For marketing to customer success to sales – the customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are getting smarter. With improved automation, integrations, and user experience, people can get more out of the way they work and deliver the personalized interactions consumers are growing to expect at every step of the customer journey.

The challenge is: does your team all look at the same customer data to achieve their goals? With most companies, data coming from too many sources actually becomes a hindrance more than a benefit. It’s understanding where to look and what to do with the data that makes teams successful.

As we look at the year ahead, CRM technology will mature in a way that captures data with accuracy, feeds into multiple sources, and automates engagement so reps can focus on the high-ticket actions that will produce the greatest results.  

A recent Forrester survey reported that 58% of respondents agree or strongly agree that “customer, prospect, and account data comes from too many sources to easily make sense of it.” To add to that, another 58% say “lack of enterprise view of customer/prospect data is a problem.”

The future of CRM data: becoming the single source of truth for customer data, across departments and job functions. So what does that entail?

Accessible customer data across departments

As we mentioned, consumers have grown to expect highly curated experiences. When they order food online, they expect dishes to be recommended based on what was previously ordered. After they watch a movie or show, they expect a related series to populate and autoplay on the screen.  

Personalization is becoming increasingly essential for both sales and marketing. Today’s buyer isn’t receptive to vague or generalized messaging, so the data within a business’s CRM system should provide enough of a 360-view of prospect or customer behavior in order for the data to move the account forward in the right direction – emphasis on the data doing the work, not your team. Here’s why:

Sales reps don’t have data entry in their DNA. You can’t expect them to continuously update the 38 fields available for each account, make sense of the information, and also build tailored communications to nurture each lead or contact on top of managing demo requests, contract negotiations, and handovers.

Because of this, the volume of engagement each team is responsible for making shouldn’t be isolated to 121 interactions. Whether coming from Marketing automation software like HubSpot or a Sales engagement tool like Groove, your team can build automated email workflows that speak to a defined audience to nurture down the funnel. A few examples of how to segment/target campaigns:

• Brands with new store openings
• Brands that have an outdated POS system
• Brands that implemented a new order & pay solution

Syncing customer data between apps

Data is only useful if it’s always up-to-date regardless of its destination. Armed with this in your CRM, multiple teams can be aligned on the right data, and cross-department initiatives can be achieved.

For Sales: Remove the barriers between inbound lead and first-touch, and develop outbound flows that automate and personalize each interaction

For Marketing: Use the CRM data to best understand the contacts in their database and monitor the behavior of segments, service-styles, job roles, etc.

For Customer Success: Get notified anytime owned accounts change firmographic, technographic, or demographic data so conversations stay proactive and productive

For Management: Ramp new reps faster with a 360-view of each lead, contact, or target account

According to LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report 2020, top-performing salespeople have higher confidence in their CRM data than their counterparts. Of the top group, 53% are very confident, with the following group falling to only 32%. The report is one example of how well teams can perform based on the quality of the data used.

Today’s customer insights drive tomorrow’s business

Consumers expect companies to know just enough about them to make purchases and experiences as frictionless as possible. Your CRM data should be your guide to:

• Focusing marketing efforts
• Providing perspective on where your ideal prospects can be reached
• Enabling cross-department initiatives that depend on understanding the “how” and “why” behind your customers’ behavior

For the first time ever there is sophistication in the details, if you have the right information. Get a true understanding of who your accounts are, what they have, and most importantly what they want with a fully integrated CRM strategy to drive your business forward.

Restaurantology is an emerging stealth startup specializing in restaurant data capture like never before. By integrating with your CRM, Restaurantology speeds up information gathering so reps and companies can spend more time generating revenue and less time on low-impact, administrative tasks.