This year's Sage CRM User Conference may have looked a bit different than a traditional conference, but there was certainly no shortage of helpful content.

The basic goal of CRM is to create and manage business strategies aimed at fostering customer loyalty through the use of unique customer-targeted actions.

There's no denying that CRM, Customer Relationship Management, usage has seen a massive increase over the last 5 years and businesses must now take a customer experience approach to continue delivering consistent, high-quality experiences in order to avoid customers moving on to competitors.

An effective CRM solution is essential to growing your business.

With 650+ registrants and over 25 sessions, the range of topics covered everything from best practices to add-ons and extensions, and everything in between making it the perfect virtual event for both current Sage CRM users and those just looking to learn more. Plus, the average session length sat at 25 minutes allowing attendees to easily squeeze sessions between every day work responsibilities.

Browse the full list of session recordings here

The first session listed is one that speaks to both of these audiences was Sage CRM and the New Customer Experience Economy given by Peter Wolf of Azamba Consulting Group.

Highlighting how CRM gives you and your team the tools you need to stay connected with your customers, partners, and team members to maintain the high-quality customer relationships you need to succeed Peter emphasizes how continuing to use silos of information locked away in email, spreadsheets, & sticky notes limits your ability to respond quickly and accurately. It doesn’t scale, resulting in profit erosion and eventual loss of business, even from long-time customers.

 

Check out the key points from the session below:

Sage CRM and the New Customer Experience Economy - Peter Wolf

 

As mentioned above, the key messaging of the Sage CRM & the New Customer Experience Economy was "We now live in a Customer Experience economy" and whether you already own CRM or you're investigating it, we all sense this need to deliver consistent, high quality experiences.

Customers demand a consistent high-quality experience and if we don't provide it for them, they'll find someone who will. CRM WILL HELP YOU PROVIDE THAT HIGH-QUALITY EXPERIENCE.

Traditional differentiators like local, specialists, word of mouth, etc. no longer exist and in the last 15 years, 52% of the corporate 500 have disappeared. Additionally, the average businesses life expectancy has dwindled down from 75 years to just 15.

 

Common business killers = fragmented teams, inconsistent messaging, slow response times, uninformed responses, and unsatisfying experiences all play a key factor to these concerning statistics.

 

Roughly halfway through the session Wolf mentions many people use CRM as a digital Rolodex; it's a place to store contacts, notes, and phone calls on the cloud. But really, CRM is not about that; CRM is the foundation for your businesses future. It's the foundation of creating this beautiful promise-land of customer experiences and hopefully again whether you already own Sage CRM or you're looking at it, you'll understand that this is the start of it.

 

5 Key Benefits to a Customer Relationship Management Solution

  1. Get's you organized
    • Centralized database breaks down silos and makes sure everyone is on the same page.
    • Faster & more consistent responses.
    • Foundation for the future - a launchpad.
  2. CRM keeps you on task
    • Calendaring & Automation
    • When used correctly it becomes your digital virtual assistant --> Coordinates activities, automatic reminders and follow ups, no more missed steps, invisible personal assistant.
  3. CRM is wherever you go
    • Secure web & mobile access
    • Mobile friendly, accessible, efficient and on-the-go
    • Dependable access 24x7
  4. CRM helps you make smart decisions
    •  Many people exploring CRM may not know some key metrics like how long their average sales cycle lasts or what the average revenue per customer is for certain segments of their business. CRM allows you to review and analyze trends.
      • Dashboards & analytics
        • Review and analyze trends
        • Determine what works (and what doesn't)
        • "Early Warning System" - Account managers have to deal with a number of accounts but the early warning system can allow you to generate reports of people you haven't spoken to in the last 3, 6, 9 years - whatever threshold you set.
        • Coach better
  5. CRM connects you with customers
    • 67% of people would rather deal with a bot than a human being when calling up to ask for things.
    • Website integration + Customer and Vendor Portals allows you to connect with your customers the way they want to be served
      • No more re-keying data
      • Anytime access - 24 x 7 x 365
      • Serve people the way they want
      • Free your team up

 

 

If you are already using Sage CRM, this session, and many others, will open your eyes to new ways to take advantage of your investment.

Explore the full list of session recordings here

 

Ready to learn how Sage CRM can help maintain high-quality customer relationships while avoiding profit erosion and loss of business?

Klear Systems can help small businesses create successful business processes connecting CRM features, target marketing and relationship building tactics into standard business protocol.

Contact us today to see how CRM infrastructure is used to decipher customer data and show specific needs for specific customers. Choosing the right CRM software for your unique business is paramount to success and we are here to help!

 

Contact Us!

 

Ashley Lemus

Written by Ashley Lemus