The Ultimate CRM Systems Guide
CRM systems can take your customer relationships to the next level; here’s all you neeed to
The Ultimate CRM Systems Guide
CRM systems can take your customer relationships to the next level; here's all you neeed to know about how they can work for your business.
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The Ultimate CRM Systems Guide
CRM systems can take your customer relationships to the next level; here's all you neeed to know about how they can work for your business.
No matter the size of your business or the industry you operate in, if you don’t already have a CRM system, that needs to change! From streamlined processes to happier customers, this technology is here to revolutionise every aspect of your business.
But what is a CRM? How can they help your business? And how do you choose the right one to meet your needs?
Well, you’re in the perfect place to find out all of this and more with our ultimate guide to CRM systems!
What is a CRM System?
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a tool that helps businesses store all of their customer data and manage their interactions with both current and potential customers. These systems are tailored to your specifications and can be as simple or sophisticated as you like.
CRM systems can do everything from just storing basic customer information to a detailed history of all customer interactions!
Types of CRM Systems
Although at their core, CRM systems are all designed to do the same thing, you can break them down into 4 main types.
Operational CRM
Operational CRMs focus on supporting and automating your marketing, sales, and customer service departments. By centralising all data and interactions and automating menial tasks, your teams can collaborate to track leads, manage pipelines, and streamline customer support.
Analytical CRM
These systems are more geared towards gathering, organising, and analysing all of your customer data. Sales forecasting, customer segmentation, and performance tracking are all key features of analytical CRMs. They turn your data into actionable insights, helping you make smarter business decisions.
Collaborative CRM
A collaborative CRM system enhances communication and cooperation across teams and departments. They allow all teams access to the same customer information regardless of who they are. This creates a seamless experience for both your teams and customers and helps avoid duplications and missed information.
Strategic CRM
Strategic CRM systems focus on long-term customer engagement and relationship building. They prioritise customer loyalty, satisfaction, and value. This approach involves aligning your strategy with your customers’ needs to develop stronger relationships over time.
What Does a CRM System Do?
A CRM is more than just a fancy digital phone book. They have a range of core features that can help multiple areas of your operations.
Contact Management
Contact management is the foundation of all CRM systems. They centralise all of your customer and prospect data, including:
- Names
- Addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
- Company details
- Websites
- Social media profiles
- History of communication
This comprehensive record-keeping means everyone within your business has easy-to-access and up-to-date information on established and potential customers. This allows your customers to experience personalised interactions, no matter who they’re talking to.
Let’s say one of your customers is used to dealing with a specific account manager, but they’re on holiday this week. Someone else can quickly check with the CRM for any essential details about their wants or concerns and deliver a seamless experience. This helps build a stronger, more informed relationship between your team and customers.
Interaction & Communication Tracking
Because CRM systems meticulously log every interaction with your business, you have a complete history of communication at your fingertips. Phone, email, text, social media, live chat: it’s all logged in one centralised place.
This keeps everyone in your business up-to-date with any developments in your relationship with your customers. Perhaps they’ve made a complaint about the service they received. With a CRM, anyone can easily view the notes surrounding the complaint and then use this to tailor their service to meet their customers’ needs.
By maintaining a detailed timeline of communications, you can avoid redundant conversations, quickly address customer concerns, and identify patterns that may improve future interactions.
Lead & Opportunity Management
Managing your leads and sales opportunities is essential to growing your revenue. You don’t need us to tell you how difficult this can be. So why not make it easier with a CRM system?
They can help you capture, qualify, and nurture leads throughout each stage of the sales funnel. Auto-assigning reps, follow-up reminders, and tracking the progress of each opportunity are all key features of a CRM. This visualised sales pipeline can help your team prioritise prospects by value, prevent leads from slipping through the cracks and improve their close rate.
Workflow & Process Automation
What do follow-up emails, scheduling appointments, and updating records all have in common? They’re all time-consuming and tedious. Another thing they have in common is that they can all be automated by a CRM.
This reduces manual work, minimises errors, and ensures that your processes are followed to a tee. You can even automate email marketing, drip campaigns, or lead scoring, allowing your team to focus their efforts elsewhere.
