5 CRM trends to watch out for in 2022

Your relationship with customers is what will win you new business over and over again. If you manage to do it right of course. So, what do you need to do to stay ahead of the fierce competition during these troublesome times? Find out what direction CRM is heading in. Take a look at these trends to spot if your business is on the right track.

How AI-powered crm tools can boost your customer service

Last year, it became clear that customers’ behaviour is changing drastically and continues to grow more unpredictable each passing day. The importance of gaining deeper insights is highlighted yet again and also challenges your business to achieve much more.

How do you manage then to do more with your real-time customer data?

Hence why Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most anticipated developments to come in CRM. You can expect AI-powered CRM tools to push the limits of your CRM further.

Think of applications such as automating time-consuming tasks, improving your service agents’ productivity, proactively solving customer issues, advancing your chatbots, predicting your customers’ needs, and many more.

Fewer channels to spark more conversations

Omnichannel is no stranger to many. Plenty of businesses already adopted the omnichannel strategy to create a seamless customer experience, even as customers jump from channel to channel. However, this year turns out to be quite different as a single-channel approach to CRM is becoming more favoured.

What is single-channel approach?

What this means is that current communication channels will in fact unite. Through one-channel, your sales agents and also your customer service agents no longer need to switch channels to communicate with your customers.

Add AI into the mix and the majority of the work is done, leaving you with a channel-less CRM.

Big data

Let us state the obvious. The success of CRM relies on the data that you collect as well as what you do with it. Nowadays, the personalization of customer experience is what determines the outcome of any interaction you have with a customer. How does this actually influence your business?

• Get complete and data-driven insights on your customers.
• Perfect your marketing strategy through one, unified view of the customer experience.
• Allow AI to analyse your data so you can identify buying patterns and conversion opportunities.

Voice Technology

With the rise of voice technology, it only makes sense that voice engagement is on its way to CRM. Microsoft for instance is already showing interest by funding Tact.ai, a company that owns smart voice assistance technology. Currently, voice assistance empowers sales representatives to follow, message, and also alert their teams about related customer data. Now here is where things start to take an interesting turn. Imagine what voice technology paired with AI and machine learning could do for your business. This could enable you to fuel your business with more data in addition to helpful insights.

Mobile and social

There are two things you need to know about your customers. The first thing is that your customers crave constant connectivity. This is what strongly drives CRM platforms to provide full and secure mobile functionality. From smartphones and tablets to any other devices that can connect to the internet.
Another thing you should keep in mind is how the importance of social media is not slowing down anytime soon. Social media users today expect a response from your company almost instantly. Is this is a challenge your business is trying to overcome?

Leading CRM platforms are now planning integrations with more social networks, but the technology is not new. Current integrations with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can still strengthen and boost your relationship with customers.