• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 22, 2022

Most brands feel that they are providing a good customer experience. But it depends on the quality of their CRM system and how well it is aligned between sales, marketing and customer service, judging by Choosing the Right CRM to Align Teams, a study by Ascend2 and Insightly. 

Of those polled, only 18% say they are providing an exceptional experience. But 41% say they are exceeding expectations, and 33% that they are meeting them. Only 6% feel they need improvement. 

At the same time, 62% are somewhat satisfied with their current CRM solution, and 21% are extremely satisfied. But 15% are somewhat unsatisfied, and 2% are extremely unhappy. 

Managers and directors list these complaints about their CRM solutions:

• Missing/inadequate features — 29% 
• Difficult to customer/coding required — 28%
• Initial or ongoing costs — 27%

VPs and executives have their own gripes about their solutions: 

• Lack of scalability — 27%
• Initial or ongoing costs — 26%
• Missing/inadequate integrations — 25%

Moreover, it’s tough to align technology and customer data across all the teams. Some 54% say they are mostly succeeded at it, and 19% say they are exceeding totally.

But it's worth doing — 36% with completely aligned technology and data saw a significant increase in revenue last year, compared to 14% that saw less aligned firms. And 43% of those with total alignment delivered an exceptional customer experience, versus 11% of the less-aligned companies. 

Most have not brought in a new system recently. They have had their solutions for:

• 1-3 years — 51% 
• 4 years — 38%
• Less than one year — 11%

In general, brands face these challenges when implementing a new CRM:

• Training time — 43% 
• Integrating existing systems — 40%
• Data migration — 37%
• Complexity — 31%
• Time/expense for customization — 30% 
• Disruption to business — 25%
• Adoption — 24%
• Ongoing support/training new hires — 24%

Failure to overcome these hurdles can result in: 

• Employee frustration — 51%
• Wasted staff time — 44%
• Missed opportunities for revenue — 42%
• Poor customer experience — 38% 
• Wasted budget — 35%
• Tension between teams — 26%

The study divides respondents into four groups: Sales, marketing and customer service. Email features are among the CRM  tools deemed most essential by respondents on the marketing and customer success teams:

Marketing

• Dashboard views/reporting & analytics — 33%
• Email sending/tracking — 29%
• Document management — 28% 

Customer Success

• Document management — 41%
• Dashboard views/reporting & analytics — 30% 
• Email sending/tracking — 29%  

However, the sales department feels these functions are most important: 

And Sales/Rev/Mar Operations units see these capabilities as critical:

• Dashboard views/reporting & analytics — 34% 
• Document management — 33% 
• Security (e.g. SOC compliance, encryption, 2FA) — 28%

What kind of tech are brands using to manage customer relationships? They are deploying: 

• Small business CRM (free or low cost) — 21% 
• Mid-market CRM — 25%
• Enterprise CRM — 14%
• Spreadsheets — 17%
• Internally developed tool/system — 15% 
• No formal tool — 8% 

Whatever the obstacles, a good CRM system delivers many benefits:  

• Better customer data (quality/completeness) — 44% 
• More organization/streamlined processes — 43%
• Higher sales/faster growth — 40%
• Improved customer experiences — 36%
• Better customer retention—32%
• Higher quantity of leads — 27%
• Improved velocity — 26%
• Reduced manual effort — 23%

Brands implanting a new CRM face these challenges: 

• Training time — 43%
• Integrating existing systems — 40%
• Data migration — 37%5 
• Complexity — 31% 
• Disruption to business — 25 %
• Adoption — 24%
• Ongoing support/training new hires—24%

What are the most essential integrations into their CRM systems? They are: 

• QuickBooks — 44%
• ADP — 27%
• WordPress — 24%
• Shopify — 23%
• Workday — 21% 
• Slack — 20% 
• ZoomInfo — 19%
• Asana — 10%
• Jira — 9% 
• Magento — 9% 

And the future?  The respondents cite these strategic priorities for the year ahead:  

• Growing revenue — 72%
• Improving the customer experience  —55%
• Reducing costs — 42% 
• Growing staff — 31%
• Improving/unifying customer data — 30% 
• Aligning departments — 17%

Ascend2 surveyed 511 professionals in April 2022. They work I B2B organizations with 50-500 employees. They were from these industries: Banking/Financial services (7%), Business/Professional services (20%), Government/Public Sector/Education (6%), Healthcare/Pharma/BioTech (7%), Manufacturing/Retail/Wholesale (24%), Telecom/Energy/Utilities (2%), Technology/IT (12%), Technology/IT (12%), Transportation/Logistics (3%), Other (19%)