What Is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Market?

Customer Relationship Management has become a vital part for various functions across global enterprises. Advancements in Social CRM have made it faster, reachable and have also brought in vital information on business analytics. Enterprises are adopting social CRM as an additional channel in the overall CRM software solutions. Social CRM refers to a social layer on top of traditional CRM software solutions; these solutions provide enterprises with several advantages including increased transparency, better communication of business ideas and information, flexibility and performance. Social CRM helps companies to establish customer engagements and increase their brand presence among customers. Social CRM focuses on capturing the customers’ needs and creating value for them in a transparent business environment.

Major forces driving this market are the rising focus on customer engagement, emerging SMEs, social platforms and the recognition of sharing ideas on a real time basis. Enterprises are coming up with solutions for Social Monitoring, Social Listening, Social Middleware, Social Management and Social Measurement for providing the best in class customer experience to the customers. Today, the Customer Relationship Management market is not limited only for increasing sales and improving marketing activities, but to bring in more customer engagement with the enterprises.

Some of the major vendors are SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Amdocs and IBM. Companies such as Lithium and Jive Inc. are moving towards the Social Customer Relationship Management market and many others have ventured into it as well. MarketsandMarkets believes that the need for increasing enterprise customer relationship management market needs, along with the social media boom is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of emerging social CRM software. Social CRM solutions are bringing enterprises closer to their customers by utilizing the prevailing social platforms.

This research report categorizes the customer relationship management market & Social Customer Relationship Management market for forecasting the revenues and analyzing the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

Applications:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer support & service
• Others

Deployment Type:

• On Demand (SaaS and PaaS)
• On Premise
• Hybrid

Solutions:

• Social Monitoring
• Social Mapping
• Social Middleware
• Social Management
• Social Measurement

Users:

• Small & Medium Businesses (SMB)
• Enterprises

Verticals:

• Academia & Government
• Automotive, Transportation and Logistics
• BFSI
• Consumer Goods and Retail
• Energy, Power and Utilities
• Healthcare

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are gaining pace in the current enterprise ecosystem. With the boom of social media, enterprises are adopting social integration with CRM software as well, thus making way for social CRM as a new channel nowadays. Social CRM solutions combine traditional CRM solutions with social media for improving the customer engagement for enterprises. The solution provides a social platform for evolving businesses CRM needs, while also offering flexibility, in terms of reach, deployment, and administration. Social CRM incorporates the customer decisions into the planning mix and the feedback loop so as to engage customers with the enterprises.

Enterprises are coming up with solutions for Social Monitoring, Social Listening, Social Middleware, Social Management and Social Measurement for providing the best in class customer experience to the customers. Today, Customer Relationship Management is not limited only for increasing sales and improving marketing activities, but to bring in better customer engagement with the enterprises.

Customer Relationship Management has become a vital part for various functions across global enterprises. Advancements in Social CRM have made it faster, reachable and have also brought in vital information on business analytics. Enterprises are adopting social CRM as an additional channel in the overall CRM software solutions. Social CRM refers to a social layer on top of tradition CRM software solutions; these solutions provide enterprises with several advantages including increased transparency, better communication of business ideas and information, flexibility and performance. Social CRM helps companies to establish customer engagements and increase their brand presence among customers. Social CRM focuses on capturing the customers need and creating value for them in a transparent business environment.

Major forces driving this market are the rising focus on customer engagement, emerging SMEs, social platforms and the recognition of sharing ideas on a real time basis. Enterprises are coming up with solutions for Social Monitoring, Social Listening, Social Middleware, Social Management and Social Measurement for providing the best in class customer experience to the customers. Today, Customer Relationship Management market is not limited only for increasing sales and improving marketing activities, but to bring in more customer engagement with the enterprises.

Some of the major vendors are SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Amdocs and IBM. Companies such as Lithium and Jive Inc. are moving towards Social Customer Relationship Management market and many others have ventured into it as well. MarketsandMarkets believes that the need for increasing enterprise customer relationship management market needs, along with social media boom is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of emerging social CRM software. Social CRM solutions are bringing enterprises closer to their customers by utilizing the prevailing social platforms.

This research report categorizes the customer relationship management market & Social Customer Relationship Management market for forecasting the revenues and analyzing the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

Applications:

• Marketing
• Sales
• Customer support & service
• Others

Deployment Type:

• On Demand (SaaS and PaaS)
• On Premise
• Hybrid

Solutions:

• Social Monitoring
• Social Mapping
• Social Middleware
• Social Management
• Social Measurement

Users:

• Small & Medium Businesses (SMB)
• Enterprises

Verticals:

• Academia & Government
• Automotive, Transportation and Logistics
• BFSI
• Consumer Goods and Retail
• Energy, Power and Utilities
• Healthcare

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions are gaining pace in the current enterprise ecosystem. With the boom of social media, enterprises are adopting social integration with CRM software as well, thus making way for social CRM as a new channel now days. Social CRM solutions combine traditional CRM solutions with social media for improving the customer engagement for enterprises. The solution provides a social platform for evolving businesses CRM needs, while also offering flexibility, in terms of reach, deployment, and administration. Social CRM incorporates the customer decisions into the planning mix and the feedback loop so as to engage customers with the enterprises.

