Ten world CRM trends to talk about
Today is Friday and I want to chat. We found an article about 10 world trends of CRM-2017 and decided to translate it, but it turned out to be quite boring. Therefore, we made a free translation of the main theses and commented from the point of view of Russian developers.
If it is short, then the essence can be retell with a fairy-joke:
THE USSR. Go through the shop of printed circuit boards, our engineers, accompanied by the Japanese delegation. Show, tell, include something. Long walked, talked with the workers, inspected the machines. The chief engineer at the exit from the shop erases the sweat from his forehead and asks the head of the Japanese delegation:
- Well, you were like, looked. Tell me honestly, how far are we behind you?
The Japanese smiled and said with genuine Japanese politeness:
- Forever and ever.
')
Taken from the playcast
Not really.
Seriously, the CRM industry is developing in the same planes as the business itself. Vendors tend to meet the requirements of customers - in many respects precisely because of the introduction of foreign systems, we often fail or are too expensive. They simply do not fit our business and operations. By 2017, there was an excellent competitive market for domestic CRM, many of which are looking for themselves in foreign markets. This means that the industry has weight and there is development - so it's time to catch up with the leaders in a straight line.
So, a dozen hot trends and RegionSoft comments.
Traditionally, the concept of CRM was divided into three customer-oriented branches: sales, marketing and service. In the past, this worked well, but today customers want more and they don’t care what the position or department of the employee with whom they interact is called. They want one thing - to have their question resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible. Kate Leggett, an analyst at Forrester Research, notes that customers want to easily get in touch with the company in order to make a purchase — their tasks must be completed literally in one breath.
This approach has forced professionals from the service, marketing and sales to take on functions that lie outside their competence. Employees of service centers are engaged in cross-sales and upsell (additional offers that increase the purchase price, for example, an annual license for 1,200 rubles is replaced by an eternal license for 2,700 rubles). Marketer can answer questions from clients in social networks and forums. The new paradigm requires salespeople to follow the after sales service history and communicate with the customer after purchase.
John Regsdale, vice president and research director of the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), notes that the mega-brand of client success breaks down the barriers between sales, marketing and service. He also says that sales of a new level require involvement in the entire life cycle of a client, especially since satisfaction with a company is formed not only by the fact of sale, but also by the fact of using a product or service. This means that all this time you need to be close to the client.
Unfortunately, such a breakdown of the boundaries between posts inevitably led to confusion among professionals, as they try to gain access and cover all the information to solve the tasks. Technology providers need to expect them to create mechanisms that will help preserve and integrate data from disparate systems so that these systems interact with each other.
RegionSoft: We wrote about the marketing and sales war in the last post . And unfortunately, there are quite a few such examples so far.
Indeed, the market is being transformed, followed by CRM-systems. Such changes are associated primarily with the development of telecommunications and the availability of online purchases. Behavioral habits from the category of "filled out the form - quickly paid for - took away" are transferred to offline and even to B2B. The sale becomes personalized, but the sales person just fades into the background and merges with other employees of the commercial service. Accordingly, it is necessary to expand the skills and abilities. If you are engaged in sales of IT technologies, it is important to understand all the principles of work, the usefulness of the end user, the technical aspects. Otherwise, you will have to transfer the client through the chain to engineers and techies, and he may fall off at some link.
But what concerns the post-sale "friendship" with the client deserves special attention. Each CRM-system must be designed precisely to meet these requirements. Now this is not a program for collecting customer base, closing deals and calculating revenues - it is important to be able to track all relationships with a client. In our CRM system, we solved this problem with the possibility of customizing sales funnel statuses and customer status, made a special chart showing the dynamics of customer relations right at each contact point. CRM-system should help automate the entire cycle of relations with the client and give grounds for pre-sales and new sales. That is why it is important to make maximum data and collect your unique customer base.
As there is a need to extract and analyze data from disparate systems, vendors will be able to strengthen their positions, able to create integrated solutions and whole partner ecosystems. This is especially important when you consider that most companies still buy CRM-technology in separate parts for each of the divisions. For example, a firm may decide to purchase Oracle Cloud Marketing for a marketing service and at the same time choose Cloud Salesforce for sales (we remind, experts are not talking about Russia). Both units should integrate as smoothly as possible to ensure effective interaction.
