Significance of CRM for Manufacturing
Strong Customer Relationships Drive Sales, Sustainability and Growth – Tom Cates
Did you know “Loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again and four times more likely to refer a friend to the company”
We all appreciate good strong customer relationships are key to success in business. Hence every company strives to meet and exceed customers’ expectations, and make their Customers Happy. In order to meet & exceed expectations, we must first know what the customers’ expectations are. Let us now understand how manufacturing companies can leverage CRM for Manufacturing to get to know their customers better and create good customer relationships and ensure Happy Customers. Happy Customers will spread the good word which in turn will help to drive sales & growth in your business.
What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
CRM is an approach to manage the interaction and relationship with the company’s leads, prospects, potential & existing customers. The objective of CRM is to stay connected, improve the experience, build relationships and ensure customer retention.
Manufacturing companies can effectively leverage the power of the CRM Module of ERP Software to handle customer relations & improve their customer relationship management (CRM)
CRM module accumulates all the data on how a potential customer/customer interacts with the company’s touchpoints such as website, telephone, live chat, emails, queries and more.
CRM module tracks each & every interaction of the customer life cycle, right from the time he first discovers the company until the time he becomes a customer and even after-sales.
Thus, the CRM module provides all information about the customers’ personal details, purchase history, preferences, areas of concerns and more.
Why do manufacturers need CRM?
With this information, a manufacturing company can judge what customers need, how much customers are willing to pay for their product, how quickly they want delivery and so on. All this, helps them to know their target audience better and they can design a strategy of how to best serve their prospects and customers to meet their specific needs.
What is the Significance of CRM for Manufacturing?
CRM for Manufacturing helps manufacturing companies to manage their customer data, customer interaction, track leads, contracts, customer support, manage customer relationships effectively.
1. Accurate Customer Information Sharing
CRM provides a single source of accurate contact information & status of all leads, prospects, existing customers which can be accessed by all teams, departments from all locations. You will be able to track every detail about customers such as contact information, products sold by the company, sales dates, sales prices, special requirements/instructions, and customer feedback.
2. Lead Management
CRM captures contact details of leads, their queries, requirements, discussions and so on. This helps to build a good knowledge base and enhance product/service features as per their requirements. You can track how long it takes to convert the lead into a customer. You can analyze reports to identify areas of improvement for effective resolution of queries and faster conversion as customer
3. Sales Initiatives
CRM helps you to segment customers into groups according to their specific requirements and cater to them more effectively. This helps add an element of personalization which increases customer satisfaction! You can effectively identify opportunities of up-sell or cross-sell to existing customers
4. Implement Credit Control
With all details being available in CRM, you can define the credit value of each customer and also specify maximum credit days for each customer. This helps to minimize the risk associated with extending credit
5. Ensure Prompt Payment from Customers
You can implement “Dunning” process to send automated reminders for payments due from customers. This helps faster processing of amounts receivable and reduces the risk of bad debts.
6. After Sales Services
CRM maintains details of all sales agreements, terms of warranties and after-sales services. It also records information about any complaints, resolutions and so on. With this, you will be able to serve the customers promptly and efficiently. You can provide services as per contracts, identify any recurring problems, take remedial measures.
7. Improved Customer Service
Sometimes customers experience problems and need help resolving it. With CRM in place, when customers contact your company, the support team can access all the details of customers’ activities such as purchases, preferences, warranties, after-sales and any other information that may assist them in providing a solution. Thus, it helps improve the speed and efficiency of the customer service team
8. Speed in Business
With all the above examples, we have seen how using the CRM module effectively will help bring Speed in Business. E.g. Analyzing CRM reports will help reduce the time taken to convert the leads into sales, how you can automate the process of credit control & implement dunning for faster processing of payment requests. Similarly how you can improve the speed and efficiency of customer service and after-sales service with the help of information available in CRM.
9. Product Improvement & New Product Development Opportunities
With CRM companies record detailed information about customer inquiries, requirements, preferences, choices, suggestions as well as complaints. An in-depth study of this leads to the identification of areas of improvement in existing products; sometimes even inspires designing a new product for customers. Thus, it can help enhance customer satisfaction as well as provide new opportunities to grow or expand the business.
10. Reports & Analytics
CRM provides detailed reports & analysis of leads, customers, sales activities over a period of time. Reports such as Lead Tracking, Sales Pipeline, Sales activities, Customer complaints, Lost sales reports. All these reports become the foundation for making data-based and informed decisions to identify bottlenecks and improve processes.
Summary
Customers are of supreme importance for your manufacturing business. Hence, keeping customers happy is a top priority. Significance of CRM for Manufacturing is that you get to know your customers better and understand what they want. CRM for Manufacturing ensures accurate, organized customer data, complete details of customer interactions. You can thus provide customers a delightful experience and ensure customer retention.
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