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Top 5 Crucial CRM Trends To Pay Attention To In 2021

Contributed article by Michael Dehoyos

Any business that wants to remain competitive understands the importance of consumer engagement. Regardless of the exceptional quality of a company’s products or services, growth and profitability are only possible with strong customer relationships. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions provides businesses with customer insights in real-time. Approximately 91% of companies with more than 11 employees rely on CRM to assist in providing reliable, personal, and meaningful experiences to their customers. To have a leading edge over their competitors, businesses must pay attention to the latest and most innovative CRM trends. In this article, you’ll find the five top CRM trends your company should watch in 2021.

Mobile CRM Solutions

As consumers continue to place a greater emphasis on convenience and accessibility, it’s only natural for CRM to reflect this. Many consumers now expect the ability to seamlessly switch between various platforms and multiple devices. Although most customers still access CRM from a desktop or laptop, mobile CRM use is growing steadily. The mobile CRM market is expected to grow 11% to $15 billion.

There are numerous benefits to offering mobile CRM access as a business. Mobile CRM can drastically improve a company’s productivity. An estimated 50% of teams demonstrated an increase productivity by using a mobile CRM. “Mobile CRM enables businesses to respond to customers who prefer to use their phones and tablet,” explains Howard Wheeler, a writer at 1Day2Write and Write My X. “This greater flexibility and accessibility of mobile CRM allows business to engage with a growing of number of customers on the go.”

CRM And IoT Integration  

IOT (Internet-of-Things) describes an interconnected system of smart devices. These devices can range from a smart watch to a smart home speaker. The number of IoT devices worldwide is expected to increase to 64 billion in 2025. Since a growing number of consumers are purchasing these smart devices, it is crucial for businesses to improve the customer experience on these devices.

Many CRM systems are already integrating feeds from smart devices. CRM and IOT integration empowers businesses with more insight into customer patterns and preferences. Companies can then use these insights to improve the customer experience and personalize campaigns more effectively.  

Artificial Intelligence  

Artificial intelligence seems everywhere nowadays. Many industries are adapting AI to boost efficiency, and CRM is no exception. A report predicts that with AI-driven CRM activities can boost worldwide revenue by $1.1 trillion in 2021.

In addition to significantly boosting profits, incorporating AI into CRM solutions can save your team from the more tedious and time-consuming aspects of the customer experience. Countless businesses are already taking advantage of CRM chatbots to provide customer service 24/7 during the off-hours of human customer service representatives. With AI and machine learning technology, these chatbots will soon be capable of providing more than just pre-set answers.

Businesses can also leverage AI capabilities to power CRM analytics. This enables CRM software to provide extraordinary data that companies can use to understand their customers and their spending patterns.

Augmented And Virtual Reality  

As augmented and virtual reality technology continue to make advancements, it holds untold potential for CRM. A report found that about a quarter of the world’s population already use some form of augmented reality, but this number will increase to 3.5 billion users by 2022.

“The potential uses of augmented reality for CRM are endless,” muses Mark Johnson, a tech writer at Britstudent and Originwritings. “It can enable customer service representatives to provide a more personalized experience as well as allow businesses to train their employees more efficiently.”

Voice and Conversational User Interface

Voice technology is often hailed as user-friendly, extremely convenient, and enriching to one’s quality of life. In 2019, the voice recognition market grew to almost 11 billion dollars, which is expected to increase by 17% by 2025.

It only makes sense for CRM to adapt this technology. This can be a highly effective tool to help those in sales streamline their work by tracking customer data and communicating with other team members faster. CRM solutions will undoubtedly be exploring ways to embrace this voice technology in the near future.

Conclusion  

There are always numerous emerging trends in CRM at any given time. As a business, it’s important to monitor and implement these trends to gain an advantage over your competitors. 

Michael Dehoyos is a project manager at Thesis Writing Service and Write My Research Proposal. He assists companies meet their business objectives and contributes to numerous sites and publications. You can find more of his articles on customer engagement strategies at Custom Coursework.