RegionSoft: This whole story is a nightmare for a developer. On the one hand, the competitors of CRM-developers quite calmly offer systems in the Sales, Marketing, Technical Support versions. And this is so formal division that it looks more like another marketing ploy. On the other hand, customers who may come with the desire to migrate to a new CRM from their zoo, among which are not just innocent bundles from a pair of cloudy CRM, but even Navision and Axapta are found. In fact, a CRM system can be adapted to the needs of sales, marketing, and even PR. It is just that entities (reports, directories, journals and accounting tools) that meet the requirements of each department will be created inside. And so doing is very cool. If you know at least where the lead came from, it’s already easier for him to sell. Creation of separate systems with adaptation to the department is justified only for very large companies. Using disparate solutions without convergence, you lose a lot in revenue, because you use your strengths and capabilities separately.
Not only sales and marketing software needs to be integrated. You need a separate software product or a set of integrated solutions outside the framework of the departments - and this can happen only when the data of all departments are as accessible as possible.
Many of the major CRM vendors have come a long way to include knowledge management in major software editions. As examples of those who committed a tremendous transformation, Microsoft’s Parature systems and Knova Aptean's proposals, and the best example is Oracle, which invested in the development of knowledge management systems and acquired, among others, RightNow, Q-th and InQuira.
A review of knowledge management systems in 2016 showed that 34% of companies expect a 20 to 30% productivity growth if employees start sharing knowledge more often. 40% said that an increase of 30% or more is possible.
With the growth of the number of remote employees and their opportunities for productive work, the CRM concept also found a place for collaboration tools, among which, apart from niche Jive and Lithium, the largest vendors of the CRM systems Salesforce.com, Oracle and SAP hold strong positions. They create everything so that customer management is understood not as information, but as a system. This is a new way of thinking business.
RegionSoft: Again the same story about the exchange of knowledge within the organization. To be honest, these disputes look strange - the company has a single goal, and all departments must work together to achieve it. If someone puts his power ambitions and his career above common goals, then such a person can become the center of the formation of destructive processes in the company. It should work separately with him or, in the worst case, part.
It is difficult to find a Russian CRM system with complete knowledge management. As a rule, these are separate internal systems that work, for example, in companies of the nuclear and extractive industries. However, vendors must include two key knowledge management functions in an organization:
As for remote employees, then there are several possible solutions: everything is clear with cloud systems; we as a desktop CRM provide remote access from any device using TRA (terminal remote access). By the way, the most inconvenient form of remote work with CRM is a mobile interface. Many people implement it, but in fact they are extremely uncomfortable to use. And if you create a convenient and truly mobile interface, CRM in the phone loses almost all the functionality.
All channels must be combined in one interface, so that there is no need to spend time switching between screens and applications, when the employee has a huge and constantly growing list of tasks. It is important to transmit the CRM business idea to the user within the framework of the work flow that he performs.
Large CRM vendors came close to exploring the possibilities of such technologies. So, Salesforce has repeatedly made a fuss about the Einstein AI solution, Pegasystems has invested in robotization, which is designed to help with routine tasks. Oracle offered its adaptive intelligent cloud applications that allow working on a single collaborative platform, and IBM with the Watson cognitive computing tool did not stand aside. It is not surprising if these solutions will enter the market in the near future.
RegionSoft: In Russia, there also appeared vendors who claim omni-channelity , and it exists, but not at the level of the listed systems - just different APIs are collected by API from different sources. And, of course, they are rarely used, because it is not always possible (and I want) to interpret them.
We have seen solutions based on IBM Watson, as long as they are very raw (although technologically advanced and pleasant from the point of view of the interface!), And obviously will not soon take over the Russian market. So far the best of what is in CRM-systems for automation of routine is business processes. They are of three types:
Mastering business processes (in RegionSoft CRM ) does not require programming knowledge, but requires a habit. After you see the result (reducing the time for coordination and consultation, the minimum of deadlines, the order of affairs), you will definitely want to automate everything.
