By
Maximise every opportunity. Speed up your sales cycle. Increase your customer retention.
Integration isn't just about connecting two (or more) systems it's about managing your business and your customers in the most effective way. Maximising every opportunity and giving your users the best possible user experience so they become lifetime customers.
Maximise every opportunity
It's frequently said that the past was a simpler time. And, it's true, I'm old enough to be from the pre-internet age. When business came via the phone, your mate down the road or by walking into your store/business directly. Now business or leads come from a multitude of channels. From your;
- Website
- Social media
- Online marketing campaigns
- Collected at live events
- Phone calls
- Walk-ins
- Referrals
You have to ensure someone who reaches out to ask about your products or services via Facebook is treated the same way as someone who picks up the phone and calls you.
Further, you want to be able to communicate with anybody that's shown interest in your product or service as much as possible. Ideally from your robust CRM that tracks the conversation and has a method to its flow to take conversations to conversions (but this isn't a marketing lesson).
So, how do you know leads that are coming in via Facebook or Linkedin for example aren't already in your database? What is your single source of truth? How do you ensure all leads are treated equally?
You have to have your social channels, website, sales centres, reception, event staff, all feeding the information into the same CRM. That is kept up to date in real time and ensuring no duplicates. Only then will you be maximising every opportunity presented.
Speed up the sales cycle
When your systems are integrated you will have full information for every lead no matter the origin. Resulting in a quicker sales cycle from lead to customer, because;
- Less time spent prospecting as you will easily be able to tap into forgotten leads.
- Leads are able to be qualified faster with insights into historical data
- Less time is spent inputting customer data with automation
- Less time wasted on asking rudimentary questions as all information is saved.
But most importantly, a better understanding of your customer. Let's say they come via an inbound marketing campaign that promises to help them get whiter teeth. You can ensure that you're only communicating with them about your products and services that are relevant to whiter teeth.
Increase your customer retention rate
Retain customers by reducing customer issues caused by data being held in separate systems.
It's normal for customers to complain when things go wrong. You can reduce the opportunity for things to go wrong by ensuring that the flow of data between departments is automated and eliminate manual tasks.
Ensuring your inventory system is linked to your marketing systems ensures you aren't advertising products that have sold out.
Ensuring your customer order details are sent directly to external partners without inputting manually will remove human error.
Ensuring the finance system is synced with your CRM ensures orders aren't delayed due to payment issues.
These are all examples of how you can improve the user experience, reduce customer complaints and retain more clients.
Your business should be working towards a common goal, regardless of individual departments having their own focus and system best suited to work for them. Integrating your systems ensures your business is unified and shooting for the same goal.
Speak to Raw Ideas if you want to discuss ways in which we can;
- Maximise every opportunity.
- Speed up your sales cycle.
- Increase your customer retention rate.
