This is How CRM Helps Effectively Build and Maintain Rapport With Real People

Imagine what would have happened if Apple products never found a solid fan base, or if Mark Zuckerberg had never asked his fellow students to join Facebook? Do you hear the crickets? That’s probably all we would have heard if these two companies had never put any emphasis on building customer relationships. Instead, hundreds of news articles are published concerning Apple products each day, while Facebook is brought up daily in household conversations. Companies rely on relationships with customers to grow and thrive.

Customer loyalty is the foundation on which every successful business is built. In some cases, this entails going out to lunch with a prospect or sending ball game tickets to a past client. But, today, much of a company’s rapport-building relies on technology to stay strong. Here are three major ways how technology can save and help maintain your customer relationships.

#1: With the Right Tools, Customers Won’t Get Lost in the Mix

Sometime after the Industrial Revolution, sellers lost their personal relationships with buyers. With modern shopping habits, mass production, and the self-serving convenience of the internet, the intimacy required in maintaining a connection can easily slip through your hands. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software does provide a viable solution for this problem. You may not be able to shake the hand of everyone who purchases a product, contributing to your well-being, but you will be able to maximize the relationship potential of all e-customers.  

Here are some promises that customer relationship and sales management  platform offers you, the seller:

• A chance to understand your customer through data mining and storage.
• The opportunity for personalized buyer recommendations.
• Integration of supplier and buyer transactions.
• Optimized communication.
• Adapting technology for an unpredictable, ever-changing market.  

Companies need to focus on delivering services that keep retail relationships strong. With CRM technology, this task becomes easier, and customers appreciate the feeling that an organization has gone the extra mile.

Related: Deference to Expertise – Respect Insights about the Business from “Experts”

 #2: Did You Know That Consistency is the Root of Satisfaction?

As you can see in this graph, based on information from Distinguishing Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction out of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the level of customer satisfaction has a direct correlation with transaction consistency.

All secure relationships require consistency. Those between a buyer and seller are no different. Without secure, authentic commitments on your behalf, business associations will dwindle. With CRM, you are given a single view of your customer, insight into the value of each prospect, and a chance to prioritize resources into the most profitable areas.

When you have a unified view of your customer, you are able to better deliver what is expected. You will have a better understanding how to satisfy particular segments. Consistency in your communication amongst patrons becomes easier to deliver when you utilize new technology.

#3 Technology Helps You Deliver Customized Value to Consumers

You and your business are only one part of the value equation. Customers rely on more than just what you think and what you want. They actually come to expect certain experiences from you, sometimes based on factors entirely separate from what you claim to deliver or have proven in the past.

With customer relationship and sales management platform technology and data storage, you have the information handy to target research on specific demographics of your very own customers. Try to see if you can get into the minds of your customers, and replicate their thinking.

Your customer relationship and sales management platform provides you with the perfect opportunity to gather valuable information about people who have already purchased your products, those who are interested, and even the ones who are not. With careful analysis, you can create accurate, detailed customer profiles.

Many times, you can take this a step further than just input of what your customers have told you about themselves by researching public information online. You have John Smith’s email address, so can you find out what public accounts he has linked to this same email address? From there, can you find out what he is interested in aside from your products or services? Do you see any links between his interests and the interests of others? By asking questions like these and strategizing with the answers in mind,  you can often come up with valuable information to target your marketing campaigns.

Not only do inform strategies create enhanced relationships with current customers, but they provide the opportunity to attract new, like-minded leads at the same time. The internet provides an amazing tool for creating highly personalized advertising. Use the language and thoughts of your target market to appeal to them and provide more value. This is what consumers really respond to.

Summary

You may not be running a fortune 500 company, but you can certainly learn to think like one. Make sure your customer data is stored securely so that they don’t become just more numbers, provide consistency in your communications, and deliver value through personalized interactions and advertising. With the help of modern tools, you can save your customer relationships even when you can’t take everyone on your email list out to lunch. Most of those people wouldn’t have time for that anyway.

Related: Interactive Graphic Shows the Best Days of the Week for International Customer Sign-ups and 6 Sure and Simple Ways to Internationalize Your Business