Beginner’s Guide To Bespoke CRM Systems

What is a CRM system?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that helps businesses to manage their interactions and tasks relating to prospects and clients alike. They are a vastly superior alternative to spreadsheets, emails and sticky notes in that they bring everything together in one place - from contact details and communication history to sales pipelines, task reminders and everything in between. This means employees can work in a much more efficient, structured and frankly, less chaotic way to get the most out of their customer relationships.

Why might I use a CRM system?

As companies grow and evolve, they will usually at some point, look at how they can streamline their business operations - prospect and client interactions being one of them. Within prospect and client interactions, there are a multitude of tasks CRM tools may be used to carry out, here we will look at five of the most common.

General contact management

• Storing and organising client and/or prospect contact information.
• Tracking and documenting customer interactions and tasks associated with a particular customer and/or prospect.

Sales management

• Managing sales pipelines and track leads from initial enquiry through to deal closure.
• To automate certain tasks within the sales process reducing the need for manual sales efforts.

Marketing

• Can be used to manage email marketing, social media marketing and other digital marketing activities as well as providing analytics and metrics for specific marketing campaigns.
• To create targeted and personalised campaigns that have more chance of resonating with the receiever.

Customer service activities

• Tracking and managing customer service requests and support tickets from existing customers.
• Some CRM systems offer the ability to allow their clients to submit requests directly through a ‘portal’ reducing the need for phone calls. They may also offer AI functionality to help clients find relevant knowledge articles that enable them to resolve their issues without speaking to customer support.

Analytics and reporting

• Most CRM systems will offer tools that allow customer data to be analysed in order to generate insights and reports, some in real time.
• The data can be used for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics and allowing for informed decisions to be made based on them.
• Bespoke CRM systems may offer custom reporting and analytics that are specific to your company that are defined pre-implementation.

Types of CRM systems

CRM systems come in many shapes and sizes but they are generally categorized into three main types. That said, especially with bespoke CRM systems, which category a system fits into isn’t always clear cut and instead, it might be a combination.

How do CRM systems work? 

All CRM systems are different, and even more so bespoke CRM systems due to the fact that they have been built to meet specific and unique requirements. However, the following will give you a general overview of how most CRMs work and their key features.

Essentially, they function by centralising and organising customer data in one central location that allows businesses to track and manage all interactions with current and potential customers. At its core, a CRM system collects data from a number of different touchpoints, including emails, phone calls, social media interactions, and website visits. This data is then stored in a centralised database, which is accessible to all or specific user groups within the company, depending on what they use said data for.

Sales teams use CRM systems to:

• Manage leads and opportunities

• Track sales progress

• Automate repetitive tasks within the sales process

Marketing teams use CRM system data to:

• Segment customers

• Create personalised campaigns

• Measure marketing effectiveness

Customer service teams use CRM systems to:

• Manage support tickets and track issues through to resolution.

In its simplest form, a CRM system is a central repository of client related information that a company uses as a single source of data for their respective duties.

Business need for bespoke CRM systems

Deciding whether or not your business requires or more importantly, would benefit from a bespoke CRM system should first involve evaluating your current processes, challenges and growth objectives. Here are some key indicators to help determine if a bespoke CRM system is something you should consider.

Unique workflows

• If your business has unique or specific processes that typical CRM offerings can't accommodate, a bespoke CRM system is an option you should potentially explore. This ensures that the CRM can be built to encompass your specific workflows and requirements with the custom workflows unique to your business.

Integration with other systems

• If your business is reliant on multiple systems, tools and other software that need to work together and share data, a bespoke CRM can be designed to ensure it integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, providing a centralised platform for all your business operations.

Data analytics and reporting

• If your company has complex data management requirements or you need customised reporting and analytics that off-the-shelf CRMs cannot deliver, a bespoke solution can be developed to address these specific needs.

Scalability and flexibility

• If you anticipate growth or frequent changes to your business operations and processes, a bespoke CRM system can offer the flexibility to scale up or down quickly without the reliance on a third party. It can also be designed to adapt to new requirements without the limitations of off-the-shelf solutions.

