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Customer relationship management, also known as CRM, is a growing necessity in business today. It’s giving employees everywhere the tools and resources needed when providing excellent customer service daily. It’s often the difference between growing your customer base and watching it suffer.
As crucial as customer relationship management is, it’s a type of software that most business owners can’t build themselves. While there is a wide range of one-size-fits-all CRM solutions available today, they don’t give businesses the customization and personalization needed when building effective CRM software.
So, how do you develop a custom CRM?
Developing a custom CRM solution puts your business at a total advantage compared to other businesses in your industry. Building one requires an extreme amount of development experience and passion, which generally requires a professional CRM developer.
With that said, a professional developer is far from all that’s needed. Developing a custom CRM solution requires a full understanding of the customer, the business, and everything in-between. There’s a bit of detective work involved, but it’s what determines the versatility and effectiveness of your CRM software.
Since the development process is feared and avoided by many, preparation goes a long way in preparing your team for the process that lies ahead. Let’s take a look at that process and what you should expect before developing a customer relationship management solution.
Step One: Defining Your Vision
The first step in developing a custom CRM is defining your vision and setting your goals. Do this for both the CRM itself and your business as a whole. This vision guides you throughout the development process and helps keep your CRM on-track with the true reason behind developing it in the first place.
A CRM solution without a purpose is one that’s destined for failure. You should be asking yourself, “What do I want my CRM to do?” and, “What do I want my business to achieve?” Don’t even think about moving on to the next step until these two questions are answered.
Once you define your vision, your business has a clear direction. It’s something to build off of and gives you the keys to success throughout the CRM development process. The further down the line you go, the more important this vision is.
Step Two: Understanding the Customer
Now that you have a clear sense of what you’re looking for out of a CRM solution, you must integrate those thoughts with what the customer is looking for. We mentioned it previously, and we’ll mention it again; customer relationship management is all about providing what the customer wants.
Creating buyer personas is an extremely helpful tool when fully understanding the customer. They help define the different types of customers and target audience your company interacts with daily. Think of the buyer persona as another tool providing direction throughout the CRM development process.
Business owners shouldn’t do this alone. They should incorporate feedback and insight from various representatives across different departments — such as the sales team, customer support team, marketing team, and the customers themselves. Gather as much information as you can. That way, you understand who you’re selling to and why you’re selling to them.
Step Three: Determining the Customer Journey
When’s the last time you studied the journey your customer takes from initial contact to the moment of purchase? Most marketing departments already have a firm concept of what this journey entails — from beginning to end. Unfortunately, some businesses have absolutely no idea.
If you haven’t already study this journey. Memorize it. Map it out and analyze it daily. Determine the different tasks involved in each step of the process and the team members responsible for fulfilling the customer’s needs and wants during that stage.
The main goal here is to provide excellent customer service at each stage. That way, you can’t discourage the customer and are continually keeping them in a good mood. Remember, a happy customer is a customer that’s willing to spend money, which means they run through that customer journey as fast as possible.
Step Four: Finding Areas of Improvement
As you determine the customer journey, every business owner comes across certain areas of improvement. These areas often become the focal point of your CRM solution and are what the entire software program is designed to fix.
First, take a look at your pre-sales efforts and determine how well your company manages customer information and analyzes customer needs. Then, determine any areas of the sales process that your business can automate to improve workplace productivity and efficiency.
In addition to the sales process, businesses can always improve when maintaining that sale and turning it into a recurring sale. You should ask yourself, “What can my employees do differently to ensure the customer is receiving quality customer service from start to finish.”
Once you determine those areas of improvement, you know what your business needs when developing a custom CRM. It’s often the most stressful part of the entire process for the business owner – which is good news because the hard part is now over!
Step Five Teaming Up With a CRM Developer
Now comes the fun part because it’s where you finally see your custom CRM brought to life. Of course, you must find a professional CRM developer with experience in your industry before proceeding. The good news is there are plenty of quality and proven developers prepared to deliver a highly-effective CRM solution.
When searching for a CRM developer that fits your needs, there are several qualities and characteristics you should pay attention for:
- They should have experience and have the portfolio to prove it.
- They should be communicative and provide frequent updates.
- They should have a strong passion for what they do daily.
It’s easy to find a CRM developer, especially in the digital world we live in today. However, finding a quality CRM developer that loves what they do is a tough task that requires diligence. The good news is you came to the right place because CodeBright is one of the best CRM developers available.
We build customer relationship management solutions for a wide range of companies in different industries. Don’t worry; we have the proof and aren’t afraid to humbly show it. We ensure the best service in the industry and can’t wait to hear your project’s scope. Contact us today to learn more about developing a custom CRM.
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