Introduction
Finding and implementing a CRM is one of the essential tasks for any company that develops in the world of ecommerce and retail.
Having a strategy with a CRM system optimized to the measure and the way of working of the company, you could say that it is the difference between achieving an amazing success or achieving a well-documented failure with your team.
For this reason, it is crucial and fundamental for companies in these fields to acquire knowledge about developments and trends in CRM systems, and thus have a better knowledge of the market in which your business is developed.
Before entering fully on the latest trends in a CRM system as market demands have developed, it is important to understand what customer relationship management is about (CRM in English Customer Relationship Management).
In the network, we can find thousands of CRM definitions, since this can be obtained according to personal experience, work style, the business in which one operates, etc. In this case, according to the public to whom this article is directed and at personal discretion I will define CRM as the way in which your technical service and your sales team communicate with your current clients or potential clients. In summary, the main thing for a business to be successful, not in vain is said, in the case of cafes or restaurants, "it doesn't matter if the food is up to par, what matters is the customer treatment".
Trends of CRM systems
1. The most effective way to focus the business - Omnichannel
There is something indisputable and easy to recognize in the world of marketing. This is that there are about five main points for which any online business has to go through so that this becomes a real business, with stable sales and the fundamental thing, that is profitable.
Usually going through these points is complicated for someone without experience since it involves working in a wide variety of communication channels, such as reception pages (landing pages in English), automated marketing campaigns, social networks, among others.
However, it is not enough to give more importance or prominence to one or some of these communication channels, it is necessary and important that all those who wish to be involved in the world of ecommerce and digital marketing understand and assimilate that it is very necessary to be able to provide pleasant experience to the consumer or customer constantly.
It means that the less points of contact or confirmation the customer has to pass to confirm an order, the more effective is the process of selling a business.
This implies that one of the trends for CRM systems in this coming year, is to be able to take advantage and put the use of work with open APIs, which facilitates first, to be able to perform the "CRM-store system" integration to the possible brevity and greater variety of different tools and services. All this, of course, according to the requirement and way of working of the clients.
Having a flexible CRM system in terms of integrations with other services will be something that will bring a lot of fabric in this new year. Since so far there are few companies that have the advantage of being able to integrate with the business according to the customer, and not the opposite as is the case so far, that the customer has to do the integration according to the system.
On the other hand there are some companies that offer a CRM system capable of effectively managing the entire customer experience, that is, from the first time they communicate with the business asking for information, until they receive the order at home; At present, the means to get in touch can be a call, a message on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or by visiting the physical store. Everything that this process implies has to be done effectively and effectively.
CRM systems need to be at the forefront of novelties in order to evolve and offer innovative solutions in a market where it has been proven that the "unconventional" is more successful. That is to say, to evolve quickly, in order to improve the functionality and in this case convert the CRM system work method to an omnical work form in the field of ecommerce and retail, it is very essential.
Finally, and to conclude, all this omnichannel nature leads to a simpler order management process for both sales managers and the same CRM system, where both marketing actions and sales channels include messages on social networks , phone calls, sms, visits to physical stores, chatbots, and other ways.
2. Mobility 2-0
Something difficult to achieve in any CRM system and for its developers is to increase the sales made through mobile phones, tablets or any other device. That is why having versatility in this year, it will be something very important that users will have to take into account when choosing a CRM system.In addition as technology is advancing and trends changing, it is essential for developers of CRM use and implement its work in the wide variety of devices, such as voice assistants, mobile devices and incorporate all these new functions in one place.
📷Implementing this technology in the systems, implies adding a new problem, which focuses on the processing of different languages, a solution that would allow CRM systems to add specific functions according to the region, such as interaction with customers by voice, in addition to registering and update important activities or events for each customer and improve the "customer-store" relationship.
Mobility consists in ensuring that CRM systems maintain a proper functioning in a constant manner in all communication channels, leading these through innovative and technological solutions.
3. The awakening of CRM in social networks
Absolutely all brands are looking for ways to optimize and improve their presence in social networks. They want to use social networks to get closer to target customers, which is why the tendency to use them is a fact and will be even more important in 2019.
In fact, something that will become common is that the use of bots to interact with customers will be implemented in CRM systems. The door is also opened for companies to obtain access to important data and information related to the opinion, behavior pattern and tastes of their customers.
