Emerging Trends in CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have been evolving rapidly in the past few years to keep pace with the latest advances in marketing strategy for companies looking to expose their products to customers at the lowest possible cost.  Here are some of the emerging trends in CRM that many businesses are using to bolster their customer base and maximize the return on their investment.

CRM Trends: Social CRM

One of the latest emerging trends in CRM that many companies are using is social CRM. What is Social CRM?.  By setting up an effective presence on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, companies can reach millions of potential customers with a minimum of cost and effort.  By creating a company profile on either of these or other social networking sites, organizations can rapidly disseminate information such as customer feedback, discounts and sales.  One of many social emerging trends in CRM that have recently become popular is the “like” or “friend” feature. When someone on one of these networks “likes” or “friends” the company/product  page, all of that person’s friends are then notified of the event.  The results of these emerging trends in CRM, particularly social CRM, are powerful if done correctly. Leveraging social CRM takes more planning and strategy than simply creating a Facebook page or sending out a few tweets.

One of the other emerging trends in CRM that many social media companies are starting to embrace is providing real-time customer service.  There are potential advantages as the strategy can generate two clear deliverables:  reducing costs and expediting problem resolution.  Setting up a real-time customer service system requires your organization to have a strong a social presence. Your employees handling the social CRM must be properly trained, or else real-time customer service functions via Twitter can be disastrous.

CRM Trends: Mobile CRM

Another one of the emerging trends in CRM is the smartphone; this is the sector of mobile CRM.  This technology has been embraced by the travel industry with excellent results and the opportunity for other businesses is virtually limitless.  There are hotel chains that have seen great success with mobile phone applications that allow customers to manage their reservation status. The mobile CRM trends are leveraging mobile GPS technology to let guests search for hotel locations and locate their destination.  Additionally, with the release of the iPad, iPad CRM has become another mobile solution for front-office processes. With mobile CRM, customers can take brands and products with them anywhere they go.  This is one of the most promising of all the emerging trends in CRM that have come to light in recent years.

Perhaps the most common of the emerging trends in CRM is that companies have returned to the concept of investing in their most important asset:  their customers.  Just as lean manufacturing techniques forced production departments to re-orient the business back towards the customer; CRM is driving Sales, Marketing, Legal, and other operations to see the customers’ priorities.   With a renewed focus, companies can better sense and respond to the wants and needs of their customers in a hyperactive marketplace.  Even CRM for law firms is leveraging these emerging CRM trends, by functioning at both the mobile and social levels. The Internet is changing the way customers think and act, which has led to changes in customer service, across the supply chain, and now back to customer-facing processes.

Companies on the leading edge of emerging trends in CRM are more likely to be in a position to take advantage of changes in the marketplace and survive in a dynamic global economic setting.