9 CRM Measures for Happier and More Satisfied Customers

1. What is Customer Relationship Management?
2. Why do companies need Customer Relationship Management measures?
3. What CRM measures are there?
4. Customer-Relationship-Management-Sytems on OMR Reviews

"The customer is king" - We've all heard this familiar salesman saying. But in reality, there's a lot of truth to it, because whether you're offering hand-knit scarves or robot software, without customers there are no sales. That's why customers should always be of utmost importance for you and all your activities, especially in marketing and product development, should be aligned towards customer needs.

Especially in recent years, buzzwords like Customer Experience or Customer Centricity were tossed around in the marketing scene. But actually, there is already a term that brings this strategy and focus under one roof: Customer Relationship Management (also called customer relationship management).

What is Customer Relationship Management?

The question of what exactly lies behind CRM - abbreviated for Customer-Relationship-Management - is not so easily answered. Many think immediately of CRM systems like Salesforce Sales Cloud or Hubspot Sales Hub. However, CRM initially only describes, as the name suggests, customer relationship management. So, CRM is primarily about establishing a relationship with potential and existing customers of your company, maintaining this relationship and of course, strengthening customer loyalty. CRM is thus part of the corporate strategy. Because only those who align their company completely to the needs of the customers today can be successful in the long term.

A successful CRM Strategy includes the appropriate processes and measures, which cannot be done without the support of technology and tools nowadays. For this, there are CRM systems or CRM Software. With CRM systems, you can document and manage data from potential and existing customers across departments and use this data to improve your relationship with your customers. The result of successful Customer Relationship Management are loyal customers who buy again and again and become brand ambassadors of your company.

An important note: CRM inevitably also includes the topic of data strategy, because whoever collects customer data must manage it in compliance with data protection.

Why do companies need Customer Relationship Management measures?

For most companies, it is much more expensive to generate new customers than to retain existing customers - it can even be up to 7 times more expensive. So it makes sense in any case to make your existing customers into loyal customers and invest a lot of time in customer relationship management. Loyal customers, who ideally become brand ambassadors, can also provide new customers for free by recommending your products or services.

Loyal customers also are less likely to migrate to competitors and are also very good for gathering feedback for new products as they have been following you for a longer time and know you. The goal of all CRM measures is to achieve two things: From your point of view, it's about encouraging customers to buy again and to win a large number of loyal customers who buy regularly and become brand ambassadors. From the customer's point of view, it's about establishing a relationship with your company and feeling like they're the most important customer of your business.

What CRM measures are there?

First of all, it's important to define clear goals for your strategy. Depending on your business strategy and business model, the goals of CRM measures may be more focused on pure sales or more focused on the actual customer relationship. Therefore, before implementing CRM measures, you should definitely do a detailed analysis of your target group, the market, and the competitors and store this key data in your business for future processing. Afterward, you should come up with a clear concept for your Customer-Relationship-Management measures and define a CRM strategy.

Of course, all marketing activities usually contribute to improving the customer relationship, which is why there is no defined set of CRM measures and the transitions to other marketing areas are fluid. However, the customer relationship management measures should always be oriented towards the Customer Journey of your customers, i.e. from lead generation and acquiring new customers to addressing existing customers to the reactivation of inactive and lost customers.

1. CRM measures for acquiring new customers and lead generation

Almost all marketing channels suitable for your business model can be used to acquire and address new customers: SEO, SEA, affiliate programs, referral programs, raffles, influencer marketing, social media ads, etc.

Be aware that you are laying the foundation for your customer relationship here and therefore pay attention to how you approach potential new customers. This applies to both the actual approach in your texts and your entire Brand Identity.

We will introduce you to three particularly useful measures for acquiring new customers and lead generation.

1. Referral programs

A CRM measure for lead generation that usually converts well is referral programs (recommendation marketing or "customer recruitment"). Here, you can reward your existing customers for successfully recruiting new customers and also reward new customers for participating in the referral program.

The great thing about referral programs is that you can get very creative with the reward. You can decide whether you want to reward only those who recommend or also new customers, and you can choose which incentive you want to give.

You have a free choice from cash incentives, discounts, credits, free memberships for a certain period of time to tangible gifts. As always, make sure that the reward fits your business model and adjust the value of the reward to the value of a new customer to you.

Referral programs also contribute to potential loyalty programs at the same time: The more new customers a customer has recruited, the more valuable this customer is to you.

There are many great examples of great referral programs e.g. Peloton, Blinkist or zolar.

