Leveraging CRM in the Face of COVID-19
Danny Estrada from Destination CRM shares an interesting read on how companies can leverage customer relationship management (CRM) in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Let us break down all three parts of this system:
Customers
According to Estrada, “When your teams are forced to work remotely, CRM can provide access to critical information needed to resolve customer issues. Many CRM platforms now provide internal and external bots, built with AI, that can handle a high volume of self-service requests, get better over time, and free up your overworked staff to focus on more complicated requests.”
Relationships
The next word in the term, relationships, are tested during this pandemic. “Many organizations have had CRM solutions for many years but are now realizing that the accuracy and depth of their contact data is highly degraded. For instance, marketing departments are now focusing on digital and virtual events, whose effectiveness is diminished when the accuracy on contacts is only 50 percent to 70 percent. These departments are now shifting funds allocated for face-to-face events and travel to tools that will automate and improve CRM data.”
Management
“As all these changes to our business ecosystem impact every company in every industry, one of the biggest challenges leaders face is how to manage their business. Management can only be effective when it has visibility into operations. Without visibility—especially considering the challenges inherent with a newly remote workforce—managers and executives could be forced to allocate resources or create strategies without being able to see the effects of those decisions.”
