What trends await us in CRM solutions in 2019?
The days when the first corporate CRM solutions were little more than a customer and business contacts database are behind us. During its development, this type of software has stood out for its capacity to incorporate the many advances (artificial intelligence, mobility, social media or marketing automation, for example) and be transformed into powerful platforms that natively integrate sales and marketing management. And what awaits us in the near future? In this article we shall attempt to reveal some of what the experts see as being the main CRM trends for 2019.
Before outlining what CRM software promises to deliver in 2019, let’s look back at the year just gone. Very briefly, the highlights of 2018 were:
- The significant expansion of CRM functionalities
- The successful introduction of artificial intelligence into management processes
- Bidirectional integration with the Internet of Things
- The greater use made of the possibilities offered by Big Data
- The fulfilment of stringent security and privacy policies (GDPR)
Artificial intelligence, customer experience and GDPR, CRM stand outs in 2019
The number of CRM solution manufactures is on the up and up due to one very powerful reason: companies are seeing the enormous usefulness (and benefits) these solutions bring to their business: it is now far easier to attract, hold on to and manage customers, as well as to monitor any point of the sales and marketing process in real time.
The principal creators of CRM solutions, such as SugarCRM or Salesforce, are having to push themselves to the limit to stay ahead of their competitors and consolidate their success in this tightest of markets. In 2019, this will involve a series of key points for their solutions, the most noteworthy of which include:
- Artificial intelligence (AI). This technology has been gradually introduced into the CRM solutions and 2019 will bring about their final consolidation. Its capabilities significantly improve business processes and customer service by making them proactive. We shall see how Artificial Intelligence is applied in functionalities such as voice to text transfer, unwanted mail filters, sales forecasting, smart searches or sentiment analysis (in social media and online publications).
- Marketing automation. The capabilities of this module, one of the youngest members of the CRM family, will be enhanced and integrated into all the other areas of a CRM solution. Thanks to the improvements in workflow management and the streamlining of lead nurturing processes, among others, user companies will become more commercially successful, increase their sales and ensure that their customers are not only more loyal, but that they also enjoy a better experience.
- Privacy and security. Companies are in possession of increasingly more personal data (genuine Big Data). In the case of CRM, this information centred on contact names at existing and potential customers, and even suppliers, while being extremely sensitive material is, at the same time, at the core of many of its management processes. The functionalities of the 2019 version of CRM have been expanded in order to comply with strict data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, so that user companies do not find themselves having to face penalties for misusing these data. Example: total integration into the marketing automation and business management modules for processing confirmations, be they positive or negative, regarding the reception of notifications of our business action contacts in real time.
- Customer experience and Omnichannel. The details of existing and potential customers are going to become of ever greater value (and how) to companies. Why? Because they will form the basis for customising experiences in accordance with the customers’ needs and tastes. And this from any device, on any platform (for example, social media) and during any phase of the business and marketing process (omnichannel retailing). And this is because Customer Experience is set to become the key differentiator, the factor that will enable companies to provide customer care that is 100% unique and personalised… and constantly optimised thanks to the support of Artificial Intelligence!
2019 is going to be a truly spectacular year for CRM software, and at Intelligence Partner we are going stay right on top of its development. The two leading solutions on the market (SugarCRM and Salesforce), which we offer, will include major innovations in line with the trends in CRM for 2019.
Contact us and discover the multiple benefits they will add to your business!
