Banking in business has come a long way in terms of being quicker, safer, and digitized, but the main challenge is providing good customer service. A Customer Relationship Management solution for banking (CRM in banking) thus has a crucial role to play.
You need to go beyond just having good loan options or checking account terms – you need to be able to offer good banking advice.
If you are dealing with businesses, this means you need to have deep knowledge on every customer’s industry, and be able to provide them with a customized experience according to their needs.
You need to provide your customers a sound plan, realistic goals, meaningful advice and insights, and a very customized experience. Banking in business should help their customers streamline their processes, and failing to do so will push you many steps bein your competitors.
There’s so much being demanded from business banks, and a CRM is very essential for the kind of success you envision. A good CRM solution can help any company obtain new leads, enter new markets, gain more customers and provide an amazing customer experience.
In this post, we are going to talk about all the wonderful benefits of CRM in banking and how you can attract more customers with a good CRM solution.
What is CRM in Banking?
Before we get down to the benefits of CRM in banking, let’s first talk about what CRM in banking really is. CRM, as we mentioned at the beginning of this post, stands for Customer Relationship Management solution. It is used in almost all kinds of industries. In banking, CRM is used to help banks manage their customers and to figure out their needs so that they are able to give them the best solutions in the least amount of time.
The Benefits of CRM in Banking
There are tons of benefits of incorporating a CRM system in your bank. We will be talking a bit more about each benefit in sometime. Here are the benefits:
- Better Conversion Rate
- Personalised Customer Experience
- Improved Productivity and Workflow
- Better Communication
- Easy Tracking of Data
- Increase in Customer Loyalty and Retention
Let’s now look at them one by one.
1. Increase in Sales
Business banks give out loans that are on average, 15 times more than loans given to end customers. High profile clients mean that the risk is also high. A CRM system will put your lightyears ahead of your competition.
You will be able to identify potential customers, nurture them, nudge them through your sales funnel, and secure deals with them much more efficiently than your competitors. A CRM solution significantly increases your sales.
2. Better Conversion Rate
When your sales funnels and conversion processes are not streamlined, it could lead to haphazard procedures that not only lower your conversion rates, but also put off potential customers.
Without a solid CRM system in place, you and several other members from your team could be reaching out to the same customer to offer a particular service yout ink they might require.
This not only annoys customers, but also gives them the feeling that your company is just randomly taking shots in the dark without actually caring about your customers.
As your bank grows, more and more from your team will be looking out for opportunities to sell additional services to existing customers. But if the whole process is not seamless, then this could be counter productive for your banking business.
It is found that your chances of selling a new product or service to your customers increases with every successful deal that you make with that customer. So it’s only natural that your team tries to close new deals with old customers – but at what cost?
Incorporating a CRM system in your bank will help you have deeper and more meaningful relationships with your customers. It allows you to effectively communicate with them and understand their needs.
With CRM in banking, each member of every department in your bank can access all the information about your customers that is stored in a centralised database. It can also allow you to see what additional services you can offer each individual customer.
Your team will be able to compile customer profiles from all data related to marketing and sales so that you can identify new opportunities for leads. This allows your team to enjoy a seamless experience of lead conversion.
3. Personalised Customer Experience
Apart from retaining your existing customers, you must also think about obtaining new customers if you want to grow as a bank. There is usually some vagueness about where you can find those new customers, and how you can reach out to them effectively.
The most important aspect of your business is marketing. And a CRM solution presents the best way for your bank to do just that. With CRM, you can figure out your marketing strategy and bring in a good flow of fresh new leads.
Now that you’ve gotten those leads, your next step is to organize all the customer data and follow up with each of them. The number of leads at the top of your sales funnel will be quite high, so it is better to find a way to streamline the process or risk overburdening your team.
Additionally, you will need to study each individual customer carefully in order to plan out and create a successful marketing campaign that would move them to turn into your customers.
Your customer data needs to be elaborate and organized so that you can study customer trends and behaviour. Using CRM software, you can create useful and informative graphs and reports that are easy to share with your team so that you can deliver a personalised customer experience every time.
4. Improved Productivity and Workflow
Did you know that 8 out of every 10 marketing leads never turn into paying customers? A CRM for financial services helps you improve productivity within the team so that all your efforts bring in good results.
CRM can help you identify which leads are worth pursuing, so that your efforts are not wasted. It can help you cut down unnecessary costs by reducing repetitive tasks, improving your processes, and involving your entire team.
Each tam ember knows the work cut out for him or her, and will not be wasting time and effort on useless tasks that do not contribute directly to your revenue. Your team will be able to handle more accounts effectively in a less amount of time.
5. Better Communication
The digital age has helped banks reach a wider audience with lower marketing and advertising costs. From search engine traffic to email marketing and social media, there are a lot of ways banks can secure high quality leads.
Along with the benefits of digitisation, there are also some challenges. It is quite easy for people to talk about your bank online and pull down your name in case of a bad customer experience. People are more likely to talk about bad experiences than good ones, so it is important that you find solutions on how to deal with online reviews.
Banking CRM can help you monitor conversations on your social media pages. It can also help you find out what customers are saying about your bank in public forums. This can help you deal with bad reviews promptly and efficiently.
6. Easy Tracking of Data
Data is highly crucial. There are so many data points you need to keep an eye on in order to strategize your marketing.
Looking at these figures regularly will help you realise where you need to focus your energy. It is therefore important that you find ways to track your data easily and across departments. This will allow all your team members to track data pertaining to each client, his or her concerns, and his or her goals.
While tracking this data, you will soon learn how to identify which customer behaviours are most likely to end up in signed deals or sales. You will also know how to address your customers’ issues in a better way.
7. Increase in Customer Loyalty and Retention
The best way to gauge how your bank values its customers is by seeing your customer loyalty and retention rate. The only way you can improve these rates is by providing outstanding customer service.
CRM can help you by giving you instant access to your customers’ profiles. This way you do not need to constantly keep asking your customers about the details of their business. They will not need to repeat issues or their customer history every time they speak to you.
You will be able to instantly pull up every service ticket, purchase, or other information of the customer on your system without having to ask them about it. This way, you can greatly improve customer loyalty and retention.
CRM solutions are not just for businesses anymore — they are becoming relevant for any type of organization.
Banking for business customers is very customer-driven, which is why it is essential to deliver an excellent customer experience every single time. It is only when you step up and improve your systems, preferably by using a CRM for banking, you will be able to stay ahead of your customers.