Mobile CRM – Responding to a Connected World

The mass migration of internet users from desktop PCs to mobile devices is global and universal. The proportion of internet traffic coming from mobile devices grew from 1% in 2009 to 13% in 2013, and it’s still growing.

This changes the way you do business. Users and customers both expect information to be available and updated in real-time, not “when you get back to the office”.

Your sales teams need immediate access to the very latest business information from their colleagues around the world; your customers expect a mobile-first experience; and your IT department needs a way to get on top of its mobile strategy.

The promise of mobile CRM is twofold, including not just mobile access to data but also – and more significantly – the possibility of using your CRM as a platform on which to build your entire mobile strategy, from branded customer-facing apps to distributed customer service and support.

Introducing mobile CRM to your sales operation can be a dramatic change for the better. Your salespeople can update and synchronise information on the move, sharing real-time data from across the business. Day-to-day sales tasks are freed from the desktop, so a salesperson carrying a tablet or smartphone can:

• Plan the day with calendar integration
• Dial in to meetings with click-to-call
• Access and update leads, contacts and oportunities
• Open and share files
• Access dashboards

But today’s mobile CRM platforms can do so much more. Add cloud storage to mobile CRM functionality and you’re no longer synchronising data with a local copy – you’re accessing live, centrally held information from whichever device you choose. Distributed teams can share files and background information and can update, share and send proposals on the move.

The shift to mobile involves not one platform, but several. Your customers are using text messaging, mobile apps, email, tablet-based browsers and location services – and their existing social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are extending their reach onto all of these mobile platforms too. Mobile-first experiences are becoming the norm – and are what your customers expect to see. Your CRM system can integrate with smart devices and social media to deliver amazing, personalised customer experiences.

Using a CRM platform to handle and track customer service activity already makes sense, and adding a mobile dimension brings even more benefits. Combining mobile with social CRM gives you a whole new range of capabilities. Not only can your customers now contact you where and when they choose, but you can track, manage and respond to every case with the full capability of your CRM platform.

A mobile CRM platform means instant, simple escalation, with issues routed straight to the right subject matter expert, product manager or executive, regardless of location. You can implement round-the-clock cover for urgent queries and respond on the same platforms your customers use – no more losing issues as they change from one channel to another.

The sheer pace of growth in mobile traffic has created a common experience among CIOs: you need to address your mobile strategy, but the scope keeps growing. Your sales team needs access to dashboards, logs, opportunities and client-facing content they can take into meetings; but you’re also being pushed to develop a customer-facing branded app for smartphones. And it all needs to connect to your CRM back end.

That’s potentially 5 or 6 separate projects – and a lot of development, in areas where you may not have established skills.

With the right platform, the potential for customised mobile apps can extend beyond traditional devices to self-reporting by smart, internet-enabled components. A platform such as Salesforce, with APIs that enable integration with almost any device, creates extraordinary new possibilities.

An internet-enabled component needing maintenance raises its own ticket ahead of time; the task is monitored and tracked directly in your back-end CRM system. An ordering system connects directly to the delivery driver’s GPS for real-time tracking. In the new “Internet of Things”, if you can connect it, you can track it – and every piece of data you collect can be put to use deepening your understanding of your customer through CRM. 
Learn how you can use the Internet of Things "IoT".

An investment in a mobile-capable CRM platform can pay dividends throughout your organisation – far beyond the traditional users of CRM. As mobile reach and usage continues to boom, your customers are everywhere.

• Sales:

get efficiency savings, reduced admin overheads and anytime, any-device availability of shared data from the cloud.

• Marketing:

can talk to customers in completely new ways, creating personalised experiences and tracking social media activity with familiar, easy-to-use tools.

• Customer Service:

can pick up cases more quickly, track them across channels and resolve them using the knowledge of your whole organisation.

• IT:

gains a whole development platform for mobile apps, with built in integration to your back-end CRM system.

As mobile reach and usage continues to boom, your customers are everywhere. Mobile CRM enables you to be there too.