Enterprises are coming up with solutions for Social Monitoring, Social Listening, Social Middleware, Social Management and Social Measurement for providing the best in class customer experience to the customers. Today, Customer Relationship Management is not limited only for increasing sales and improving marketing activities, but to bring in better customer engagement with the enterprises.

MarketsandMarkets expects that, investments in social CRM will increase across geographies and verticals, with the need of more business specific solutions for enterprises. These solutions will put together customer data from all sources with the enterprises. It is expected that, these solutions will move beyond marketing and sales functions into customer facing departments, improving brand value through better communications and seamless connectivity across all departments.

MarketsandMarkets expects the social Customer Relationship Management market to grow from $1.91 billion in 2013 to $9.08 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 36.5% from 2013 to 2018.

Source: MarketsandMarkets Analysis

MarketsandMarkets expects the Customer Relationship Management market to grow from $17.19 billion in 2013 to $24.22 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2013 to 2018.

Source: MarketsandMarkets Analysis

Why is CRM important to your business?

CRM is more important than ever to businesses because it can help you to gain new customers and retain existing ones.

And the CRM industry shows no signs of stopping!

A report by Gartner found that CRM software revenues have now overtaken database management systems to become the largest of all the software markets!

In today’s highly competitive environment and with so many products and services to choose from, customers are picky and customer loyalty seems to be a thing of the past.

The moment a new product is introduced into the market, it takes only a few months before that product or service suddenly becomes a commodity, which, in turn, means it’s easy to switch companies.

And despite what you might think, not all customers are created equal.

Some are a drain on customer service teams despite spending very little. Other customers do business frequently, often buy new products and services and may even be strong influencers in their market.

In cases like these, CRM helps prioritize sales and marketing efforts when dealing with different customer groups.

It also gives companies a better way of understanding customer needs and wants in order to improve the way the product portfolio is offered to them. The more you know about your customers, their buying preferences and behavior, the more likely your offer will be on target.

How does CRM work?

Although some people think of CRM as just a technology, it is so much more than that.

No technology, no matter how sophisticated – can be successful without a strategy to guide its implementation and use. Business strategy and technology must work together in order to bring a customer-centric plan to life.

Let’s take a look at the role CRM plays in customer-centricity, customer data management and automation.

1.Supports a customer-centric strategy

A CRM system supports a strategy which says that the customer is at the center of everything that you do. This customer-centric strategy must be based on clear goals and a vision of what a meaningful experience looks like.

A valuable customer experience is an integral part of CRM, according to Gartner’s report, “Improving the Customer Experience”.

Every time a customer comes in contact with an organization, through any of its channels, the customer has an opportunity to form an opinion – be it good, bad or indifferent. Through time, this collective set of customer experiences forms a picture in the customer’s mind, which in turn, forms the image of the brand and values.

Organizations that are serious about CRM design and maintain a quality customer experience because they recognize that a poor customer experience is a step toward customer churn, whereas a good experience encourages loyalty.

2.Centralizes all your customer data

CRM software combines all sales, marketing and customer service information into one central database.

With 92% of businesses collecting data on prospects and customers, having access to all data in a database means fewer silos within your organization – thus helping you achieve customer centricity.

What kind of customer information is being collected?

Customer information includes, but is not limited to, phone numbers, addresses, and last contact made. The software also records what was discussed, what the next follow-up date is and even the status of an open item – all of these play an important part in being GDPR compliant.

This information can then be used to manage, measure, and keep track of marketing, sales and customer service activities as they relate to the customer. Overall, it builds greater customer loyalty and a better customer experience.

Since a CRM system centralizes all customer-facing information, silos and finger pointing are significantly reduced. Sales can’t blame Marketing for not communicating with them. Marketing can’t blame Sales for not implementing their campaigns and Customer Service can’t blame Sales for disgruntled customers.

Everyone has the same access to the same customer information – giving you a complete 360-degree view of the customer.

3.Automates customer-facing business processes

Companies have business-facing processes and customer-facing processes.

Business-facing processes are those which make the business run more efficiently such as budgeting and planning whereas customer-facing processes include sales, marketing and customer service.

A CRM strategy focuses primarily on the customer-facing processes and makes them better in terms of meeting the needs of the customer.

