the benefits of CRM are more important than ever, as it is the underlying force that defines wise organisational decisions.
The business world is undergoing a transition; where key decisions are made based on data, not opinion. One of the benefits of CRM for third sector organisations is that it provides all the statistical data necessary to enable educated business decisions to be taken.
Having the ability to undertake data analysis at the touch of a button is fundamental. An example of the data analysis may include customer demographic information, whether a stakeholder responded to a promotion or fundraising campaign, client engagements or services delivered.
Although business intuition is still essential traits for decision makers, their value is “enhanced” by data analyses. Such data-driven decision making can be seen everywhere, from business to sports and politics.
Benefits of CRM for third sector organisations
The benefits of CRM when using stakeholder data and trends are two-fold. Firstly
- By capturing the data and identifying trends, organisations can provide customized offerings to different client profiles.
- By tracking the effectiveness of promotional campaigns organisations can deliver highly-targeted marketing based on proven strategies.
For instance, by analysing data, such as stakeholder communication, CRM can help determine when and which stakeholders are engaged with the organisation and the best way to reach the targeted audience.
Secondly, streamlining organisational processes is a key benefit of CRM. CRM can help:
- Reduce duplication and time wasting across multiple departments.
- With the centralisation of customer information, probably the single biggest benefit.
- Improve communication between teams such as administration and service delivery.
- Improve management of performance and ease of reporting.
- Better tracking improves an organisations ability to predict trends moving forward.
Improved tracking strengthens the client experience feeding directly into better client retention and the likelihood of repeat engagement. This in turn helps organisations grow and deliver better profitability. This enables organisations to increase return on investment.
CRM data sources
CRM software can collect data from various sources in addition to day to day use. Some of these include website registrations which contain treasure troves of data, such as service enquiries and demographic information. Also social media and web analytics can provide additional sources of information.
The benefits of CRM can also be realised in the management decision making processes. This is due to the improvement in the quality of information available for strategic management decision making and that superior forecasting has led to better cash flow and business decisions.
ProAptivity help realise the benefits of CRM for third sector organisations
A CRM system benefits an organisation through the visibility of all its activities. This visibility is fundamental to managing performance and control of processes. This visibility enables management to understand why, when, who and how opportunities are being won, and services delivered. If it cannot be monitored, it cannot be managed. The visibility offered within the CRM system also allows management to make educated business decisions based on hard data. A CRM system will enable structured data to be used to access performance.
ProAptivity are a CRM solutions provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our team of experts provide customers with the tools needed to successfully embed CRM within organisations.
If you need help in understanding ‘why my organisation needs CRM’, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM for more information. Contact us today on 0330 223 6362 for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your organisation is CRM ready. Alternatively email us on info@proaptivity.com.