User experience and adoption

• If user adoption and ease of use are critical, a bespoke CRM can be tailored to match the preferences and workflows of your team, ensuring higher user adoption rates and more effective use of the system

Cost implications

• Whilst bespoke CRM systems can be more expensive initially, they usually offer better long-term value through the increase in productivity, efficiency and customer/employee satisfaction they provide.

Customer data and relationship management

Importance of customer data in CRM systems

It may be stating the obvious but without customer data, a CRM system wouldn't function. Customer data is after all, the foundation upon with a CRM system is built. The quality of the data is also critical and allows companies to effectively leverage their CRM for a wide range of things including -

Efficient sales and marketing

• Targeted marketing - Being able to segment customers and/or prospects via the data held helps in being able to create targeted marketing campaigns.
• Intelligent prospect targeting - By using data collected on previous customer interactions and preferences, it can be easier for sales teams to identify and pursue leads that have a higher chance of converting.

Improved customer engagement

• Better engagement - When communications are tailored to an individual, they are generally likely to be more engaged and to feel more valued when compared with receiving generic content they have no interest in. Having quality customer data allows businesses to understand and better manage these individual customer preferences and behaviors.
• Higher retention rates - Following on from the above point, when clients feel valued and that the company they are dealing with understands them as an individual, this can increase customer loyalty and ultimately, improved retention rates. This also applies to situations where issues may be raised and the company has easy access to past customer interactions to provide context and better understanding.

Improved operational efficiency

• Centralised data - Because the data with a CRM acts as a central repository and a 'single source of truth', teams are not duplicating work, trying to navigate multiple systems to get the data they need and are essentially
• Automation - Most CRM systems have the ability to automate tasks including follow-up emails and reminders which saves additional time and effort.

Choosing the right fit

When choosing a CRM system whether it be bespoke or off-the-shelf, there are a number of steps you can take to ensure you make an informed decision, this list is by no means comprehensive but some loose pointers as to some of the steps to consider when choosing your CRM system.

Identify your business requirements

First and foremost you should define your objectives and clearly map out what you want to achieve with a CRM system. From this,

define what functionality and features a CRM must have in order to achieve said objectives.

Assess your current environment

Once you know what you want to achieve, you should then clearly map out what you currently have in place to cover these processes whether that be excel spreadsheets, manual research of prospects etc so you have a clear view of what you have to work with.

Understand your users' requirements

It is then important to gather input from employees who will use the CRM to understand their needs, pain points and challenges they would like the CRM system to solve.

Consider integration capabilities

From here, you should check what sort of integration capabilities the CRM should have in relation to any current tools and software i.e. you may need a solution that integrates with your accounting software.

Research your options

Now, you should have the information you need to go away and do some research on the products on offer. At this stage, you will understand whether there are off-the-shelf options that can meet all of your requirements, partial requirements or none of your requirements and whether you can compromise on some of these features and capabilities. If the answer is No, you should at this stage look for companies that develop bespoke CRM systems.

Get quotes

Obtain quotes from multiple suppliers, for bespoke quotes, it is a good idea to ensure you have a clear specification on what you want and what your current environment looks like to allow them to give you an accurate quote.

Analyse budget v cost

Now you have a better idea as to what type of CRM system best suits your requirements (bespoke or off-the-shelf), it is a good time to evaluate the costs v your budget. Generally, off-the-shelf solutions are cheaper upfront and the fees you can expect to see are for licensing and implementation with on-going monthly costs. Bespoke solutions require increased upfront expenditure because the system is being built from scratch however, once done, there are typically no on-going licensing costs which can provide better value for money in the long term.

Benefits of a Bespoke CRM System

Whilst off-the-shelf CRM systems are suitable and more cost effective for a lot of businesses, that is not the case for all. Here, we take a look at some of the benefits of choosing a bespoke CRM system over an off-the-shelf CRM.

