In the coming years, a boom is expected in the customer relationship management software industry. Technology is advancing rapidly, and new features are hitting the market with each passing day. Thus, the old CRM software and tools are likely to be transformed into more competitive ones.

But, when we have numerous options, picking up the right one looks difficult. Firstly, it is important to understand the three basic classifications of CRM. They are:

  • Basic CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software
  • Social CRM ( Social Customer Relationship Management) Software
  • CXM (Customer Experience Management) Software

Let us study each of them in detail:

Basic CRM

As the name suggests, this CRM records and maintains all basic forms of communication. These communication channels include emails, chats, meetings, and conferences.

The software maintains separate profiles of every prospect and customer. Apart from the basic information, it includes details like ways of interaction with the customer. Be it a call made by a salesperson or a marketing campaign through which a customer has reached the company; the profile has every detail. Similarly, it covers the interactions made through a website.

Thus, marketing and salespersons can easily extract information about the customers. In a moment, they can evaluate if a customer is loyal or not. Additionally, they can create groups of customers that need to be targeted in the upcoming campaigns.

All these strategies help in enhancing the marketing strategies and focusing directly on the appropriate group of customers. It saves time, requires less effort, and enhances the overall conversions.

Furthermore, managers can also extract outreach details from the profiles, like the number of calls made, the most profit-making campaigns, the best deals, and so on. This report also helps in evaluating the team‘s performance and increasing transparency.

Core Benefits Of the Basic CRM Software

The traditional software is ideal for planning tactics that can increase leads. For instance, a basic real estate CRM shows a higher number of apartment sales in comparison to residential houses. Now, the team knows that it needs to work on the residential housing campaigns and make efforts to boost them.

At a glance, the salespersons can know where the prospects are standing in their buying journey.

It enables the team to provide commendable customer service. Since all consumer–related data is in one place, showing prompt responses to customers becomes possible. Likewise, customers get accurate information without spending a lot of time.

If you are looking for the best small business CRM, have a look at a few of them:

Some of them, like salesforce, have a steeper learning curve, but Salesforce training courses are available online that can help you learn the software and use it in no time.

Social CRM

In some cases, social CRM is not always a separate category. Since digitization is increasing, many software providers have included the social feature in their basic CRM software. However, separate social CRMs are also available.

Many marketing experts consider social CRMs as a useful strategy. It increases the customer outreach options and collaboratively helps in engaging customers. This becomes possible when the social CRM tracks all interactions made through social channels like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, online forums, blogs, etc. Along with this, it also tracks the other channels of communication covered in basic CRM.

One great feature of a social CRM is its ability to track all information related to the brand. This tracking is not limited to direct interactions with the customers. Yes, if the customer has somewhere written the name of the brand or suggested it, the social CRM can track it.

Thus, this ability to track strategies helps in knowing the present identity of the brand in the minds of customers. Moreover, if competitor brands are trying to defame, appropriate actions can be taken.

Additionally, many growing firms successfully discover new prospects with this software. For instance, someone is asking about your product features in an online post. Though your brand is not directly connected with the post, the software can track it. Many firms then start displaying dynamic ads in front of these prospects.

Today, a large number of sales are dependent on social media. Even after spending a huge budget on online ads, firms do not get the desired response. In comparison, a product that is trending receives more sales than ever.

Thus, social media experts can analyze their business identity with the help of a social CRM. After this, an appropriate plan can be made for making the product viral.

Here are some best examples of a Social CRM:

  • Hootsuite
  • Zoho CRM
  • Nimble
  • LiveAgent
  • Insightly
  • CXM

Though many people confuse CXM with CRM, it is different. The CXM software is mainly concerned with customer satisfaction. It means that it deals with the quality metrics like loyalty, satisfaction, retention, etc.

The other two types, CRM and Social CRM are concerned with the pre-sales tactics, while the CXM software deals with the post-sale ones. Here, the software tracks different items like feedback, surveys, and texts to analyze the overall experience of the customer.

Just like the CRM software, it treats each customer individually and creates separate profiles. Marketing experts can then group them and make separate tactics for every group. Furthermore, this post-sale analysis helps in retaining customers and staying in touch with them. Some best CXM software includes:

  • User Zoom
  • Acquire
  • Response Tek
  • Oracle CX
  • UX 360

Which One is Ideal for Your Business?

In short, CRM, Social CRM, and CXM are likely to reshape the corporate industry in the coming days. Tracking present customers, interacting with them, and even reaching them after–sales will be a matter of minutes. But which software is ideal for your business is a key question. Experts suggest using a mix of them for achieving the targets.

You can search for software that combines the features of a CRM and a social CRM. Then, you can get a separate CXM software for enhancing the customer experience.

Don‘t think more; explore the best software and start keeping a good track of your customers!

Author Bio:

Myrah Abrar is a computer science graduate with a passion for web development and digital marketing. She writes blog articles for The Real Estate CRM

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