In the old days, you could keep all of your clients together with nothing but a phone, a handshake, and a Rolodex. Today is different, and there are multiple means of keeping track of your customers due to computers. There are multiple kinds of software that will help people write letters, organize teams, and observe processes. These types of software are known as productivity applications and are designed to help individuals and businesses complete office-type work. There is a particular type of software that is known as CRM or customer relations management software that will help your roofing business grow. These applications are specifically tailored for the industry they are being used in so no two apps are the same.
What is CRM software?
CRM, or customer relations management software, is used with the intent to streamline customer service, allowing for increased savings in revenue from customers. There are three main types of CRM software, operational, analytical and collaborative. Operational style CRMs are used for day-to-day customer operations, analytical CRMs are used to study customer behavior problems in order to provide solutions to improve the customer’s experience, and collaborative CRMs gather data from other departments to design a comprehensive strategy for all the aggregate information. The end goal of all these types of software is to gather information that is used to increase customer satisfaction for an improved customer shopping experience.
CRMs can be broken down in multiple ways. For example, each specific type is designed for the purpose of working with customers who desire their specific good or service. Retail businesses have their own specifically designed CRM, as do catering companies, financial companies, and doctors’ offices. Customers have very specific needs that cannot be managed by software that is not designed to understand the information the customer creates through their business.
CRM software is designed to gather information by using a series of categories that the CRM software uses to separate information. These categories are also known as features and they include contact management, interaction tracking, task management, lead management, reporting and pipeline management. There can be many more variations of these types of features, but their basic ability is to track and manage information as it goes through the various processes of the sale. Any information that is gathered by the CRM is analyzed alongside older information to create patterns that the software uses to optimize the knowledge for that particular customer. The company can then design an execution strategy for the needs of that customer.
How can it be put to use for roofing companies?
CRM software is designed for a specific company to track information about its customers. The best way to describe how it can be used for roofing companies is to detail scenarios that give examples of use:
Annie works for Pembroke Roofing, a company that supplies roofing tiles and shingles to contractors. She just got a call from Jeff at AB Property Management to order more supplies. She uses her CRM software to look up the past sales for “AB Property Management” and she notices that they always order the same two types of roof shingles in the same quantities. she brings this up to Jeff and asks him if he would like to order more of the same type of order. He says “Not this time I have a different order, but I will need that same amount and type in the near future”. Because she kept this information on hand, Annie was able to anticipate the needs of her customers and provide them with the solution that is suited for their needs. All of her repeat customers have a file on them that tracks their purchases, the intervals of time that they purchase and any other metric of information that can be tracked and analyzed for patterns.