By Praveen Kumar, CEO, Sell.Do
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has come a long way in the last few decades and is an essential technology platform for SMEs and enterprises today.
Today, a CRM platform has become a necessity for companies across all sectors. And when it comes to real estate, with its lengthy buying cycle and where the service is equally critical as the product, CRM is an indispensable part of the business.
Creating real engagement and deep relationships with customers is vital to sales and success. A report by Forrester Research states that leads nurtured through a CRM system convert about 47% of the time and conversion rates can increase by up to 300%!
Every year, real estate CRM platforms are helping companies get better results with their sales efforts. Let’s see what the New Year has in store for the CRM landscape.
1.The Indispensability of A Mobile CRM
Today, smartphones have become an inseparable part of our lives. Having the complete capabilities of a CRM system on a smartphone will offer real-time access to information at any time and place for increased efficiency.
A recent study by SuperOffice.com mentioned that 48% of users already access CRM through their smartphones and 45% use their tablets. And this has resulted in a 15% increase in productivity in employees. Capterra reported that 65% of sales representatives who use mobile CRM achieved their sales targets versus only 22% for those who use traditional CRM systems. Having already delivered great results, mobile versions of CRM platforms are set to be an unquestionable offering in 2019.
2.Smarter Usage of Data owing to Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the matchless capability of analyzing thousands of customer interactions across various channels in a short time. AI helps to obtain and crunch through insightful customer data, thus enabling sales & marketing teams to predict customer needs.
With accurate segmentation, improved personalization and deeper customer engagement, AI-powered CRM systems will help sales & marketing teams to save time and resources. According to a study by IDC White Paper, “AI associated with CRM activities will boost global business revenue by $1.1 trillion by the end of 2021.”
3.Better Engagement with Social CRM
Social media is a gold mine of data for marketers as it contains real information uploaded by the users themselves! Marketers can use these platforms to meaningfully engage with their prospective customers as well as existing ones. Of course, social media platforms host an ocean of data that has to be properly processed and analyzed if it is to be used. This is where automation plays a vital role.
Through Social CRM, marketing messages and offers can be delivered in an organic way and service-related issues can be handled more personally, casually and quickly. Social CRM can be used to seamlessly integrate multiple platforms in the future to leverage insights and engage customers.
4.More Productivity with Intra-organisational Collaboration
Improving customer experience is the main utility of a CRM tool. However, expect to see new features introduced in CRM tools that will enable inter-team collaboration within the organization to increase productivity. The new-age CRM will streamline workflows by removing information silos and providing all-around customer and prospect information and access to functions like Project Management, Deal Tracking, Scheduling, etc. across the organization. This will enable teams to collaborate on specific campaigns and leverage insights from multiple sources to enhance customer profiles and provide better service.
5.Response Time Will Reduce
Millennials are becoming the next generation of buyers with high spending power. So marketers will need to be on their toes to respond the fastest to their new consumers who are known to have short attention spans and an inclination for instant gratification. Slow response time will show a careless or sluggish attitude on the company’s part and may prompt the new-age consumers to move on to competitors.
A study by Forrester Research reported that over 75% of adults said valuing their time was the most important thing a company could do in providing good service. Another research by Gartner discovered that poor response times resulted in up to 15% customers to switch brands. To shorten the response time, CRM tools will help the sales and marketing teams with features like automated responses, timely reminders to sales representatives, sending automated informational SMS/Emails to consumers, etc.
Final Thoughts
In 2019, AI-powered and mobile CRM systems will help marketers & sales persons better interpret data and reduce turnaround time. As CRMs become easier to use and faster, the pressure for the value delivered in terms of insights, TAT and customization is on the rise in the competitive real estate industry.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
