Companies currently have all sorts of communication tools available to them. The use of the internet and social media has increased exponentially in recent years, providing companies with new and broader opportunities to connect with their target audience. Using these tools correctly and integrating them with the company CRM can help make your sales strategy a success. But before all else, do you know what a CRM is and what it does? Are you aware of the most popular digital communication tools out there right now? Keep reading to find out everything you need to know.
CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. In its technological incarnation, a CRM is a piece of software that collects information about everyone involved in company operations, namely customers, users, employees and providers.CRM software enables companies to administer interactions with its customers, providing businesses with the opportunity to record, store and check all customer data, schedule events and meetings, and much more in real time. To optimise the performance of your CRM, you need to integrate different communication tools with it.
The most popular digital communication tools
Social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok: social media enables companies to interact with their customers. And it also gives them the opportunity to get back to their users quickly, which improves the customer-company relationship and satisfaction rates. There are many, many benefits of using social media, but just a couple that stand out are that it reduces management costs and helps resolve problems.
Security: Companies need to protect customers’ personal information. If data are compromised, the security and commitment of the business will also be under threat. It is therefore essential to have a specific contingency plan in place. Fundamentally, you need to make sure your connection is secure to prevent intruders from entering and posing as users. Your company should also have certain tools to protect data and have resources such as back-up and disaster recovery in place.
Monitoring: It goes without saying that companies need to have a good communication strategy. But having tools that can monitor the traffic generated while managing KPIs in real time is just as important. Your company therefore needs to be equipped with tools that measure results.
Integrating communication tools with your CRM
Integrating communication tools with your CRM enables you to use customer data smartly. When data are managed properly, they can be of great use. Choose appropriate communication tools and you will form a personalised relationship with your customers, increasing productivity as well as sales. Once you’ve determined what you want to achieve from data integration, you can start to set out the best way to start the process. The tools you choose, with their different capacities and limitations, will play a part in determining your decision.
Your marketing tools and CRM may have their own integration connectors. The best option tends to be to execute a complex, bi-directional integration to synchronise the data. This won’t cause any problems as the integration tools have been tested and are experienced. Another benefit is that they maintain themselves.
Ad hoc integration
For simpler integrations, such as moving contacts onto the CRM or updating data, it’s better to opt for ad hoc integration (programming it using APIs). The decision will, however, depend on the case in hand. Factors to take into account include where the integration will be hosted and how to manage maintenance. You can also choose this option if your tools’ connectors are not viable for integration.
Intermediary connectors
If your company doesn’t have an in-house team that can execute data integration tailored to your needs, there are countless platforms that serve as intermediary connectors, such as Zapier, Integromat and more, that come with integrations for different tools. The choice of which software you go with will depend on the communication tools you’re using.
The world of business is evolving at great speed and customer demands are growing daily. To maintain the quality of your product and ensure customer satisfaction, you need to be more agile than ever before to stay ahead of your competitors. Integrating platforms and automating workflows offers you unprecedented opportunities to achieve your goals. So what about you? Have you integrated communication tools with your CRM yet?
