The rise of social media is imminent and cannot be unseen. As a customer, you might be unaware of how social media impacts every purchase decision you make. As for the businesses, we cannot ignore the role of social media in the entire process of making a sale, as well as in customer relationship management.

For both B2B and B2C industries, social media plays a crucial role in the decision making process. According to reports, social media interactions also have an effect on upselling efforts. Social media acts as a medium to generate good quality leads before they finally convert.

Customers now are more interested in products and services that make a difference to their lives. We are seeing a keen focus on building strong relationships with customers. This calls for effective customer relationship management. This is made easier nowadays with CRM software available for particular industries - For example this page on real estate CRM"s by FollowUpBoss.

The insights that are gained with the help of CRM help market your services or products more efficiently. If you know how to target your customers, your business will grow better. So here is the ideal purchase process followed by businesses to target users:

Awareness- Business promotion creates awareness about the product/service that you are offering.

Interest- At this point, customers begin to search for something specific that interests them. Businesses pay attention to this step to capture leads.

Desire- Here you need to market your product in a subtle manner. This should reflect how your product fulfils the demands of customers.

Purchase- Customer recommendations largely influence a purchase. Providing quality customer service ensures that existing customers advocate for the new customers. 

Retention- Retaining existing customers is beneficial for the long run. This will help you build a strong customer base.

Now that we know why businesses are implementing CRM, let’s discuss the benefits of CRM for businesses:

Business Growth

What does business growth depend on? There are various factors that are responsible for business growth, the primary one being how well you market your business. The stronger your relationship is with your customers, the more business you are likely to receive.

Getting a good understanding of what your customers like or dislike gives you an opportunity to cater to their needs and wants better. You can position your products and services in a way that your customers find most appealing, making your brand one of their favourites.

Get Customer Insights

Big data is an important part of CRM and because of this businesses are able to get insights that can be beneficial for them. All customer data is easily available, which means that informed decisions can be made with greater agility.

As far as the marketing campaigns are concerned, having insights on the responses of your customers can help you avoid making previous mistakes. This will make you market your business in a better way.

Loyal Customer Base

Customer relationship is the key for having a strong and loyal follower base, which is important if you want your business to grow in the long run.

Social media CRM is the next big thing for businesses and the formula to gain loyal followers. Social media offers tremendous potential for businesses to grow. This helps businesses not only to build online virtual communities but also lets you create customer engagement programs and activities that help build strong customer relationships.

Customer Retention

With every other business having a presence on social media channel offering almost similar services, it has become important for businesses to break through the noise and give customers a reason to stay loyal to their brand. Having customers that are loyal to your brand helps in increasing customer retention. Fulfilling the needs and requirements of your customers gives them a reason to stick to your brand and also tell other people why they should purchase products or services from you.

So, customer relationship management is no more just an option for businesses to consider. It has become a necessity for any business in order to get better insights about your customers and therefore cater to their needs better. Considering what your customers are saying about you and your business will help flourish your business.