In a recent study by Accenture, “84% of customers said that being treated as a person rather than a number is key to winning and retaining business.“
Client relationships are paramount to business success, especially in financial services – an industry that is deeply personal to many clients. After all, they trust financial advisors, investment firms, and banks to safeguard or grow their money.
While our social relationships might be more forgiving when we mess up, this is not the case in the business world. And since we’re often competing for someone’s time, it’s crucial that we establish a relationship with them or add value to their situation. The right CRM tool can provide dynamic customer insights to empower financial services professionals to build long-lasting client relationships.
CRM needs for sales representatives
In the financial services industry, client relationship managers need CRM software that has:
- An intuitive user experience
In order for representatives to nurture client relationships, it’s imperative they have a tool that is easy to use. This means that the system should be convenient, drive responsiveness, and focus on fulfilment while ultimately making the end-user appear proactive.
- The next best action
AI should help teams identify which prospects or customers they should engage with and why. The Amazon effect has heightened our expectations for instant gratification and extraordinary customer service, and digital customer experience (CX) platforms need to support this new culture.
- A unified view of the client
Sales representatives need to know everything about their clients: what products they already have; which marketing campaigns they have responded to; conversations with other colleagues; products they’re interested in, etc. But they should also have insight into who they are, their family, hobbies, favourite food and so on. Personalised relationships are the best for business success.
- Integrated technologies
Sales representatives don’t always enter all the information into the CRM, so it’s essential that the software can seamlessly sync with third-party applications to enrich the unified view of the client. This data should also happen in real-time in order to enable an immediate response to data intelligence and maximise data monetisation opportunities.
- Workflow automation
Business process management will ensure that automation can be applied to sales activity, which should help address a concerning statistic from the State of CRM report: A tool with a drag and drop interface makes workflow automation rules easy to design and implement, which allows sales representatives to focus on selling.
For financial services organisations, these CRM components are crucial; with SugarCRM, your sales representatives can build deeper client relationships and deliver the best customer service.
Delivering Business value
McKinsey predicts that 2021 will be the year for transition whilst there is an increase in demand for personalised experiences. In a recent study by Accenture, Furthermore, only 22% of those customers believe that customer experiences are tailored effectively by organisations; which triggers alarm bells as a Gartner research project states that CX is the new differentiator over product and price.
By identifying the best CRM for a customer-centric strategy, we are also delivering an industry-leading customer experience. Therefore, we can expect the following results:
- Win new customers and grow market share
By increasing user adoption, sales representatives will spend more time selling with a platform that empowers their daily activity. An article by Hitachi Solutions cites that ROI of a well-implemented CRM is $8.71 for every $1 spent. It also references a global study of financial services customers, in which Accenture found that 67% are willing to provide banks with more information if it means they will receive new benefits.
A brand’s reputation in the public domain after good/bad CX is fundamental to customer perception and potential attraction/churn.
Here’s an example of customers discussing recent experiences with their banks:
- Reduce client churn
The State of CRM report highlighted that 56% of organisations reported an increase in churn, which is costing them $5.5 million. Many financial services businesses succeed by retaining clients for years or even decades. In order to do so, sales representatives need the right CRM to truly understand the customer and deliver a proactive, personalised experience.
- Improve client loyalty and increase client spend
Using CRM tools helps financial services professionals attend to clients in the best possible way, which significantly increases the likelihood of further investment in your products.
By removing departmental silos through a unified view of the client, your business can deliver a higher level of service and identify upselling/cross-selling opportunities.
- Individualised interactions through just-in-time personalisation
Due to the impact of the pandemic, companies will be fighting hard to win new customers and grow market share. Over the past year, customer expectations have put greater emphasis on on-demand and personalised offers, which an organisation can only realise through a tightly integrated digital infrastructure. Creating a USP over your competitors has never been so important and being able to monetise your data is now imperative.
Implementing a CRM tech strategy with speed and quality
When it comes to choosing the right CRM, the company you partner with needs to understand your industry – and more importantly, your business needs. By combining the ideal CRM solution for your business with the most suitable partner, you will be in the strongest possible position to deliver the best client experience.
Having worked with redk for the past 15 years on important business cases such as Grupo PSN, Fidelis, Policy Expert and TIME Investments, I can confidently say that they have the expertise and knowledge to succeed in the implementation of any CRM project. Sources:
https://blog.smartsense.co/amazon-customer-expectations-supply-chain
https://www.sugarcrm.com/hd-cx/content/crm-sales-impact/
https://www.sugarcrm.com/industries/financial-services/
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/the-next-normal-arrives-trends-that-will-define-2021-and-beyond
https://www.finextra.com/researcharticle/159/personalisation-as-a-service-harnessing-data-in-the-banking-and-payments-industry
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/36864/personalisation-and-customisation-with-data-in-the-banking-and-payments-industry
https://www.gartner.com/en/marketing/insights/customer-experience
https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/blog/importance-crm-banking
