Staying competitive in today’s dynamic business marketplace means communicating with customers before, during, and after project completion, leveraging multiple communication channels and technology platforms to stay connected, in the know, and responsive to changing requirements. These interactions across the project lifecycle shape and define the customer journey, so crafting a dynamic and successful one is essential to nurturing brand loyalty and encouraging repeat business.
To this end, CRM technology is emerging as a top choice for organizations looking to boost customer engagement efforts, featuring powerful automation that makes it easier than ever for employees to track and optimize each component within the entire span of a customer relationship. Such visibility is critical, with cohesion across the customer journey quickly becoming a hot topic among industry executives.
In fact, in the recent Salesforce “2015 State of Marketing” survey of more than 5,000 global marketers, 86 percent believe it is critical or very important to create a cohesive customer journey, 54 percent deemed CRM tools critical/very important to this purpose, and 50 percent of marketers in the United States cited CRM as the “most critical technology” to achieve this goal.
Using CRM to boost and enrich customer interactions requires careful consideration of how the technology fits into operational activities. A strategic level of interaction that works for one company may not work for another, depending on customer preference and project specifics. However, the following guidelines can prove helpful building blocks to creating stronger, richer relationships across the modern customer journey:
Consider Going Mobile
Marketing spend is shifting toward mobile devices, and for good reason. Research shows that 80 percent of adult Internet users now own a smartphone, and deploying CRM on mobile devices means your employees can keep up with this always-on audience. Going mobile can also boost the effectiveness and influence of your CRM investment—according to the State of Marketing Survey, 73 percent of CRM users with mobile integration rate their technology as effective, versus 47 percent without mobile capability.
Embrace Personalization and Customization
Creating a unified experience across the customer journey requires examining exactly who is interacting with your customers, and how they’re doing so. Chances are, your customers will connect with multiple representatives of your organization throughout the course of their purchasing lifecycle, so equipping each corporate stakeholder with the unique capabilities they need to optimize their performance is essential to ensuring a feeling of cohesion as customers experience your brand. Flexible dashboard and reporting configurations built into CRM technology also make it easy to for teams to customize their interactions while still maintaining brand image.
Incorporate Multi-Channel Engagement
The customer journey is fluid, not static, traveling in a non-linear pattern across various channels and devices, so engaging across these mediums means strategically deploying your CRM solution to maximize the impact and value of each interaction. When strategizing, consider the online channels your core audience typically frequents, and determine engagement and follow-up approaches based on this knowledge.
To learn more about how partnering with our seasoned CRM consultants can help your business boost efficiencies across the customer journey, 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.
Source:
“2015 State of Marketing,” Salesforce, https://secure.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/datasheets/mc_2015stateofmarketing.pdf.
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