Forrester’s survey shows that CRM adoption is high across industries, but satisfaction with current CRM solutions is low. Organizations purchase CRM for improved customer experience and efficiency gains, but many CRM initiatives fail to deliver on expectations. Seventy percent of surveyed organizations have adopted CRM for customer service, 64% for B2B marketing automation and SFA, and 62% for field service. On industries, 71% of manufacturers have adopted CRM, and 75% of business services firms have adopted CRM, yet adoption varies across sectors.
But let’s couple that with another piece from Salesforce. The Salesforce State of Sales report reveals a surprising statistic: sales representatives spend only about 28% of their time actively selling. With the majority of their time consumed by administrative tasks, the duration of customer interaction diminishes, leading to slower deal closures.
According to Verint’s annual digital customer experience report, 77% of businesses feel that consumer expectations for effective engagement digitally are up, but just over a third of consumers report a preference for using digital channels to contact companies. Companies reported that adopting artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key part of their customer engagement strategies, with 55% saying AI has a central role in how they think about customer engagement now and 27% saying they have plans to expand AI use in the future.
So, there’s a lot of CRM deployed out there. There’s a lot of dissatisfaction with it. And one of its critical uses, helping salespeople by reducing administration costs, doesn’t appear to be happening. Digital continues to increase, and AI is coming.
Working for better results here is going to be lucrative. Most don’t need a new CRM; they need the one they have to work… for them. Getting this right increases sales velocity and drives revenue. Customers don’t need another tool, people – they need to use the ones they have more effectively. Now look at your offerings and determine how much is addressing this need.