Our OMR editorial team has also written a great article on this:

• Growth Hacking with Referral Programs - Part 1
• Growth Hacking with Referral Programs - Part 2

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2. Newsletter registrations

Probably one of the classics of lead generation measures is the newsletter registration. Nearly every e-commerce shop has a newsletter that you can subscribe to if you want to be informed about the products, the company or of course about sales and discount campaigns. Many e-commerce brands offer a 10% discount as a thank you for your registration.

Once you have collected email addresses from potential new customers, you can fire up your CRM system or marketing automation tool and send suitable emails to potential new customers. Since a lot of emails are sent these days, you should pay attention to the frequency in order not to scare off potential new customers right away.

The emails should also be relevant. A good CRM tool helps you to classify potential customers into meaningful segments and send accordingly automated emails. You have an app? Then create a small onboarding journey for first-time users. You're selling a product or service that needs to be explained? Then send potential new customers a guide with many photos or videos by email as well as customer testimonials.

Good examples for newsletters to leads can be found at The Honest Company, Tomorrow Bank, or Arket.

3. Interaction

This CRM measure makes sense primarily for B2B companies, but depending on the business model, it can also be interesting for B2C companies. Especially if your product is very complex or needs an explanation, you should make it as easy as possible for interested parties to get in touch with one of your employees for a consultation or a product demo. There are various ways to do this: You can integrate a simple contact form on your website or you can make interested parties aware of you through a so-called lead magnet like a whitepaper, e-book, or study. Especially software providers like to do this.

The interested party can then first get information about your product or something topic-related until a few days later you approach the interested party by email or phone. This measure also gives you important contact details of interested parties, which you can use within the scope of your CRM strategy.

In the B2C sector, many app providers let interested parties test their app for a short time for free and then offer the full version if the interested parties are thrilled.

Good examples of this measure are Facelift, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (aka Pardot) or Headspace.

2. Customer Relationship Management Measures for Existing Customers

The care of existing customer relationships is, so to speak, the core business of Customer Relationship Management. Here, many marketing channels are also suitable. In recent years, the focus has been strongly on Marketing Automation via email marketing. This is because, with Marketing Automation software, customers can be segmented well based on socio-demographic characteristics or their behavior, and thus be addressed in a targeted and personalized way.

But other channels also make sense here, especially with the possibilities in Retargeting you can use social media ads or SEA (Search Engine Advertising) for example.

The goal of this CRM measure should be to increase the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Simply put, the CLV shows you how valuable a customer is for your company during his/her entire time as a customer. Based on the CLV, you can segment customers by their value and, for example, address customers who have a particularly high value differently from customers who have a lower value.

We would now like to introduce you to three CRM measures in this regard:

1. Marketing Automation

Once you've collected important customer data and manage it centrally, e.g. through a CRM System, you can use this data specifically to address your customers at the right time with the right message via the right channel.

Most Marketing Automation tools help you to personalize these messages and adapt them to the needs of your customers. Email marketing is particularly suitable for this because you can create so-called flows through which customer segments move and thus receive appropriate emails.

Tools & Tips for successful Email Marketing can be found in our related article. Often you can also integrate other channels via Marketing Automation tools, e.g. send SMS or trigger push notifications.

A new customer has just logged in to your app for the first time? Send them a short tutorial by email where you explain the most important functions of the app. A customer has just added a product to the wish list? Then send out an email a few days later to remind them of this product on the wish list. A customer has changed their address and you have a furniture online shop? Then immediately suggest furnishing tips based on the product preferences of the customer.

Good examples for such personalized messages can be found e.g. at N26, nu-in or SNKRADDICTED.

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2. Up- and Cross-Selling

Up-selling is about offering the customers a higher-value product, so that the customers are even more satisfied with their purchase. Up-selling is great for increasing the Average Order Value (AOV). This is usually implemented through comparisons of similar products.

Cross-Selling, on the other hand, is about selling additional products that could be interesting for the customers. A very well-known example is Amazon's "You might also like" product recommendations.

Here you can also work well with discounts that are available when buying product bundles. For example, those who take out both liability and home contents insurance receive an annual discount.

For both measures, it's extremely important that the product recommendations are tailored to the needs of the respective customers. This CRM measure directly targets increasing the CLV, because the more and/or higher-value products a customer buys, the more valuable this customer is to your company.

3. Customer loyalty programs

Most of us know customer loyalty programs from our everyday life: At many supermarkets, drugstores or even at gas stations, you can now collect points and are rewarded for your loyalty and even the bakery around the corner gives you a coffee for free as a thank you for the tenth purchase over 10 EUR. However, customer loyalty programs don't always have to operate according to the same principle.

