Last updated on August 9th, 2023
In this article, you’ll learn about the great potentials of CRM in the future and what these next-generation CRM tools can do for your business.
Customers are the most crucial asset for nearly every company in the world.
In the early days of many business dealings, information on customers (who they are, how they’ve engaged with your company) was dispersed and siloed across the organization.
This left the customer experience dull and internal business systems chaotic.
CRM came as the one central place to store all the information needed to foster a healthy, long-lasting relationship with customers.
In this present-day, CRM continues to maximize pivotal internal and external business needs.
The significance of CRM in the future of business is undeniable as the customer experience becomes increasingly crucial.
Today you’ll learn:
- What Is CRM & How Does It Contribute To Business Growth?
- Is CRM Still Relevant Today?
- Does CRM Have a Future?
- What Will The CRM Trends Look Like In The Future?
- Which CRM has The Most Future Potential For Small Businesses?
Automate All Your Communications With VipeCloud
VipeCloud is the only Automation tool your small business needs to
be the hero to your customers.
With Email, Texting, Social, Suites, Chat, Stories, Video Email & Sign Up Forms fully built-in, we provide you with the perfect platform to grow your business.
15 Day Free Trial – Get started risk free. No CC needed.
What Is CRM & How Does It Contribute To Business Growth?
CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management, referring to the strategies, tools, and technology businesses employ to keep and acquire consumers.
As you can see, it’s a process, and CRM systems are the tools that make the process easier.
CRM software enables businesses to concentrate on their connections with customers, team members, and even suppliers when it comes to business growth.
With customers, the tools at your disposal make it simpler to:
- Locate new potential customers
- Gain their confidence
- Give competent assistance
- Suggest extra products or services throughout the relationship
On the internal business side of things, CRM systems tackle a multitude of tasks, including:
- Marketing channel management – email, social media, text message marketing
- Sales enablement – sales pipelines, sales reports, lead distribution, and task reminders
- Customer analytics – Database buyer journeys, lead scoring, data syncing
- Communications – Tools for customer service, email, and internal project management pipelines
With ever-improving data analytics tools like CRM, you can:
- Boost customer retention
- Make better decisions based on insights
- Help simplify your business
That said, it stands to reason why 65% of companies invest in CRM within the first 5 years of their launch.
Is CRM Still Relevant Today?
CRM is more relevant than ever before for many reasons.
For one, it’s relevant because customers now expect it.
Here’s what I mean:
Customers don’t necessarily expect the CRM itself, they expect the results of you having CRM. They want a great customer experience (CX).
A world that is tailor-made for them and presented professionally consistently (after all, this is how great relationships are formed).
The truth is that the world runs on systems that cater to people (cars, mobile phones, watches, etc.).
We have gotten used to this sort of environment in every walk of life, and now people want it when it comes to where and how they spend their hard-earned money.
With CRM, companies can reach out efficiently and make connections that matter with their ideal customers.
Tools like contact scoring is a prime example of how small businesses can categorize their best prospects and save tons of time prospecting the wrong people in their business eco-system.
Now, it’s time for us to look at what’s to come.
Can we expect CRM’s capabilities only to get stronger? More customizable and more intelligent?
Does CRM Have a Future?
The answer is…
A resounding yes!
There’s even more promise in the future because CRM technology will continue to innovate and grow.
The same technologies that have helped businesses sell, communicate and advertise are the same technology that will help businesses make connections and build a base of loyal customers.
This comes down to marketplace fundamentals.
People want:
A) People want goods and services that fit a need.
B) A great experience when getting and having those goods and services.
These are simple fundamentals that don’t change (since every market will always have a need to fill).
And with CRM technology getting more advanced by the year, serving customers with CRM in the future will give businesses leverage.
CRM is expanding in significant technical ways to monitor and educate sales enablement and customer interactions.
CRM is undergoing an “intelligence revolution,” and in 10 years, we’ll correlate it with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Systems will recognize end-user skills (proficiencies and weaknesses), bring recommendations to assist in the learning curve, and help them perform better.
When it comes to the buyer journey, companies will be able to deliver better content and offers thanks to real-time processing of past customer data and behavioral data. This will lead to more RELEVANT marketing thanks to better customer journey tracking.
What Will The CRM Trends Look Like In The Future?
1. Self-Service For Customers
Customers want their queries addressed and their concerns resolved as soon as possible.
Self-service is no longer simply a cool new feature. It is necessary to give a great client experience.
Here are some examples:
- Chatbots that answer customer needs and provide FAQs for quick answers
- Content (documents, videos, images) deployed to help customers with their needs
Customer inquiries are quickly answered when they use self-service.
Also, as CRM progresses, automation will handle more contact management, freeing up human teams to concentrate on other essential activities.
