The quality of your data is important for your success. If you don’t already have one, a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Hubspot or Zoho can help you manage, organize, and utilize data collected from your customers to help you form a more effective marketing strategy to improve the eCommerce customer experience and increase conversions on your site. Research suggests that businesses don’t often use all of the features available to them through their CRM. To get the most out of your tech, CRM optimization might be the next strategy you use to get more value from your existing systems.
CRM optimization doesn’t involve adding more tools but refining existing ones, so your team can better understand how to use customer data efficiently to boost sales and strengthen customer relationships. The following are some bast practices if you’re considering optimizing your CRM.
Define Your Goals
The very first step before you start an audit of your CRM is to clearly define what your goals are and how you plan to use customer data to inform your marketing and sales strategies. For example, you may want to use customer information to send retargeting emails for users that abandon their carts at checkout. Most CRM systems have this functionality in the platform, so that might be where you start. Other key metrics you can track using a CRM include:
- Lead conversion rate
- Sales cycle length
- Customer retention rate
- Customer acquisition cost
- User adoption rate
- Customer satisfaction score
These are all measurables that can help you get a better idea of every touchpoint across the lifecycle of every sale to build better quality relationships and strategies going forward.
Conduct a Data Audit
Now that you have any idea your objectives for your CRM optimization, it’s time to comb through the data you’ve already collected to ensure that everything is accurate, up-to-date, and that there is no duplicate or bot data taking up space and potentially even slowing down the technology’s performance. Customer data can change often, so it’s important to maintain a regular cadence for data audits to ensure everything runs smoothly, and your CRM can help you amplify your marketing efforts efficiently.
Train Your Employees
If they aren’t doing so already, your employees should be using your CRM tools daily. In order for your CRM optimization to be successful, your employees must be educated on whatever capabilities you aren’t currently taking advantage of. You can first ask for feedback from your team about what isn’t working with your current set-up. Keep in mind that as your needs change and technology advances, you may want to assign regular training to make sure your team is highly skilled at utilizing everything your CRM has to offer.
Customize Based on Specific Metrics
With your redefined metrics and KPIs in mind, you can often customize the dashboard and reports through your CRM to reflect your new approach. This way you and your team can achieve a clearer, more concise perspective on the current standing of your marketing strategy and how to move forward.
Take Advantage of Automations
CRM platforms often include AI and automation capabilities that could make basic or redundant tasks much more efficient for your team. Automations are probably the most useful functionality available to you through your CRM as this can help you generate KPI summaries, sending marketing emails, managing leads, collecting customer data, and triggering custom workflows for whatever tasks you want to take off your team’s plate. Automation is a great way to take advantage of everything your CRM can do for your business without any additional resources or energy from your team.
Now that you’re prepared for your next CRM audit, the final thing to consider is how your eCommerce platform can support your growth. Your CRM can’t benefit your business the way it should if your eCommerce platform isn’t equipped to integrate with it. At this stage in the eCommerce industry, flexibility and control are necessary factors when choosing an eCommerce platform that must be able to connect with a variety of other tools. Virid’s enterprise platform marketAgility is built for complete control over your tech stack, so as your business grows, the platform grows with you. To learn more about how Virid can support sustainable eCommerce success for your business, schedule a consultation today.
