The future of CRM: fewer silos, more customer satisfaction

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Confusing, incomplete and not synchronized data are part of your daily challenges? That doesn’t have to be the case for a long time. Here you can find out how you can prevent data silos and what your CRM has to do with it.

Data silos are collections of information that are isolated from and inaccessible to other parts of the organization. And that leads to a multitude of problems, which can be briefly described as: One hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.

Many companies have numerous manual work steps and time-consuming data entry. A large part of everyday work is often characterized by the search for the information you need. For example, the data required for an e-mail campaign is manually exported from a CRM system and then uploaded again via a separate e-mail marketing system for dispatch. That this approach is not exactly the Promotes productivity and an immense time waster is obvious. There are also no central touchpoints with customers, nor a central connection to all relevant departments and company areas. These isolated solutions lead to data silos and prevent an overall view of the customer and ultimately the complete overview of information, which is essential for the sustainable success of measures.

Smaller companies in particular obtain their data from individual data sources. This procedure usually arises from a long tradition, which in most cases is not the most sustainable and best solution. When it comes to the changeover and the step towards optimization and consolidation, it is often very difficult to combine the various sources and huge amounts of data. So it is worth investing in the right tool right from the start – in order to save yourself potential subsequent efforts and costs. Probably the most important aspect of a comprehensive CRM system is that full control over the customer journey. A central source of information offers the opportunity to optimally maintain customer relationships in every phase of the customer journey – and to improve them at the same time. The CRM platform should not only be able to be used in marketing, sales and customer service, but also beyond. But only if the entire customer journey is managed in a common CRM system will your team receive coherent data and analyzes that actually give an overall picture of each customer. This means that you also have more targeted control over the measures and touchpoints if you know your customer very well.

The example of shows how data silos can hinder the view of customers and processes Rational, the global market and technology leader for industrial kitchen appliances. The sales, marketing and service teams once worked for a very long time with different, partly self-sufficient systems and databases – but then they upgraded: The increased digitization and modernization of all customer-related company areas included a new, uniform customer database, automated processes in the sales and marketing departments , After-sales and service, networked systems and consequently: a seamless customer journey. The company opted for the Salesforce CRM solution as the central customer platform. Manual interfaces, data gaps and redundant data are a thing of the past.

CRM is by no means just something for large companies. A well-engineered, holistic CRM is also worth its weight in gold for smaller and medium-sized companies. It gives you clear insights into where you stand with your customershow you can further increase their satisfaction and ensure their loyalty and which obstacles you have to overcome in order to complete assignments. A good CRM tool can do much more than just prevent data silos.

Have you become curious, want to optimize your customer experience and help sales, marketing and after-sales employees benefit from the digitized processes? A strong partner like Salesforce can help you with this – with a wide range of services and support in matters of CRM and process optimization. The many offer you further insights on the topic free demo videos from Salesforcethat can support you on the way to a holistic and central data source and consequently more efficient and successful way of working.

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