Never has it been more important to implement a customer and employee experience strategy. And, as strategies go, the customer and employee experience strategies go side by side!
The employee experience should be as important as the one you are creating for your customers.
The experience of both has certainly shifted significantly with the Covid-19 pandemic. IT leaders are spending more time focused on how they can influence both the customer and employee experience.
The digital enterprise-wide eco-environment is playing an even more critical role today in driving strategy to meet expectations from both within an organisation, and from customers. One touchpoint that is playing an increasingly significant role in this strategy is customer relationship management (CRM).
CRM platforms enable organisations to create positive customer experiences leading to engaged, loyal and retained customers while also providing an engaging user interface to aid employee satisfaction. The buying decision is no longer simply based on price, the customer experience now influences the decision.
• Customers are willing to pay a price premium of up to 13% (and as high as 18%) for luxury and indulgence services, simply by receiving a great customer experience. (PWC Research)
So, with a tech-savvy customer, you may need to rethink and adjust your digital capabilities to meet their expectations and in turn, provide that all-important employee experience.
The many benefits of implementing a CRM system
• Enhanced Customer Experience – technology plays a key role in the drive to enhance customer experience. It enables organisations to deliver positive experiences throughout all customer touchpoints and as we have already addressed, the customer experience is key to improving performance and growth. 
• Improved Employee Experience – similar to the customer experience, employees also have touchpoints throughout their career with an organisation. A good employee experience itself has many benefits creating more engaged and satisfied employees contributing to both an increased level of work and customer experience. Alongside HR and management strategies, technology plays an integral role in the employee experience.
• Knowledge – not only can you store basic information about your customers such as name, address, telephone number and key contacts, you can also store all interactions, purchasing history, personalised information, invoices, service requests, in fact, with a CRM solution you can tailor your CRM to record whatever information you require!
• Customer Segmentation – through defined data fields you can store vital information to enable customer segmentation. This will improve targeting for sales and marketing activities and campaigns enabling you to tailor messages and product offering.
• Customer Retention – good customer experience and customer service will inevitably lead to an increase in customer retention. By simply getting to know your customers and recording all touchpoints, it will enable you to provide an enhanced level of service, maintain regular contact and improve retention.
• Customer Needs – the more you understand your customer and the relationship you have with the customer, the better you can predict customer needs. This will aid upsell and cross-sell opportunities, help predict reordering and drive product/service development.
• Enhanced Communication – you can build into your CRM system branded communication tools such as emails, letter templates, text messages, invoices, quotes, in fact, any template you require. By extending workflows into operational area’s and processes, you can automate customer communication in many ways including, by time, date, actions, completed tasks, or simply by the click of a button!
• Data Security Confidence – all this can be achieved within the current GDPR guidelines and with the confidence that information is stored securely, in one place, and is password protected. Controlled access to important information by secure storage with advanced protection will ensure you are safeguarding your organisation.
• Effective use of Budgets – a CRM platform will ensure that your sales and marketing efforts are invested effectively and efficiently. It will ensure you nurture every sales opportunity and benefit from a high level of customer retention.
• Business Intelligence – decision making is no longer based on gut feel, a CRM system will provide customisable dashboards and reporting tools to enable information to be available to help drive strategy and decision making. Your organisation will become data-driven.
• Efficiency – a CRM system will automate business processes and workflows that extend into operational areas of your business enabling your organisation to improve business efficiency and facilitate growth.
• Connectivity & Accessibility – the CRM system will connect with other systems across your organisation and can be hosted locally or in the Cloud providing you with flexibility and enabling remote working. No matter where your workforce is based, staff will have controlled access to all the information required to complete their roles efficiently and effectively.
Get in touch
For more information or advice on CRM systems or to see a demonstration of Excelpoint’s no-code CRM solution, please contact us, and we will be more than happy to support you on your digital transformation journey – hello@excelpoint.co.uk | 01325 375930.