Another benefit of self-service is that it can save capital. As clients resolve their issues, you’ll need less support personnel to handle needs.
2. Artificial Intelligence Will Power Automation
CRM automation is how a CRM system streamlines repetitive and manual tasks to simplify labor and boost efficiency.
(It can be found in various business workflows like email marketing, sales lead distribution, and customer service chatbots.)
Automation is only getting more robust as technology and CRM systems do as well.
Superb AI will power automation.
There are even trends showing that this AI will possibly be less expensive due to its ample supply.
CEO of ISHIR, Rishi Khanna adds to this by saying that AI and predictive analysis will help us analyze customer attitudes and intent, score leads, recommend products, and upsell better.
In other words:
Artificial intelligence and machine learning in CRM will help automate and drive the business decision-making processes.
3. Better Mass Personalization Leads to More Relevance
Another critical, achievable goal for the future of CRM is mass personalization.
Personalization leads to relevance, which is what drives a good customer experience.
Creating a relevant customer experience is created by personalizing your messaging to target audiences (defining each customer by attributes and interests related to themselves).
In the next generation of CRM, mass personalization will be possible thanks to essential data collected by AI.
Companies will use personalization to offer products to the right customers and brainstorm what new products to develop.
Mass personalization will even help businesses in broad niches create detailed customer pools that they can market specifically to.
This could lead to higher conversion rates since these audience pools would better resonate with marketing that speaks to them.
4. Alignment With Privacy
In today’s age, you hear many concerns about customer privacy when it comes to data collection.
Because of this, people and companies, for that matter, are looking to make a change. (Just look at Apple’s 2020 IOS 14 update and what it did to Facebook ads tracking)
Privacy is vital to consumers.
As CRM evolves and becomes smarter, more accurate, and more personalized to each customer, it will need to align with privacy regulations and sentiments.
5. An Expansion In Social CRM
Today, 4.48 billion people are using social media, with an estimated 13.3% increase year in and year out.
From the figures, this percentage increase is compounding, making social media a must for any business.
Many CRM providers are taking note and are looking to expand their social CRM capabilities to help brands meet customers on their preferred platforms.
This is a smart move considering that there are brands whose customers are more on platforms like TikTok rather than Facebook and LinkedIn.
As social CRM develops, businesses will learn what their target demographics are looking for, what they’re posting about and mentioning.
Also, communicating with customers where they like to stay and automating it will help provide the ideal customer experiences people are looking for.
6. Voice Technology Will Immerge
Voice technology is now everywhere (just ask Siri or Alexa).
While it is widely used, speech technology is projected to make a leap into CRM systems in the coming years. Part of the reason is that voice technology is used a lot in our day-to-day devices.
And another reason is that it brings efficiency (something every business wants and needs.)
After all, many enterprises are already adopting voice assistance technology in the past year to:
- Automate meeting scheduling
- Conference call set-ups
- Manage customer relationships
84% of IT business decision-makers surveyed mentioned that they planned on adopting voice assistance in the next year.
You’re even seeing Microsoft and other CRM-related giants invest in firms that hold sophisticated voice assistant technology.
Voice assistance has excellent potential with internal and external business tasks, so you’ll see more next-generation CRMs with this technology.
7. A Boost In CRM Adoption
CRM software is currently the world’s biggest software market, and it’s not slowing down.
In fact, the industry value is predicted to exceed way past $80 billion by 2025, trumping today’s $58.04 billion market value (2021).
Previously, businesses were reluctant to use a CRM system because they were worried about the cost, limited resources, and they generally lacked the technical know-how to navigate it.
However, today, things have changed, and concerns are becoming less and less.
Why?
Because CRMs are more affordable than ever, easier to use, and show more reliability when scaling.
On top of that, many CRM suppliers provide free membership models, which encourages even small organizations to take a swing at it.
As these organizations continue to try out CRM, they see the upside of consolidating their marketing, sales, and customer service needs in one tech stack.
In the future, CRM will continue to give businesses more ways to tailor their CRM how they see fit, which will correlate with this tool’s adoption.
In other words, as the CRM industry grows, CRM will come with a slew of even more features that businesses won’t want to miss out on at affordable prices.
Which CRM has The Most Future Potential For Small Businesses?
As you can see, CRM is changing as we speak, and if we look at the ones made for small businesses, VipeCloud stands out with the most potential.
With the numerous features that help with your marketing, sales, and customer service, VipeCloud is also ever-improving, with more features joining the fray.
Our development team also has our ears out for CRM trends, enabling us to create tools that will help take your business to the next level.
Want to see it for yourself?
Try VipeCloud’s Sales & Marketing Suite Today free for 15 days.
And feel free to request a demo if you’d like to get any of your questions answered.
Leave a Reply