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THE IMPORTANCE OF CRM AND THE FAILURE OF THE SALES FORCE

Today, we live in a globalised and constantly changing world that operates based on data and its development. New technologies emerge every day, some succeed and some fail, but all technological innovations are all about the same thing; trying to make people's lives more efficient, convenient and practical. As a result of this, we can see that most of the innovations made by large companies are mainly focused on the customer, and this is very important, as they are the ones who, through purchases and different activities, move the economy, providing benefits for those same companies.

Fifty years ago, companies focused on making the highest possible quality products, but today the focus is no longer on the product itself but rather on the consumer, analysing the processes and causes behind the purchasing decision process in order to predict the needs of customers and be able to anticipate them, trying to give them a better shopping experience. All of this can be managed thanks to CRM.

At this point, you may be asking yourself, what is a CRM? Well, it is the abbreviation for Customer Relationship Management. It is software that allows us, through a database, to have the data of our customers and to know the interactions we have had with them. CRMs allow us to collect information from our customers and use it to personalise their experience. They have been around since the first businesses were created, but we didn't realise it. For example, small retailers have always known that they had customers who bought certain products once a week or liked them in a certain way and they had this in their head, but when these businesses scale, the customers are thousands, or millions and it takes a very powerful computer system to manage all that data. This way the sales or customer service team can have access to what the customer needs and how they can give them a good experience.







These programmes were initially on a company's mainframe computer but there has been an evolution and now that data is usually in the cloud. The company that led this movement is Sales Force, although there are others such as HubSpot, Base, Sales net...

It is crucial that CRMs are connected to the Marketing Automation part because this programme must not only store data on the customers who visit or call them, but it must also store all information related to visits to the website, interactions on the website, etc.




Among the major benefits of using CRM for companies are to be able to connect on a personal level to better satisfy customers. Predicting the needs of customers will be very useful for the marketing department for example as it allows us to create campaigns or offer products just when the need arises which is perfect for creating and maintaining relationships with customers. Another benefit is that it will allow us to improve the customer experience with the brand as it allows us to create a better customer journey which translates into higher sales, the second biggest attraction of CRM.

They are very powerful tools that can manage huge databases and store them for a long time so that in case they are needed they can be found easily, for example invoices, guarantees...

Each company must manage its database in a different way. In this way, objectives can be added at a commercial level, for the customer service department, for the marketing department... and it will be possible to adapt the commercial offer to each customer depending on the information we have in the database about them, thus achieving an individualised offer for each customer and building a link between them and the company.

In the end, CRMs are tools with benefits for many departments of the company which translates into growth and better management of this both internally and with their own customers.

Today's business is based on data, how to use it and how to get the most out of it for the company and the customer to the benefit of both.

The key to these programmes is not in the programme itself but in knowing how to use them and knowing how to cross-reference data to obtain conclusions that affect decision-making. Data are not useful if they are not compared and conclusions are not drawn from them, so the secret lies in their correct interpretation in order to draw hypotheses and conclusions.

Sales Force is the most widely used CRM in the world with companies such as Bayern, American Express, Aldo... It is a multinational company that offers its customer relationship management services so that companies can better organise their databases and make strategic decisions based on them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIp251KCz6k



This year it aired its "The New Frontier" ad during the Super Bowl based on its business model. In this advert, the aim was to show how an astronaut left the earth to try to save the earth with the help of the company's services. He mentions some aspects such as the metaverse explaining that while some are looking towards this new technology, they are still relying on current data and the ability to obtain information and solutions.

The problem lies in the fact that the consumer after seeing the ad only once did not know what the company was about or what it offered due to the few references to it.

Sales Force is a platform that tries to manage customers through a CRM with data in the cloud that can be given to all departments of the organisation creating an ideal platform for the management of company data, however it failed to convey this idea clearly in its Super Bowl 2020 spot, coming in 36th place in Admet.

References:

Creativa, F. (2022b, junio 2). Campañas de Publicidad Polémicas del 2022. Factoria Creativa. https://www.factoriacreativabarcelona.es/campanas-publicidad-polemicas-2022/

La verdadera importancia de un CRM. (s. f.). DataCRM. https://www.datacrm.com/blog/importancia-del-crm/

Albornoz, A. (2021, 11 marzo). Importancia del CRM: 10 razones para implementar un CRM. appvizer.es. https://www.appvizer.es/revista/relacion-cliente/software-crm/importancia-del-crm

Cyberclick • Marketing Digital. (2020, 11 agosto). ¿Qué es un CRM y para qué sirve? YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztr24-JBL2s

 

A.G.


Comentarios

Anónimo ha dicho que…
Congratulations!
From my point of view, you have summarized (in a short post) the most significant things of a CRM: What is it? What is it their main goal? A good example, Etc.
However, I don’t completely agree with you about the “failure of Salesfore”. Probably, the Saleforce Superbowl spot was not the most amazing and maybe, as you say, a lot of people didn’t understand well what the commercial wants transmit. I believe that this is because our minds are thinking in mass consumption goods (for instance, Chipotle, Nike, CocaCola…) when we see the Superbowl sponsors. However, Saleforces is not the same, it is more focus in a B2B. In my opinion it would have been a failure if only a little number of entrepreneurs and managers had raised include a SaleForce CRM in its business after watching the spot. We don't have this information, so I believe that we can`t say that it is a failure. What do you think?
Adrián Gamboa Santiago ha dicho que…
Yeah I see your point, the fact that not a lot of people have realised that the brand of the commercial was does not mean that id did not have an effect on their main target whitch is business and I agree with that.
But from what I think, the pretty much easier way to comunicate with other companies, B2B as you already has mentioned, is making spots that their employees can understand so that they can google about it and maby make a suggestion to their companies of implement a system in the company to help its correct development and improve the way of managing its data, objectives...
After all, I see two ways to communicate with B2Bs, through their employees or directly with them.
It is a pity not to have data on the return of this ad in terms of companies, it would help us to resolve this question.
Anónimo ha dicho que…
I agree with you, Adrian. I didn’t think that employees could be a significant target due to the fact that they can influence in their companies in order to purchase this CRM system. May be this is because my mind usually links the important decisions with the company board. However, as you say, a good firm should be capable to hear to their employees and to take notice their advice. So, if Saleforce would have made a simpler commercial, probably they had got a better result.
Nevertheless, I still believe, that may be the Superbowl is not the best event to communicate this kind of service. Likely, sponsoring a business trade fair is much more profitable than a sport event, isn’t it?
Anónimo ha dicho que…
ESTOY EN TOTAL DESACUERDO CON LO MENCIONADO EN ESTE ACUERDO, IN FACT, I BELIEVE THAT QUEEN ELISABETH II IS BETTER IN A TOMBSTONE THAN ALIVE.
Superbowl is still the event were Elisabeth II has developed his best performance as a football player.