Signs Your Business Needs a CRM Makeover

Ashish Shrivastava
8 min readMay 23, 2024

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Introduction

From technology to consumer behavior to business complexities, we all are required to adapt to changes in this 21st century, more frequently than ever. Your CRM solution also needs to upgrade just the way it has changed from the first of its kind launched in the 1990s.

There are many CRM solutions that can be adjusted according to a business’s growing size or varying needs. But with rapid shifts in the industry, we all are looking for innovative and custom features to cater to our unique requirements.

If your current CRM software is unable to catch up with the trends, you may consider changing your CRM system this year. Top software’s company in India influence business owners to invest in custom software to achieve growth faster.

9 Signs your business needs a CRM makeover

We have presented 9 signs of an inefficient CRM. If you relate with any of them, then you should consider investing in a new CRM without delay.

1. Declining User Adoption Rates

Declining User Adoption Rates

One of the preliminary signs that users are waving a red flag at your CRM system and need an upgrade is the user adoption rate dropping. This can easily be resolved. If a user finds the system to be complex, then they will tend to avoid using the system. This may result in incomplete data, and poor customer insights, which eventually leads to lost/missed sales opportunities. A study by Dealcode shows that only 47% of companies see end-user adoption rates above 90%.

Solution

You can settle on using a user-friendly CRM solution that possesses a user-friendly interface. You can also offer adequate training and support in the system to ensure employees feel comfortable using the system.

2. Lack of Integration with Other Systems

Lack of Integration with Other Systems

Your CRM should work seamlessly with your other business tools, particularly marketing, ERP systems, and even social media platforms. If your CRM doesn’t talk to your marketing or social media tools, this means you have inadequate customer data.

For example, your marketing team cannot track the results of a marketing campaign because the CRM cannot be integrated with the marketing tools you use. Hence the campaign did not perform well.

Solution

You should opt for a CRM with robust integration capabilities. Popular CRM options like Salesforce and HubSpot provide a large integration scope with popular business tools.

3. Poor Quality Customer Data

Poor Quality Customer Data

If your CRM is filled with incorrect, outdated, or duplicate entries, you may face bigger problems. A statistic in a Quintly article stated that businesses lost about $15 million a year because of poor data quality.

Solution

You must implement regular data cleansing processes. Nowadays, modern CRMs come with automated tools that help in identifying duplicates, therefore making sure all your information is current.

4. Inefficient Reporting and Analytics

Inefficient Reporting and Analytics

A CRM should help you produce insightful reports and analytics that can help you understand your customers better. In case the report generation is time-consuming, or data does not offer any powerful insight, then you are not using your CRM to its fullest.

A sales manager should be in a position to generate a report on the performance of a sales campaign quickly. If your CRM doesn’t support this, then it’s one of the reasons your team’s time and opportunities get wasted.

Solution

You may choose a CRM with robust reporting and analytics tools. Platforms such as Zoho CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365 come with advanced reporting features that can help you save time and give deep insights.

5. Limited Mobile Accessibility

Limited Mobile Accessibility

In this ‘mobile first’ era, your CRM should be accessible from almost anywhere. If your CRM isn’t capable of providing mobile accessibility, then your team members can’t update information on the go, making you lag behind and miss opportunities. As a matter of fact, according to Superoffice, 65% of salespeople with mobile CRM have achieved their sales quotas compared to a minimal 22% without.

Solution

The CRM should have a robust mobile app. That kind of accessibility keeps your team connected and productive wherever they are.

6. High Maintenance Costs

High Maintenance Costs

The older CRMs have a lot of maintenance that often costs the organization more. If the cost of maintaining the system to keep it going is more than the benefits, then it’s high time you switched to a new one.

Solution

Implementing cloud-based CRM solutions often requires the least maintenance among the rest, and they also normally keep receiving automatic updates.

7. Inadequate Customization Options

Inadequate Customization Options

Every company has its own dimension of needs. If your CRM cannot be customized, it is ineffective because it cannot be personalized according to your needs. A retail business may require custom fields to monitor sample inventory numbers, while a B2B company may need more elaborate account management features.

Solution

Look for a CRM that allows all of these high levels of customization. CRM solutions like Salesforce and Zoho CRM have provisions for customizable fields, workflows, and modules in such a way that they can align with your requirements.

