Knowing what CRM is and how to use it in your customer relationship strategy is what differentiates companies that stand out in the market from others. After all, with this culture and tools, companies are able to offer value to their audience, as well as make better use of the available data to make the best decisions. In this sense, the marketing, sales and service sectors benefit.

This way, it is possible to adjust and improve the sale of products, services and projects with greater care for the needs of each customer. Another implication is the adaptation of the company and its processes to the pillars of digital transformation and the modern economy associated with this concept.

If you want to learn more about what CRM is, continue following the ideas and topics in this article. Good reading!

What is CRM?

A CRM is a set of approaches, systems and policies that seek to manage and optimize customer relationships. The term means “Customer Relationship Management” or customer relationship management, in free translation. It integrates different processes, people, functions and sectors, generally with the support of software or CRM system.

CRM Culture & Concept

In addition to what we have already said about what CRM is, know that it is also a culture focused primarily on the customer. To adapt to this concept, it is necessary to stop thinking only about the product or service offered and the qualities that the organization has to offer and start considering the customer’s expectations and experience.

In other words, it is necessary to evolve into a mentality that essentially prioritizes his success, from the first contact until after the sale. For this reason, this culture is increasingly applied by companies, as care for the consumer journey is a strong trend.

Furthermore, CRM helps guide the company in the world of data, where decisions are based on large samples of reliable information, collected with the aim of improving the precision of actions.

However, the most important thing to remember is that:

CRM is made by people. CRM is about taking care of relationships, so that they are beneficial for everyone, companies, employees and customers.

What is the main objective of CRM?

As we have seen, CRM is not just software, it is also a concept and a culture. Its main objective is to create connections and relationships with a company’s customers, using purchase data, relationship histories, and other diverse information so that they continue purchasing from your company (loyalty).

CRM in a Customer Success Strategy

Customer Success is a strategy developed by most SaaS companies — Software as a Service — to keep their customers for longer, ensuring their follow-up and their level of satisfaction.

Within the context of this strategy, having a good CRM tool is essential, as it allows you to gather enough data about customers to apply Customer Success efficiently.

Therefore, it is essential to have the creation of a database focused on guaranteeing the best possible after-sales, creating much more revenue and guaranteeing less investment for marketing actions and the sales funnel.

What is CRM System?

CRM software collects and concentrates all data in one place, making it easier to access and analyze information. To do this, it monitors interactions between the company and each customer, at all its points of contact. The objective is to monitor the relationship and learn about the public’s preferences.

The CRM tool aggregates dashboards, graphs and reports to facilitate the analysis of campaigns, actions on social networks, management of email flows, sales and after-sales, which enables the unification of the company’s communication strategies, ensuring that they are all efficient, according to people’s needs.

Its application allows the organization to manage its customer base more effectively, after all, if all the records help to understand the characteristics of the public, it is possible to know what customers like most about a service or an interaction, what are their biggest pains and needs, as well as whether or not they are close to the purchase.

Furthermore, the CRM system also facilitates the acquisition of new customers, with a vision that contemplates opportunities in the market and identifies demands. From the initial contacts, it is possible to monitor prospects and leads, in order to predict their needs and anticipate trends.

Cloud vs. on-premises CRM software

Let’s now understand the differences, advantages and disadvantages between cloud and locally installed CRM software (also called on-premises).

A local CRM is implemented in the company itself, in its IT infrastructure (located locally or on cloud servers under company administration). All costs and responsibilities fall on the company: server management, hardware and software updates, antivirus, threat detection, backup, continuity and anti-disaster solutions, and support. While the cloud option is acquired as a service, through a contract with a supplier, which takes care of a large part of the issues involving the application.

Cloud CRM / “online CRM”

Benefits

In the cloud, one of the biggest advantages is stability and prevention of downtime. Due to a feature called redundancy, servers that fail are quickly replaced by functional ones, without interrupting use or disrupting the company’s strategy. There is also greater redundancy of access links and data center locations. This way, access to the system is continuous and the company does not lose money due to interruptions.

Another issue is availability: cloud CRM platforms have several interfaces and can be accessed anywhere, on any device. There is no space or time limitation, which facilitates its use, analysis and decisions. This advantage decentralizes access and allows different team members to manage data and administer the system.

Security and privacy are also reinforced, as cloud solutions from major providers use encryption, backups and best ITSM practices to protect and reinforce the privacy of communications. Support is much more accessible — always willing to help 24/7. Because of this, updates and maintenance are facilitated in all daily operations.

