A Connected CRM Enterprise: Leveraging Business Intelligence to Define a Consistent Omnichannel Experience

The saying “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” has perhaps never rang truer than in today’s digitally driven, always-on world, where brands are clamoring for attention amid a web of similar offerings, and a powerful initial impact is essential to standing out from the competition. Whereas traditional customer engagement centered solely on face-to-face interaction fueled by in-person nuances such as voice inflection and gestures to set the tone, communicating across today’s Internet of Things (IoT) requires transforming your company’s message across multiple channels to reach your intended audience, and staying personal, relevant, and engaging requires an online presence as dynamic and compelling as your in-store persona.

Business Intelligence: Leveraging Insights to Attract and Retain

Key to maintaining a consistent and reliable customer experience across the IoT is capturing and leveraging business intelligence insights to drive more effective interactions. To this end, a robust CRM system enables sales, service, and marketing teams to not only engage with prospects and clients within the environments and devices they prefer, but to also track and analyze customer buying patterns, shopping preferences, and purchasing trends to provide more tailored and targeted support.

This functionality is especially needed as shoppers become more discerning, utilizing the online resources available to them to study and select brands to pursue, even before seeing any of their goods in person. In fact, a recent industry study reveals that 80 percent of major purchase shoppers begin with online research, visiting an average of four retailers and spending an average of 80 days studying and contemplating before making a final decision, and the selection process is competitive right up until the very end—23 percent of major purchase shoppers claim they use their mobile phone while in-store to research another retailer (a significant increase from only 7 percent in 2013).

The Value of a Targeted Campaign and the Power of CRM to Drive It

Differentiating yourself from the crowd means offering a product or service that’s not only superior in your industry, but that’s mapped to the exact tastes of your core audience—and a seamless CRM experience is the cornerstone of this alignment. At the end of the day, the logic is relatively simple: if you know your customers, you know how to serve them. Thankfully, learning your customers has never been easier—and the very technologies that make branding a challenge in today’s environment also afford it unparalleled opportunities.

By providing a 360-degree view of each customer relationship and a centralized platform on which they can store, manage, and analyze customer data across multiple channels, CRM integrations equip employees with the resources they need to maximize appeal and turn prospects into brand advocates. In turn, the customer journey is made easier and quicker—and for today’s fast-paced prospect, that’s a powerful proposal.

Source:

Synchrony Financial: “Third Annual Major Purchase Consumer Survey,” Volume 3, November 2014, https://www.synchronyfinancial.com/third-annual-major.pdf.

Tokara Solutions

As President and founder of Tokara Solutions, Shawn Grant has over 20 years of experience in enterprise CRM design and delivery. Shawn remains instrumental in providing CRM and Marketing Automation products and services for companies in the Financial Services, Manufacturing, Public Utilities, Home Builders/Real Estate Services, and Land Title Industry. Consequently, he continues to look forward to providing his knowledge within the CRM industry by writing for our company blog. From integration to implementation, Shawn’s unmatched CRM experience provides us with exceptional insight through Tokara Solutions’ blogs.

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