Rajeev
The advent of the Internet of Things has paved a way to connect every device and human in a loop. The concept has made it possible to share data over a network for a seamless person to person and person to computer interaction. The same concept is embedded in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool and allows digital marketers to send and receive data by using internet communication channels and technologies. It’s a booming industry and if implemented properly, the tool can generate hefty revenues for the online businesses. The system gathers data of past, current, and potential customers, so the marketers can develop their strategies around them. However, oftentimes, they fall into two common traps, i.e., either they don’t understand what CRM numbers actually mean or simply ignore the most prudent elements of the business.
With a burgeoning number of marketers depending upon CRM software, the package for acquiring it comes with a huge amount. And any misuse of the data provided by the software further adds up to that cost. Hence, here are five common misuses of CRM, so marketers can avoid losing revenues and efficiency that can ultimately hold back a business’s growth.
“OUTDATED”, “INCOMPLETE”, “DIRTY” DATA
The software is capable of gathering a plethora of customers’ data in a cloud-based system. One can either dwell deeper into the usability of the data for turning the entries into a fortune or can go completely wrong by chasing down bogus accounts and bots most of the time. As a result, lost leads, mistimed offers, and repeat messages along with confused customers will deteriorate the entire campaign’s core objective.
UNNECESSARY FIELDS
Having legitimate and quality lead is far more preferable to having more data. Sometimes, the overflow of customers’ information puts the marketers into a quandary as to which field, demographics, and behaviors within their CRM they should be prioritizing. Such a chaotic accumulation of so many fields, including the unnecessary ones, ends up turning away the profitable leads.
DEARTH OF SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION
Every customer with an active presence on social media expects the businesses to interact with them through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. It’s an absolute must-do for a marketer to keep themselves from straying at the edge of the road. Yet many marketers procrastinate the job and dig themselves a pitfall for garnering future losses.
UNCERTAIN KPIs
Although KPIs, a short for Key Performance Indicators, vary from business to business, yet there are some common indicators that most marketers follow to ascertain what’s working and what’s not. Having the KPIs like sales revenue, customer value, cost per lead, etc. in order, can spruce up the ROI, or otherwise, undefined KPIs can jeopardize the efficacy of CRM.
NO ACTION PLAN
Acquiring a customer relation software, particularly, one that is user-friendly is a must, but unfortunately, the numbers it provides are not mostly taken out into actions. It is one of many reasons why marketers fail in efficiently using the system for the benefit of their clients.
Mistakes are common but when it comes to justifying the efficiency of CRM for digital marketers, they can’t be ignored. And this is only possible when marketers can make sense of numbers this software provides.
I understand that the IoT is here to stay. But I don’t really think I like it that much. But that’s probably because I was a latecomer to the Internet scene and don’t really know much. Great article!