The success of any business depends significantly on its ability to manage and nurture the relationships with its customers. Therefore, every business is looking at means to acquire and retain its customers.

With the advent of new age entrepreneurs, businesses and advancement of technological capabilities, it has been observed that there is a dramatic change in consumer behavior and their affinity to brands especially in the last 5-10 years. Today’s consumers have more choices than ever and are more frugal. This paradigm shift in consumer loyalty has taken place owing to diverse factors like multiple brand choices, extremely attractive value propositions and availability of content 24X7 due to socially-charged technology tools like the social media, online commerce, mobile apps, personal computers or tablets.

In the current day and age when the consumers are getting most of their information from personal recommendations and online reviews, brands need to ensure that they offer their best services and an experience which places customer first. Given that customer loyalty is directly correlated to the customer's brand experience, having authentic personal interactions both before and after a purchase will be priority for all customer-facing companies. Tactics like content creation, loyalty programs and gamification will continue to play an integral role in the customer experience development.This implies that effective consumer relationships are impossible without ongoing and meaningful communication.

And, to ensure this, CRM has emerged as the one of the most efficient approaches in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. CRM as a function has matured and has become a fundamental way of doing business for companies for better customer experience. It is a measure of the relationship which a brand enjoys with its customers which ultimately drives the business to new levels of success.

A CRM system offers organization’s an ability to maintain a vast customer database, which can be used to derive insights and create communication strategies relevant to various consumer segments. From time to time these can be used for targeted communication to update on company news, offers, sales campaigns, or other initiatives. An efficient CRM tool eases customer acquisition, drives customer loyalty and improves customer retention.

To serve a growing customer base and better manage the client experience across varied touch-points, organizations are moving in favor of more integrated and socially aware systems. In the given scenario, data management and analytics are absolutely essential to analyze a large amount of complex data in real time. Coalition loyalty programs like PAYBACK’s CRM platform offers a one-stop solution for retailers to engage with customers, by collecting and analyzing customer data and enabling targeted & contextual communications.

In fact, it is the exemplary experience a brand creates which will be the differentiator over its competitors. And, once this is done categorizing leads will facilitate in customizing and creating a winning sales pitch.

Increased referrals and revenue

Efficient CRM systems are geared to record specific data with respect to unique visits, transaction patterns and frequency, location, basket size, product/category level data etc. which can then be used to build customer insights and create better value proposition suited to individual tastes.

These services will ensure that you have a happy customer who will eventually become a repeat customer and increased revenue because repeat customers spend more as compared to new customers. Also, a satisfied customer will spread the word about the brand and the product which will generate referrals for your business. New leads will be generated and revenue will also increase.

Enhances the products and services on offer

Technology enables wide data base from different sources which includes customer calls, online chat and social media. This will help to give a holistic picture to the customers about the products and services offered.

Optimize performance

The insights are then used for targeted engagement campaigns/ communication through a multi-channel ecosystem; E-mailers, SMS, web, social media and so on. Advanced analytics further determine customer behavior and retailers are able to customize programs for each of their customer segments and also engage inactive customers.

These various CRM tools help the organizations to obtain better insights and lead to better decision making. It works as a sounding board on how your business is running and that will help you analyze its performance. And, basis the feedback and the results, you can develop a strategy to connect with the customers.

Going forward, CRM has become an indispensable tool in building and fostering better customer experience that increases your revenue and brings the company prosperity.