Many people think customer relationship management (CRM) tools are primarily used by sales professionals. However, these products can also improve client experiences by giving personnel more insights into behaviors, preferences and pain points. Perception changes that position CRM software as a customer experience driver can help those in people-oriented roles get better results and become more productive. 

Improving Collaboration and Touch Point Awareness

Collecting data from CRM systems to make data-driven customer experience improvements is especially important for organizations in high-profile positions. People who have bad outcomes are more likely to complain by posting on social media or filing official complaints because they expect better results. 

City of Toronto officials used CRM data to increase cross-team outcomes and understand various customer touch points associated with local government interactions. One project involved the 311 hotline, which residents can call for needs spanning residential trash collection, tree maintenance and much more. City officials work within 45 divisions and have been digitizing many of them. 

The digitization push is necessary because residents can interact with the 311 service through various channels, including social media profiles and a mobile app. Representatives can add specific notes to each interaction, and customers receive confirmation numbers for peace of mind. 

Understanding how and why people interact with the service allowed officials to create a self-service knowledge base with thousands of common questions. Additionally, workers can see whether others have made particular service requests before issuing additional tickets.

These changes collectively caused a 17% deflection in service requests and a 34% increase in interactions with the knowledge base. Additionally, since officials can capture and analyze all customer activities, the compiled data is easy to use to make confident decisions about future service changes.

Boosting Personalization to Improve Loyalty

Statistics suggest excellent customer experiences will make people willing to pay 13%-18% more for high-end products and services. Combining data-driven actions and CRM utilization can allow leading luxury brand representatives to anticipate why people will reach out and improve their preparedness for when that happens. 

Conversely, they can become more aware of the pain points that may make someone decide not to purchase something they originally felt strongly about. Customer service representatives who know what went wrong have a better chance of turning negative experiences into positive ones — potentially elevating loyalty and sales in the process. Personalization can also increase perceptions that individual customers truly matter to the company and are not just numbers in databases. 

In one example from several years ago, British luxury brand Burberry emerged as an early adopter of such personalization. It allowed customers to directly message staff members, who could access data about shopping habits, birthdays and other details. 

This resulted in better customer experiences because it made brand enthusiasts feel like they were talking to someone who truly knew and understood them. Additionally, as they asked questions or gave feedback, representatives could record those interactions for later review. The gathered information could help the marketing team develop new images of products to show specific details or more in-depth copy explaining how to care for an item. 

Creating Data-Driven Omnichannel Experiences

In the best scenarios, customers willingly provide useful information and data that company teams can use to enhance experiences. It is also important that people’s interactions are maximally smooth and enjoyable no matter how they interact with companies. Research shows that 2023 retail sales surpassed $7 trillion in the United States alone, illustrating the abundant opportunities to connect with buyers. 

Companies can get the best results by ensuring their CRM tools ingest data from multiple sources. Customer touch points may differ depending on whether they interact with a company through a mobile app, website, phone or other means. Analyzing the differences in these omnichannel experiences can allow businesses to delight and cater to customers.

It is even better if people get rewards for naturally engaging with brands. Swedish furniture and home products retailer IKEA takes that approach, giving people personalized discounts and other rewards based on their shopping behaviors. Plus, whether customers participate in online forums or workshops, store representatives get plenty of data they can use to improve individuals’ online and offline experiences. 

Employees also use the data to pursue continuous improvement opportunities, illustrating why IKEA is such a popular store in numerous countries. Additionally, people shop there for lots of reasons. Some want to buy products before moving into college dorms, while others cannot wait to brighten up their spaces with the brand’s signature colorful items. Understanding those differences through data-driven CRM usage allows executives to strengthen and grow the company. 

Optimizing CRM Usage for Customer Experience Enhancements

People interested in broadening their CRM use cases to include customer experience applications should start by considering the information they want to collect and for what reasons. Additionally, they should determine their budget and the goals they hope to achieve after implementing data-driven approaches. 

Setting aside ample time for employees to become acquainted with new platforms or workflows is also wise. The more confident people feel about new processes, the easier it will be for them to implement them productively.

Finally, creating strategies for securing data and respecting people’s privacy is essential in a world where cyberattacks and breaches are frequent and often severe. Following cybersecurity frameworks is an excellent way to understand what a company already does well and where it must improve. 

Applying these best practices can transform how businesses benefit from CRMs by connecting these tools directly to customer experiences. That makes it easier to keep people satisfied and doing business with companies for the long term.