Another growing trend in 2017 is to continue expanding client analytics to go beyond understanding what people are doing and find the answer to the question of why they are doing it. Without this understanding, customization will not go far. It is very difficult to answer such a question, for this you need not only to track typical behavior, but also to find related information, for example, from social networks. So you can collect more data for a qualitative understanding of customer behavior. There is a growing need to integrate customer conversation recordings, transactional data and information on marketing campaigns.
RegionSoft: If we talk about integration with social networks, then at the moment in most Russian CRM-systems this function is implemented very poorly - data does not always reach the sales funnel and actually touch the analytics. This is due to the fact that the majority of users of CRM-systems - B2B sector, which is not engaged in sales through social networks and often simply ignores them. Small business, working through social networks, rarely uses enterprise-class CRM-systems, for it has its own client management systems.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, machine learning, deep learning, virtual reality, intelligent helpers, and many other popular terms, talk about robots has boiled over in our culture more than ever. According to analysts, this chatter, at least in part, is not groundless.
Customers are not particularly interested in interacting with people without a special need. According to a Forrester Research study, 75% of business professionals indicated that buying simple products from a website is more convenient than through a sales department. The service is the same story: customers use self-service channels as the first contact and only then make a phone call as an “escalation point”.
This means that automation should be aimed at interacting with customers so that their self-service becomes easier: they would buy tickets themselves, track orders, plan visits if necessary, and send feedback. However, this does not mean that the client wants to feel that he is interacting with the machine. So, you need to work on the symbiosis of human and machine interaction through interactive interfaces.
RegionSoft: The important functionality here is the integration with the site so that orders can go straight to the CRM system. While this is not the most popular feature, however, the demand is large enough - we even developed a RegionSoft Application Server for such tasks.
At the same time, a huge number of customers prefer to communicate with companies by phone, rather than doing everything on their own - partly due to the acquisition of complex products, mentality and age segmentation, partly the desire not to lose money when buying, to clarify some points that are not mentioned in description of the product or service. And the process of migration to complete self-service will go some more time. Moreover, the transformation will be least affected by the B2B sector, in which personal communication continues to accompany sales in most cases.
Of course, automation should not be limited to the interests of the company's customers. All employees are also consumers and there is a lot that can be simplified in their activities. In this regard, it is not at all surprising that chatbots, virtual assistants and other tools are gaining momentum. Experts expect an incredible increase in their popularity in the daily activities of the staff working at the front office.
For example, in order to gain a competitive advantage, the sales person will rely on the possibility of providing customers with automatic recommendations and personal pricing configurations. The time saved from negotiations and entering the details of transactions into documents can be spent on solving other problems.
Jim Dickey, CSO Insights research associate, says that this is happiness when, along with technological development, “more firms start to mine the gold they have in their CRM systems”. For several decades, managers have been forced to force salespeople to enter data into CRM systems, and now with an increase in the number of options, users can analyze and use the accumulated data (and Big Data wealth) for prospects of profiling, optimization of pricing, forecasting, proactive identification of customer churn and etc.
RegionSoft: This is the most beautiful thing one could hear about CRM: “more companies are starting to mine the gold they have in their CRM systems”. Unfortunately, many users are not aware of this and therefore turn CRM-ku not into a gold mine, but into a terrible dump of data. To prevent this from happening, you need to fill in the data in a timely manner and be able to interpret it. Then all business moves will be based on analytics, and not on the conclusions "because I want it so."
It is still very early to talk about BigData in most companies, as long as it is the lot of banks, retailers, insurers, etc. But this is not a reason to ignore the work with the accumulated data - the more thoroughly you analyze them, the better you know your customers and you predict more successfully the transactions, the development of the company, and the state of the industry. It is with data analysis that personalization begins - the basis of the loyalty of your customer base.
CRM systems needed to be helped to overcome adoption problems, which were a huge obstacle to implementation. It was difficult, many experts did not want to work in CRM. One of the ways to engage is gamification, making software use more enjoyable. Thus, some vendors offer tools that stimulate competition between sales teams and individual sales people. Or, for example, the visualization of these same data helped the perception of big data. The concern of CRM vendors is to develop a system so that it gives intelligent recommendations in a digestible form.
