5 reasons to integrate your CRM

How long do your employees spend flitting between different systems and apps? Opening and closing tabs, inputting information, password resets, manual data entry – it all takes time and isn’t an efficient way to work.

If you have a customer relationship management system, it’s likely a central platform to gather and organise your data and communicate effectively with potential and existing customers. But are you harnessing the power of your CRM to grow your business?

If you haven’t integrated your CRM with other online tools you use – like your website, accountancy software, or marketing and sales systems – you’re potentially losing time, money, market share, and reputation. 

CRM integration makes sense. And it’s easier to achieve than you might think. Keep reading to discover the benefits of integrating your CRM software to run your business more effectively.

5 reasons to integrate your CRM 

Boost your profit margin

The data in your CRM is a goldmine for potential profit.

In fact, one of the biggest benefits of CRM integration is its potential to increase sales in your business. 

This can happen through integrating your CRM with other tools, such as:

• Your website – connecting your website with your CRM allows you to track customer activity, add more browsers to the top of your sales funnel, segment data, and proactively convert more of your website visitors
• Marketing software – introduce more automation and use your customer data to create personalised marketing campaigns that convert more customers across multiple platforms (the dream for any marketer!)
• Accounting software – send out invoices automatically with regular reminders to save time chasing, get paid faster, and streamline your business finances to make more informed decisions about budgets and investments.

Work more efficiently

Seamless integration between your CRM and other business tools gives you a more streamlined way of working.

• Integration allows you to automate lots of different processes you could be doing manually right now – for example, eliminating the need for manual data entry moving information from one system to another
• Use your CRM to streamline how different departments work together (it could be just the ticket to unite your sales and marketing teams!)
• Create more sophisticated sales and marketing strategies designed to convert more customers
• Access more insightful reporting tools to quickly see what’s working and what’s not, and adapt accordingly.

Improve customer service and experience

When a customer fills out a contact form on your website, how quickly do you follow up with them? 

What systems are in place to make sure they get a prompt response and follow-ups?

This is why software integration is so important for businesses: as consumers, we remember good customer service experiences.

So, CRM integration is important because it gives your sales and marketing teams a complete view of customers at each stage in the purchasing journey so they engage with them and nurture them more easily.

And when you add automation into the mix, it has the added bonus of saving time and further enhancing the customer experience.

When your sales team has better visibility of the entire customer journey, they can build a better customer profile, track every customer interaction, and adapt their sales tactics naturally after each interaction, making customers feel more valued and understood. 

By connecting your CRM system with other tools you use to manage your business, your sales reps get to build closer relationships and better experiences for your audience – which makes for happier customers who buy your products or services again, recommend you, and leave five-star reviews. 

Build brand loyalty

Following on from the last point, successful CRM integration that improves how you engage with existing prospects and customers is a surefire way to encourage them to choose your brand over competitors time and again.

Many businesses swear by CRM integration for the many benefits it brings to their retention rates.

Integration helps build brand loyalty and boost the lifetime value of each customer.

Once you have a customer in your interconnected software ecosystem, you can upsell other products and services, remind them to repurchase, and cement yourself as THE go-to company in your niche.

Increase data accuracy

When businesses use manual methods to move data around between different systems, data accuracy can decline.

Human error happens, and it’s difficult to maintain accurate data across multiple systems updated in the busy day-to-day life of a business.

For example, say you’re an events venue and a customer updated their email address on your website.

If you fail to make the necessary changes to your email marketing software system, you could send out e-tickets for an event to their old email address, creating hassle for your customer and extra work for your internal teams (not to mention the potentially negative review that could follow). 

CRM integration gives you confidence that data will stay accurate and updated.

By syncing the two systems, that new email address automatically updates in the email marketing system, so the next time the customer purchases, their e-ticket goes to the right place. 

Plus, it’s not just customer service issues that you face when mistakes happen: you could end up with a GDPR violation on your hands.

Get more from your customer information through custom integration

As you can see, there are numerous benefits to integrating your CRM system with other types of business management software.

We’d go as far as to say CRM integration is essential if you want to enhance the functionality of your software, work more efficiently, level up your marketing and customer service, and make more profit.

Wondering where to begin?

Hanley Digital helps you grow your business faster using the data you already have within your CRM – and fortunately for you, custom integration between multiple software systems is what we do best.

So, if creating a connection between your CRM and other online business tools is top of your list, it’s we had a chat.

Give us a bell on 0114 4055 330 or drop us a line on hello@hanleydigital.com and we’ll talk you through your CRM integration options based on the systems you’re currently using, and advise you on the best way to tap into integration solutions to make huge leaps towards your big goals.