For regulated companies, there is also the advantage that the main cloud solution providers already meet the main required compliance certifications, reducing costs in obtaining and maintaining them.

Another advantage is the reliability of data confidentiality. In times of data protection laws and a considerable increase in the company’s responsibility for its customers’ personal information, it is necessary to keep it in safe places

Another aspect to consider is that, in the cloud, costs are flexible and lower. After all, the company only pays for what it uses, and this value increases or decreases, depending on the need — in other words, it is scalable.

Disadvantages

The cloud also has some negative points. Deploying a CRM in the cloud means becoming dependent on another company — the supplier. In other words, you need to wait for support solutions offered externally, as well as trust the security strategies of a third party.

Thus, the contractor is susceptible to risks without the necessary autonomy to solve problems. Therefore, it is important to carefully analyze the supplier, analyzing its size, customer satisfaction history, support SLAs, availability of data centers and assistance in Brazil, solution roadmap, investment history and market analysis.

Another issue is the dependence on internet connection. The corporation needs to always be connected for operations to function normally. In cases of connection instabilities, there may be operational bottlenecks and loss of profitability. Therefore, it is particularly important to assess these risks if your company is in a region with poor data infrastructure.

Finally, using a cloud solution, although, in general, it has a lower cost of ownership, it means “having another bill to pay” monthly. Pricing policies are updated annually, in most cases, and if a foreign supplier is chosen, they are indexed to the dollar. In a time of stress, it is not possible to postpone investments, such as when using on-premises software.

Local CRM

Benefits

One of the advantages of the CRM tool installed locally is the total control of the company, which manages the system with more autonomy, making use more flexible, according to its real needs. Adapting to the organization’s real difficulties is done in a more accurate way, as it is an internal effort.

In general, the latency for accessing applications is lower. In other words, it is faster to open screens and access information. This is particularly important for contact centers or telemarketing, or mission-critical applications, or for companies located in remote locations with difficult internet access.

Disadvantages

Among the main disadvantages of this model is the high cost of maintaining a physical system and supporting infrastructure. The company needs to keep servers connected at all times, with good cooling and adequate physical space. In some cases, it is necessary to make major renovations to the environment, which adds even more expenses.

Furthermore, the weight on IT and the responsibility on the team that manages the infrastructure is much greater and the amount of operational work increases considerably, implying a significant growth in the demand for special hires.

Continuity, data loss and security risks are considerably greater, especially for small companies, which have leaner teams and less investment capacity. On the other hand, if the organization chooses to develop its solution, it will bear the entire cost of developing and evolving the application.

In most cases, it is simply unfeasible to set up an infrastructure as secure and redundant as that offered by companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Google and Amazon. Another issue is the lack of flexibility in on-premises models. Making changes to system sizing or other characteristics is very costly and takes a long time.

Upgrades and maintenance may require long interruptions in operations. For this reason, it is ideal to carry out detailed planning of resource needs before implementation.

What are the main benefits of using a CRM System?

Now, let’s learn about the advantages of using CRM software.

Reduction of errors throughout the commercial process

As there is integrated data available for business operations, there is also a great reduction in errors. Teams interact with customers in a more precise and efficient way, without wasting their time and without rework. All information about records, histories and previous purchases is accessible, which makes work easier and a broader view of the whole.

Likewise, the information sent by customers is managed more carefully, in order to avoid possible deviations and losses.

Offer segmentation

Another advantage is the possibility of optimizing the segmentation of offers and company communication. As CRM encourages knowledge of the preferences and needs of all your contacts, it is possible to personalize messages and directly meet the expectations of each customer. In other words, the corporation is able to offer exactly what they need, in order to guarantee their interest.

CRM also allows you to divide customers into categories, in order to work with the right offers and messages for each of them. This way, you avoid the inconvenience of using a more decision-oriented approach to a contact who is still far from purchasing, for example, or of sending selections and promotions that do not apply to your profile.

Integration of marketing, sales and customer service

One of the biggest advantages of CRM is the integration between marketing, sales and customer service. With this possibility, it is possible to manage the responsibilities of the three sectors in a unified manner, also ensuring that the members of these teams are properly aligned with the same objective.

In marketing, the system allows automation of campaigns and segmented communication actions through filters and other resources. It is possible to increase the scale of email sending, for example, in a practical way, whenever necessary. Furthermore, all historical data is available and can be analyzed more easily with map tools, reports, graphs, etc.

