It’s easy for some of us at work to ask the following question: why should I care about a CRM?

This may be especially true if you are a younger employee or if you are not on the front lines, interacting with customers on a day-to-day basis.

Some of these thoughts may have entered your mind:

“I hear so much about CRM systems, but I’m not seeing the ROI on my end. Plus they seem extremely expensive. Why should I care?”

Yes, some CRM systems can be expensive. However, the tradeoff in a pricey upfront cost is that you recoup those initial costs (and then) some in the future.

Like any investment, what you get out of a CRM system depends on what you put into it.

Having said this, companies both large and small are often satisfied with their decision. CRM systems can provide you a wealth of data—both on current customers and on potential leads. They can make your job easier. And they can help your business grow.

Ultimately, I hope to convince you that there is, indeed, significant value in CRM systems. By embracing and leveraging a CRM system—whether you have one in your business or not—you can develop better, stronger customer relationships. From there, these strong relationships will likely lead to more sales and, yes, more profits.

All it takes is the courage to invest in a CRM system and the persistence to integrate it within all of your operations.

CRM Systems: The Customer Journey

But let’s start at the beginning.

Customer relationship management (“CRM”) systems, to put it simply, are ways that you and your organization can manage relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.

Back before the rise of the internet, it wasn’t the easiest thing to track customer relationships. Yes, the small business owner in a rural town may have had a good intuitive idea of who his customers were and what they preferred. Yet this was still all intuition and it was subject to error. This problem became even more prevalent as an organization grew. Large organizations—especially those located across the country—serve thousands (potentially hundreds of thousands) of customers and it was simply impossible to record and store granular detail on each and every one

So while businesses in the past used to track their customer relationships on paper or in their head, CRM systems are pure game-changers.

They rely on technology to manage all of these customer relationships. They can help us answer questions like “How are people interacting with our business,” “What are they experiencing and feeling,” and, yes, “How do we keep track of that.”

As humans, we cannot remember everything. This is especially true if we have leadership positions within our company. We are constantly putting out fires that it can be difficult to remember all of the details within a particular customer relationship, whether that is how our organization acquired that customer or how often that customer has experienced problems with a particular product or service.

A CRM system exists in order to solve these problems. Essentially, it can act as your second brain.

CRM technology is also sophisticated. It tracks your company’s relationships with each and every customer, from the initial point of finding a new customer to winning their business to providing support throughout the entire customer relationship. While you may initially think that a CRM system is for salespeople or those who are on the front line with customers, CRM systems are for every member of your organization—from sales to recruiting and marketing.

Even better, a CRM system makes sure that everyone is on the same page. Those in customer service can see how the business development team interacted with a current customer, and vice versa. This transparency leads to less confusion, fewer emails, and more productivity.

Ultimately, there are several important reasons why you should use a CRM system:

  • They provide an easy way to manage your contacts and lifecycle stage. These include things like lead, marketing qualified lead (“MQL”), sales qualified lead (“SQL”), opportunity, closed won, and (the most depressing one) closed lost.
  • They offer an easy way to manage tasks, whether you are on the front lines with customers or in the back offices of your company.
  • They allow you to easily track deals and opportunities.
  • CRM systems pull data reporting on source data, lifecycle, and the efficacy of nurturing campaigns.
  • They trigger automated email, notifications, and even SMS campaigns. However, this requires that you have a CRM system with automation or an actual automation system integrated.

These are just some reasons, however, so if you’re curious, I highly recommend that you check it out.

CRM Systems: Options in the Marketplace

If you search for “free CRM” on Google, you will undoubtedly find a nice collection of free CRM systems to use. However, there are paid alternatives, which offer many features and can scale up as your organization continues to grow. Some of the more well-known CRM systems include Salesforce and HubSpot. In fact, both of these companies have been the pioneers and drivers in the CRM space. They made business—both large and small—realize that CRM systems can be integrated with all sorts of systems. This flexibility and ease of use have allowed companies the opportunity to provide better service to customers and potential customers.

That said, I would just offer one warning.

Many CRM companies design their business models so that you feel like you are stuck. And if you and your company are already using a CRM system, you may feel the same way. All of your data and contacts are in a particular CRM system. This, quite clearly, is part of the value proposition of a CRM system, but the downfall is that there are high switching costs. It is easy to feel like you are locked into a particular CRM and that you have to stick with your current provider—even if you aren’t satisfied with the experience or recent price increases.

Just recognize that you shouldn’t feel like you are locked into a CRM system. You can actually get out. Nothing is physically stopping you and your organization. However, those switching costs are real. You will need to do a cost-benefit analysis to ensure that the benefits of switching CRM systems outweigh the costs. Some of those benefits could include a better user interface, better user experience, and cheaper rates to use the new CRM system. If those benefits overshadow switching costs, you can export your data to another provider.

Therefore, I strongly believe that you should think about potential switching costs even before you use your first CRM system. By doing so and by being deliberate, you can save yourself from headaches down the road.

Whatever CRM system that you use, I recommend that you constantly evaluate whether it is working for you. One of the best ways to do this is to fill out a data report. In this report, you and your team can identify the touchpoints that are occurring as a potential customer moves down your funnel. Some of those touchpoints can be finalizing a transaction, making a purchase, or even filling out a form. It is all dependent on you and your organization.

That said, by filling out these data reports and digging into the details of your CRM system, you can gain a much better understanding of what your employees and customers are actually doing. Armed with those insights, you can make any necessary changes to your process in order to convert more customers and provide better service to current customers.

It’s all about rinsing and repeating—just as it is for any company seeking growth. Understand what is working and not working. Double down on what is working and eliminate what is not working. By doing this and sticking your CRM system, success is inevitable.

Dubb’s Integration with CRM Systems

So that is the basic value proposition of CRM systems. I like to call it the customer journey. CRM systems track the journey that each and every customer makes when interacting with your business. In other words, wherever the journey goes, your CRM system tells a story about your customer. Whenever you’d like, you and your colleagues can pull up a customer’s story and see where you succeeded or failed. This data is extremely valuable.

CRM companies like Salesforce have achieved massive success in recent years, and they are continuing to grow. They are advertising everywhere in Los Angeles (the world headquarters of Dubb). Going into any train station in Los Angeles, you can see ads for companies like Zoho, Salesforce, and others.

If you are already a Dubb user (or if you are interested in becoming one), you can integrate Dubb with your CRM system. Ultimately, you can leverage video to boost your organization’s sales with Dubb.

To integrate Dubb with your CRM system, all you need to do is install the Dubb Chrome extension. From there, it is as easy as clicking a button.

It’s that simple.

So if you’re interested in getting started, all you need to do is visit this webpage. You will see Dubb’s direct integrations with over 26 popular CRMs, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Contactually, and many more.

Satisfying and Delighting Customers

A CRM system can be one of the best investments for you and your business. It can help you and your team stay organized when you are pursuing new leads. It can ensure that you are delivering world-class customer support to all of your current customers. And it can remove headaches and give you the confidence that you and your team are on the same page—whatever the task.

Therefore, I hope to have made it clear why you should care about a CRM system. Even if you aren’t on the front lines interacting with customers and potential customers, they can make your life easier.

I recommend that you make this investment today.