With the total cost of acquiring new customers many times higher than servicing existing clients, it’s no surprise that customer retention is at the heart of many organisations’ CRM strategies.

CRM applications, such as Dynamics 365, have numerous service functions, but how can they be used to help you keep your best customers and protect future revenues?

Here are 20 tips for using CRM to keep clients loyal and returning for more.

1. Schedule reminder activities that prompt you and your colleagues to follow up with customers proactively, then use the task list with Outlook-integrated calendars to keep on top of these items.

2. Apply automated processes that prevent customers from being neglected by alerting account owners if no recent activity, such as tracked phone calls, support cases or emails, is detected on an account.

3. Connect CRM with a marketing automation platform such as ClickDimensions or dotDigital to send personalised messages triggered by CRM data to communicate news, offers, events and other relevant content. Use reports to assess individual responses, including email click analysis, to determine interest and send increasingly targeted communications.

4. Track expiry dates, membership information and other time-sensitive details in your CRM database to schedule activities and emails automatically around these dates, simplifying renewal processes and maximising retention.

5. Send event invites and use CRM to plan and manage each task, including automated processes for invitation reminders, post-event follow-ups and handling the resulting leads. In addition to providing dedicated event management, integrations for Dynamics 365 include GoToWebinar and Eventbrite.

6. Use CRM data to personalise content dynamically. This can reflect a customer’s order history, preferences and other details to increase relevance and engagement.

7. Adapt CRM fields and record forms to track complete details about each relationship in a single interface so that everyone has all the information they need to respond to customer requests quickly.

8. Profile customer records, enabling CRM users to quickly see the value of each account. For example, this could be an automated value calculating the account based on recent orders or a simple tick box denoting a client reference site.

9. Connect CRM with your accounting or ERP system. As well as streamlining order processing and eliminating double-entry, this integration allows customer-facing staff to quickly check the order history on an account to anticipate future requirements and verify their payment or credit status.

10. Identifying dormant customers in your database and targeting them with offers to re-engage can be one of the quickest ways to increase revenue. Use CRM data as the launchpad for a successful re-engagement campaign to remind contacts of your services, collect feedback, or introduce a new proposition to stimulate interest and generate new opportunities.

11. Enable customer-facing teams to access the relationship and process detail that matters to them, wherever they work. By enabling CRM users to quickly and securely access this information by mobile, even offline, it empowers everyone to provide a personalised service that other providers can’t match.

12. Use case management tools with workflow automation to track customer issues for clear visibility of outstanding items. Boost first call resolution rates by utilising inbuilt knowledge management, case routing, queueing functionality and Teams integration to connect with subject matter experts.

13. Keep customers updated with progress on their support cases with automated email notifications when cases are opened, edited and closed.

14. Publish a self-service web portal allowing customers to log service requests outside regular working hours. Online portals integrated with CRM also enable customers to find answers by searching a knowledge directory and checking the status of their outstanding cases. Via a self-service portal, customers can also update data directly in Dynamics to handle routine requests such as address changes.

15. Protect your valuable relationships and ensure service-level agreement commitments are met by prioritising support issues and triggering alerts if terms are at risk of being breached to protect SLAs and ensure that the most valuable customers receive a premium service.

16. Provide users with prescriptive guidance through your repeatable processes by directing them towards a successful outcome in line with your rules and methodology. For example, create scripts that help service agents qualify support requests by prompting them to ask contextual questions and collect relevant information to ensure service consistency.

17. Track social conversations to measure sentiment towards your organisation and brand. Use CRM integration to create actions when service issues are detected and as selling opportunities are identified.

18. Capture customer feedback in CRM. For example, include a link to a short survey form in an automated email when each support ticket is closed or upon delivering an order. Use feedback reports, email alerts and reports to assess performance and take corrective action if problems are identified.

19. Use CRM dashboards or Power BI visualisations to review service delivery performance and identify areas for improvement. Use these reports and analytics to identify recurring support issues or service problems and assess what % of cases are being resolved in a single call.

20. Use this insight for coaching and to develop incentive schemes that reward individuals for outstanding performance in key metrics, for example, cases closed per week/month or highest-scoring customer feedback per month.

If you are embarking on a CRM journey, it’s natural to have questions. We can help you refine your requirements considering your goals and CRM vision.

Or, if you are already using Dynamics 365 and not getting the expected value from it, we can help you do more. Contact us today to request a callback and receive expert assistance from our CRM consultants.