Happy customers lead to better retention and repeat business.
You need excellent customer relationship management (CRM) and customer experience to keep them happy. Read on to learn how CRM increases customer satisfaction and why it is vital to use this solution.
How customer service has changed
Before we had telephones, people had to go to the store or write a letter to get customer service. However, the rapid development of communication technology and world events like COVID-19 have fundamentally changed the landscape of customer service.
These days, customers have high customer service expectations, demanding fast interactions through multiple touchpoints.
Here are some recent customer service trends that are worth paying attention to.
24/7 customer service
Many customers expect to receive customer support at all hours of the day.
If they don’t, they may decide to buy from a competitor who offers 24/7 customer service.
You can fulfill customer expectations by having a customer support team standby for night shifts or a chatbot to field questions.
Text-based customer support
72% of customers aged 18 to 64 think text-based customer service improves their experience.
Most customers now prefer to send inquiries by chat, so your customer support team should be equipped with the appropriate tools and training.
Some businesses use chatbots to handle simple customer service inquiries to meet this need.
In addition to reducing the number of human customer support reps needed, chatbots improve response times because they instantly reply.
Customer service with empathy
Even if customer service is rarely face-to-face these days, empathy and human touch are still essential parts of the process.
Train your customer service representatives to empathize with callers to feel valued and become loyal customers.
It doesn’t take much to empathize with customers. Even simple things like asking how customers are doing or slowing down when giving complicated instructions help.
Increase self-service
People don’t immediately call customer support when they encounter a problem. Over 69% of customers seek solutions on their own first before contacting customer service.
Adding an FAQ page to your website empowers customers to figure out answers independently and frees up your customer service channels.
How ignoring a digital customer experience costs you
Digital customer experiences are the norm these days.
Businesses should ideally have at least a minimum of websites, online storefronts, and social media. What’s more, CRM and customer experience go hand-in-hand for businesses of all sizes.
Even if you run a purely brick-and-mortar business, expanding into the digital realm helps your business become more accessible to potential customers.
Here’s what might happen if you completely ignore digital customer experiences and don’t improve your customer service.
Slower response to inquiries
Social media and online customer service forms make contacting your company easier. You must depend on email and your customer call center if you don’t implement them.
Lead gen forms are a feature most CRMs offer — making this another example of how CRM increases customer satisfaction.
More challenging time marketing to potential customers
Even if you’re a local business, purely physical marketing methods like flyers and posters won’t cut it these days.
It would help if you had an online presence to increase your company’s reach.
If you exclusively rely on offline marketing, you’re unlikely to get as many customers compared to a hybrid approach.
One example of how CRM improves customer experience is with the digital marketing capabilities they offer businesses. From email marketing to lead capture, these tools make it easier to digitally nurture your leads and customers.
Lose potential customers to competitors
Customer experience is the critical differentiator for customers. It’s often more important than price or product.
When it comes to CRM and customer experience, there’s no doubt that you and your customers only stand to benefit from this combination. Here are a few ways how CRM increases customer satisfaction:
- Faster service. Having all your lead and customer information shared with your team means customers do not need to repeat their needs to your customer service reps.
- A personalized experience. With in-depth profiles of each customer, it’s easier for your team to provide the support that exactly meets their needs.
If you don’t trust how CRM improves customer experience and makes the required changes, you’ll lose prospective customers to competitors.
How CRM increases customer satisfaction
Excellent customer management facilitated by CRM software is one of the keys to delivering positive customer experiences and fostering business growth. 47% of CRM users reported positive growth in their customer satisfaction rate.
But how does CRM increase customer satisfaction?
1. Keep in touch with your best customers
Communication is essential for an excellent customer-business relationship, and CRM helps facilitate that.
CRM software records past customer interactions, so you know which customers you haven’t engaged with in a while.
Even quick check-up messages through email or product updates through social media can go a long way in building a positive experience.
2. Collect and act on customer feedback
Listening to customer feedback and reading reviews is one of the best ways to find out what customers need.
Send surveys through traditional and digital channels to learn what customers think about your product and ask for suggestions about how you can improve it.
Listening and acting on customer feedback also tells customers that your company values their opinion, improving customer loyalty.
3. Personalize your CRM and customer experience
CRM databases save critical customer information like purchase history and product preferences.
Leverage this by creating personalized marketing campaigns based on your customer’s interests and preferences.
Current customers are more likely to respond to offers if it’s about a product they already like or are interested in.
Great personalization also improves customer retention as customers are more reluctant to switch to competitors when they get a personal touch with your business.
4. Offer fast customer service
Fast response times are one of the essential elements of a great customer experience.
Another example of how CRM increases customer satisfaction is that the software equips your customer support team with powerful tools to quickly resolve customer inquiries and complaints.
Instead of digging through customer databases, your customer service rep only needs to pull up the customer profile and have all they need to address the issue.
5. Add convenience with online portals
Some customers prefer to do things themselves, which is where self-service customer portals come in.
Online portals let customers make payments, fill out key details, and order more products in one place. In addition to being more convenient for customers, it frees up your customer service reps to take on other customer inquiries.
Here’s an example of how Method CRM’s portals improve your operations and customer experience.
6. Better manage customer purchases
Another example of how CRM increases customer satisfaction is with the complete customer history records it provides.
You can determine customers’ needs and proactively offer a relevant product or service. Use this opportunity to cross-sell or upsell, leading to more revenue and a happier customer.
Get the ultimate CRM customer experience with Method
Method CRM is CRM software that does it all. It makes customer relationship management a breeze through powerful capabilities like:
- Sales data management.
- Lead capture.
- Opportunity tracking.
- Comprehensive customer database.
- Online customer portals.
Here’s a preview of what this CRM tool can do for you.
Recap: How CRM improves customer experience
How does CRM increase customer satisfaction?
In short: It supports the delivery of outstanding customer experiences, increases customer retention, and brings more revenue to your business.
Here are just a few ways a CRM helps you get more satisfied customers:
- Stay in contact with your best customers.
- Listen and act on customer feedback.
- Personalize the customer experience.
- Provide fast customer service.
- Convenient online portals.
If you want to improve customer experience through CRM, look no further than Method CRM.
Method CRM helps you learn more about customers and deliver tailor-made customer experiences.
Start your free trial of Method CRM today!
Image credit: Ketut Subiyanto via Pexels