The sales sector, in turn, is able to access marketing data, which considerably optimizes the work of salespeople by providing a clearer view of the funnel and how prepared each contact is for the final decision.

Service personnel can access marketing and sales information in order to carry out after-sales, helping the customer to integrate the product or service into their daily lives.

If these three departments are united, the customer can notice a huge difference in their journey. Professionals maintain a very high level of quality and effectiveness at all points of interaction, from communication to after the decision.

It’s as if everything was managed by the same team, as there are no knowledge barriers between them. As a result, the agility in each function increases significantly, resulting in the benefit that we will work on next.

Customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention

By having the advantages mentioned in the previous topic, customers easily start to trust the company more and what it has to offer. Their satisfaction increases, as they see value in each interaction and discover that the answers offered are completely focused on their needs.

The public realizes that the company really knows them, which is why they are willing to negotiate and consume their products and services. After all, it becomes clear that this purchase or contract will really be valuable in solving your problems.

In addition to being satisfied, customers tend to become loyal after the first purchase, as they understand that there is a connection of trust in the relationship. Checking that there is no problem in their relationship with the company, they decide to come back and buy again, in addition to promoting the products and services to other people. This is the great advantage of CRM: creating lasting relationships.

Lead nurturing

Another possibility is lead nurturing. Customer relationship management provides information that benefits the creation of effective strategies for tracking leads, making it possible to nurture them with relevant materials related to their specific needs and demands.

Therefore, the system allows, whenever the company communicates with future customers, to create ways to convince them to make a purchasing decision, maintaining segmentation and taking care of their preferences.

This way, you can work on each contact and make them evolve and become a customer. Not everyone will have to go through all the steps, but the company guarantees a higher conversion rate if it uses an application that helps to integrate data and manage marketing and sales actions, such as CRM.

Team monitoring

Another characteristic of CRM applications is the constant monitoring of teams. It is possible to monitor indicators in real time, in order to measure performance and ensure a broader view of the productivity of the company’s employees. From this data, decisions can be made to obtain maximum results with minimum expenditure of resources.

Process automation

As we have already briefly mentioned, this system helps to automate more repetitive and bureaucratic processes, freeing employees for other more strategic tasks.

This also reduces errors and allows for increased scale whenever necessary, working as if the company had a larger team, but without the need to hire any additional employees. This way, it is possible to well manage the demands of all sectors and optimize customer relationships.

New resources supported by artificial intelligence, virtual assistants and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) allow for additional gains.

Capturing information for new insights

Since CRM helps collect and integrate important data, the company is able to use the data for big data and apply artificial intelligence resources such as machine learning and deep learning to extract value from this information. By combining information, it is possible to look for patterns between them, establish correlations and associations, in order to find any trends. In other words, it obtains relevant insights for decision making.

Security

It is essential to ensure the security and privacy of information. Using a modern CRM platform allows you to gather information in a secure system, with strict access control and apply information use and security policies.

What are the main features of CRM software?

A CRM is divided into four types: operational, analytical, collaborative and strategic. Understanding each of these parts is essential to understanding the main functionalities of the system.

The operational person is responsible for day-to-day tasks, such as those involving the service, marketing and sales sectors. Monitors campaigns, manages email flows, controls closing sales, among other issues. Furthermore, in some cases, it is possible to manage social networks, manage calls and appointments, register people, etc.

In some systems, the company also has support automation, which reduces errors and speeds up the resolution of problems and queries.

These functions vary depending on the application, but generally the objective is to concentrate and manage activities and processes. In cases where CRM doesn’t do all of this, it offers quick and efficient integration with other applications that perform these operations.

The analytical part is responsible for extracting information from the raw data that is stored about customers. He creates dashboards, uses reports and graphs to help understand key indicators and measure team performance. It is ideal for optimizing the decision-making process.

With this information in hand, it is possible, for example, to up sell and cross sell, in an efficient way. Furthermore, it is possible to predict demand and sales, as well as predict the success or failure of a campaign.

The collaborative promotes the integration of sectors, establishing unified and noise-free communication. The strategic person applies approaches to improve the use of CRM itself.

CRM x Marketing Automation

The most modern CRM platforms have integrated marketing automation modules.

This makes it much easier to carry out campaigns, as marketing and sales data are on the same basis, facilitating segmentation. The alternative is to develop integrations or take advantage of native connectors that many platforms have.

CRM x Customer Data Platform (CDP)

When a company uses an integrated CRM + ERP platform for sales, services, marketing, finance, etc., it becomes much easier to obtain a single view of the customer natively, without the need for integrations.