RegionSoft: Noticed, right? The author talks about the problems with the adoption of CRM by employees in the past tense. For us, this is a real one, mainly due to the indifference of top management to the implementation processes. We have already written about the basic mistakes that lead to a boycott of CRM by the line staff, but once again we note that the main thing is the interest of all departments and the understanding that the CRM system is not a tool for monitoring and prodding, but a working tool that improves efficiency The work of employees is the same as a browser or keyboard.
As for gamification, this is a slippery slope. If you set the competition in a game form and initiate the race for the leaders, then you can slip into the fact that all employees will start with *****, in general, will see themselves in the work as individual rats and will start to avoid teamwork, sit each other friend etc. Therefore, gamification can only have a soft character such as emoticons or stickers on the corporate portal. Envy is an engine that starts off well and explodes quickly. Be careful with gamification.
Although investing in industry-specific CRM systems has not become the norm for companies, analysts point out that major CRM system providers offer additional software that is used for vertical industry implementations. Especially these processes are palpable in the pharmaceutical, financial services and manufacturing industries. So, Microsoft has 32 industry-specific templates, Oracle has 16, and Salesforce has a couple of solutions. Such solutions accelerate the verticalization of companies.
RegionSoft: Verticality is interpreted very correctly here - from a sectoral point of view. But then again, both throughout the world and in Russia, with industry-specific CRM-systems everything is not easy. Some vendors on the sites can find whole lists of industry solutions: from logging to oil production. Most often, the process of developing an industry-specific CRM looks entertaining: a basic solution is taken, fields are renamed in accordance with industry requirements, a couple of reports are filed — ready.
Real industry CRM can not branch in any quantity for any industry, because it is always a deep processing of all the internal logic of the program, if you will, just a new program. We were faced with the development of industry-specific CRM-system, when we created CRM for TV and radio holdings RegionSoft CRM Media . It was a long process that lasted more than a year and required constant interaction with the customer, consultations, and virtually complete immersion in a new industry for us. But we have never called CRM “Advertising Agency”, “Construction”, “Plant”, etc., despite the fact that we really modified the solution for clients - this is simply dishonest, cheap marketing.
Advanced technologies that include extended reality, in particular, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), are still at the initial stage of development, but everyone has a future in CRM. In fact, Forrester Research predicts that the constraints for AR / VR / MR tools will begin to weaken as companies experiment with them and create the foundation for larger implementations.
The foundation was laid in 2016 with the game Pokémon Go, which inspired consumers and companies to attract serious attention. While the use cases of augmented reality are still few, their wider implementation is not far off. For example, using a video may allow a technician to virtually call a more experienced employee to get a second opinion.
Nevertheless, in order to enter the market, careful preparatory work is needed.
RegionSoft: There’s nothing to say. VR is still a very raw technology and its purpose is more entertaining. The phenomenon of Pokemon GO is simple: mobility + novelty VR + business interest + accessibility + competitiveness + the coolest public relations. However, this story quickly collapsed, and there was no succession of discoveries of such startups. Because it is a very complex and expensive development that only large corporations can afford. Yes, augmented reality has a future, but first it will come in the gaming industry, then in medicine and retail, and then integration with CRM systems will go. But again, everything will depend on the cost. I think it’s too early to talk about it seriously, and is it worth talking about at all. But the play is really cool.
In general, not everything is so gloomy near. Global trends are also focused on the future in many respects - the situation with CRM in the West is a little better: there are opponents of implementation, those who cannot use, and those who buy for a tick. However, one thing is clear - CRM-systems tend to keep up with business and technology proven by business. Right way, in principle.
→ RegionSoft CRM here
→ Source article here
If it is short, then the essence can be retell with a fairy-joke:
THE USSR. Go through the shop of printed circuit boards, our engineers, accompanied by the Japanese delegation. Show, tell, include something. Long walked, talked with the workers, inspected the machines. The chief engineer at the exit from the shop erases the sweat from his forehead and asks the head of the Japanese delegation:
- Well, you were like, looked. Tell me honestly, how far are we behind you?
