Customers are the lifeblood of your business. More customers mean more sales and better business growth. That is why your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy is a critical part of your overall business operations.

However, fostering better relationships to improve customer retention rates and finding new clients are two different things. Yet, they are both crucial components of your CRM strategy! The good news is that with the right CRM software, you are able to find new customers and keep the existing ones at a more productive and efficient pace.

Overall, the introduction of the CRM software has enabled business organizations of all sizes to graduate from manual, time-intensive, and error-prone CRM practices.

With CRM, collecting and updating customer information is automated, while identifying and working with high-quality leads are no longer difficult tasks. Managers and sales reps no longer have to guess the best time and channel to contact and engage with customers and prospects.

Yes, the CRM software can do wonders for the modern businesses. But what if you could do even more with your CRM software? If used right, the CRM software will not only help you gain more customers, but also increase your sales revenues exponentially.

There are so many ways to improve customer relationships and increase revenue, if you know what to do with your CRM solution. Here are 3 ways your CRM system can help you make your customers happy.

1. Upsell and cross-sell right

Buyers are always on the lookout for things that add value to their transactions, whether they are actively searching for them or not. So, when your sales reps introduce additional items that are relevant or create more value on top of a purchase, also referred to as upselling and cross-selling, buyers are more likely to convert and make the purchase.

So, how does the CRM software help your sales reps upsell and cross-sell?

For one, you can take a look into a customer’s information including purchase history, comments, viewed items, buying behaviors, browsing patterns, and more. Two, communication records (live chat logs, emails and texts) contain information that can be analyzed to determine your customers’ needs and wants among other things.

But how do upselling and cross-selling (based on knowing the customer’s behaviors and needs) increase customer satisfaction rates through?

If executed well, you not only generate more sales for your business, but also enhance your relationship with your customers because they enjoyed the items your reps suggested and really derived great value from them.

2. Personalize every interaction with customers

According to a recently published paper on B2B marketing by the CMO Council, only 13% of B2B companies are able to generate profits from their current customers, while 77% fail to maximize existing customer relationships. The latter failure stems from the inability to deliver personalized experiences to customers.

A personalized experience is one surefire way how to improve your CRM performance. A 2018 research on marketing performance discovered that today’s customers, whether B2B or B2C, are actually expecting a personalized experience! The study reported that an overwhelming majority – 80% of customers are more likely to transact with companies that provide personalized end-to-end customer experience.

And that's why one of the biggest trends in CRM right now is personalization!

The CRM system allows you to easily gather and analyze customer information, as well as derive actionable insights. These insights will enable you and your sales and marketing teams to create a positive experience for every customer, based on their preferences, behavior, previous interactions, and more.

Whenever a certain customer visits your website, he or she is automatically greeted with products that are relevant to his/her previous purchases, recent product searches, and communication. Every time a customer contacts customer support for an old problem or concern, the agent can easily retrieve all previous interactions and chat logs, eliminating the need for the customer to repeat all the information.

Personalizing your customers’ experience with the help of the CRM system safeguards a successful customer journey in which every step is streamlined, fast and seamless.

3. Anticipate demand with analytics

Demand simply ebbs and flows. Such is its nature.

But to really succeed in any business endeavor, you need to predict demand as accurately as you can. Otherwise, you might end up having too much in your stock when no one is buying or running short when products are selling like hotcakes.

Demand is a precious component in business. So precious that the sports giant Nike decided to acquire Celect – a Boston-based upstart tech company that specializes in consumer analytics technology.

Commenting on its latest tech buyout, Nike’s Chief Operating Officer, Eric Sprunk said that it’s all about anticipating demand at a more personal scale. With Celect, Nike’s website and mobile apps can instantly identify customers’ preferences and leverage that information to predict the products they want to purchase.

If your business is selling goods, then demand forecasting is an essential tool that you want to have. But not all business is as well-funded as Nike.

Fortunately, your CRM software, together with other systems, like inventory management, ERP and business analytics, can help you create nearly accurate demand forecasts. Relevant data, such as seasonal spikes, historical trends, prevailing sentiments and feedback, foot traffic, and even the weather, can be analyzed using CRM forecasting tools to predict future demand.

CRM strategy as the key to success

There are many CRM software systems available nowadays.

Hence, it’s important that you choose the right tool that meets your specific business needs. On top of that, you have to make sure you have a sound CRM strategy in place in order to maximize your CRM system’s potential.

This combination – CRM strategy + CRM system – is the most efficient way to increase employee productivity and drive customer success.

In this article, we talked about how you can improve and utilize your CRM software to drive conversions and revenue. Having all your strategies and tools to meet your specific business requirements is crucial. Yet, in order to ensure the ongoing success, make sure to future-proof your business processes to the quickly shifting landscapes of today’s industries.

If you would like to learn more about how to use CRM to make your customers happy, book a demo with one of our CRM experts below.