When the CRM partnership just doesn’t work
For the past three decades, CRM has become one of the most tried and tested methods of driving sales and service activities in all market sectors, especially housebuilding.
However, problems can quickly arise when a chosen CRM system doesn’t work in tandem with partner platforms and workflow can quickly become clumsy, slow, expensive and inefficient.
Dorne Wood, sales manager for ContactBuilder, says that when CRM information isn’t in sync with associated software, it can become a match made in data-driven hell and extremely counter-productive, because the two platforms are working against each other rather than in tandem.
She comments: “In my experience of working with housebuilding sales teams, if CRM software isn’t linked directly to websites and other marketing platforms, such as email, the user experience can become highly confusing, frustrating and, most importantly, out of date. This not only causes problems for the user, but for the customer as well, as they will receive communications not accurately tailored to their requirements.
“Importing data becomes a headache, synchronising information becomes time consuming and users often have to move from one application to another, with different software sometimes having completely different logic.
“Without an advanced solution in place where information such as accounts, customer details and product data are together under one roof, it can become like a mismatched jigsaw.”
Whilst clashing interfaces are never ideal, the easy solution is to partner with a CRM provider where purpose-built partner platforms can be efficiently and cost-effectively integrated, to allow automatic sharing and updating of information across all marketing tools.
Dorne adds: “The huge benefit of a management solution such as ours is that workflows are pre-defined and very little integration work with existing infrastructure is required, leaving sales teams to do nothing more than begin tracking and managing sales and optimising the marketing automation capabilities of your CRM system.
“The business value of seamlessly integrating software, web, SMS, email and even social media far outweigh the investment. What’s more, it immediately helps organisations to gain a clearer view of the behavioral patterns of customers and enable companies to customise their marketing activities accordingly.”
CRM is an indispensable, behind-the-scenes enabler that allows organisations to keep track of its customers and business objectives, and done right it can deliver great business value.
Getting it right, however, is often the challenge for time-pressed organisations looking for smart and fast business solutions.
To discover more about a CRM system which is simple to use, cost effective and can integrate seamlessly with websites, SMS and email, get in touch with via contact-builder.co.uk.