The Japanese smiled and said with genuine Japanese politeness:
- Forever and ever.
')
Taken from the playcast
Not really.
Seriously, the CRM industry is developing in the same planes as the business itself. Vendors tend to meet the requirements of customers - in many respects precisely because of the introduction of foreign systems, we often fail or are too expensive. They simply do not fit our business and operations. By 2017, there was an excellent competitive market for domestic CRM, many of which are looking for themselves in foreign markets. This means that the industry has weight and there is development - so it's time to catch up with the leaders in a straight line.
So, a dozen hot trends and RegionSoft comments.
Segregated from reality departments will continue to devalue
Traditionally, the concept of CRM was divided into three customer-oriented branches: sales, marketing and service. In the past, this worked well, but today customers want more and they don’t care what the position or department of the employee with whom they interact is called. They want one thing - to have their question resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible. Kate Leggett, an analyst at Forrester Research, notes that customers want to easily get in touch with the company in order to make a purchase — their tasks must be completed literally in one breath.
This approach has forced professionals from the service, marketing and sales to take on functions that lie outside their competence. Employees of service centers are engaged in cross-sales and upsell (additional offers that increase the purchase price, for example, an annual license for 1,200 rubles is replaced by an eternal license for 2,700 rubles). Marketer can answer questions from clients in social networks and forums. The new paradigm requires salespeople to follow the after sales service history and communicate with the customer after purchase.
John Regsdale, vice president and research director of the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA), notes that the mega-brand of client success breaks down the barriers between sales, marketing and service. He also says that sales of a new level require involvement in the entire life cycle of a client, especially since satisfaction with a company is formed not only by the fact of sale, but also by the fact of using a product or service. This means that all this time you need to be close to the client.
Unfortunately, such a breakdown of the boundaries between posts inevitably led to confusion among professionals, as they try to gain access and cover all the information to solve the tasks. Technology providers need to expect them to create mechanisms that will help preserve and integrate data from disparate systems so that these systems interact with each other.
RegionSoft: We wrote about the marketing and sales war in the last post . And unfortunately, there are quite a few such examples so far.Indeed, the market is being transformed, followed by CRM-systems. Such changes are associated primarily with the development of telecommunications and the availability of online purchases. Behavioral habits from the category of "filled out the form - quickly paid for - took away" are transferred to offline and even to B2B. The sale becomes personalized, but the sales person just fades into the background and merges with other employees of the commercial service. Accordingly, it is necessary to expand the skills and abilities. If you are engaged in sales of IT technologies, it is important to understand all the principles of work, the usefulness of the end user, the technical aspects. Otherwise, you will have to transfer the client through the chain to engineers and techies, and he may fall off at some link.
But what concerns the post-sale "friendship" with the client deserves special attention. Each CRM-system must be designed precisely to meet these requirements. Now this is not a program for collecting customer base, closing deals and calculating revenues - it is important to be able to track all relationships with a client. In our CRM system, we solved this problem with the possibility of customizing sales funnel statuses and customer status, made a special chart showing the dynamics of customer relations right at each contact point. CRM-system should help automate the entire cycle of relations with the client and give grounds for pre-sales and new sales. That is why it is important to make maximum data and collect your unique customer base.
Technologies will converge
As there is a need to extract and analyze data from disparate systems, vendors will be able to strengthen their positions, able to create integrated solutions and whole partner ecosystems. This is especially important when you consider that most companies still buy CRM-technology in separate parts for each of the divisions. For example, a firm may decide to purchase Oracle Cloud Marketing for a marketing service and at the same time choose Cloud Salesforce for sales (we remind, experts are not talking about Russia). Both units should integrate as smoothly as possible to ensure effective interaction.
