Before making a decision on which CRM program to use, you should consider a few factors:
1. 360-degree view of the customer
2. Monitoring of purchasing behavior
3. Smart marketing / cross-selling campaigns
4. Automatic alerts and reminders
5. Collaboration capabilities
6. Size and scope of your business
7. Integration with other systems
360-degree view of the customer.
One of the first factors to consider is what type of information the CRM software can collect and display for each customer and whether it is easily accessible throughout the day. Can the CRM solution show a holistic view of your customer to all stakeholders, allowing for quick response in crucial situations? When working in the financial industry, you may need to collect a great deal of information about each client for compliance and also to better serve them. This information should be updated regularly and contain details of your most recent transactions. All CRM systems allow you to track basic personal information, such as customer name, phone number, and address, but you also need to track other vital information and analytics, if you want to provide the best service. For example, in the financial services industry, you may need to keep track of your conversations about specific investments, risk appetite, and goals. Storing this information in your CRM software allows you to easily refer to it before offering advice and also helps in cross-selling.
Monitoring of purchasing behavior
Another feature that you may want to look for in a CRM solution for the financial industry is the ability to track customer decisions and activities. For example, if you sell investment products to your clients, you must be able to keep track of which products each client prefers and buys. By tracking this information, you can develop a profile of each client and find out what kind of investments they like. This way, when a new product is available, you can easily print a list of customers who may be interested in it. Tracking your customers’ past decisions will give you an idea of how they might be willing to invest in the future and what is the most appropriate product to offer.
Smart marketing / cross-selling campaigns
Many CRM platforms allow you to customize marketing messages for your customers based on the information collected. For example, if your business is promoting a particular mutual fund, you can easily screen all of your clients interested in bonds and mutual funds. You can also see which clients are looking for more investment opportunities, based on discussions you’ve had in the past. At that time, the CRM system can send personalized emails to each customer with the relevant marketing messages using custom templates. Monthly newsletters related to the investment scenario and other key trends can also be sent to a specific mailing list using a mail-blaster.
After sending marketing messages, it can also be beneficial to be able to track recipients’ responses to the message and be clear about those that have not been delivered. Some CRM programs allow you to easily track this information using delivery reports and generating alerts based on specific filter conditions. By studying this information, you can measure how much interest the customer has in the product you offered in the marketing message and create follow-up tasks. Text message campaigns for time-limited offers can be created to instantly generate new leads and capture their details through the CRM solution to ensure effective tracking and optimal conversions.
Automatic alerts and reminders
When choosing a CRM solution for your financial services business, you also need to find one that generates reminders based on configurable settings. One of the most important factors in being successful in the financial services industry is developing relationships with your clients. Today CRM incorporates impressive social media features to make it easy to view profile information, comments, and mutual friends. They will also remind you of important dates in the client’s life, such as birthdays and anniversaries, this can be of great help in growing your relationships. Most CRM programs even integrate with automated mailing services to send birthday cards or other greetings to prospects and clients. Customers like to be remembered and enjoy the personalized touch.
Receiving reminders of your CRM program can also be beneficial when it comes to selling new products and services to your customers. In some cases, you can approach a customer about a particular product that you want to sell and they will tell you to check again in a month. At that point, you can enter this information into your CRM program and set a reminder for the appropriate day and time. An alert can be set for a few hours before the scheduled discussion to ensure that all related open activities are completed and that you are equipped with up-to-date information to increase your chances of winning an opportunity. Most clients will be impressed that you remember and are knowledgeable, so they will be more receptive to your proposals.
Collaboration between all stakeholders
Depending on the size of your company, you may also need to be able to collaborate with various departments, partners, and even clients. If the financial CRM solution offers the ability to allow multiple users to access and enter information, this will increase synergy in the business and help serve customers in the most efficient and effective way.
For example, when someone in your company talks to a customer, you can take notes from the conversation and enter that information into the CRM program. Later, when someone else contacts the same person, you can see the content of the last conversation with that customer. Seeing this, the employee does not have to repeat old information that the customer has already been subjected to in the past. This will please the customer and save time for the company as a whole.
Ideal business size
The size of your business also influences the type of financial services CRM solution you need to implement. The requirements of large organizations in terms of scalability, integration, processes are more complex and demanding than those of a small or medium-sized company. It depends on the number of users, products offered, geographic dispersion of the teams, etc. You should evaluate both cloud CRM (SaaS CRM) and on-premises CRM with the option to switch as needed based on your organization’s needs.
Integration with other systems
Before choosing a financial services CRM solution for your financial services, you may also want to find out if it integrates with other programs that you currently use to store important customer and product related information. For example, if the CRM system allows you to integrate with MS Excel, MS Access, real-time trading systems, etc. this can increase efficiency. If users have to use completely different programs and re-enter data, adoption will be low, so buying the CRM program may not be worth it.
The ultimate goal of using the financial services CRM solution is to increase customer loyalty and avoid losing customers in a competitive and saturated business environment. This software has the potential to improve the user experience by making marketing and sales processes easier and more efficient. Because of this, you have the potential to keep your customers coming back for more. With most companies, customers can get the same products that you offer from a competitor. The reason they come back to you is because of the service you provide – accurate updates, market insights, and timely advice.
Regardless of the financial services CRM solution you choose, make sure the solution provider has a good knowledge of the domain and previous experience of implementing it in an organization similar to your size and business. You should always check the references and tangible benefits that the implementation provided.