Where Will CRM be 1 Year from Now?

As another year draws to a close, it’s high time we took a moment to make some predictions about the major trends we’ll see next year in the customer relationship management (CRM) industry. We already know that the demand for CRM services is on the rise. In fact, CRM-driven revenue is expected to reach more than $80 billion by 2025.

So it’s a safe bet the industry will see growth. But what about the less obvious trends?

Let’s take a look at five of the biggest trends we’ll see in the CRM industry over the next year.

Deep Integrations

Already one of the biggest current trends in CRM, cross-platform integrations will only become more important as companies seek to build unified business systems. And it’s not hard to see why.

Most businesses still rely on a set of unrelated, disconnected systems, such as ERP, email, marketing automation, and social media management. These systems result in hundreds of lost hours every year, as workers switch between platforms. By unifying these systems through CRM integration, companies will see serious boosts to their ROI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

At their core, CRM platforms are tools for managing customer data. First, there’s frontline data that sales reps and customer service agents use. And there’s a more esoteric set of data points that managers and executives use to create reports, conduct analyses, and generate sales forecasts.

But there’s also something hidden in all that CRM customer data—something far too subtle for the human eye to see. And it’s just waiting to be unlocked. But accessing that hidden gold requires the dedicated pattern-recognition abilities of AI services. This skill set can generate everything from predictive lead-scoring to personalized recommendations in businesses of all sizes.

By this time next year, AI-driven CRM will be one of the most in-demand business services out there.

Customer Experience (CX)

If you want to build stronger relationships with your customers, there’s no better tool for the job than CRM. But what if you want to gain a better understanding of the way your customers feel about your company?

By taking a customer-centric approach to your business processes and operations, you can dramatically improve your company’s customer experience (CX) in a measurable, data-driven way.

CX data can also be integrated with existing CRM data, empowering businesses to gain a robust, 360-degree perspective of their customers. CX/CRM refinements and integrations are already major trends, and they will become increasingly common throughout 2020.

Social CRM

For the past several years, one of the biggest trends in the CRM industry has involved the rise of social media integration tools. This “social CRM” is already changing the way businesses connect with their customers, as it provides marketers and salespeople with new options and resources for building relationships across social channels.

Social CRM also elevates a company’s options in customer service and support, which allows customers to reach out and connect with others via their preferred channels. And as the benefits of social CRM become more obvious (particularly in terms of ROI), even companies that prefer “pure” CRM experiences are starting to rethink their positions.

So in this industry, don’t be surprised if 2020 is known as the “Year of Social CRM.”

CRM Gamification

The CRM industry does not always have easy-to-learn software. While the overall user experience of most CRM software has improved dramatically over recent years, it’s still a complex system that can be quite intimidating to learn.

But what if there was a way to make learning CRM more engaging? Or even kind of fun? That’s the idea behind gamification, which uses game-like rewards and challenges to help users master your CRM’s various systems.

Gamification boosts overall CRM engagement. It’s an incredibly effective tool for preventing low-user adoption rates, which is the single biggest cause of CRM failure. And gamification is becoming more common across the entire technology industry.

Want to learn more about the latest trends in CRM technology? How about the ways your business can benefit from them? Contact Faye Business Systems Group for a free consultation.

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