Unquestionably, nearly every person has a mobile device within instant reach. It’s no easy task to walk down a New York City street (or most any street, anywhere) and avoid people staring down at their screens or having animated conversations with themselves. On the plus side, mobile phones help us to be highly informed and uber-connected—both personally and professionally.
On a personal level, we use mobile apps every day for entertainment, education, communication, and convenience. Despite the massive growth and use of apps in our personal lives, however, companies have been reluctant to embrace the fact that mobile apps can be equally as useful in our professional lives. A good mobile business app can help you stay organized, track performance, access collateral, and help you respond more quickly to customer issues.
From a recent App Annie report: “Apps, in general, are still blowing up, with total time spent in apps growing by more than 60 percent on Android phones from 2014 to 2015. During 2015, global downloads across all stores hit 111 billion.” (Fabien Pierre-Nicolas, App Annie VP of MarCom)
Impressive numbers, wouldn’t you agree?
However, while some businesses are becoming more mobile, in our experience, far too many have yet to take advantage of one of the most useful and technologically sophisticated tools ever created. A properly designed mobile business app will allow you to do business anywhere, at any time. And now, more than ever, mobile apps are easier to create, configure and deploy.
Here are 6 ways mobile CRM apps can improve the way we do business:
1. Mobile CRM apps boost productivity
Nearly everyone has one or more mobile devices. Whether it’s a tablet or smart phone, we’re constantly connected. With a mobile CRM app, users can more
quickly respond to customer needs, respond to leads, and manage existing accounts. If your users can’t access customer data at any time, from any location, then business is effectively on hold when they leave the office or are away from their desktop or laptop. With a mobile application, your sales and support teams have more options for when and where they conduct business.
A properly designed mobile CRM app should only take seconds to update. Just to fire up a laptop or PC usually takes several minutes while a mobile device is always on. Mobile CRM can utilize those dead time moments that happen during our work day; that 1-minute break in a meeting, those 10 minutes waiting for an Uber or those 30 minutes while waiting to board a plane. These dead time moments can be significantly reduced when using a mobile CRM app.
2. Offering more real-time updates, mobile CRM apps keep us ahead of the curve
Many managers and business owners are running their business by looking in the rear view mirror. They review stats on a weekly or monthly basis. During that time things can and usually will change. Many organizations have CRM and it provides insight into detailed forecasts, performance and activity reports; however, something important is missing.
Try driving to a place you have never visited by looking at a map, last week. Hmm, not very easy, is it? Thankfully, we have instant access to maps, driving directions, and even real-time traffic reports. A properly designed mobile CRM app will take full advantage of your mobile device, including the GPS, camera, and voice entry, providing real time access to what’s happening in your business.
A properly designed mobile CRM app should be easy to use and take seconds to update. It should also provide recommended tasks and next steps. This will provide not only more real-time data; it will also increase the accuracy of that data, as most of us have short-term memory loss to yesterday’s—or last week’s—events.
3. Mobile CRM apps improve data accuracy
Almost every company tries to keep their CRM application up to date; unfortunately, many have failed. Keeping data accurate and up to date is not easy. One of the primary reasons for poor data is not aligning with how your users operate. This results in inaccurate and irregular CRM updates.
Users who don’t have access to mobile CRM will use hand-written notes, email, and other ways to track information. At some point, if you are lucky (or diligent), they’ll update that information into the system; however, these post interaction updates provide more chance for errors. Poor customer data is as bad as no customer data (just ask the Marketing team). With a mobile CRM system, users can enter information quickly and efficiently wherever they may be, reducing errors and contributing better data.
4. Customer service is improved through mobile CRM apps
We no longer live in a nine-to-five world. Customers expect instant access to and rapid responses from the companies they work with. When a customer has a complaint, there is a small window of time to respond before they get anxious – and now publicly on social media channels. Mobile CRM allows your users to quickly access relevant customer information and respond in a timelier manner, regardless of the time of day or their location. Without a mobile application for CRM, customers may have to wait hours or days for somebody to return to the office or gain access to their laptop, pull up the information, and respond to their query.
5. Mobile CRM apps produce more engaged users
There is a ton of research that proves employee satisfaction and commitment significantly impact a company’s success. Providing a great customer experience requires teamwork and the right tools to help users engage with customers. Tools and systems that are fast, easy to use, intuitive, flexible, and fit our mobile lifestyle are more likely to be used. These aspects are the primary factors in the huge growth and use of mobile apps.
Taking advantage of the popularity of mobile apps by extending them into your customer facing systems and processes results in higher CRM use and adoption. In our experience, a mobile CRM app is as necessary as email or phone; mobile CRM apps are one of the most powerful tools you can adopt for increasing sales and enhancing customer service.
6. Collaboration increases with mobile CRM apps
Providing mobile CRM apps increases collaboration across teams. It provides real-time insight into what is happening in the field and provides for quickly assigning tasks and asking colleagues for help. Cross-team collaboration improves by allowing Marketing to instantly distribute leads and follow up tasks to team members wherever they may be. Or, assume a critical customer service issue occurs while the account executive in traveling or at lunch. Instantly notifying of and assigning them to the issue results in faster response times. Faster response times result in happier customers, especially when critical issues arise. That is true efficiency at work.
Elevate the way you do business with mobile CRM apps
Mobile technology has significantly impacted our personal and professional lives. It has undoubtedly changed the face of business, creating new industries and business models, empowering customers, and opening new avenues to productivity and efficiency. Companies are rapidly adopting mobile technology and equipping their users with powerful mobile apps. Are you ready to take advantage of these powerful capabilities?
To learn more about how you can leverage Microsoft Dynamics CRM mobile apps in your organization, join us for a complimentary webcast, How Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile Apps Improve the Way We Do Business.
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