Reporting & Analytics
There’s nothing like a good report to understand the performance of your business. And with a CRM system, you have a host of data and reporting capabilities available at just the click of a button. A customisable dashboard and reports can help you track sales performance, customer engagement, marketing successes (and failures), and service response times.
With all of this available at just a few clicks of a mouse, you can make data-driven decisions, identify trends, spot and address bottlenecks, and uncover growth opportunities. Real-time analytics means you can make on-the-fly decisions, quickly adapt to changing circumstances, and improve your overall operations.
Sales Forecasting
Sales forecasting tools use historical data and current pipeline information to predict future sales outcomes. This helps you set realistic targets, effectively allocate resources, and make informed decisions about your inventory, staffing, and budget allocation. It can also help you proactively manage risks and address any pitfalls before they derail your operations.
Document Management
CRM systems often include document management features that allow you to store, organise, and share essential files internally and externally. Some examples include:
- Proposals
- Contracts
- Quotes
- Invoices
When all documents are easily accessible, up-to-date, and linked to the appropriate contacts or deals, collaboration increases, paperwork reduces, and the risk of lost or outdated documents is minimised.
Customer Service & Support Tools
With a CRM system’s customer service and support tools, you’ll have 5-star Trustpilot reviews flooding in. Ticketing systems, case management, and integrated knowledge bases are integral to a CRM. These tools help track and resolve customer issues efficiently, assign cases to the right team members, and monitor service quality.
By centralising your support, you can identify recurring problems, improve response times, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Marketing Automation & Campaign Management
Most CRMs will have marketing features and automations. Typically, you’ll have access to audience segmentation, personalised messaging, email marketing, and performance analytics. These can help you easily plan, execute, and track your marketing campaigns.
Workflow automation can help nurture leads based on behaviour and preferences, improving overall engagement and conversion. Although we can’t promise that it will make your sales and marketing teams finally get along, it will make collaboration easier.
Customisation & Integration
One of the best things about CRM systems is how customisable they are. Want it to be basic and simple to use? No problem. Looking for something a bit more advanced with all the bells and whistles? Sorted.
You can create custom fields, modify workflows, design professional dashboards, and set up unique sales processes to meet your specific needs.
Most CRM systems will also be able to integrate with some of your current tools, such as email platforms, accounting software, websites, EPOS systems, and other essential platforms. This allows for a seamless data flow and an overall improvement of team cohesion.
Mobile Access
Modern CRM systems offer mobile apps or responsive web interfaces, so you and your team can access customer data, update records, and perform key tasks no matter where you are. This is especially valuable for sales and field service teams who need real-time information and the ability to respond quickly, regardless of location. Mobile access keeps your productivity and customer service high, even outside the office.
Security & Access Control
Protecting your customers’ data is essential. If you breach GDPR laws, you can be fined up to £17.5 million or 4% of your annual worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
CRM systems have robust security measures, including user authentication, role-based access controls, data encryption, and audit trails. Internally, admins can establish who can view, edit or delete information, keeping your data safe and compliant.
Benefits of a CRM System
Improved Customer Relationships
A CRM offers a centralised hub to store all essential customer data. Contact information, communication history, preferences—you name it—it’s all there and ready to go.
This allows your team to anticipate customers’ needs, tailor communication, and provide high-quality follow-ups. This more meaningful engagement will boost your CSAT scores and keep your customers coming back for more.
Better Customer Retention
Omnichannel capabilities allow your customers to reach out via phone, email, chat, or social media while receiving a consistent experience. Tools like case management and automated workflows help track issue resolution from start to finish and anticipate your customers’ needs before problems arise.
Tracking activity and identifying signs of disengagement can help you reach out with tailored support or promotional offers. Scheduled follow-ups, satisfaction surveys, and loyalty campaigns can also be automated, so no touchpoint is missed!
Improved Team Collaboration
It’s easy for teams to become stuck in silos. It’s also easy to butt heads with other departments and forget that you’re all working towards the same goal. With a CRM, sales, marketing, and customer service teams can all work from the same platform, allowing increased collaboration and consistent communication.
