Now that your business has addressed immediate needs mentioned in our recent post, it’s time to take the next step and consider how your business may need to change, fundamentally, for the future.
In our previous list, 5 IT Solutions Your Business Needs Right Now, we focused on how to manage internal operations—a key need to ensuring that the cogs continue to turn within your business. Concentrating on data storage, remote access, and communication are key to keep things running. In our series Fundamental Changes You Must Consider for a Post-Pandemic World, we are going to explore some of the ways in which you may need to fundamentally re-imagine how to evaluate your information, connect with customers, and keep your business engaged in the future and the—you guessed it—”new normal.”
Fundamental Changes You Must Consider for a Post-Pandemic World
CRMs: A critical need for customer engagement
We touched on eCommerce in our previous hot list, but we only scratched the surface. Digitizing sales transactions that may have formerly been in-person or fortifying existing eCommerce systems when the world was fully remote was an immediate need to keep commerce running. But there is much more to consider in this space.
Websites have been a primary way to connect with customers for a long time, but now that physical engagement methods—like in-person sales, events, service calls, and brick-and-mortar storefronts—have become reduced, websites are more critical than ever. A bad website can make or break your business. User-friendly, responsive design that delights your site visitors is important, but how you continue to engage with prospects and customers once they close the initial browser window is vital.
A CRM, or customer relationship management, tool that allows you to collect user data and activate engagement is key. Whether you are processing online sales, capturing leads through forms, or receiving issue requests, you need a CRM to complement and support the purpose of your website. A CRM can help you to:
- maintain customer data securely
- segment audiences for enhanced targeting
- perform analysis to inform better decision making
- keep users engaged in the sales pipeline
- automate actions and triggers
- facilitate business workflows as needed between vendors and customers
In addition, CRMs that support marketing automation can help you connect your social media presence, digital ads, and email outreach, helping to keep your brand relevant and top-of-mind with your customers and prospects.
As a Progress partner, Chateaux has established itself as an award-winning service provider of websites and UI/UX services built using Sitefinity. Our experience with crafting our own CRMs, as well as implementing popular platforms like Salesforce, Hubspot, and MS Dynamics, as well as API integrations allows us to work with clients on a total web solution. If you would like to explore how Chateaux can help you create a new site or enhance your existing one, contact us at [email protected].