RegionSoft: This whole story is a nightmare for a developer. On the one hand, the competitors of CRM-developers quite calmly offer systems in the Sales, Marketing, Technical Support versions. And this is so formal division that it looks more like another marketing ploy. On the other hand, customers who may come with the desire to migrate to a new CRM from their zoo, among which are not just innocent bundles from a pair of cloudy CRM, but even Navision and Axapta are found. In fact, a CRM system can be adapted to the needs of sales, marketing, and even PR. It is just that entities (reports, directories, journals and accounting tools) that meet the requirements of each department will be created inside. And so doing is very cool. If you know at least where the lead came from, it’s already easier for him to sell. Creation of separate systems with adaptation to the department is justified only for very large companies. Using disparate solutions without convergence, you lose a lot in revenue, because you use your strengths and capabilities separately.Knowledge sharing and collaboration will increase
Not only sales and marketing software needs to be integrated. You need a separate software product or a set of integrated solutions outside the framework of the departments - and this can happen only when the data of all departments are as accessible as possible.
Many of the major CRM vendors have come a long way to include knowledge management in major software editions. As examples of those who committed a tremendous transformation, Microsoft’s Parature systems and Knova Aptean's proposals, and the best example is Oracle, which invested in the development of knowledge management systems and acquired, among others, RightNow, Q-th and InQuira.
A review of knowledge management systems in 2016 showed that 34% of companies expect a 20 to 30% productivity growth if employees start sharing knowledge more often. 40% said that an increase of 30% or more is possible.
With the growth of the number of remote employees and their opportunities for productive work, the CRM concept also found a place for collaboration tools, among which, apart from niche Jive and Lithium, the largest vendors of the CRM systems Salesforce.com, Oracle and SAP hold strong positions. They create everything so that customer management is understood not as information, but as a system. This is a new way of thinking business.
RegionSoft: Again the same story about the exchange of knowledge within the organization. To be honest, these disputes look strange - the company has a single goal, and all departments must work together to achieve it. If someone puts his power ambitions and his career above common goals, then such a person can become the center of the formation of destructive processes in the company. It should work separately with him or, in the worst case, part.It is difficult to find a Russian CRM system with complete knowledge management. As a rule, these are separate internal systems that work, for example, in companies of the nuclear and extractive industries. However, vendors must include two key knowledge management functions in an organization:
- separation of access rights so that companies can use part of the information is closed, partly - jointly (for example, the salesperson does not need to know the names of the suppliers of print advertising, but be sure to know the statistics by means of attraction);
- create a knowledge base in any form - Wiki or internal storage (for example, we in RegionSoft CRM implemented the knowledge base as a set of records that are made in the built-in editor and allow you to attach media files, text files, etc.).
As for remote employees, then there are several possible solutions: everything is clear with cloud systems; we as a desktop CRM provide remote access from any device using TRA (terminal remote access). By the way, the most inconvenient form of remote work with CRM is a mobile interface. Many people implement it, but in fact they are extremely uncomfortable to use. And if you create a convenient and truly mobile interface, CRM in the phone loses almost all the functionality.
CRM users should be able to combine channels
All channels must be combined in one interface, so that there is no need to spend time switching between screens and applications, when the employee has a huge and constantly growing list of tasks. It is important to transmit the CRM business idea to the user within the framework of the work flow that he performs.
Large CRM vendors came close to exploring the possibilities of such technologies. So, Salesforce has repeatedly made a fuss about the Einstein AI solution, Pegasystems has invested in robotization, which is designed to help with routine tasks. Oracle offered its adaptive intelligent cloud applications that allow working on a single collaborative platform, and IBM with the Watson cognitive computing tool did not stand aside. It is not surprising if these solutions will enter the market in the near future.
RegionSoft: In Russia, there also appeared vendors who claim omni-channelity , and it exists, but not at the level of the listed systems - just different APIs are collected by API from different sources. And, of course, they are rarely used, because it is not always possible (and I want) to interpret them.We have seen solutions based on IBM Watson, as long as they are very raw (although technologically advanced and pleasant from the point of view of the interface!), And obviously will not soon take over the Russian market. So far the best of what is in CRM-systems for automation of routine is business processes. They are of three types:
- in BPMN notation - when all the schemes and algorithms are built from the elements according to the rules of the specified notation;
- in notation with BPMN elements - when the approach and the main elements are taken in notation, but the editor itself is simplified (if the developers have curved hands - it is complicated);
- native - when you simply draw a process with a set of elements, and you get a human-readable and easily readable result diagram (for example, this is how the visual editor of business processes in RegionSoft CRM is arranged ).
