Implementing CRM in a business can mean a change on many
different levels, and it really depends on the implementation of the system and
how it is leveraged to see how much of a difference it makes to the way that a
company works.
Taking CRM at its core principles; customer relationship
management is a tool to simply help you manage business contacts to provide a
better service and essentially make your job easier. This could be something as
simple as a phone book however this soon becomes a less efficient and effective
way of managing contacts and once your company reaches an enterprise level, the
number of contacts you deal with can be huge.
Good CRM software then has the added task of not only
keeping contact information up to date, but also storing information about each
client, such as previous transactions, past issues and any solutions to those
issues. This allows you to provide a tailored response to all your clients
making each call more personal when otherwise it would be impersonal and cold.
To answer the question then; "how fundamental could
investing in a CRM be?" the answer really is however fundamental as you
want it to be. CRM has the potential to be engrained in your business process
and drive more efficient business processes.
There are of course possible drawbacks to having a CRM
system this engrained into your business, for a start, it takes more setup and
training to use a CRM properly and set it up so that your whole company can
fully benefit from it. This is the most effective way to use a CRM system
however, otherwise you will find that inefficient processes will develop as
well as silos of information if people don't use it, and prefer to use their own
systems, for example.
The problem with this however is; when a CRM lies at the
very heart of the company, having to change a CRM system can be a far larger
and more costly process. For this reason, it's very important to pick the right
CRM solution. Things you want to look for include a system you know will work
with your business, that's accessible for your workers and can integrate with
other business tools you use including ERP software, telecoms systems and even
document management systems.
This allows you to centralise all of the information used by
your company, streamline almost every aspect of business process and provides a
huge benefit to management since information on every level of your company
will be easily accessible helping you find any inefficiencies and drive change
towards more efficient business processes.
