in CRM — Apr 12, 2024

Let's Talk CRMs

What is a CRM?
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a powerful blend of technology, practices, and strategies that is designed to help your company manage, analyze, and retain customer interactions and data throughout a customer life cycle. From initial contact to post-sale follow-up, the aim is to enhance customer relationships and drive sales growth.

What is a Customer Life Cycle?
This is the journey the customer takes from point A to point B in making a purchase. The customer lifecycle encompasses all stages of the customer's journey, from initial awareness and consideration, through the purchase process, to post-purchase support and loyalty.

A CRM system maps out this journey, providing insights into the customer's experiences and preferences at each stage, thereby enabling businesses to tailor their approach to meet the individual needs of each customer.
A CRM tracks the different channels and points of contact between the customer and the company. This could include, but is not limited to, a company's website, telephone, live chat, email, and social media. CRM systems provide data on a customer's personal information, buying history, buying preferences, and potential concerns.

Value in using a CRM with your Communications System helps build a relationship with your customers that in theory creates loyalty and retention. Loyalty and retention are qualities that affect revenue. The strategies used on these platforms and the collection of data help organizations communicate with customers in a scalable way.

Benefits of a CRM
By fostering loyalty and retention, a CRM system directly contributes to increased revenue. It allows businesses to communicate effectively and personally with customers, scaling these interactions across a broad customer base. A CRM integrated with your system consolidates customer data from various channels and touch-points such as the company’s website, phone calls, live chat, email, and social media interactions. It offers a comprehensive view of each customer's personal details, purchase history, preferences, and concerns.

This centralized database is crucial for:

Enhanced Customer Service: Access to a customer’s comprehensive history enables support teams to provide personalized, efficient service, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Effective Sales and Marketing: By analyzing customer data, a CRM system supports targeted marketing campaigns and sales strategies, allowing for more effective outreach and promotion efforts.
Streamlined Service Management: Centralizing customer information simplifies service delivery, reduces response times, and enhances overall efficiency, leading to better customer experiences and reduced operational costs.

Types of CRM’s
Cloud-based— This is known as an on-demand CRM. The data is stored externally so that employees can access it anytime and anywhere if they have an internet connection. This is a "cost-effective" option and is typically charged on a monthly or yearly basis.

On-premise— The software will reside in the company's servers and there is a longer installation process for integration with data. These are for more complex CRM needs and licenses are brought upfront.

Open source— This type of CRM system makes the source code available to anyone and enables an organization to make changes at no cost. There are more customizable practices used within this

Which one should I use?
It depends on your organizational needs, resources, goals, and budget. Contact us, if you are looking for a smooth CRM integration process!

Choosing the Right CRM for Your Business
The selection of a CRM system should be based on your specific business needs, resources, goals, and budget. For expert guidance on seamless CRM integration tailored to your organizational requirements.

3CX can connect with your CRM software using its REST API, allowing you to easily link incoming calls with customer accounts in your CRM, help desk, or ticketing system. When someone calls your business using 3CX, it automatically checks your CRM to find a matching customer based on the caller's email or phone number. If a match is found, the caller's name is displayed in the 3CX Web Client, and their contact details are added to your 3CX Contacts. Plus, you can directly access the customer's page in your CRM from the contact entry in 3CX.

3CX's CRM Integration is compatible with various CRM solutions including Bitrix, connectWise, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Jetpack CRM, Kommo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, PipeDrive, Salesforce, SalesforceV2, SuiteCRM, Vtiger, Zendesk, Zoho, as well as databases like MongoDB, MsSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

Explore resources to learn more about how a CRM system can transform your customer relationships and drive business success.