Key CRM Metrics for Continuous Business Improvement

Success in business is not just a matter of luck. Every successful business has these factors in common – Strategic planning, hassle-free execution, learning from the feedback, and improving the processes on a continuous basis.

For businesses which are using CRM software (Customer Relationship Management), one component that is usually undermined is the continuous improvement process. Customer-oriented business processes can benefit significantly if the information and feedback received from customers are taken into consideration.

Once CRM software is implemented, businesses need to plan the upcoming steps to ensure ongoing execution successfully. To improve sales pipeline visibility, marketing campaign performance and customer service response with CRM software, the following performance metrics need to be managed:

Operational Metrics

A robust CRM software comes with performance dashboards, business intelligence, operational reporting and query tools to help businesses evaluate the effectiveness of customer interactions. With this, the efficiency of customer-facing business processes can improve, and customer feedbacks can shape their future actions. Operational metrics are the most valuable components of any CRM software, as they help companies in tracking how many customers are satisfied, and analyzing customers who can churn profit in the long run. With a foresight into who is going to stay with your brand, you can make better customer relationship development strategies.

Recommended Reading: Small Business Owners Can Dream Big With Cloud CRM

Sales Metrics

Sales metrics are the key performance indicators that help businesses track the shifting sales paradigm. When the sales figure is high, companies can easily track who are making big orders. And if the return requests are high, the problems in a product can be visualized, and corrective measures can be taken immediately. Sales metrics also provide enough information to figure out referrers among existing customers. Your customer loyalty programs should be designed accordingly so that more and more new customers associate with your brand through references and word of mouth publicity.

By making the best use of all performance metrics made available with your CRM system, you can accurately gauge the effectiveness of the processes, and your business relationship with customers.

Along with analyzing and improving upon these performance metrics, you also need to strengthen the customer relationship management processes in the following ways:

Pay Heed to Customers’ Feedback

The old adage ’’you get what you measure’’ stands true for CRM software. It is important to set meaningful benchmarks for what benefits your business processes can expect from the implementation of CRM software. While some components of CRM software like sales per customer and number of customer queries in a day can be easily quantified, customer satisfaction is something which you cannot gauge easily. To get a hold on all important CRM performance metrics, you need to set the benchmark right and make your business processes flexible enough to adapt as per customers’ feedback.

Successful CRM is largely based on customers’ feedback. Feedbacks speak volumes about their experiences with your products/services. Based on their response to the effectiveness of your products/services, you can analyze the loopholes in your business processes and fix them.

Put Yourself in the Shoes of Your Customers

Have you ever dialed the customer care number of a company just to be kept on hold for long? Even when you dedicate enough time to connect with the customer care team of a company, your concerns and queries are often left unresolved. The major reason for this delay in resolving customer queries is that the support team lacks enough data to solve complaints and concerns instantly.

Such calls leave you aggravated and frustrated. Do you want to let your valuable customers face a similar situation? Definitely not. So, put yourself in the shoes of your customers, delve deep into the reasons for their gripes and provide them the best solution in real time. Take the help of CRM software to keep the data ready about last purchase, payment made, and other customer-related details, so that instant solutions can be provided to their queries.

Other customer care insights, such as the frequency of customer calls answered in one go, reasons for calls going on hold, and the overall success in offering the best support to customers can prove pivotal for the health of your business. So, to win customers and to retain them for long, you need to equip your customer care reps with CRM data, reports and analytics.

Don’t Neglect Your Employees

No doubt, customers are the center of all your CRM efforts. But, employees’ complaints and suggestions are equally valuable for the betterment of your business programs. After all, your employees are the point of contact for your customers. Their suggestions can help you with the continuous improvement in the execution of CRM software. When your employees involved in the execution of this software wholeheartedly, your business can succeed in delivering satisfactory results to customers.

Value your employees and customers equally in all your CRM efforts and be ready for rewards in terms of sales, profitability and the increasing number of loyal customers.

About The Author
Kalpana Arya
Content & Marketing Expert
Techpillar