CRM or customer relationship management has become the building blocks of industries and is data-driven to make lives better. Every CRM software user will agree to this fact. However, it also goes undenied that nothing much has changed in the CRM landscape since the 1990s, except for, it had moved from on-premise to cloud.

In most enterprises, customer data is still isolated and thus, manually entered into the CRM.

Given the market is entirely becoming sales driven and prioritizing of the customer is playing a crucial role, CRM software is still considered as inefficient.

In other words, you can say that CRM has not been fully evolved or its capabilities have not yet been completely explored and leveraged.

CRM is undeniably a significant tool in sales and marketing changing the perception of the consumer world. Retailers can analyze data and apply it in real time in a number of areas. This has led to easy and seamless processes, which otherwise would have been difficult to quantify. Market predictions and purchasing behaviors are now within fingertips for marketing executives.

Financial institutions are also able to stop and pinpoint fraudulent transactions within a fraction of millisecond. Not to forget, the healthcare companies are able to effectively keep track of their patients enabling easy diagnosis and treatment.

Despite the dynamic features and its instant benefits to various industries, CRM software by large remains inefficient as still, the major task is being done manually. Sales representatives who are continuously monitoring the high-volume deals in the sales pipelines had to invest extra hours in entering a large volume of data manually.

Clearly, it is a cry for help, a stark indication to the future of

CRM software- sales automation.

How will it help?

With CRM software, sales management is still a burden, time and energy wise. Thus, sales automation signifies a process where a salesperson can connect with the potential customer and accelerate the journey throughout the sales pipeline. Prioritizing customers will be the sole purpose to drive growth while the sales automation will take care of the administrative task. It is all about removing the barriers for human contact and make sales a more integrated process. Thus, the benefit is two-fold.

Glimpse Of The Future

The future is digital and the future is now, so there is no better time for the need of CRM automation like the present. The features of the sales automation perfectly fits the need as it should be more directed towards the broader concept where the data must serve an organization and not the otherwise.

It is important for CRM to shift to the more focused and human side of selling where more data and algorithms should be working for people.

Automated Customer Relationship-Future of CRM?

Enterprise workflow needs to be smart and easy. This would allow the sales representatives to use the automated CRM more often and leverage its complete set of features.

CRM Automation Improves The Sales Process Significantly

Some of the necessary features of the automation include customer-targeted recommendations based on activity records, personalized communications and much more. This would ease the tricky job of lead generation for the sales representatives.

Predictive Analysis And In-Depth Knowledge Of Specific Industry As A Feature Of CRM Automation

Predictive analytics is helpful in the process of sales. Higher customer retention depends on right customer information and the habits which ultimately drives the sales. Predictive analytics can have a big role to play in giving the valuable customer information that the sales reps can use to their benefit.

It can also be said that the future of CRM is also determined as the ability of software to determine, which steps to take. The future holds great potential for CRM software with the specific knowledge and understanding of each industry and the business process is crucial for functioning and workflow. As the aim of every company remains the same- to get and keep customers, CRM software with such smart features will readily be accepted by the industry. This will be the key to customer retention as it is the returning customers that spend more money than the new customers.

Introduction Of New Level Of Productivity With Decision-Support Algorithms And Artificial Intelligence

Wondering what is the role of predictive data and artificial intelligence in the future of CRM? They are helpful when the CRM requires data-driven solutions influence the productivity of the sales representatives. The salesperson will get more time for the crucial tasks while the automating repetitive tasks can be taken care of by AI and predictive data. The salesperson can now invest more time in other definitive work processes like studying customer behavior and build a relationship with them. This will also help to reveal the more humane side of the business.

The right customer data helps on several levels:

• Support in understanding the customer
• Increase in customer retention
• Better customer experience
• Excellent customer service
• Generate new customers
• Increased efficiency and smooth workflow
• Reduction in cost

Thus, the future of CRM software lies in customer relationship automation. It can take customer experience and support to a new level. The sales reps can leverage its potential by compiling different data from disparate sources allowing them to have all the information about the customer while approaching them. The approach will also be more personalized than formal. The right approach at the right time will help the sales surge potential.

Features like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics give sales reps a crucial understanding of customer information to work with. These features create a CRM software, which is more proactive help in saving time and increase productivity in no time. The future of CRM is the need of the hour. It will simplify the sales process and make customer relationship management a much more exciting and humane job.