Mastering business processes (in RegionSoft CRM ) does not require programming knowledge, but requires a habit. After you see the result (reducing the time for coordination and consultation, the minimum of deadlines, the order of affairs), you will definitely want to automate everything.
Behavioral insights will get deeper
Another growing trend in 2017 is to continue expanding client analytics to go beyond understanding what people are doing and find the answer to the question of why they are doing it. Without this understanding, customization will not go far. It is very difficult to answer such a question, for this you need not only to track typical behavior, but also to find related information, for example, from social networks. So you can collect more data for a qualitative understanding of customer behavior. There is a growing need to integrate customer conversation recordings, transactional data and information on marketing campaigns.
RegionSoft: If we talk about integration with social networks, then at the moment in most Russian CRM-systems this function is implemented very poorly - data does not always reach the sales funnel and actually touch the analytics. This is due to the fact that the majority of users of CRM-systems - B2B sector, which is not engaged in sales through social networks and often simply ignores them. Small business, working through social networks, rarely uses enterprise-class CRM-systems, for it has its own client management systems.CRM will be even more automated.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, machine learning, deep learning, virtual reality, intelligent helpers, and many other popular terms, talk about robots has boiled over in our culture more than ever. According to analysts, this chatter, at least in part, is not groundless.
Customers are not particularly interested in interacting with people without a special need. According to a Forrester Research study, 75% of business professionals indicated that buying simple products from a website is more convenient than through a sales department. The service is the same story: customers use self-service channels as the first contact and only then make a phone call as an “escalation point”.
This means that automation should be aimed at interacting with customers so that their self-service becomes easier: they would buy tickets themselves, track orders, plan visits if necessary, and send feedback. However, this does not mean that the client wants to feel that he is interacting with the machine. So, you need to work on the symbiosis of human and machine interaction through interactive interfaces.
RegionSoft: The important functionality here is the integration with the site so that orders can go straight to the CRM system. While this is not the most popular feature, however, the demand is large enough - we even developed a RegionSoft Application Server for such tasks.At the same time, a huge number of customers prefer to communicate with companies by phone, rather than doing everything on their own - partly due to the acquisition of complex products, mentality and age segmentation, partly the desire not to lose money when buying, to clarify some points that are not mentioned in description of the product or service. And the process of migration to complete self-service will go some more time. Moreover, the transformation will be least affected by the B2B sector, in which personal communication continues to accompany sales in most cases.
Routine tasks will become more streamlined
Of course, automation should not be limited to the interests of the company's customers. All employees are also consumers and there is a lot that can be simplified in their activities. In this regard, it is not at all surprising that chatbots, virtual assistants and other tools are gaining momentum. Experts expect an incredible increase in their popularity in the daily activities of the staff working at the front office.
For example, in order to gain a competitive advantage, the sales person will rely on the possibility of providing customers with automatic recommendations and personal pricing configurations. The time saved from negotiations and entering the details of transactions into documents can be spent on solving other problems.
Jim Dickey, CSO Insights research associate, says that this is happiness when, along with technological development, “more firms start to mine the gold they have in their CRM systems”. For several decades, managers have been forced to force salespeople to enter data into CRM systems, and now with an increase in the number of options, users can analyze and use the accumulated data (and Big Data wealth) for prospects of profiling, optimization of pricing, forecasting, proactive identification of customer churn and etc.
RegionSoft: This is the most beautiful thing one could hear about CRM: “more companies are starting to mine the gold they have in their CRM systems”. Unfortunately, many users are not aware of this and therefore turn CRM-ku not into a gold mine, but into a terrible dump of data. To prevent this from happening, you need to fill in the data in a timely manner and be able to interpret it. Then all business moves will be based on analytics, and not on the conclusions "because I want it so."It is still very early to talk about BigData in most companies, as long as it is the lot of banks, retailers, insurers, etc. But this is not a reason to ignore the work with the accumulated data - the more thoroughly you analyze them, the better you know your customers and you predict more successfully the transactions, the development of the company, and the state of the industry. It is with data analysis that personalization begins - the basis of the loyalty of your customer base.