This streamlines workflows across all departments and creates a more unified approach to the customer journey, from prospect to loyal customer.
Increased Efficiency
CRMs have various automation features that eliminate menial tasks and increase operational efficiency. Say goodbye to tedious and repetitive tasks like data entry, lead assignment, follow-up emails, and task reminders. Say hello to a more productive workforce focusing on strategic, high-value tasks instead of tedious administrative duties.
Data-Driven Decision Making
With built-in analytics and customisable dashboards, your CRM system is the perfect place to start digging into all that customer data. Sales teams can forecast revenue, monitor performance and customer health, and identify growth opportunities. Your marketing department can track campaigns in real-time and make on-the-spot decisions to ensure their success.
AI-powered tools enhance this by identifying trends, performing predictive analytics, and suggesting the best actions. These capabilities allow you to make faster, evidence-based decisions and adapt quickly to market changes.
Streamlined Sales Processes
When every stage of the sales journey is monitored through a single source of truth, your sales team’s job just becomes so much easier. Everything is logged and visible in real-time, allowing sales reps to prioritise high-value opportunities and avoid bottlenecks. Your sales managers gain insights into team performance, win rates, and lost opportunities, helping fine-tune strategy and identify staff who need extra support.
Scalability and Growth
One of the best things about CRM systems is that they grow with your business. You can easily add (or remove) seats to your plan to reflect changing staff numbers. Larger systems can also support bigger datasets without major infrastructure overhauls.
Some providers allow you to cherry-pick features such as custom integrations or industry-specific extensions. With a CRM, the world really is your oyster.
Regulatory Compliance and Security
Privacy laws like GDPR are stringent, and breaching them is a one-way ticket to some very expensive fines. Luckily, CRM systems come with various compliance tools, like encryption, role-based permission controls, consent tracking and automation, and audit logging.
How to Choose the Right CRM System for You
Assess Your Business Needs
First things first, what do you need your CRM system to do? Take a look at our types of CRM systems section to familiarise yourself with the different systems available. Some common goals can include:
- Improving your customer experience
- Increasing sales
- Streamlining workflows
Whatever you’re looking to get out of a CRM system, make sure you know from the start. Analyse your current processes and identify areas for improvement. Understanding these early on can help you find the right provider and make the initial stages much smoother.
Set a Budget
This may seem like an obvious one, but make sure you can actually afford the system! You may have found the best one with all the bells and whistles, but if it doesn’t fit into your budget, then forget about it.
Finding the balance between affordability and usability is key. Remember, it pays to shop around and compare different providers with each other.
Another tip to help free up some extra funds is to assess what current software you’re already using. If you use calling technology like Aircall, this could be replaced with integrated features in your CRM. Not only can this help save you a few quid, but it also helps centralise a range of different actions.
Also, account for any extra charges, including:
- Activation fees
- Onboarding
- Training
- Maintenance
- Ongoing support
- Additional users
- Extra features that do not come as standard
Then, look at the contract length. The longer the contract, the less expensive it will be. Although this is more affordable, it does tie you into a longer deal, meaning you can’t switch to a cheaper option until your contract is up.
Weighing these up against the financial benefits you’ll get from using their CRM. A thorough understanding of the costs involved and careful budget planning are crucial in selecting the right provider.
Evaluate Features
Okay, so you want to improve your customer experience. But how are you going to do this? What features will help you achieve your aims?
Look for both general and industry-specific features. If you run a bar or restaurant, you’ll need all the standards, like customer profiles, contact information, etc. But you will also want to include reservation management features, loyalty programs, and the ability to integrate with your EPOS system.
Then, weigh up the cost of these additional features. Some providers have specific packages dedicated to your industry, while others charge you extra each month to include them à la carte.
Functionality and Scalability
Where are you on your business journey?
If you’re a large business with hundreds of staff members, your CRM system has to reflect this. Typically, this will come at a higher cost as you’ll be billed per user. But if you cheap out and make people share seats, this won’t offer you, and by extension, your customers, the seamless experience that a CRM can truly deliver.
