Since the beginning of the pandemic, businesses have increasingly embraced a cloud-based workplace. And with cloud adoption sky-rocketing since 2020, naturally, we’ve seen a number of tech innovations and evolving tools that simplify our working lives, and improve the experience for our customers. 

One such tool is the CRM. Short for Customer Relationship Management, your CRM software is designed to help your business establish and nurture better connections with your customers, deliver professional customer service, and ultimately drive business growth. 

With a cloud-based CRM, not only can teams offer a more synergised approach to driving sales, they’ll also be able to be a whole lot more agile, mobile, and flexible, as cloud solutions allow you to simply log in, from wherever you are, usually on any device. 

Whether you’re thinking about implementing a CRM for your sales and customer service agents, or you’re considering migrating your CRM systems to the cloud, we’ve put together several reasons why this could take your business growth to the next level. 

Driving down costs 

One key benefit of investing in any cloud-based software is that it won’t break the bank, and you’ll have fewer upfront costs than with the more bulky, traditional systems. Being able to make smaller, regular payments is better for most businesses as it allows for easier forecasting than with systems that require a considerable initial outlay. For the most part, a cloud-based CRM will operate on a month-by-month subscription, meaning payments are spread with palatable monthly fees. What’s more, the beauty of cloud-based software means you won’t need to buy additional unwieldy hardware like we did in days gone by. 

Improving your flexibility

When customer-facing work is conducted using a cloud-based CRM system, you eliminate the need for on-site servers and the storage space they require, and you’ll probably reduce the need for IT team support in managing these more archaic systems. That also means, your team won’t be tied to the office anymore. 

Bringing your teams together 

Adopting a cloud CRM will mean your customer relations information will be more easily accessible to those that need it. Whether it’s the product team wanting to get eyes on customer feedback, or marketing looking to assess data on popular customer contact channels, implementing a cloud CRM can open the floor for better collaboration, and improved productivity across the board. 

For example, being able to combine sales team endeavours with customer service can have a powerful impact on your bottom line. Sales and customer service agents should not work in silos, and in fact, opportunities may be missed, and customer experience will suffer if businesses fail to effectively connect the two disciplines.

Scope for expansion

Another great outcome of cloud technology is the opportunities it presents in terms of your organisation’s growth. With more mobile, easily accessible platforms, businesses can think outside the box, and hire talent across a wider talent pool, without being so restricted by physical office locations. Whether you want your business to grow and service customers in different time zones, or simply different regions spanning further afield, a cloud-based CRM gives you the scope for expansion.

What’s more, a cloud system gives you the opportunity to customise your own approach to customer relationship management. For example, many organisations will start with basic features that cover their needs at the time of investing, whereas later down the line, as the business grows, you’ll need to add new users, implement more advanced features, and begin automating or integrating your other key solutions. With a cloud system, all this is much easier, meaning businesses benefit from a solution they can tailor to their needs as goals change and the business evolves. 

Delivering exceptional customer experience

When contacting your organisation, customers expect those they speak to (whether it be in the sales team or customer service department) to know who they are and have some information on historical interactions and transactions. That means, having a reliable, robust, and accessible CRM is essential for bringing your teams together.  

In the past few years, customer expectations have skyrocketed. And at a time when, according to a survey by Microsoft, 90% claim that customer service is important to their choice of, and loyalty to any given brand, businesses can’t afford to neglect the need for exceptional service in tandem with their sales endeavours.  

With a modern, cloud-based CRM system, you could change the game for your business. Not only will you be able to centralise your customer data in the cloud, but you’ll also empower your staff to use those accessible insights to deliver an exceptional customer experience. This means both your sales team, and your customer service teams can take a more proactive approach to customer relations and drive business growth in the next era of change.