In last week’s post, we discussed the influx of customer information that’s now available in both online and offline environments thanks to innovation in social and mobile technology. Known as “Big Data,” this knowledge holds a powerful potential to transform operations, fueled by new technologies that make it easier than ever to derive powerful business intelligence insights through robust CRM analytics.
In this week’s “Future-Focused” post, we’ll dive deeper into the always-evolving world of analytics, specifically how today’s tools are designed to take the overwhelming amount of incoming data and make it not just useable, but actionable, enabling organizations to make smarter business decisions based directly on consumer preferences, behaviors, and tastes.
It’s no secret that CRM systems are designed to support the full sales lifecycle—from initial prospect engagement all the way to final and ongoing maintenance and support. Yet, data obtained during these activities isn’t just relevant to the project at hand—it can be used as a portal into the psyche and sentiment of your customer base, and this knowledge can help strengthen forecasting efforts, hiring decisions, and territory assignments—all of which benefit your organization as a whole, and help position your teams for future success.
The key to making data actionable is being able to sort through the piles of information for key insights that are directly relevant to your company goals and objectives. For instance, contact management capabilities enable sales teams to quickly identify exactly who the stakeholders and decision makers are for each prospect, dashboards provide a bird’s-eye view for managers to quickly see which customers and industries are most profitable, and historical records of customer interactions enable service reps to quickly pull up customer data during a service call, providing a more personal and customized response.
As technology continues to evolve, so do the CRM capabilities that drive powerful business intelligence from customer interaction. With its Analytics Cloud, powered by Wave, Salesforce seems to be leading the way, showing regular business users (i.e., not analytics pros) how data can be transformed into powerful avenues of business growth. Its features include visually dynamic dashboards and reports that consolidate information from multiple sources into quantifiable data that quickly demonstrate historical trends and current progress, so future trends can be easily determined, and executives can make more informed decisions. In essence, as technology continues to evolve, providing ever-increasing amounts of data on every conceivable aspect of business and personal interaction, CRM capabilities are keeping pace—in this case enabling companies not only to manage their data, but to transform it into a treasure that provides actionable insight.
Join us next week as we wrap up our “Future-Focused” blog series with a look at how web content and microsites are being designed to maximize relevance and encourage customer engagement. In the meantime, to learn more about these new technologies and how our seasoned CRM consultants can deliver this functionality to your business, please contact any member of our consulting team at [email protected] We also encourage you to contact Tokara’s VP of Business Development, Mark Fillingim, directly at +1 972-719-0213.
Sources:
CRM Trends, “Top 5 CRM Trends for 2015,” http://www.crmtrends.com/crm.html.
Angeles, Sara, “Big Data vs. CRM: How Can They Help Small Business?” Business News Daily, March 10, 2014, http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6053-big-data-vs-crm.html.
NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT
