6 key features of a CRM

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a software tool that meets different needs through different features. The only real feature that all vendors agree on is the contact directory. But when it comes to what the tool will let you do with these contacts, nothing is really comparable from one vendor to another.

The term "CRM" therefore seems a little too generic, given how much tools differ from one another.

Our advice

Do not choose your "CRM" tool based on a brand, a design or a recommendation, but on how well it meets your needs. So you will need to think in terms of the features you expect!

A CRM has many applications, and it is up to you to know which ones will best cover your expectations. Choosing a CRM will therefore take a little time, and it is a choice to be made calmly…

What kinds of objectives can you hope to achieve with a CRM?

• Generating business opportunities;
• Managing sales contacts;
• Customer service or support;
• Centralising data;
• Customer loyalty (and increasing the chances of up-selling and cross-selling);
• Product maintenance;
• Sending newsletters;
• Invoicing;
• Stock management;
• …

To map out the types of CRM currently on the market, we identify 6 key CRM features that are commonly found.

CRM to centralise data

As we saw earlier, this is the first and essential building block of any CRM. It involves gathering all prospect / customer / supplier data. This type of CRM may or may not allow several users to fill in the database so that information can be shared.

Examples include: Salesforce, SugarCRM, eKo CRM, …

CRM to communicate with prospects and customers

This type of marketing tool lets you organise the company's outbound communication by sending email and SMS campaigns to all or part of a customer or prospect database. When using these solutions, however, take care to comply with the GDPR.

Examples include: Mailjet, Brevo, Bitrix24 …

CRM to organise sales activity

This type of tool lets you gather the contact details of pre-sales contacts, assign them to salespeople and track the progress of sales through to conversion. The process stops at the precise moment the prospect becomes a customer. The primary aim of these CRMs is to manage and drive the sales force.

Examples include: Pipedrive, Salesforce, eKo CRM, …

CRM to manage social media

Social media has become an important part of companies' online visibility. It allows brands to communicate with the prospects and customers who follow them, or those they target, and to share information about new products, promotions, … But there are many networks: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube… and it can become tedious to draw up a communication schedule, write posts and publish them on several social networks on the right dates,… These CRMs help you organise your social media communication in a single interface.

Examples include: Hootsuite, Cosmic Data, Mashup Web Social, Metricool, …

CRM to improve the customer experience

These tools let you organise and track interactions with customers. Booking sales or technical appointments, reporting on call-outs, ticketing and tracking of inbound calls, but also a technical library through file storage, … You plan upcoming customer interactions there, but you also find the history of past interactions, with or without management of the equipment installed at customers' premises, contract and customer commitment management,… Sometimes even geographical optimisation of rounds.

Examples include: Praxedo, Synchroteam, eKo CRM, …

Call centre features

These features aim to boost your team's productivity in handling inbound and/or outbound calls. The goal is to give sales teams everything they need to make successful sales calls, and technical teams optimal handling of customer calls. Several features exist depending on the vendor: click to call, automatic opening of contact records on inbound calls, call recording, entering information during the call, …

Examples include: Pipedrive, eKo CRM, …

To conclude

The features found in the categories above remain broadly general. You can go further, at the risk of drifting towards features usually found in billing systems (quotes, invoices…), accounting software or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), or DMS – document management systems…

Today, there is a plethora of CRM offerings. Some perfectly meet one or more expected features, others are dedicated to a specific market. The ideal would be to have a tool developed solely for our own personal vision of our market and the way we want to organise our services and sales. But such a product would quickly become obsolete, as it would also assume that our market never changes over time.

Remember: think in terms of "features"! Curious to discover all of eKo's features? This way!