Key takeaways
For anyone looking to gain deeper insights into their customers, optimize their marketing efforts, and increase revenue, CRM analytics is crucial. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into what CRM analytics is, what users can track with it, and how it’s reported.
What is CRM analytics?
CRM analytics is the process of using customer data to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs. By analyzing these data, businesses can make better decisions about how to engage with customers, improve sales performance, and optimize marketing efforts.
The key to successful CRM analytics is data. Effective CRM analytics requires the collection and analysis of quality data on customer interactions with the business, sales figures, and marketing campaigns. The analysis of these data leads to valuable insights into the needs and preferences of customers, which can guide decision-making processes. With the right insights, businesses can optimize customer engagement and marketing strategies to achieve greater success in a highly competitive marketplace.
Reporting is closely tied to analytics. Reporting refers to the process of presenting analyzed data in a meaningful way to gain insights into customer behavior and business performance.
CRM software gains and sorts data to provide analytics and reporting through a series of steps:
1. Data collection: CRM software collects data on customer interactions with a business, including website visits, email opens, purchases, and customer service interactions. These data are stored in a central database.
2. Data analysis: Once the data are collected, CRM software uses analytical tools to process and analyze the individual bits of information. Now, this is often executed with the help of artificial intelligence. This can include data cleansing to remove duplicates and errors, as well as data enrichment to add more information to the data; for example, demographic data or social media profiles can be paired with existing data to create a comprehensive view of the customer.
3. Reporting: After the data are analyzed, CRM software generates reports that provide insights into customer behavior and business performance. These reports can include standard reports, such as sales and customer service reports, as well as custom reports that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the business.
What can I track with CRM analytics?
One of the most powerful aspects of CRM analytics is the ability to track a wide range of metrics including customer engagement, sales performance, and marketing effectiveness.
Customer engagement enables insights into what customers like and dislike about a company’s products or services. By tracking sales data, users can discover what producers are selling well and what strategies are most effective. By tracking marketing data, marketers can find which marketing channels are most effective, which campaigns are driving the most conversations, and what messaging resonates most with their target audience, leading to improved ROI.
CRM analytics can also track more granular data related to customer behavior, such as customer lifetime value, customer churn rates and customer segmentation.
READ MORE: CRM for Outlook: Integrate & Manage Customer Data
How are CRM analytics reported?
CRM reporting is an essential part of any CRM analytics strategy. Without effective reporting, businesses will struggle to gain critical customer insights.
Analytics can be reported in a variety of ways, depending on the CRM software being used and the specific metrics being tracked. However, standard and custom reports, dashboards, alerts, and data visualizations can all be used to identify trends and opportunities for growth.
- Dashboards: Customizable dashboards allow users to view key metrics at a glance, helping them quickly identify trends and areas for improvement
- Standard reports: Pre-built standard reports include sales, sales, customer service, and marketing insights
- Custom reports: Custom reports are tailored to a user’s specific needs and requirements and may include specific metrics or data points relevant to a particular business and can be generated on a regular basis to track trends over time
- Alerts: Some CRM software products allow users to set up alerts that notify them when certain metrics reach a specified threshold, helping businesses stay on top of important trends in real time and take action when needed
- Data visualization: Data visualization tools include charts, graphs, and heat maps
Want to learn more about data visualization? Check out our comprehensive guide to collaborative analytics.
What CRM options do analytics best?
There are a wealth of CRM options available that offer powerful analytics capabilities, but here a few of the most popular to consider when starting your journey:
Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM solutions on the market, and for good reason. It offers a wide range of analytics capabilities, including customizable dashboards, reports, and alerts. With Salesforce, businesses can track multiple metrics.
Salesforce’s analytics capabilities are powered by its Einstein Analytics platform. Einstein Analytics uses machine learning and AI to help uncover hidden patterns and trends in data.
Another key benefit of Salesforce is its flexibility. The software can be customized to fit the specific needs of your business, with features such as custom fields, workflows, and integrations with other tools and platforms. This, combined with its analytics capabilities, makes Salesforce an excellent choice for businesses focused on gaining deeper insights on customer behavior.
HubSpot
Another popular CRM option that offers considerable analytics capabilities, HubSpot offers customizable dashboards and reports that allow businesses to track a variety of metrics.
HubSpot also offers integration with other marketing tools such as Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor, which can help users gain a more comprehensive view of their customers and their interactions with the business.
HubSpot also stands out for its user-friendly interface. The software is easy to navigate—even for non-technical users—and its reporting tools are clear and concise. And, for startups and small businesses, the free version of its software is a great place to start as additional hubs and tools can be purchased as their business grows.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a budget-friendly option that offers many analytics capabilities. Zoho is known for its customizable dashboards, ease of use, and advanced reporting capabilities.
In addition to these features, Zoho can track customer engagement across multiple channels, including social media, email, and phone as well as predictive analytics, which help to forecast future sales.
CRM analytics is a powerful sidekick for any business. With the tools now available, the automation process is more robust than ever, and analytics is a way to sort complex data efficiently and effectively, leading to better decisions and an improved bottom line.
When selecting a CRM software for analytics, it is important to choose the right product that offers best possible reporting, customization, and integrations options. To get the most out of CRM analytics, businesses should define clear goals, collect quality data, utilize advanced analytics techniques, and optimize their reporting.
In today’s landscape, customers have more options than ever before, which is why understanding the individual is essential to success. CRM analytics provide businesses with the insights they need to engage with those customers in a more meaningful way. So, if you want to take your CRM strategy to the next level, start exploring the powerful capabilities of CRM analytics today.
Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our Best CRM Marketing Software of 2024.
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