Good customer experience (CX) directly impacts a business’s bottom line: For every 1-point gain in Forrester’s 100-point CX Index, businesses experience 1.3% higher retention, 1% higher enrichment, and 1.3% higher advocacy.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are a critical driver of good CX. They offer a single source of truth and a unified view of customer information. These systems ensure customers have consistent experiences across touchpoints, and employees appear as one unified front to their customers. CRM systems enable employees to navigate the future of work, where they may be working with colleagues scattered across homes and offices, and build resiliency into the business.
How are organisations in APAC using CRM systems to strengthen their CX delivery? What challenges do they face in the process?
In May 2021, Salesforce commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the current and future state of CRM system adoption, uses, and experience. Forrester conducted two global studies to explore this topic: one focused on 795 executives at small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprises and one focused on 1,476 employees at SMBs and enterprises. This spotlight takes an in-depth look at the responses of the 164 executives and 319 employees in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), India (IN), and Singapore (SG).
Key Findings
Embedding a shared CRM system into all teams creates better CX. When all teams across an organisation use a shared CRM platform, they are more likely to provide exceptional CX to their customers. A consistent deployment of a shared CRM system across all departments and processes provides customer-facing teams with easier access to actionable data upon which to build impactful experiences for customers.
CRM systems empower employees to improve customer satisfaction and create more value for their organisations. Sixty-one percent of employees in
APAC noted a more effective CRM system — one that all teams, departments, and processes utilise — would help them improve customer interactions, grow sales, and create more value for their organisation.
AI and automation allow employees to focus on the work that matters most. As CRM systems move into the future, they must grow beyond just being
repositories for basic customer account information: 54% of APAC executives reported their organisations are looking to integrate AI to help them deliver more personalised customer experiences, and over 40% of employees noted that AI insights and recommendations would make them more effective at their job.
This article is posted at forrester.com
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