4 Examples of Businesses Using CRM to Improve Productivity and Efficiency

Customers are the mortar that keep businesses together, and happy, invested ones are the underlying foundation for success. But how do you ensure that customers are happy? Research conducted by Marketing Professor Patti Williams at The Wharton School confirmed that “evoking feelings of pride and awe are two ways that companies can forge deeper connections with their audiences.”

Salesforce Research found that trusting a company is important to customers, and a trusting relationship results in more than just customer satisfaction. Customers who trust a company are more likely to:

  • Be loyal: 95%

  • Recommend that company: 93%

  • Buy more products and services: 92% 

  • Buy more frequently: 91% 

  • Spend more money: 88% 

  • Share their experiences: 86%

Managing customer relationships is critical to business success, and a customer relationship management (CRM) platform lets companies large and small organize, automate, and synchronize every facet of customer interactions. CRM system examples include platforms built to manage marketing, sales, customer service, and support, all connected to help companies work more effectively.

With a CRM system, businesses can analyze customer interactions and improve their customer relationships. This technology is widely embraced throughout the business world, and the global CRM software market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6% a year, with an estimated valuation of approximately $35 billion in 2023. Of course, if you’re considering investing in a CRM solution, you’re likely to be less interested in the big numbers and global picture and more concerned with how your company can use a CRM platform to improve productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

Let’s take a look at four CRM success stories. They illustrate how a CRM platform has helped businesses of all sizes perfect the art of customer satisfaction.

Wells Fargo

When an organization is responsible for keeping track of approximately $1.9 trillion in assets and roughly 70 million customers, staying organized is critical. Just ask Wells Fargo, the seventh most profitable company in the United States.

To be efficient, large companies need to align communication and technology. Wells Fargo uses its CRM platform to keep all its services, including banking, mortgages, investing, and credit cards, in sync. The business impact of its technology investments, from software that helps the company with customer relationship management to tools that help departments run smoothly, is monumental:

  • Greater focus on high-value work because the bank can save time on customer service

  • Increased end-user productivity

  • More attention for important projects because automated workflows, optimized platforms, and reliable platforms save time and energy

Thanks to Wells Fargo’s commitment to its CRM system, the bank has saved hundreds of nonproductive IT and business hours. It’s also reduced technical debt and created systems that drive innovation and business growth.

Learn more about how Wells Fargo has put customer relationship management at the forefront of its business by streamlining activities behind the scenes.

Bespoke Collection.

The four brands that make up Bespoke Collection speak to its commitment to fine wines, elegant art experiences, and unique customer experiences. Bespoke provides the top-tier customer experience it’s known for by building deeply involved relationships via its loyalty programs and memberships. The team behind Bespoke also works hard to understand the company’s customers and which behaviors are associated with buying habits.

As Bespoke’s customer base grew, managing customer data became a real challenge. By embracing CRM solutions, company leaders were able to offer their customers the kind of personal attention that had defined their organization from the beginning. In the words of company President and Partner Paul Leary:

“When someone makes a purchase with us, the next morning at 10 o’clock, they automatically get a personalized email ... By placing emphasis on relationship-based sales instead of transaction-based, we’re able to increase customer retention and satisfaction, referrals, and order value.”

Bespoke identified the right CRM tools it needed to make this kind of direct customer connection happen.

You can read in more detail about how Bespoke Collection used its CRM system to improve client relationships.

Activision.

Activision is known to gamers the world over as the brand behind some of the most popular video games out there. Founded in 1979, the company operates in more than 15 countries, and its 2011 release of Modern Warfare 3 was the largest and most successful entertainment launch at the time, bringing in over $400 million in the first 24 hours. This is only one measure of Activision’s success.

The company prides itself on providing a continually amazing experience to its gamers so they can remain satisfied and enthralled long after they’ve made their purchase. By using Marketing Cloud, Activision monitors social media conversations that are relevant to their products. Service Cloud then helps Activision follow up on those conversations. And, given that social media customer service is less expensive than conventional methods, Activision found that it was able to decrease its annual customer service operating expenses by 25%. As explained by Tim Rondeau, Activision’s Senior Director of Customer Care, “We’re reducing costs and increasing satisfaction at the same time.”

Like Activision, you can augment your CRM system with customer service and marketing software.

Xtreme Lashes

The mission is simple: Xtreme Lashes is dedicated to “enriching and empowering lives by delivering on our promise to provide revolutionary beauty products, unparalleled client support, and comprehensive education.” The company started with a simple yet popular product, but quickly expanded to training programs, and has now become a major player in the beauty industry.

With growth can come growing pains, and the COO, Ali Moshfeghian, says, “We needed a single cloud-based platform that could store all our data, run apps for every department, and deliver value to our clients.” In searching for CRM system examples, company leaders found a powerful solution that not only helped them manage sales and customer service, but also gave Xtreme Lashes the ability to use native apps and add-ons that only increase their productivity.

The company’s investment in a CRM platform, says Moshfeghian, “enabled us to easily create ways to help our stylists and their customers.”

Find out more about how a customer relationship platform can scale with your company.

Customer Relationship Management at Your Fingertips

These examples of CRM platforms in action show how this technology has helped businesses around the world enhance their customer relationships, perfect their internal processes, optimize communication and collaboration, and improve lead conversion rates.

Speak with your employees, listen to consumer feedback, and determine what kind of CRM solutions are best for your organization. Whether it’s large or small, your company’s success depends on keeping customers happy. Do so by investing in an effective CRM platform, and you may just be the next CRM system success story.

If you’re ready to find the right CRM solution but don't know which one is best for you, check out our free e-book to learn how to find what you need without compromising. 

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