Opinion column: How to choose your BtoC CRM in SaaS mode?

François-Xavier Ousselin, President and co-founder of Follow the Sun, editor of CRM360°, gives his advice to help companies choose their CRM in SaaS mode.

A BtoC CRM solution must be the technical reflection of a human relationship. The choice of such a tool must be based on the desired use and the expected benefits. It is therefore essential to look for a complete solution that will allow a company to know its customers, to communicate with them, while offering them the possibility to explore the data at will. With the right tools, the company will be able to easily industrialize a personalized relationship with each of its customers and get an optimized ROI.

The essential points to choose your BtoC CRM :

1. A 360° solution :

The chosen CRM solution must respect a few key steps in the implementation of a Customer Relationship Management strategy, which are :

• Multi-source data collection: Today, the multitude of sources (points of sale, web, social networks, applications, etc.) allows a company to increase its amount of data. This abundance of data allows the company to get to know its customers better and to satisfy them. Thanks to this data, the company will also be able to build a Unique Customer Repository on which to base the implementation of relational programs. For example, to know the habits of its customers (good or bad customer? Satisfied? Last purchases?) a store must be able to connect its CRM solution to the cash register software and ensure a real time update.
• Data qualification: According to a recent study released in early 2013*, 96% of companies believe their databases contain incorrect or duplicate information. This can have serious financial consequences for the company, It is therefore more than important to have a clean and highly qualified database. Deduplication, de-duplication, treatment of postal addresses, emails and phone numbers are the key words of a good customer database integrated in a CRM.
• Multi-criteria targeting: To refine customer knowledge, the CRM must allow Segment the database and target customers based on numerous criteria. These criteria can be declarative (man, woman, age, social class, geographical area, etc.) or behavioral (amount of purchases, product references, etc.). The more criteria are defined, the more relevant the targeting will be and the more effective the campaigns.
• Launching marketing actions: Beyond the communication channel(s), it is necessary to be able to perform analyses on the marketing actions launched: opening rate of the emails sent, click rate, unsubscribes... Thus, the company will be able to better calculate the ROI of its campaigns and send the right (personalized) message, at the right time It is therefore essential to ensure the ability of the CRM to manage different types of campaigns: sms, emailing, mailing...
• Analyses: Finally, analyzing the behavior of its customers and its performance indicators are key criteria for the success of the strategy. It is therefore advisable for the company to set up a management dashboard linked to the CRM allowing easy data exploitation and thus a better knowledge of its customers. The CRM must be able to offer customizable dashboards to facilitate the reading of results and make the most of them.

2.  An easy to use tool :

The CRM solution must be "user-friendly", intuitive, customizable, and usable by as many people as possible. From the sales consultant to the manager, everyone must be able to consult and edit customer files easily.

3.  Controlled cost management :

The budget allocated to customer relations must not deteriorate the overall budget of the company. A BtoC CRM in SaaS mode must be accessible and quickly usable: no project, no license purchase, no time commitment and pay-as-you-go. The company must also ensure that it can retrieve all its data whenever it wants.

4.  An international dimension :

By equipping itself with a CRM, it is imperative that a company anticipates its evolution. The CRM solution must not only be able to contain and process a growing amount of data, but also be "GloCal" (Think Global, Act Local), capable of supporting the company's international development.

Over time, it must be ensured that it will always be possible to communicate individually or massively with its customers thanks to CRM, whatever their language (and alphabet), their currency, the time of reception of the message in their country, at the last known good address, by the good store...

*Source: Survey conducted by the independent firm Dynamics Market for Experian Marketing Services.