However, this is not always possible. Typically, companies add different solutions over time, which segregates information between different systems.

To help resolve these situations, it is possible to use a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to integrate different data sources and create a single, actionable view of customers.

Check out our article “Customer Data Platform: the essential marketing tool in the digital world” to learn more about it.

CRM Software x CRM Strategy

It is very common to confuse these two expressions due to lack of knowledge on the subject. But in reality, they are two very different things.

Most companies tend to look for just one tool, that is, CRM software, worrying exclusively about execution. However, this is a mistake, after all, the most important thing is to put together a CRM strategy.

Of course, choosing a good tool is fundamental, but creating a strategy based on the demands of your company is even more essential.

It is through a well-designed strategy that we can arrive at the ideal tool, maximizing the investments made in CRM within the organization.

Artificial Intelligence in CRM

Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an increasingly important role in the field of CRM (Customer Relationship Management), offering advanced capabilities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of customer relationships. Therefore, it is interesting to hire a solution that already has an AI model.

The artificial intelligence for CRM of the moment is Open AI’s ChatGPT, which has been implemented in Microsoft business solutions under the title of “copilot“. This solution brought a series of benefits to companies that use Microsoft CRM Software (Dynamcis 365).

Here are some reasons why copiloting in Dynamics 365 is advantageous:

Better customer understanding: AI can analyze large volumes of customer data, including purchase history, past interactions, preferences and behaviors. This allows companies to have a deeper understanding of customers, their needs and preferences, allowing them to personalize interactions and offers.
Advanced personalization: Based on analysis of customer data, AI can provide personalized, targeted recommendations. This allows companies to offer a personalized experience to customers, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of interactions.
Automation of repetitive tasks: AI can automate repetitive, low-value tasks, freeing up time for professionals to focus on more strategic, high-value activities. This improves operational efficiency and allows staff to focus on tasks that require human skills, such as customer relations and decision making.
Improved customer service: AI-based chatbots can provide 24/7 customer support and service, answering frequently asked questions and routing queries to the appropriate team when necessary. This results in faster and more efficient responses, improving the customer experience.
Sales forecasting and planning: AI can analyze historical sales data, customer behavior, and other factors to predict future demand and sales opportunities. This helps sales teams identify promising leads, prioritize efforts, and make informed decisions to maximize sales.
Social media monitoring and analysis: AI can analyze the sentiment and content of social media conversations to understand customers’ opinions, concerns, and expectations of the brand. This allows businesses to monitor their reputation and proactively respond to customer comments and feedback.
Data-driven decision making: AI can provide actionable insights based on data analysis, helping businesses make informed and strategic decisions. This reduces reliance on guesswork and intuition and enables a more data-driven approach to customer relationship management.

These are just some of the reasons why having an AI-powered CRM system can be beneficial for a company. The combination of AI and CRM enables deeper customer understanding, advanced personalization, task automation, better customer service, sales forecasting, and data-driven decision making, resulting in better business outcomes.

14 CRM Software: What are the best-known CRM Software?

We have separated some of the main CRM tools available today in Brazil. Let’s go to them:

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Long ago, it was known as the Green project, which came to take a prominent place in the Microsoft Business Applications line of applications, focused entirely on corporate governance.

Microsoft’s CRM software, Dynamics 365, is a modular system (separated by Hubs) to cover operational, analytical, collaborative and strategic aspects. For example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has applications for:

Together, these modules form Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement.

2. Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the best-known CRM platforms in the world and one of the first to focus on business intelligence.

This platform integrates the most different areas of the company, such as marketing, customer service, sales, e-commerce, inventory and others, giving an overview of all interactions with the customer.

It automates a series of tasks and ensures high productivity for the team.

3. Oracle CX Sales

Oracle is a technology company famous for its databases, but the company also has a very interesting CRM solution.

Oracle’s expertise in creating databases has a high value in creating relationships and contact with customers, generating a tool that allows you to manage, analyze and improve all interactions. Furthermore, the solution allows use in the cloud, reducing the demand for local infrastructure, making the costs of implementing the system much less expensive for your company.

4. Zendesk

Zendesk created a platform that goes beyond simple support, integrating all of a company’s service channels such as telephone, chat, internet, social networks and even email itself.

Therefore, a customer can start a service on a certain channel and end it on another, since the attendant can retrieve the matter simply and quickly.

The company offers customer service through several different and integrated platforms, such as telephone, internet, online chat, social networks and email.

