There can be no doubt about the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for modern businesses. CRM is perhaps the most important business software because it gives companies a way to manage and optimize customer interactions in remarkable ways. Sales and marketing can use their power to boost sales. Likewise, customer service can use it to personalize customer experiences. However, the adoption rate of CRM is still lower than it should be. According to Hubspot, up to 40% of companies do not use CRM in their business operations. Among companies that do use CRM, end-user acceptance of the tool remains poor. Some criticisms of CRM are valid – the most common being that it is difficult to use. But now that AI-powered CRM is in the picture, solutions to end-user pain points are emerging.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into CRM started around 2017. Then, AI-powered CRM is believed to have generated 1.1 trillion in revenue between 2017 and 2021 to $. As AI technology and CRM software both continue to improve independently, their combination is only to bring even more profit in 2022 and beyond.
Here are 5 ways AI is improving CRM systems:
INCREASE TEAM PRODUCTIVITY
One of the pain points of CRM end users is that they have to spend time and energy on manual tasks. AI-powered CRM is the answer to the call for greater automation. Manual tasks such as data entry, scheduling, and graph and report retrieval can now be taken over by AI with great accuracy. This frees up more time for marketing, sales and customer service to perform their primary tasks, increasing productivity.
DATABASE OPTIMIZATION
The efficiency of a CRM software is related to the quality of the customer data it has to work with. Dubbele, incomplete and outdated data is common in the database of many CRM systems. Unfortunately, such data determines the quality of your decision making. However, with AI-powered CRM, data cleaning can be done automatically. AI performs periodic checks and optimizes your data to ensure accurate and actionable information access.
IMPROVING LEADS . SCORING
Accurate lead scoring is undoubtedly essential for salespeople. The ability of AI to process the myriad of variables in customer data, spot trends, and perform predictive analytics will take your lead scoring system to the next level. This arms your sales teams with information about leads most likely to become customers. Consequently, they can guide them further down your sales funnel.
BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CUSTOMERS
In addition to enriching your customer data, AI can further extract useful information from the database. Sentiment analysis is a key feature of AI that greatly benefits CRM. It can be difficult to identify emotions expressed through emails and phone calls, but AI is bridging that gap. By micro-analyzing details of the interactions, AI-powered CRM can provide emotional insight and suggest the best answers. In addition, predictive AI analytics can generate personalized product and content recommendations for existing and potential customers. More personalization and better interaction can perfect your customer acquisition and retention. In addition, your company can reduce customer churn.
BETTER SALES MONITORING
44% from the sellers moves on after one rejection, which is kind of a shame because 80% from the prospects need five follow-ups to make a purchase. AI can help track leads from low to middle positions through personalized messages and emails. AI-powered CRM can drive efficient engagement that can convert hesitant leads into high-ranking prospects, then your sales force can drop in to close the deal.
Statistics show that only 12% of end users currently benefit from an AI-powered CRM. Interest in and demand for AI integration are, however, unbelievably high. So if there's a year where that figure will rise exponentially, it's 2022. And that's great news for businesses and customers alike.
