Price is (naturally) one of the most important factors in a purchase and with the amount of information available online, customers are accustomed to easily searching for the best price. Take the perspective of a business regulating prices based on economic conditions and customer demand: customer experience accounts for approximately 70 percent of the economic impact consumers encounter. If the customer experience remains the same while economic conditions and prices fluctuate, then consumers feel less affected by the changes in the economic climate. However, degradation in the customer experience is resounding: it indicates that the economy directly affects individual customers and dis-empowers the customer’s freedom of choice and expression.

One of the most important benefits of CRM is updated customer information. This ensures a smooth sales process for customers. With diligent agents customers can feel secure that any sales or additional sales are charged to the right credit card, delivered to the right shipping addresss and so on. This is also very important for your agents, as they use the same customer information to follow up with the same phone numbers and email addresses.

With Voicent Live’s dashboard, you not only have access to the CRM but to multiple communications tools. Right from the customer’s CRM record you can send a text, an email, or simply call. Different customers at varying levels of engagement will require different kinds and levels of communication. A prospect at the periphery of your sales process might need more direct communication whereas clients who have already purchased might only need an email reminder about the newest products from your company.

Your company should also tie in social media features. The number of people using social media is only increasing. Having a strong social media presence “humanizes” your company and makes prospective customers feel more comfortable with purchasing from you as opposed to a company that comes across as withdrawn.

CRM is also useful when it comes to marketing and ad campaigns. Most people do not appreciate unsolicited ads thrown into their face. However, advertisement based off “opt-in” campaigns or rooted in past purchase history are more effective and less likely to be quickly dismissed as “spam.”

Finally, repeat customers will expect to see consistent and logical pricing or behaviors from your company. A detailed CRM record ensures that any agent knows what has been purchased, at what price, and when. Any variations in price can then be explained or resolved to the customers satisfaction.

The customer experience needs to be seamless, requiring the need for a CRM with tools that communicate with your CRM. The business must use its CRM software to shape the customer experience on a consumer-by-consumer basis. In this way, the business can manage the customer experience to ensure that its products and services meet each consumer’s needs.

It’s unfortunately common for companies and employees to fail to make the best of their CRM systems, leading to wasted time and possibly lost sales opportunities. By making full use of your CRM’s features your agents are that much more likely to become more productive and generate more sales for your company.

Take this scenario: a lead calls in and a record is automatically created. During the call, the agent inputs all the relevant information possible into the contact’s CRM record. Depending on the lead’s actions and interest, the record can be categorized according to your company’s lead scoring system. This categorization can determine the next step for this record,

This does require a lead scoring system to be in place to begin with. Preparation and education are important aspects of getting the most out of your CRM system.

These aren’t necessarily the kind of things most people think of when they think of CRM. Yet modern CRM systems are able help with this, cutting down on time devoted to busy work and increasing the time available for your agents to build relationships with customers.

Order management can also benefit from being integrated with CRM. The paperwork associated with a typical order is repetitious and can be time consuming. Rather than enter the customer’s name and address five times on different form, the information can be put in once on CRM enabled forms and the CRM system takes care of entering it in the proper blanks.

Delivery and fulfillment is often a time-consuming process that lies outside the sale’s staff’s area of competency. Yet the sales person is the customer’s point of contact with the company and sales often finds itself running interference between shipping, delivery, and other departs because of problems in the ordering process.

An active CRM system can help here by tracking prospects through the entire sales process. This reduces the load on the sales people, helps eliminate mistakes and improves agent performance.

Technically, of course, this isn’t the sales person’s job. But because the sales person is the one who has had the most contact with the customer, the sales person all too often assumes the point position on any problems with the order. In the interests of improved customer experience, it is a big help if the sales person can handle the problem.

Here again, the 360-degree view of the customer presented by the CRM system is invaluable. The information in the CRM system can show the status of the order, its progress through the system, and give information on any exceptions to the order.

Sales floor agents are often reluctant when it comes to dealing with sales reports. Management needs them to help control the sales process and keep informed on what’s going on but they take valuable time from agents that could be spent on talking with prospects and customers.

Within Voicent Live, various kinds of reports can easily be generated by anyone with access. Senior agents or managers can view detailed reports at any time within seconds, instead of worrying about manually compiling and extracting information from old-fashioned CRM systems.

79 percent of leads never convert to sales.

This can be largely attributed to failing to attract the right kind of leads, not identifying your best leads and most significant of all, failing to nurture your leads. With marketing automation tools you can ensure a much higher rate of success while never missing an opportunity to convert a lead to a closed sale.

Get the Right Kind of Leads

Simply acquiring a large amount of leads doesn’t mean you get a corresponding large amount of sales. Getting a bunch of phone numbers into your CRM is nice but it’s far better (and more efficient) to attract high quality leads instead. You should have a complete profile of your target customers and how your product services their needs. Going after leads who are already interested in your product or are in need of something like your product will be far more likely to make a purchase while wasting less of your company’s time on leads with no interest or need of your product. With marketing automation software you can use a form that captures contact information in exchange for a white paper, a worthwhile video, pricing information, etc.

Figure Out Your Best Leads

Once you have leads in your sales pipeline you need to identify which leads gives your company the best chance to close sales. Regular communication with your leads will give your company a better idea of the interest level your leads have. Marketing automation can “email drip” your leads and adjust the number of mass emails sent depending on the prospect’s response. With an integrated CRM you can automatically modify the records of leads who express more (or less) interest in your product. For leads with more interest you can start sending little gifts such as helpful articles or free trial offers to up their interest level high enough to make a conversion.

Ensure you are Nurturing Leads

Possibly the easiest step to overlook in the customer acquisition process. A lack of lead nurturing is one of the most common reasons for 79% of leads failing to convert to sales. This area of the sales process is where marketing automation can really shine. It’s easy to for agents to forget to follow up strong leads or send emails to weaker leads. With automation you can make sure that all of these repetitive but necessary tasks get done in a timely fashion. Additionally, integrated marketing tools can schedule follow-up calls, ensuring that you never lose a sale to a missed call or appointment.

Always Refine Your Company’s Sales Pipeline

Good marketing automation tools will have detailed reporting options available to you. There is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to sales pipelines so it’s important to continuously work and evaluate your process. As you find leads exiting your pipeline your reporting tools should be able to pinpoint which part of your process needs improvement. Marketing automation can help automate tasks for your agents but that doesn’t preclude the importance of monitoring and improving your sales process at all time.