What does 2014 hold for CRM solutions?

In the run up to Christmas we always like to make a few predictions about the year ahead. CRM hasn’t stood still this year.  Our Microsoft Dynamics CRM review shows that its been a great year with the launch of Microsoft CRM 2013 with lots of great new features.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is a really important software solution to know your customer. Its astounding how many businesses don’t truly know their customers, but with CRM solutions being more accessible and more tailorable their popularity during 2014 is sure to continue.

Following on from those successes, we have sought to predict what we think will be important for the year ahead and discuss the Microsoft Dynamics CRM reviews.

Social

We have heard over the last few years that social media is booming. CRM integration was slow to market, but with strategies firmly nailed down marketers are making more of social than ever before.

Facebook has around 1.2 billion monthly active users, Twitter around 230 million monthly active users, Google+ totals 540 million users and LinkedIn 160 million monthly users. With these numbers its no wonder why social has to be a key focus. The strategies for engaging with social need to be well planned.

Integrating and using this information within CRM can give rich insight and enable differentiated customer experiences.

During 2014 there will be a shift towards messaging products with more and more social transactions moving to a less “broadcasting” more personal style.

Differentiated Customer Experiences

During 2014 we will hear this phrase a lot. Really understanding our clients and offering experiences rather than targeted messages will be a keen focus. CRM needs to deliver targeted customer communications using “sliced and diced” data and marketers will need to offer experiences rather than meaningful copy.

Big Data and Little Data

2013 has focused on big data. What happens to all that data collected from social media? How do you interpret it? We predict that 2014 will shift to little data – joining big and little data to give a human touch. We talked about this earlier in 2013.

Mobile CRM

There are around 82.7 million mobile users in the UK. Whilst fairly slow to take off its now somewhat expected that businesses should be connected with remote. Microsoft CRM 2013 includes free mobility allowing users to clearly see leads and accounts and continue to work productively even on the go. As well as the free CRM 2013 mobile app, there are 2 other products that both offer more functionality.

Resco offers an offline mode and is available for Windows 8 tablets, Android and Windows 8.1 tablets, Android and iOS phones and other smart phones.

Another favourite mobile product is CWR mobility. CWR is the only mobile platform that supports client-side from scripting through its SDK, and it works with custom entities.

So mobile and CRM integration will continue to grow in 2014.

My final prediction is

Marketing Automation and CRM

Covert tracking of websites will become more popular. Marrying these with CRM will generate more interest. Act-On for example is a full marketing automation suite which has a native integration with Microsoft CRM.

Did you know that up to 80% decisions about your company have been made before speaking with you. And that’s if they speak with you. Information may be gleaned from your website and then conversations may happen with one of your competitors. Acting on those transactions will become crucial.

Catherine

So lets see during 2014 how these predictions pan out!

If you needed any information about any of the products mentioned in this blog please contact george@caltech.co.uk who will be happy to help.
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