The goal of a good customer loyalty program is, of course, to bind your customers to you in the long term and to reward loyal customers. But for this you first have to find out how you can best bind your customers to you and how you define loyalty.

The most loyal customer does not always have to buy most frequently or have the highest shopping cart value. Depending on the business model, a loyal customer can simply be particularly active as a brand ambassador or always stand by your side with honest feedback.

First, consider what excites your customers about your product or service and with what actions you can support this enthusiasm. This could be, for example, advance product drops or special events for especially loyal customers or even brand ambassador programs.

Good examples for customer loyalty programs are Miles & More by Lufthansa, the Nike Runners Club or the Swiss app poinz.

3. CRM measures for inactive or lost customers

Just like in any human relationship, it can of course also happen that customers "break up" and you lose them. The reasons for this can be very diverse. Therefore, the task of good Customer Relationship Management is to recognize dissatisfied customers, to intercept the customers beforehand and to remind them why they chose you in the first place.

Should you have lost customers despite all your efforts, thankfully there are also tricks on how to win them back.

We're introducing you to two measures for customer reactivation:

1. Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is particularly suitable to recognize customers who are inactive, dissatisfied or even already lost. This indicator shows you to what extent your customers would recommend your product or service. Perhaps you have even been asked the question: "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to your friends?".

The possible responses are always on a scale of 0 to 10. 0 stands for unlikely and 10 for extremely likely. All those who answer with 0–6 are considered so-called "detractors" – i.e. customers who would not recommend your company. Responses between 7 and 8 are considered "indifferent or neutral" and responses of 9 and 10 are the "promoters" – i.e. customers who would recommend your company.

It makes sense to measure the NPS at important touchpoints, e.g. after newsletter registration, after the first purchase and after a month of inactivity. So you can quickly identify which customers are not convinced by you and whether there are abnormalities at certain touchpoints. These customers have a higher probability of becoming inactive or are already.

You can then directly ask the detractors, for example, targeted surveys to get valuable feedback:

• What do they think you can improve?
• Why wouldn't they recommend you?
• If they could change one thing about your product or service, what would it be?

Such questions can help you enormously to bind customers and at the same time improve your products.

2. Churn Prevention and Reactivation through CRM measures

No matter how hard you try, of course, you will also lose customers. The churn rate shows you how many of your customers no longer use your products or services. So you should definitely track and monitor this. Depending on how often your customers use your product or service, you should also define when customers are considered inactive. Address the customers a little bit beforehand, for example by offering discounts, vouchers or even a one-time recovery offer.

Especially when customers unsubscribe from your services, e.g. with subscription models, you should become active. Here you can work with discounts, often it is also simply enough to ask whether the customer really wants to unsubscribe or you offer to talk to customer service.

Good examples of successful churn prevention and reactivations can be found at Löwenanteil, Fressnapf, or Monki.

Last but not least, good customer service, which should not be overlooked in your CRM process, naturally belongs to successful customer relationship management. Therefore, we would also briefly address this point here.

Customer service

Especially when your customers go through a complex and long purchase process, it is important to have competent contact persons for the customers from the beginning. After the purchase, accessible customer service is indispensable, because most customers have questions or requests at one point or another. There are also KPIs for this now to measure the performance of customer service, e.g. the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which should be measured at various touchpoints.

The best tools for successful customer service can be found on OMR Reviews. More Customer Service Softwares can be found in our related category.

It is also important to be available not only via phone or email. You can also use WhatsApp for this, a chat on the website or Direct Messages on social media.

This topic also includes good complaint management as well as customer reviews on review platforms, so that interested parties can get an overview of your customers' opinions right away.

All this data should also be documented in your CRM system.

Customer-Relationship-Management-Sytems on OMR Reviews

As already mentioned, good CRM software or a CRM system as well as a marketing automation tool are indispensable for a successful customer relationship and long-term customer retention. Usually, a marketing automation tool, with which you can automate and send e-mails or integrate into other channels, is integrated into a CRM system.

Depending on the business model and size of your company, there are numerous solutions here, which is why we can only go into a few of the best known softwares and tools.

CRM Solutions for SMEs and large companies:

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

SAP Sales Cloud

CRM Solutions for small businesses and startups:

Hubspot Sales Hub

Pipedrive

Customer.io

Klaviyo

More CRM software and systems can be found on OMR Reviews with verified user reviews and recommendations.