The following chart explains a sample what is included in each process:

The whole CRM process begins with a lead – the name of someone you think you can sell something to.

Usually, a person has filled out a web form and provided you with their contact information.

Once the lead is put into the system, the software will then take it through to the sales process. It’s the CRM system that will remind the sales person to call at an agreed upon time, for example. Each time you interact with the prospect, you will record it into the CRM system. The same applies if someone else ends up talking to the prospect.

In a nutshell, CRM keeps track of all lead-related actions and what’s been said and done.

At the same time, CRM is a library of documents, phone calls and emails. When an interaction with a prospect is initiated, you get an instant, automated trail of communication. Because the information is in one central place, anyone in the company can help this person out.

Whether you’re in sales, marketing or customer support, a CRM system can help to automate a particular business process, as well as to automate the way each process works together with the other. But, it goes without saying that each business process must be well defined and efficient in order for a company to achieve good results.

Customer-facing process automation

1.Lead management

There’s an entire process before a lead becomes a customer.

You need to identify a lead, then qualify it and only then convert the lead into a sale.

A lead can come from many channels – a website, cold calling, social selling, an event/seminar, or it can be purchased (providing the purchase list is inline with GDPR).

With this number of channels, it must be clear which person or department is ultimately responsible for logging the lead in, because this determines how the lead should be routed and how it will be followed up on. Without a clearly defined process (work flow), leads can end up lost or forgotten, which results in frustration, lost sales productivity and even a bad customer experience.

2.Customer support

There should be clear rules for how customer service requests are managed.

These rules define whether a request goes to the first or second line of support, what resources will be used to solve a customer’s problem and how status updates will be shared to ensure that the issue is being addressed. Once the work flow and rules are defined, the CRM system can automate the whole flow.

At the same time, it keeps a record of all contacts’ history, so that customer service teams can view the information to get a better understanding of how to help the customer, which can then be used to improve customer satisfaction.

3Types of CRMs

Not all CRMs serve the same function.

Depending on your business goals, you may only require a specific set of tools for your sales, marketing and customer support departments. 

Here’s a close up of how CRM can support each of these critical roles.

1.CRM for Marketing

Successful marketing campaigns rely on data from potential and existing customers to create smarter strategies and build better business relationships.

Marketing CRMs allow you to collect and store this data in a system while tracking information across many touchpoints in your customer’s journey.  

As potential customers engage with your marketing campaigns through forms, blog posts, and email, you can easily identify buying patterns and behavioral trends. This helps your marketing team to cater more accurately to a potential customer’s needs, personalize their experience, and increase new customer onboarding. 

KEY BENEFITS

• Reach your target audience more effectively
• Capture more high-quality customer leads
• Initiate meaningful conversations with your business

2.CRM for Sales

While a marketing CRM provides the tools to attract, engage, and nurture relationships, a sales CRM focuses on closing deals. 

As customers move closer to a buying stage, having the right tools helps your team stay on top of sales opportunities without losing track of a deal. 

Sales CRMs are designed to deliver quotes, track performance, and organize activities. It should also provide your sales rep with a centralized hub to manage their time effectively, automate manual tasks, and receive feedback in real time.

Companies that use a sales CRM can predict expected revenues more accurately by analyzing value, estimated close dates, and likelihood of closing a deal throughout their sales pipeline.

KEY BENEFITS

• Delivers real-time insights on customer and sales activities
• Creates a database that manages and monitors deals
• Increase pipeline performance and forecast accuracy

3.CRM for Support

Managing customer relationships requires interactive tools to handle complaints, resolve problems, and follow up effectively.

A CRM for support teams includes a ticketing system to manage all customer inquiries with ease. All customer inquiries, whether by email, social media messaging, or phone calls, are captured and organized centrally in a CRM database.

In order to provide meaningful customer support, having a dedicated CRM helps to better equip your team to deliver a seamless customer experience – such as a knowledge base, live chat support and automated response.

KEY BENEFITS

•  All-in-one ticketing system to track, communicate, and resolve customer inquiries
• CRM database to align your support team’s action with automated responses for a seamless experience 
• Provide 24/7 self-support through a library of faqs (i.e., Knowledge Base)

Depending on your immediate goals and needs, a complete CRM may not be necessary. However, empowering your marketing, sales, and customer support teams with the right tools can enable them to deliver a better experience to your existing and potential customers.

Conclusion

B2B buyers no longer need you to tell them what they need or want anymore.

They already know what they want since they’ve been searching on the internet, through forums, blogs, social media, and so on.

What they want is to be treated as individuals. They want to feel like their business matters to you and that you care.

In B2B sales, a CRM system can make all the difference in whether or not you gain a new customer or retain an existing one. Customers who feel valued are happy customers and happy customers mean repeat business – not to mention, improved bottom lines.