Finally the adoption of CRM will increase
CRM systems needed to be helped to overcome adoption problems, which were a huge obstacle to implementation. It was difficult, many experts did not want to work in CRM. One of the ways to engage is gamification, making software use more enjoyable. Thus, some vendors offer tools that stimulate competition between sales teams and individual sales people. Or, for example, the visualization of these same data helped the perception of big data. The concern of CRM vendors is to develop a system so that it gives intelligent recommendations in a digestible form.
RegionSoft: Noticed, right? The author talks about the problems with the adoption of CRM by employees in the past tense. For us, this is a real one, mainly due to the indifference of top management to the implementation processes. We have already written about the basic mistakes that lead to a boycott of CRM by the line staff, but once again we note that the main thing is the interest of all departments and the understanding that the CRM system is not a tool for monitoring and prodding, but a working tool that improves efficiency The work of employees is the same as a browser or keyboard.As for gamification, this is a slippery slope. If you set the competition in a game form and initiate the race for the leaders, then you can slip into the fact that all employees will start with *****, in general, will see themselves in the work as individual rats and will start to avoid teamwork, sit each other friend etc. Therefore, gamification can only have a soft character such as emoticons or stickers on the corporate portal. Envy is an engine that starts off well and explodes quickly. Be careful with gamification.
CRM will become more vertical
Although investing in industry-specific CRM systems has not become the norm for companies, analysts point out that major CRM system providers offer additional software that is used for vertical industry implementations. Especially these processes are palpable in the pharmaceutical, financial services and manufacturing industries. So, Microsoft has 32 industry-specific templates, Oracle has 16, and Salesforce has a couple of solutions. Such solutions accelerate the verticalization of companies.
RegionSoft: Verticality is interpreted very correctly here - from a sectoral point of view. But then again, both throughout the world and in Russia, with industry-specific CRM-systems everything is not easy. Some vendors on the sites can find whole lists of industry solutions: from logging to oil production. Most often, the process of developing an industry-specific CRM looks entertaining: a basic solution is taken, fields are renamed in accordance with industry requirements, a couple of reports are filed — ready.Real industry CRM can not branch in any quantity for any industry, because it is always a deep processing of all the internal logic of the program, if you will, just a new program. We were faced with the development of industry-specific CRM-system, when we created CRM for TV and radio holdings RegionSoft CRM Media . It was a long process that lasted more than a year and required constant interaction with the customer, consultations, and virtually complete immersion in a new industry for us. But we have never called CRM “Advertising Agency”, “Construction”, “Plant”, etc., despite the fact that we really modified the solution for clients - this is simply dishonest, cheap marketing.
CRM will start using augmented reality
Advanced technologies that include extended reality, in particular, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), are still at the initial stage of development, but everyone has a future in CRM. In fact, Forrester Research predicts that the constraints for AR / VR / MR tools will begin to weaken as companies experiment with them and create the foundation for larger implementations.
The foundation was laid in 2016 with the game Pokémon Go, which inspired consumers and companies to attract serious attention. While the use cases of augmented reality are still few, their wider implementation is not far off. For example, using a video may allow a technician to virtually call a more experienced employee to get a second opinion.
Nevertheless, in order to enter the market, careful preparatory work is needed.
RegionSoft: There’s nothing to say. VR is still a very raw technology and its purpose is more entertaining. The phenomenon of Pokemon GO is simple: mobility + novelty VR + business interest + accessibility + competitiveness + the coolest public relations. However, this story quickly collapsed, and there was no succession of discoveries of such startups. Because it is a very complex and expensive development that only large corporations can afford. Yes, augmented reality has a future, but first it will come in the gaming industry, then in medicine and retail, and then integration with CRM systems will go. But again, everything will depend on the cost. I think it’s too early to talk about it seriously, and is it worth talking about at all. But the play is really cool.In general, not everything is so gloomy near. Global trends are also focused on the future in many respects - the situation with CRM in the West is a little better: there are opponents of implementation, those who cannot use, and those who buy for a tick. However, one thing is clear - CRM-systems tend to keep up with business and technology proven by business. Right way, in principle.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/321576/
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