8. Poor Customer Support

Poor Customer Support

Acting fast in response is the key to good customer support. Bad support from your CRM provider may result in long wait times and frustration.

Solution

Obtain your CRM provider from reputed names in the industry for good customer support. Go through reviews and testimonials to ensure they respond quickly and helpfully.

9. Limited Scalability

Limited Scalability

A CRM has to be scalable to be able to match up to your business’s growing potential. If your current CRM cannot cope with growing amounts of data or users, it will stagnate your growth. In more than 80% of cases, a startup outgrows the capability of its first CRM and needs more features to deal with more valuable data.

Solution

Investment in a scalable CRM can be a viable solution. Examples like Salesforce, then HubSpot, are made to grow with your business, offering features that suit growth requirements.

Who can help you with CRM development?

You need a CRM development partner when considering switching to a new system or implementing your 1st CRM solution. Their knowledge and expertise can seamlessly help you integrate a new CRM system with your current workflows like several automation tools and/or accounting tools, etc. I have listed a handful of renowned software companies in India that excel in CRM development services.

Bluelupin Technologies Private Limited: Bluelupin is a software company in Delhi that provides custom software development services along with Salesforce CRM development. They provide Salesforce development consultation and Salesforce customization.

Ray Business Technologies: According to this Hyderabad-based company, the cost to acquire new customers is higher than retaining an existing one. Hence Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plays a pivotal role in shaping today’s business workflow.

W3 Dream Solutions: This Bangalore-based software company thinks that great CRM software can effectively combine all various information from different departments and present a holistic view of their customer’s behavior.

Cputek Private Limited: This software development company in Kolkata offers CRM customization and support along with tailored features. With their solution, you will never miss any client work, manage your work effectively, and also track project progress and profits.

FAQs

1. How do I know if my company needs a CRM?

If you as a business owner can relate to a few signs that indicate inefficiency, it’s time to adopt a CRM solution.

1. Customer data is scattered across emails, excel sheets, and notepads.

2. Your team can not track a lead’s buying journey.

3. Your team lacks data to run personalized campaigns.

4. Repetitive tasks exhausts your team.

5. Different departments of your organization keep their own database which creates confusion and leads to miscommunication.

2. What happens to a business without a CRM?

Your business will soon lag behind your competition if you don’t use CRM in 2024. Keeping up with the fast pace, your CRM saves your time and cost. Repetitive tasks like manual data entry waste a lot of time for your employees and increase the chances of error. Scattered information on your customer data gives you limited insights and many missed opportunities because you can not see the bigger picture of your customer’s preferences and changing behaviors. These all eventually lead to poor decision making resulting in stagnation in your business growth.

3. How do I choose a new CRM?

Shifting to a new CRM can be difficult in the beginning for your team. But choosing the right fit for your business yields better results in the future. Evaluate the loopholes in your current CRM and be clear about which features you want in your new one. You also need to redefine what business goals you want to achieve by improving existing operations.

What factors you want to measure now using CRM. Go through existing datasets and choose which information you require to transfer to the new CRM. Then consult with CRM vendors or go for custom solutions to discuss budget alignments and the best fit your unique business needs.

4. Why is it important to keep CRM up to date?

You know how vital it is to track customer’s actions as customer preferences and behavior tend to change faster. To make better data-driven decisions you need to use up-to-date data about your customers. Otherwise, your marketing campaigns will fail to target the wrong people at the wrong time at the wrong place. If your CRM is unable to present your current data and fails to incorporate new and need-of-the-hour features, then you must change your software solution to make effective campaigns based on real-time data.

Conclusion

Switching to a new CRM is not as frightening as it may sound. Yes. It will require you to invest extra time in training your team about the new one and setting up the internal link between different departments using the new CRM. But it will be worth your time and money in the long run. Carefully evaluate the bottlenecks in your current CRM and what exact features you want in the new one to yield higher benefits in your business operations.

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Ashish Shrivastava
Ashish Shrivastava

Written by Ashish Shrivastava

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I'm Ashish Srivastava, CEO of Bluelupin. I bring cloud system design & data analysis skills, co-founded three companies, & manage finance, sales, and marketing.

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