Satisfied customers are the be-all and end-all for companies – no matter the sector. Professional CRM systems and architectures help to improve services by putting the customer at the forefront of company processes, facilitating digital sales structures and simplifying the work done by sales and marketing.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the consumer goods industry or in the tourism sector: Customers expect courteous service, quick request processing and individual offers in almost all sectors. This diverse range of requests is posing a challenge to companies – in particular to those in sales. Digitalization has intensified the trend toward customers demanding prompt, customized service. However, sales personnel frequently have to spend two hours a day manually managing data because the individual steps of a customer’s journey – from the first customer contact through to the conclusion of the contract – are stored not in one, but in several different systems.
A multitude of different communication channels – both offline and online – have made it more complex for companies to make customers and their individual needs the focus and to continuously interact with them on the right track and in the right way.
Holistically managing customer data in CRM systems
Heightened customer expectations are making it necessary to change organizational structures, as the management of customer data becomes increasingly important. Good customer data management also helps companies to identify operational challenges and new business opportunities more quickly. It is only when the processes for customer acquisitions and customer care, retention and recovery take place in one system that pools all of this information together, that companies can holistically attend to the requests of their customers.
Professional customer relationship management (CRM) systems place the customer at the forefront of company processes – instead of the individual order. They concentrate the customer’s entire history in one system, helping both sales and marketing to carry out their work. Moreover, they increase value by making processes more efficient, more transparent and easier to measure.
If employees use a CRM system, there is an increased focus on the customer and the customer experiences this behavior directly. An example: If a company uses customer data in a CRM system to make predictions about individual purchasing behavior on the basis of big-data technologies, it can address the customer at the optimal point in time and via the optimal channel.
CRM systems make good customer service possible regardless of the channel
CRM systems facilitate predictability and competitive analysis and focus sales channels on the needs of the customer. They also improve customer interaction using social media and self-service systems. In short: They make good customer service and support possible, regardless of the communication channel being used.
Lufthansa Industry Solutions helps companies to conceptualize and implement CRM systems. As an expert in the interplay between organizational procedures and CRM architectures, we advise companies on the selection of the right customer relationship management system and help to set up new digital sales structures – regardless of the sector.