Choosing a Development Partner

For bespoke CRM solutions in particular, it is crucial that you partner with a software development company who can deliver your requirements within the parameters you set. These parameters could relate to cost, time and even communication style.

Once you have a fully defined specification of what you want to achieve, you should research as many companies as possible to give you a solid list of options. Looking for development companies that have expertise in your specific industry can be a good place to start as well as looking at the technologies they use to ensure they are modern and reliable. If you have a requirement for a specific piece of technology to be used for your CRM system, you should obviously make sure this is something they have experience in as well.

Another consideration should be the companies case studies and reviews from previous clients. This can give you an unbiased perspective of how they perform as a development partner and satisfy you that they have experience in implementing CRM software. You could also request references or even to speak with their previous clients about their experiences.

On the logistics, it is a good idea to have a discussion with the company in question to get a better understanding of how they anticipate the project working. This should cover aspects such as the discovery phase, implementation, testing and the wider communication plan throughout the duration of the project and beyond if they are providing support following the implementation of the CRM system.

Finally, understanding the billing cycle and how you will be billed is important to ensure it aligns with your companies invoicing schedule and budget.

Identified your ideal development partner? Great, let's move on to the implementation!

Implementing CRM systems

So, you have identified what sort of CRM system you need and have chosen a development partner who you're comfortable can deliver on your requirements. Here is what you can expect with the implementation phase. Again, the steps here are not comprehensive and will vary from project to project and CRM to CRM.

Plan the CRM Implementation

Putting together a detailed and achievable implementation plan for your CRM system is of the utmost importance. Some things to consider at this stage are - who is going to be involved and at what points, set realistic timescales and determine how you intend to migrate your existing data to the new CRM system ensuring data quality and integrity. It is advisable to have a contingency plan in place i.e. a 'roll-back' plan should anything go wrong during the migration. It is also often advisable to ensure you're able to continue with your current processes unabated whilst the roll-out happens.

Customise and/or Implement the CRM

If you have chosen an off-the-shelf CRM solution, you will want to customise is as much as possible during the implementation. This will involve configuring the settings and integrating any other systems that need to feed into the CRM.

If you have chosen a custom CRM solution, the customisation will be done as part of the project by your development partner.

Testing the CRM

Once the CRM is implemented, there should be a rigorous testing phase. This could involve small pilot user groups such as marketing and sales who can test the system and provide feedback as well as full testing involving checking for bugs and performance issues.

Train the Users

At some stage users of the CRM system will need to be trained on how to use the system. This can be done at any point during the process but it generally makes sense to do this once the system is in and working as it should be.

Launch the CRM

Once the system is in and functioning and the users understand how to use it, you are then ready to launch the system. This will involve rolling it out to all users either simultaneously or using a staggered approach i.e. sales team, then marketing then operations. There should be intense monitoring of the system and it's performance as well as user adoption. Requesting continuous feedback from the users at this early stage is a good idea so any tweaks can be made.

Optimisation and Improvement

Now your new CRM system is implemented and functioning, you can start gathering performance data to determine whether the processes in place could be further improved and refined such as identifying new areas where a slightly altered process may save time. You should try and adopt a continuous improvement approach as opposed to viewing the CRM as a finished product.

By following these steps, you can implement a CRM system whether that be bespoke or off-the-shelf that effectively supports your business goals and enhances your customer relationships.

To finish

CRM systems, whether bespoke or off-the-shelf, are pivotal tools for managing customer relationships and streamlining business processes. They enhance sales, marketing and customer service efforts by centralising customer data and automating various tasks. Bespoke CRMs offer the advantage of customisation to fit unique business needs, ensuring seamless integration and scalability. Whilst they may require higher initial investment, their long-term benefits in terms of efficiency and tailored functionality often outweigh the costs. Ultimately, the right CRM system can significantly improve customer satisfaction, drive business growth and provide a competitive edge in today's digital landscape.

Further reading

Bespoke CRM systems

Difference Between Bespoke and Off The Shelf CRM Systems

How Much Does a Bespoke CRM Cost?