If you’re considering expanding your team soon, how easy is adding more users? This should be as simple as paying for an extra seat each month. If you benefit from any limited-time rates or discounts, ensure they honour that price if you add more users further down the line.
Also, clarify what happens if you go the other way. If you sign up for 30 seats but lose 5 staff members, can you drop down to 25 users, or will you still have to pay for 30?
It’s not just users but also storage capabilities. If your business expands, the data you handle will also grow. Can your provider match the levels you’re looking to grow to?
Remember, you need a CRM that meets your needs today and your ambition for years down the line.
Test User-Friendliness
You might have the best CRM system on the market tailored to all your needs, but if it’s a nightmare to use, it’s pointless. We can promise you that if it isn’t user-friendly, you won’t be able to get the most out of your investment. Or, even worse, it won’t get used at all, and you’ll have to go through the hassle of getting a new one and migrating your data all over again.
Look for providers that offer demos and tutorials before you sign anything. Ideally, you’ll be given a sandbox with limited features or a trial period before committing to anything. This way, you can gather staff feedback on whether they think it will be useful or a waste of money.
Remember, the right CRM should be easy to use, but also affordable relative to its price and offer the level of features you need.
Review Integration Capabilities
If you already use tools like email platforms, accounting software, and marketing tools, confirm your CRM can integrate with them. If they offer API access, this is a great way to create custom integrations.
Clarify Support
When everything is working, it may be sunshine and rainbows, but what happens when it’s not? If you run everything through your CRM and it glitches or goes down altogether, this can be disastrous. Then, it’s up to your provider to get things back up and running again.
Look for things like service level agreements (SLAs). How long will it take for them to resolve any issues you’re experiencing? And, what compensation are you due if they don’t meet these guarantees?
Also, what ongoing support will you get from your provider? A dedicated account manager who gets to know your business and your aims is worth their weight in gold.
Check Reviews
And the final thing you should do before signing up for a CRM provider is check out their reviews. Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and even places like Reddit can give you the perfect snapshot of what customers, both current and new, are saying about them.
If you see one or two bad reviews, then this is expected. People will always find a way to complain. But if you notice the same thing popping up over and over (both good and bad), then this is absolutely something to take note of.
How Can I Get a CRM System?
Running a business is hard, but finding the best CRM provider for your business doesn’t have to be. At Commercial Experts, we’ve made it our mission to help UK businesses like yours find the best CRM for their business, and we’d love for you to be our next success story.
All you have to do is tap the ‘Start Free Quote’ button on this page, answer a few questions about your business and then, based on your responses, you will receive a range of CRM quotes tailored to your specific needs.
All quotes are 100% free and non-committal, so what are you waiting for? Tap the button below and get comparing now!
FAQs
What is a CRM system, and why should my business use one?
A CRM system stores customer data, tracks interactions, and automates workflows. It helps your business to improve customer relationships, streamline operations, and increase sales by centralising communication and simplifying repetitive tasks across multiple teams, such as sales, service, and marketing.
What are the main types of CRM systems?
The four main CRM types are Operational (automates sales/service tasks), Analytical (data insights), Collaborative (cross-team communication), and Strategic (long-term relationship focus). Each supports different business goals, so choosing the right type depends on your company’s specific needs.
How can a CRM improve customer service and retention?
CRMs centralise communication history, allowing any team member to provide seamless, personalised support. Tools like ticketing, case management, and automation help resolve issues faster, identify recurring problems, and maintain consistent follow-up to boost loyalty and satisfaction.
What should I consider when choosing a CRM provider?
Key factors include business needs, budget, user-friendliness, integrations, scalability, and customer support. Always test functionality through trials, clarify contract terms, and read reviews to ensure the system meets both current demands and future growth goals.
Where can I get a CRM system?
Tap the ‘Start Free Quote’ button on this page and answer a few questions about your business, and receive a range of tailored CRM quotes. It’s fast, free, and non-committal. At Commercial Experts, we make it easy to find one that fits your needs without the hassle.
