The right Customer Relationship Management platform can make a business more productive and can boost customer satisfaction quite a bit. But given the recent advances made in mobile device technology, especially tablets, businesses should consider taking advantage of the increased functionality of mobile CRM solutions. Land-locked CRM systems are helpful, but they don’t fully offer benefits like these:
1. Real-Time Collaboration
With mobile CRM, each team member has access to what the other team members know, anytime, anywhere. Information isn’t locked up, it’s available to anyone who needs it, whether they’re in the office or not.
If, for example, a salesperson is out of the office on a business trip, by updating the CRM system remotely, he or she could ensure that the rest of the office had access to the information learned on the trip. Or, if one of the salesperson’s other customers unexpectedly called up, the salesperson could easily access relevant info using his/her mobile device.
In addition, because coordination across departments is better, productivity increases by about 87% (thanks Forrester!).
A number like that is hard to ignore.
2. Stay Current with Activity
When a team member is out of the office, either on a trip or just home for the night, mobile CRM enables him/her to check in and learn what’s going on with various accounts. Once upon a time, being away from the office meant, to some extent, an information blackout. Now, with mobile CRM, information is freely accessible, meaning that team members can access files and learn the latest news even when away, and even when there isn’t time to send lengthy reports to keep him/her up to speed.
3. Production and Planning are Faster
When salespeople are away at sales meetings with customers, orders can be submitted as soon as they are agreed to, instead of delaying them until the salesperson returns to the office. For many companies, getting an order in hours or even days earlier can make a big difference in planning and production. Mobile CRM thus facilitates quicker order submission from team members that are traveling.
The upshot? Companies who employ mobile CRM report that customer satisfaction is up 74%. This can be attributed to many improvements brought by mobile CRM. Among them may be faster service, as well as the ability of all team members to service each client account. There’s no substitution for a dedicated contact, but mobile CRM definitely lets a company do a better job of covering for contacts or reps when they are unavailable.
4. Contact and Calendar Management on the Go
You may think you’ve got more calendar and contact apps than you could ever want, but for sales reps, having these apps integrated into the CRM system can be a massive time-saver. That is, for those that spend most of their day working with a CRM app, integration with contacts and calendars is efficient. Making this integration mobile is even more efficient.
If you’ve got a meeting coming up, not only will you get your notification on your handheld, but you’ll have contact info and prior CRM notes directly available from it. There’ll be no need to try to navigate separate apps, which can be a pain on a mobile device.
Essentially, mobile CRM removes the pain.
5. Get Notified
Speaking of notifications, instead of having to send messages to other team members regarding account activity, they can generally choose to be notified when various actions are taken in the CRM system. This can be great for cross-department collaboration. For example, if strange payment terms are requested, accounting can be notified right away, instead of finding out when the deal has already been in progress for a while. The CRM system lets each party know about things that interest them, no matter where they are.
In short, with mobile CRM, your business becomes more connected, productive, and efficient.
To learn more, check out Bizness CRM for free here.
