The TM Group, Inc. - 5 ways CRM can help companies increase employee performance

Are your employees struggling to hit their goals? Do they look uninspired or depressed? If this is the case, think about adopting a CRM (customer relationship management) tool such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. It’s the perfect way to solve these two common problems. It can also do the following:

Strengthen communication
Employees want to receive feedback on how well they’re performing and if their team or department is hitting benchmarks. Managers, however, will struggle to accomplish this if they don’t have accurate information in front of them.

A CRM solution allows managers to:

• Access accurate data: If managers provide employees with false information, the latter will make wrong decisions, which could ultimately impact their company’s bottom line.
• Respond quicker: Managers are constantly bombarded with questions and requests. A fully integrated CRM solution enables managers to quickly respond because they’re able to access information pertaining to sales, marketing, financials, inventory and more all from a single portal.
• Communicate regularly: Gallup reported that when companies always talk about their strong points, employees follow suit and use their strengths too. Managers that can quickly extract critical data can meet with employees more regularly to discuss not only their strengths, but the company’s and employee’s too.
• Eliminate data silos: Data silos are repositories of data in a company that are cut off from other departments. This could happen because employees refuse to share the information with others or because they don’t have an easy, efficient way to do so. A CRM solution can be used as a single source of truth and completely eliminates data silos because all pertinent data can be stored in one system that can be accessed by anyone.
• Field a mobile staff: Mobile staffs will find it difficult to operate if they’re not able to regularly communicate with colleagues in their office. As we’ll discuss in a bit more detail shortly, many CRMs can connect to mobile devices with cloud capabilities, allowing mobile teams to easily update the program.

Increased solution integration
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales can sync with Microsoft Outlook, enabling employees to access their tasks, contacts, emails, calendars and appointments. Why is this important?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales lets you send an email to a client from one integrated CRM/Outlook solution. Prior to using Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Outlook, this email sat in its own silo. No one could automatically access that information besides the sender and receiver. For other employees to read the email, they’d have to be copied or request access to it, and that takes time. Microsoft Dynamics 365 allows other employees to view that information, which reduces mistakes, and increases efficiency, accuracy and productivity.

Boosted flexibility 
More than ever before, companies are letting their employees bring their own devices to work. In a study conducted by TechPro Research, the latter found that roughly 44 percent of companies allowed BYOD, and close to 20 percent of them were going to allow the practice in the 12 months following their participation in the study.

BYOD often includes wearable solutions, such as watches or headsets, and TechPro Research found in a separate study that although most companies have yet to integrate these into their operations, 50 percent of them are aware of wearables in the workplace.

Typically, companies can link CRMs to BYOD and mobile devices. In fact, this is what makes CRMs unique – they can usually be updated in real time, allowing field employees to more accurately record data. In turn, managers can easily extract and evaluate these analytics to make high-level business decisions.

Enhanced intranet and internal marketing
Companies need to understand that internal branding is often the foundation upon which external branding is built. When employees love their jobs, they’re more likely to feel inspired and produce better work.

It’s difficult, however, to internally brand when – as we mentioned before – silos exist. Because a CRM allows for a more natural flow of information from one side of the office to the other, companies can build up their intranet, regularly distribute business newsletters and even put on more informative presentations that excite employees.

Improved accountability
Companies shouldn’t spy on their employees, but they should evaluate their performance based on accurate data. And, as you’ve probably guessed already, a CRM solution is the perfect way to improve employee accountability.

Employees are more likely to send professional, friendly and quality emails to clients if they know management has access to them. Further, management can keep a better eye on other data, such as that pertaining to sales leads and opportunities. This can help them better evaluate sales and marketing employees.

Conclusion
Employees are the life blood of every company. That’s why management needs to do everything in their power to help their workers improve. They can start by letting them use a robust CRM system like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales.