CRM Software Market Gets a Boost from Banking, Financial Services

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As one of the most used SaaS solutions globally, CRM software is becoming a necessity in today’s business landscape. A new report by Market Research Future estimates the CRM software market size expanding by $114.6 billion from 2022 to 2030 at an annual growth rate of 12.10%. With companies like Salesforce, Oracle, and Hubspot innovating on traditional CRM offerings, the number of use cases across multiple industries has vastly increased.

After all, CRM solutions are not just about customer relations management these days. Many of the top-tier platforms also offer modules or features for sales, marketing, content management, operations management, and in some cases, even accounting and task management.

CRM profiles and databases serve as data pools for a system’s other functionalities. For this reason, large-scale enterprises are the primary users of these programs, with their various departments and business lines finding use for them. In fact, 91% of businesses with more than 10 employees leverage a CRM system.

While many enterprises from various markets use CRM software, there are particular industries that have been identified as key growth drivers of the global CRM market: banking and financial services. The CRM banking sector is peppered with challenges like fierce competition, raised customer expectations, and limited data interoperability. Today’s platforms are designed to address these concerns and enhance the existing workflows and offerings of banks and financial institutions. Using one comes with a host of benefits.

Raises Lead Conversion

Information is a huge asset in the banking realm. By knowing customers’ spending frequency and the amounts they typically spend, a financial institution can furnish a product or service, such as leases, credit cards, and insurance packages, that conforms to one’s buying habits. A CRM system for financial services helps in this regard since it monitors the transaction histories of clients and provides end-to-end lead management for new and existing customers.

A CRM system has features that aid organizations in qualifying leads, especially among existing customers. Experiences and product packages can be tailored to one’s finances, preferences, and risk appetite, leading to increased conversions.

Focusing on existing customers is a good idea since they spend 67% more than new ones and the probability of converting with them is around 60% to 70%, higher than the 5% to 20% of new customers. Leveraging CRM software for financial services industry potentially raises these percentages in the user’s favor. In fact, it could lift a bank or financial services company above competitors that don’t use CRM.

Enhances Customer Experience

Top-tier CRM systems enable users to map out and sometimes automate all the activities and modes of communication that a lead will encounter upon making contact with a bank or financial institution. In essence, banks and financial firms can customize experiences for different types of customers based on each’s characteristics and financial standing. With every activity itemized, no step in the sales process is overlooked, with each taking place in a timely, orderly manner.

CRM banking software affords users a 360-degree view of customers, allowing banks to proactively prepare personalized products and services for customers. It also lets users record notes regarding particular interactions on a customer’s profile, especially for special requests or characteristics. In addition, CRM platforms consolidate communications across various channels, from social media to different areas of the system. This enables bank agents to pick up conversations right where they left off, creating the impression that the bank is actively looking out for its customers’ needs. As such, customer retention and loyalty are promoted.

Boosts Employee Performance

Since CRM systems enable users to execute predetermined actions, company workflows and ultimately operations are streamlined in the process. Repetitive tasks are eliminated, routine ones automated, and time-consuming ones organized. This speeds up operations, affording each bank agent more space to serve customers, which lifts an organization’s sales and service level.

Recent CRM software statistics show that effectively using a platform potentially raises productivity by up to 50%. Moreover, 65% of companies that leveraged mobile CRM systems reached their sales quotas. These figures apply to not only banking and financial services but also to other industries that work with high customer volumes.

Provides Accurate Forecasts

Like with other sophisticated SaaS solutions, CRM systems typically have powerful analytics engines capable of processing large volumes of data. A wide array of facts and figures regarding customer transactions are consolidated into detailed reports, including sales trends, customer commonalities, and loans. From these, banks and financial firms can formulate sales and marketing initiatives to further company performance and boost customer retention.

As such, banks would know which market segments to target for generating new leads. The comprehensive approach to data also allows organizations to restructure their business models to needs-based, customer-centric ones, which help in tailoring ideal experiences, products, and services for each segment.

Unifies Data Across Departments

CRM systems with expansive toolsets, like those with sales, marketing, and project management tools, have the capacity to streamline entire banking and financial operations. These platforms can compile data across various company departments and assign the right info to each customer profile on the CRM database. In addition, banking CRM software can monitor the data used by different departments in real-time and helps reconcile financial information from multiple sources.

This prevents data from being siloed and ensures the accuracy of the information leveraged in reports. Moreover, CRM platforms with accounting or financial modules and features can monitor an organization’s cash flow. Banks and financial institutions can use one to track not only customer transactions but also internal financial activities like budgets and planned investments.

The relationship between CRM software and the financial industry is mutually beneficial and looks to flourish even further in the near future. CRM providers like Salesforce and Oracle have adopted advanced tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data processing to create smarter, better, and more powerful solutions. This bodes well for banks and financial institutions.