It’s no secret anymore. CRM systems, as we know them, don’t work. Different studies rate the failure rate of CRM implementations between 19% and 70%. Those implementations fail and people try to find reasons why. Some will make lists and analyze trends, planning efforts, and purposes but the reason is much more simple than that. Let’s face it, people hate CRM. The systems are useless to the end user under their current form. They are little more than glorified customer databases which haven’t offered anything new to the sales and customer management processes in a while. One could maybe accept that if they were somehow affordable, but they are not. Their ROI is ridiculously low. Taking all of that into account, it seems legit to ask how does the future of CRM systems look like. In this post, we’ll give you some tips to bring your CRM back to the future.
CRM is dead, long live CRM
CRM, as we knew it, is dead. So, what needs to be done to resurrect it or find an alternative? We have four ideas about what could be done to ensure the future of CRM is sustainable:
① Simplify
For starters, it wouldn’t hurt to make them easier to use . The UIs might have got a facelift or two in the past few years, but there’s no use of applying a very thick layer of paint if the wood under it is all chipped and rotten. New systems need to rethink their whole CRM-architecture, so the end user occupies a central role in the process, instead of being considered just at the far end of it. For example, creating single-click actions that enable to perform a task without having to navigate a complex menu.
② Focus on data quality
One of the biggest challenges with CRM systems is the existence of duplicated, outdated, or simply wrong data. With more and more tools coming to tackle this problem, augmenting the quality and reliability of the data would not only enhance the ROI of the system, but also permit the use of such data in other business solutions.
③ Make them cheaper
CRM systems are a huge investment for companies. Not only there are elevated monetary costs, but the time needed to have a system up and running drains so many of the organisational resources that it makes obtaining a decent ROI really complicated.
④ Revise your thinking
CRM is often considered as a mandatory tool but, do you really need it? Does your sales team even use it? What’s the last time you yourself used CRM? Have you asked your CRM provider which solution they use and for what purposes? You might be surprised of hearing the answers.
All these steps would help putting CRM systems back on their feet, but they are not the disruptive change that will determine the future of CRM. For that, we need to look further beyond the basic mending of the current problems.
Where is CRM going?
When we imagine the future, we envision a world where sales and marketing are at peace with each other, where each customer is treated as the unique individual that they is, where unicorns are not only real but common occurrence, and everybody gets and investor at Shark Tank…Also, we have some rad ideas about where CRM systems might end up in the future, and we know they might sound as dreamy as the previous ones, but we promise these are actually within reach:
Customer 360 will soon be a reality
We know that it has been spoken about those since forever, but now there are actually tools that might make it possible. We are of course talking about the trendy CDPs that could take over these idyllic tasks that CRM was never able to do.
Account-Based Marketing will take over the traditional CRM functions
CRM has never truly been about relationships management anyhow, but rather just about creating loggin activities.
In that same line, mass personalization solutions will become essential
Companies will try to make people believe that the message was tailor-made for them even though it was automatically generated.
BI will bring advanced segmentation
Using BI solutions to create actionable insights is already everyday practice for most businesses. The next step is using those insights to benefit from customer advanced segmentation and personalisation.
Agile CRM implementations
Acquiring and setting up a CRM system will not be as tedious and difficult as it is nowadays. With the new simplified and user friendly business software solutions, such as SuperCards, it will only take a couple of days of work to get those systems up and running.
Automated CRM
In the future data will be obtained not by feeding it to the system but it will be automatically gathered from all the different software and bases that are within the company’s control.
CRM will be built in low-code platforms
For example, in PowerApps, in order to match the exact needs of the company.
These are our bets for the future direction of CRM. And you, where do you think CRM systems are headed? Do you agree with our vision, or do you have a different opinion? Please, let us know in the comments section.
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