CRM Integration
CRM integration is building your website and CRM to function together seamlessly. Instead of using your CRM to just be a system that retains customer information based on manual entries, integrating your website/marketing automation software brings in valuable customer information directly into your CRM.
Most Popular CRM Integrations
Email Integration
Besides being a treasure trove of customer-related data, email is also a highly effective marketing tool. CRM-backed email marketing campaign can be more personalized, friendly and highly targeted to the most prospective leads. At the same time, feedback data can be automatically analysed to continually refine the overall marketing strategy.
Calendar Integration
Today’s digital calendars are more like digital scheduling tools, and they have become critical assets to modern sales teams. Consider integrating internal CRM calendars, if they exist, with third-party tools like Google Calendars or online appointment scheduling services. In this way, sales teams can align their sales-related and non-sales-related activities to avoid conflicts, as well as set up alerts so they never miss a meeting.
Social Media Integration
Social media is now a constant hub of interaction between consumers and providers, which means failure to integrate these platforms into CRM represents a huge lost opportunity to connect and engage in the manner preferred by customers. For small businesses in particular, this is the primary means of tapping into a global marketplace.
Call Center/Customer Support Integration
CRM provides customer profiles, while call centers route interactions to the appropriate knowledge source. Get them working together, and you have the power to streamline the resolution process and generate goodwill among customers. Key opportunities include improved self-service capabilities, personalized experiences, the ability to turn service calls into sales and improved agent productivity.
Marketing Automation Integration
Sales and marketing work hand in hand, so why not do the same for their software platforms? Integrating the two means that both teams have access to the same information, cutting precious time off of lead generation, customer feedback, and a host of other processes. Most lost opportunities result from failure to connect the dots, and this is particularly true in high-speed digital environments.
Potential Challenges with CRM Integrations
Integrating software from scratch is never an easy task. Fortunately, most CRM platforms provide either pre-integrated solutions or streamlined processes to help you get started quickly. After all, CRM vendors have their own sales and reputations to think about.
CRM integration becomes as much a cultural change in the enterprise as a technological one. When changes to an individual’s work processes are involved, the faster and less disruptive the transition, the better.