One of the highlights is the integration with social networks, allowing agents to interact using a single text messaging interface, without having to “jump” from one social network to another.

It is a solution developed to make consumers feel welcomed and promptly attended to in various situations in which they interact with your company.

5. CRM Scheduler

Agendor is a platform that aims to improve sales and seeks to achieve maximum sales potential for the company. Born as a tool for organization, it evolved into a CRM, assisting in the sales process.

The focus of this platform is organization, helping sellers to structure their services, avoiding any type of problem and ensuring the best results.

Agendor operates on a prepaid monthly subscription business model, exclusively aimed at companies interested in improving the organization of their sales activities.

6. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is a CRM software that serves Sales, Marketing and Customer Service teams, combining strategy, content and technology in one place.

Designed for small and medium-sized companies, Hubspot is an American software that is gaining ground in the Brazilian market.

7. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a sales management solution focused on helping small, medium and large teams improve their processes, seeking maximum efficiency.

This platform is aimed exclusively at sellers, allowing the team to meet all their demands and improve their productivity on a large scale.

8. Piperun

Piperun is a Brazilian CRM, developed with the aim of delivering maximum resources and integrations. It is focused on customer qualification and retention.

Through a platform like this, it is possible to check opportunities, see and control leads and contacts. The focus is productivity and process optimization, reducing operating costs.

9. RD CRM

RD CRM is also Brazilian and is focused on maintaining a complete view of the sales funnel, thus ensuring total control over the journey of each lead.

The focus here is to seek the best possible results, identifying the ideal moments to release content, make contact or deliver a solution. Furthermore, the system records all interactions.

10. Catch

Pega CRM is a complete enterprise-level customer relationship management platform, integrating a series of resources in the most varied areas such as service, sales and marketing.

In addition, Pega CRM also allows the automation of many activities, using real-time artificial intelligence resources to analyze data and generate insights into customer engagement.

Pega CRM’s marketing feature is one of its strengths, providing a complete analysis of customer behavior and suggesting contact strategies and actions that will obtain the best return.

It records conversations with customers across the most diverse contact channels in order to stimulate the journey towards closing the deal, identifying the best leads.

11. Servicenow

ServiceNow is a platform that unites various sectors of the company and solves connection problems before they can affect customers, simplifying processes and improving service.

The tool allows all operations to be rethought in order to seek the best cost-benefit, focusing on the return that actions can bring to the company.

12. Nectar

Nectar is national and manages contacts, opportunities, activities and goals. CRM technology has a free plan and 3 paid options.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the free account is the small storage space, just 500 MB.

Despite this, it allows you to have 10 thousand contacts and integrate with Google Calendar.

13. ActiveCampaing

ActiveCampaing was born as a Customer Experience platform, but it also has marketing automation, email marketing and also offers sales-oriented resources to manage the entire relationship with your customer, at all stages of the sales funnel.

14. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is an all-in-one CRM platform covering sales, marketing, support, and process automation. It offers a wide range of features and can be customized to meet the needs of different industries and business sizes.

How to choose the ideal CRM?

Choosing the best software option requires detailed planning, drawn up based on a careful study of the company’s conditions.

Initially, it is necessary to carry out a survey of information about the brand’s needs and objectives, monitoring current indicators, answering questions such as: is the service slow? Are the teams misaligned? Is the data scattered and inaccessible? What is the main pain? Then, with the answers in mind, leaders can choose the best option.

It is necessary to pay attention to some important criteria, such as the available budget and the necessary features. It is also necessary to define whether it is more advantageous to look for an option in the cloud or on-premises, for example.

When evaluating alternatives, contractors also need to pay attention to aspects such as the quality of support and ease of use, checking whether the support is effective and available, as this will be very useful in times of doubt about the system. Likewise, the ideal is to ensure that the application is easy to understand and use by all members, even those who do not master the technical aspects.

Another issue that must be analyzed is integration with other internal tools, such as collaboration applications (e-mail, text editors, spreadsheets), social media management or ERPs. It must be checked whether the integrated use is agile and fast, as the objective is to ensure that this data can also be brought into the CRM.

The application must also be customizable so that the company can easily adapt it to its needs. If, when implementing this solution, teams are able to integrate data about their target audience and establish ways to align all relationships — inside and outside the organization, the implementation of the tool in the company’s ecosystem will be done without major problems, with the guarantee accurate and optimized results.

Mastering what CRM is and fully understanding its advantages is a big difference for your company and you to stand out.

If you liked the article about what CRM is, take the opportunity to leave a comment below and join our conversation.

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