Contactless Customer Relationships – The need of the hour in the Post-Covid world

India is slowly preparing to come out of the extra-ordinary situation imposed due to the Corona Virus pandemic outbreak. The complete national lock-down officially ended last weekend, on 17th of May. It might continue in limited form for a few more weeks. But life can slowly return to normal in the non-affected zones. Thankfully, the situation in Karnataka is largely under control when compared to other states, although Bangalore is still on the watch list. As we citizens prepare to get back to our normal routines wherever possible, there are several top priority activities lined up.

Emerging out of this period of inactivity with the least possible impact to our business and family is at the top of our priority list. What are the immediate actions that an entrepreneur has to take to secure his business? What are the ways in which CRM can be used to leverage your customer interactions in these extra-ordinary circumstances? Some important pointers are listed down below.

Q: What is the best way to rebuild customer relationships post lockdown?

A: A good business should never lose touch with its customers, whether in good times or bad times. So if you have maintained an informal communication channel with your customers in the last 2 months, then that is a great plus.

Let’s now find the way forward. From banking to food delivery, every business or leisure activity is moving into a virtual “contactless” mode in the Post-Covid world. So it’s no surprise that Contactless Customer Relationship is the way out of the current situation. What better way to keep constant contact with your customers than implementing CRM!

It’s impossible to sustain the face-to-face customer interaction style any longer. Though it’s a great positive to meet people personally and share a warm greeting, it’s not practical anymore. We have to find ways of tracing new customers and nurturing existing ones by making effective use of technology and tools.

Q: What are the popular CRM tools and utilities that make contactless relationships effective?

A: Apart from the regular mainstream CRM features such as Lead Management, Campaign Management and Customer Feedback process, there are some utilities and applications in every CRM software that can be effectively used to build seamless contact with your customers. These are listed below:

1. In App Surveys – Most CRM platforms allow enterprises to create surveys ranging from simple polls to in-depth market research. Collect crucial customer feedback through these surveys and use the resultant analysis to shape your business strategy. Ex. SalesForce Surveys.

2. Data Analytics – Integrating CRM systems with data analytics tools enables you to get valuable insights on customer behavior from user events such as new contact/event/lead generation. Customer segmentation into groups, profitability analysis, tracking escalations and predictive modelling are some of the key benefits of using analytics. This integration mostly requires zero coding experience and can be customized to business specific needs. Ex. Google Analytics Integration with Vtiger.

3. Mass Email/SMS campaigns – Instead of bombarding all contacts with identical marketing content, data analytics can be used to segment users based on geographical region, industry domain, etc. Mass communication campaigns through Email/SMS can be designed with customized content relevant to them. Customers can also be directed to local channel partners in the respective regions for efficient support. Ex. VTiger Email/SMS campaigns.

4. Phone Calling –Cloud editions of CRM solutions offer APIs to track calls made from your telephony system. Using these APIs you can easily trigger popups in the CRM for incoming calls, update recording URL, call status and call notes. Ex. VTiger Phone Calling.

5. Live Chat – Easy to deploy live chat platforms managed manually or powered by AI based chatbots. Use it to interact with prospective customers and for providing real-time product support. LiveChat also supports analytics on chat responses. Ex. SalesForce LiveAgent.

6. Ticketing tools – Customer support ticketing utilities that provide customized views and work modes so that the tickets get automatically organized according to time due, priority, CRM status, and more. This helps agents save time deciding which ticket to solve first. Ex. Zoho Ticketing.

7. Videoconference – With free video calling, IM and screen shares, you can enhance your customer connect with any of the popular video-conferencing tools such as Skype, Google, FB, WebEx that are integrated into the CRM system. Ex. Zoom native extension in SalesForce.

8. Social Media extensions– For prompt, real-time customer communication, social media platforms are very effective. CRM products allow you to plug-in your social media handles as extensions for seamless interface with customers. Ex. Twitter, Telegram extension in Zoho.

In the era of a digital applications deluge and SaaS based deployment, CRM is one of the best long term investments for an entrepreneur. SMEs can rest assured that the CRM deployment will start showing positive results within 3-6 months. The mundane and repetitive tasks will be eliminated. The customer leads and conversions will be easy to monitor without direct contact. The CRM dash board will give an entrepreneur a comprehensive view of each customer’s relationship status. The company will smoothly transition from disjoint, inefficient customer transactions to lasting, integrated customer relationships!

We at Rixyncs are a leading CRM service provider based out of Bangalore, India. We have been in the business for over a decade and have helped hundreds of small and medium size companies successfully adopt the CRM enterprise business process. As a result, our clients have seen growth of upto 35% in their revenues.

We are global premier partners for vtiger and affiliated partners with all the major CRM providers like SalesForce, Zoho and Microsoft Dynamics. Get in touch with us and we will be glad to give you a demo on how your business could benefit from acquiring the CRM advantage.

Author Profile – Anuradha is a freelance writer cum corporate trainer in the IT/Telecom domain with 20 years of experience. She served in senior technical and management positions in Huawei and TCS for 10+ years. Then gave up the traditional corporate ladder to go solo – in order to escape horrendous city traffic and to be at her own boss!