All these growing problems will mostly be solved by bots, which means that it will be in favor of workers optimizing working time.
A CRM used in the use of social networks during this 2019, must also implement or develop some prediction algorithm. This will allow companies, in some way, to predict the behavior of their customers, anticipating possible needs and expectations and thus improving sales and loyalty rates.
4. A new technique to send messages
Sending personalized messages. It is one of the biggest and most notable trends in different business areas and of course it will be a trend in CRM systems.
This will efficiently allow CRM systems to use new methods to reach potential consumers at the exact moment, increasing the percentage of open messages (OR for its acronym in English Open Rate), using personalized messages that captivate the attention of recipients
There are also tools to analyze the operation of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in a more complete way. This will allow bots to identify, develop and schedule the moment a message will be sent to a customer.
It was known that the demographic data of users or customers were important, but now we will see that the CRM system carries much more information, you can create customer profiles with more accurate data which can be used to perform new market segmentations, solutions For new market niches, customer traffic tracking, determine specific sales patterns, etc.
This combination of results obtained through the data collected will contribute to carry out an important change and provide more effective solutions for all businesses that work with CRM systems.
5. Artificial Intelligence Ideal
As in any other digital market solution, AI will reach CRM systems and have a great impact.
It is likely that there is no exact knowledge of when AI will become a characteristic that cannot be lacking in CRM systems, but we are part of the generation that observes the new, numerous and innovative solutions as a result of the implementation of AI in The field of e-commerce.
With a correct implementation of AI it will be possible for CRM systems to improve in aspects in which they have problems or are not efficient so far, and thus optimize the workload to improve costs and improve strategies that are currently used .
The most benefited aspects with the implementation of AI and robot learning would be prediction analytics, order processing language, among others. Aspects that CRM systems need to improve.
In any case, the AI will also give the possibility of implementing new ideas in the field of interacting with the client, offering personalized actions that will take into account the algorithms directed and analyzed by the robot and will make this as human as possible.
When AI has the ability to remember patterns and rules of behavior and thus develop a better conversation with customers, it will allow developers to improve the performance of CRMs.
6. Service where your own solutions are applied
One of the many problems that companies, businesses and ecommerce stores encounter is that potential customers simply abandon or discard placing the order due to the fact that their queries or doubts are not fully clarified or the response is late.
This means that in order to improve and have greater efficiency, the response time needs to be as short as possible, therefore the application of IT (Information Technology) improves CRM systems in this aspect and makes possible the application of their own solutions. the clients. In other words, a system that is flexible to the needs or form of work of the applicant for integration.
The possibility where the solutions of each one can be applied in a CRM system will grant the possibility of adjusting and optimizing communication, making reviews or responding immediately to customers and acquiring customer data that companies can use for their subsequent benefit in very specific aspects As an example a shop, where it is necessary to have the information of which is the client's pet, this may be a cat, dog, parakeet, etc. This information is not necessary, for example, for a fashion store.
📷This promises to be a breakthrough in terms of having a more personalized treatment with customers through the use of a CRM. Very important aspect to consider for marketing specialists from different ecommerce businesses.
7. Interaction with the Internet of things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (or as for its acronym in English IoT - Internet of Things) has allowed greater contributions to various sectors in ecommerce last year, but what benefits does this trend bring to CRM systems?
It will allow programmers to integrate into the CRM system the greatest amount of information input sources such as mobiles, cars, portable devices and other platforms and new technologies for further processing and segmentation.
This will ensure that developers have the possibility to offer an experience according to business needs with the advantage of having more sources of data and information flow.
Conclusions
In order for CRM systems to be more effective, it is always necessary to be at the forefront of new market trends and customer requirements. In the market there are few CRM systems that offer all these advantages, or at least most of these together. Since at the moment it is common for the client to have to integrate and accommodate their work according to the CRM system, when this should be the opposite, that the system is accommodated and executed according to the client's work mode. For its part, retailCRM, according to the available functions, has had some of these trends already implemented in its system for some time.
Finally, to keep the business not only afloat, but rather within the leadership positions, it is necessary and fundamental to implement a CRM system according to the specific business strategies and that contemplates the possibility of including any of these trends in the short term, in order to manage the relationship with its clients competently and with optimal performance.
