In 2017, the CIO magazine reported that almost one-third of all traditional CRM (Customer Relationship Management) projects are unsuccessful. It is essential that when considering adopting a customer relationship management software for your business as a financial advisor, you understand the reasons that may be the cause of such unsatisfactory results and which type of CRM would be best to invest in.
Traditional CRM
Traditional CRM software usually tends to specialize in certain aspects. They can be categorized generally into three areas: collaborative, analytical and operational. Even though most CRM software may be comprised of various capabilities and modules, they can predominantly be segregated into these basic categories.
In order to make sure you, as a financial advisor, chose a CRM software that would prove to be best-suited for your requirements, you must have a clear picture of what each type of CRM is capable of and how instead of opting for a traditional CRM, that may have its limitations, you go for one that can do-it-all and would in long-term better assist your business to thrive and prosper.
Why adopt CRM in the first place?
Before understanding the various types of CRM software, lets clarify the purpose of a traditional CRM. A customer relationship management software basically provides you a platform where once can store customer and prospect data, track customer interactions, and manage their accounts. It can further go on to help you support sale management, give you actionable insights, and even integrate your data with social media platforms and help you communicate with others.
Therefore, a CRM helps you keep all your data in a centralized database that can be accessed, managed, and updated easily while assisting your business in improving customer relationship.
Adopting Collaborative CRM As an Individual
When so many people are involved in attempting to achieve a single goal, it is essential that communication is made easily and accurately. The people involved can be separated by various means such as geographical locations, the kind of goals they are aiming to achieve, or the skills they specialize in.
Collaborative CRMs are the solution when such issues exist. They make sure people have access to the various types of data stored in a single place. That data can be kept up-to-date and be accessed easily by parties which require it. Collaborative CRMs further assist in integrating your data on various social media platforms by giving you features such as video conferencing tools or using popular social media platforms or document management tools.
This would only prove to be beneficial if a large group of people require access to this data such as various employees of a company or if that data needs to be shared between various departments. But what if that is not the case for you? Often financial advisors work alone as individuals and data sharing with others may not be necessary or your priority and adopting such a type of CRM that focuses mainly on tracking and sharing customer data, would instead prove to be inefficient entirely.
Analytical CRM Can Unlock Your Data
Essentially, a customer relationship management software is place where you can store vast amounts of data collected as you conduct your business through various means. However, that data is meaningless if it doesn’t make any sense to you. Data collection for a financial advisor can only serve its purpose if you can see where your leads are coming from, who your prospects may be, which services are most often required by your clients and so forth.
Simply storing data isn’t enough and an analytical CRM can assist you in seeing the big picture that your data is painting and then further go on to enhancing your business and then eventually helping you nurture your relationship with your client once you better understand what they require. This type of CRM can assist you with data mining, which in simple words helps you make sense of your data and gives you better insight to it.
It can further go on to showing you general patterns or shared attributes of your clients and providing you the best course of action. This will help you in targeting your leads, prospects and clients with information that is specifically relevant to them and therefore improving customer satisfaction.
However, if you just have started your business and have just recently decided to adopt a CRM and hardly have any data collected to analyze, analytical CRM may not be your best choice. One of the other two types of CRMS may prove to be more beneficial to your needs.
When The Client Is Your Main Focus, Operational CRM Might Be Your Best Choice
This type of CRM is all about, as the name implies, assisting you in your operations as a financial advisor. It facilitates you in operations that surround your prospects or clients. Every communication that you have with a prospect, or your client is made easy with an operational CRM. Specifically, it targets three main areas: sales, marketing, and service. It can help you streamline tasks and allow you to deliver the best experience to your prospects and clients while at the same time giving you insights to boosting your sales and automating repeated activities such as sending reminders, setting up meetings, and assigning you leads and so forth.
Usually, this type of CRM suits any type of business since it helps in three main areas of any business and focuses on the clients heavily. But what if you want operational CRM but also need collaborative CRM to help you easily incorporate the social media aspect into your business?
One “Ring” to Rule Them All
Once you have a better sense of each type of CRM and their unique capabilities and the limitations they may come with, you may realize that opting for a particular CRM may not give you the complete satisfactory customer experience that your business requires in order to prosper. As a financial advisor you may realize that in the end you need to implement various systems to achieve the level of functionality your business requires, realize you do have an easier solution.
Although there are traditional types of CRM software with specific capabilities, there are customer relationship management software out there that will give you the full-package experience all in one place. It is essential that you begin by first asking yourself, “What is essential for my business?” and then ensure that you go for a powerful CRM that covers all the bases that you require in order to give you all the essentials for your business needs.
BlueMind is one of the specialized CRM for financial advisors that we call Smart Digital Office. It does not only offers traditional lead management client communication features but various AI based tools for FNAs, compliance, e-documents and many more. To have a complete view, book a demo with one of our experts now.
