10 Key CRM Software Features

Posted by One X Tech on August 7th, 2019

Working with customers is an ongoing process that can get very challenging at times. Staying in touch with all of your contacts, accurately diagnosing problems and maintaining the satisfaction of your audience are one of the main activities of every customer relations team. Not to mention that these are not even half of the activities a customer relationship representative will need to execute perfectly if a company wants to see good results.

Luckily, there are numerous customer relationship management software (CRM) solutions that tremendously help teams like these with their workload. A good CRM software will open up fantastic opportunities for both small and large businesses. That’s why all these companies need to manage their prospects and customers with care and having a CRM software help them to truly make the most of it. But, if you want to achieve customer satisfaction that leads to great sales results, you will need to find a platform that has the CRM Software features you’re looking for. 

To determine which of these features are essential for your business, we’ve decided to compile a list of 10 key CRM software features you can’t miss out on if you wish to grow your business. But first, let’s take a look at three types of CRM software you can get for your company. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. CRM software types

1. Operational CRM software
2. Analytical CRM software
3. Collaborative CRM software

2. CRM software features

1. Reporting and Dashboards
2. Contact Management
3. Lead Management
4. Campaign Management
5. Email Management
6. Deals and Tasks
7. Social Media Management
8. Mobile Access
9. Collaboration Tools
10. Sales Forecasting

1. CRM Software Types

There are three main types of CRM software solutions you can choose to enhance the relationship you have with your customers. These types are created based on the functions of a CRM software – operational, analytical and collaborative. Most of the solutions you will find on the market will feature all of these three aspects but are usually more focused on just one or two of them. 

1.1 Operational CRM Software

The main objective of a CRM software is to streamline and automate workflows in sales, customer service and marketing. Solutions that are focused on it have terrific lead management, contact management, sales pipeline and help desk. They are mostly used by managers, salespeople, marketers, service representatives and tech support.

1.2 Analytical CRM Software

If you’re looking for a quality analytical CRM software, it will need to source enormous amounts of data from several touchpoints and gather them into insights useful enough for strategic planning. This type of software has great reporting and dashboards and it can also generate real-time data. The analytical CRM software is usually used by CEOs and executives, team leaders, department heads, etc.

1.3 Collaborative CRM Software

The collaborative CRM software promotes transparency and teamwork among support, sales and marketing by sharing all of the customer information and syncing their activities. Also, it has numerous great communication tools such as chat, social discussion and integrated email. Among these three options, it has the best quality in file sharing, activity streaming and editing controls as well. 

2. CRM Software Features

Investing in a good CRM software solution is essential for your business success, however, you can’t just invest in any of them. Besides determining which of the three main CRM software types you need the most, you will have to pay closer attention to the features of these solutions as you’re checking them out. They all differ in features and other characteristics so it’s vital that you determine which features are crucial for your business and find a CRM software solution that provides these features.

Below, you can check our list of 10 key features of a CRM software that every business can benefit from. Choose the ones that are the most important for your company and start your research for your best CRM software solution.

2.1 Reporting and Dashboards

This feature will help you use analytics to interpret your customer data more accurately. With reporting, you can make better decisions or deal better with recent market trends and customer behavioural changes. You should look for a CRM software that has numerous visual widgets as it will help you present your reports much more efficient. 

Prioritizing Your Work With These Two Features

If you consider reports a bit overwhelming with all of these details in a certain situation, you can choose dashboards. They are great for executives, team leaders and managers who want to scratch the surface of the key insights without going through every detail of the report. Also, having multiple dashboards allow you to prioritize your work without a problem. A lot of these CRM solutions on the market allow you to customize your own dashboard based on various interactions with your customers. 

2.2 Contact Management

A great CRM software should help you manage your customer data in a centralized place which provides you with an entire overview of all of your customers. Contact management is vital because you can even organize your customer’s personal information, interactions, demographics and transactions in a way that will contribute significantly to your processes. 

A Good Integration With Your Lead Management

With this feature, you can also set rules to access, edit, save or delete your contacts. The great thing about it is that it integrates well with lead management so your contacts that are actually your leads can be taken further the sales pipeline. You can also integrate it with social media which can demonstrate to you how well your brand performs on these platforms. With contact management, you can also personalize your outreach campaign and segment your target audience. 

2.3 Lead Management

Lead management helps you manage all your leads from the first step to the last one. This feature is following your path to conversion so you can always take a look at how well your business is performing. Lead management tremendously helps your sales team with follow-ups, tracking and other repetitive tasks that take a lot of their time. 

Moving Prospects Across Various Sales Stages

Without lead management, don’t expect your sales pipelines to run. Your CRM software is fed with leads and it automates these admin tasks to help you improve your entire sales process but also increase customer satisfaction. This feature allows you to track prospect status and activities of your sales representative in order to move them across various stages of sales. As mentioned above, it works with contact management so you can even convert your contacts into leads. 

2.4 Campaign Management

Your CRM software should also have this feature as it allows A/B testing of marketing processes from outreach to deployment. This tremendously helps you sort your campaigns to target segments in contacts and determine your deployment strategy. 

Having Sales and Marketing Data in One Platform

With campaign management, you can also define a metric for numerous channels, take out the insights which are generated by your post-campaign analytics and focus on your new campaign. If you have all your sales and marketing data in one platform, it’s much easier to plan and manage your campaign structure. You can also automate your recurring outreach efforts which allows you to send customized content to your contacts based on their interest. 

2.5 Email Management

 Integrating your CRM software with popular email platforms such as Gmail and Outlook will provide you with numerous options when it comes to email marketing. You can capture email messages and go through important details which can then be saved in your contacts or synced with your other leads. 

Prospecting and Lead Scoring 

This feature allows you to track activities such as opened emails, forwarded emails, downloaded files and clicked links. These emails can be qualified for prospecting as well. Your CRM can process your email…..