Features you should necessarily include while building custom CRM software for your business.

The digital arena we currently live in is quite competitive. However, ask any business owner, and they will tell you there has never been an easier time to start your own business. That is because today, there are so many technologies and tools that a business owner can use to make day-to-day operations simpler and easy to handle. CRM or Customer Relationship Management software is one such tool.

Whether you are an established business or just starting out, you can benefit immensely through CRM software development. A customized CRM solution creates incredible possibilities for growth, be it for a small business or a huge enterprise. It has never been more crucial for businesses to handle prospects and existing customers skillfully and carefully.

This is why it is so important to know about CRM and what features a reliable CRM software must have. But before we delve into the features, let us first understand what a CRM is and in which domains of the enterprise it is used.

What Is a CRM and Where Is It Used?

Essentially, any kind of plan, device, method, or technology used for attracting, acquiring, and developing clients is referred to as CRM. You can create a customized CRM by acquiring custom CRM development services. With the help of a custom CRM, sales and marketing representatives find it easier to control client life cycles and automate operations.

By gathering client data in one place, CRM solutions support crucial operations. This allows automated business procedures, structured relationships, closely monitored performance, and increased efficiency.

There is no department within a business that does not benefit from CRM software. CRM functions assist you in managing contacts and relationships to promote success in all business areas, including customer service, sales, hiring, business development, marketing, and any other line of business. Utilizing client and prospect data, you can build:

A contact database,
Spot intriguing sales possibilities,
Handle marketing initiatives, and
Track customer support issues.

Every employee at the business can access customer contacts if they need them. Sales personnel can effectively collaborate, increasing efficiency and fostering company development, with sufficient visibility and simple access to data.

What Features Should A CRM Software Have?

Now that you have familiarized yourself with what CRM software is and where it is used within a business, you should learn what features make CRM software effective.

Scheduling Function

If you want to acquire custom CRM development services, mention the prospective development team to build a CRM that can handle contact and scheduling functions. Managing customer contacts is one of the core functions of a CRM system.

● Managing contacts

CRM collects customer information such as names, addresses, and social network handles. It structurally accumulates all that information into a database to be easily searched. Before you proceed with CRM software development, make sure that the design and layout of contact management serve your purposes well. Pay attention to the way different fields are displayed. Check if they are aligned to suit how contact management operations are usually handled within your business.

● Tracking customer interactions

CRM helps you to keep track of your interactions with certain contacts. It enables you to add notes and keeps a record of every communication exchange that has occurred with those contacts, so in the future, you can revisit the entire engagement history if you need to. An efficient CRM always enables collaboration between all required stakeholders.

● Managing leads

CRM helps you manage the sales funnel by locating, rating, and advancing leads as they transition from candidates to prospective clients (leads). Whether getting a ready-made CRM or building a customized one, ensure the lead management process aligns with your business. To ensure you get a CRM tool that fits your needs, you can ask your head of sales to test the ready-made CRM solution or collaborate with the development team.

Sales Tools

Sales is another domain where CRM software can be of immense help. Below are some of the sales features to look for in a CRM.

● Pipeline management

Ask any sales representative, and they will tell you that following up on leads is probably their toughest task. CRM helps sales personnel in managing sales pipelines effectively and efficiently. Hence, if you plan to build a custom CRM tool, ensure it helps out your sales reps by engaging more customers and increasing sales.

● Mobile CRM

Your sales team is always willing to go the distance, literally and figuratively, to bring you customers. However, even they find it tiresome to log and update their tasks after a long work day. What can really help them out is something that can follow them wherever they are. This is why there is a need for a mobile CRM. With a cloud-based, mobile CRM application, sales representatives can easily update their targets and quota reports. They can track the entire sales pipeline and update information in real-time with the help of a CRM.

Automation

This has to be the best feature offered by CRM software. It undoubtedly makes your life easy. Imagine this- you have to set the rules just once, and from then on, tasks would get done by themselves. Isn’t that amazing? This is exactly how a CRM works. It automates workflow, effectively skyrocketing the overall productivity of your team. It not only frees up the time that would otherwise go to repetitive, tedious tasks but also considerably fastens the task completion process, as some of those tasks take longer when done manually.

Below are some of the tasks a CRM can automate for you:

It sends a message to the relevant sales agent or department when a prospective client provides information on the website.

It sends a pre-written answer to recognize messages when a sales agent receives the
m.
After a stipulated time, the CRM automatically sends a follow-up message to leads/prospects who have not yet replied to the proposal.

CRM automatically logs the time and tracks the calls and messages the sales rep sends to prospects/clients.

CRM automatically sends the performance reports of sales representatives to supervisors or managers once they have finished their allotted work.

Inventory Management

Using information from purchase orders and client orders, a CRM comprising inventory management functions can provide an overview of present fulfillment possibilities. The CRM system automates many functions that otherwise require a lot of time. The workflow optimization significantly benefits small companies, as they can function well without a dedicated marketing staff.

Customers can make an informed purchase choice by viewing the products that are accessible in real time. A CRM can help you track customer purchases to identify patterns in your target market using in-depth customer profiles. A CRM cum inventory management system can instantly allocate inbound orders to team members based on importance and availability.

Analytics Quality

The quality of client analytics with CRM is something to marvel at. A CRM can provide a comprehensive understanding of client information. This information is crucial because it can aid in your decision-making regarding the kinds of goods and services, marketing campaigns, and user experience at different touchpoints you offer to your clients.

Analyzing data from previous marketing endeavors and initiatives will help you make your future sales efforts much more effective. You require a CRM to gather information from all sources, such as user surveys, social media, website visits, etc. You will frequently get reports summarizing the sales team’s success in addition to revenue numbers. When it comes to statistics, you can decide what information you want to include in reports, such as location, sales funnel stage or even the identity of the sales representative. By identifying issues early on, you can work much more proactively and gain real-time input into the sales process.

Conclusion

After going through the features above, you probably discovered some features that surprised you. You probably never thought it was possible for a sales representative in your team to update you on the latest client they closed just after they had walked out of the client meeting. You might think, “I run a small business. I don’t need all that jazz.” And you are right. Not all businesses need a CRM that can do all of the above to effectively organize and manage their client interactions and sales processes. To each their own.

However, suppose you are a relatively large enterprise with thousands of leads to manage and track countless meetings and tasks. In that case, a CRM, preferably a customized CRM, is absolutely necessary for you. Carefully consider the features that would best help the productivity and performance of your team, and share it with the development team. Lastly, do not worry about custom CRM development costs hurting your pocket. There are savvy custom development companies out there who can help create the best software for your enterprise needs. So stop waiting and start building.