Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software can be a game-changer for community banks and credit unions. It helps manage customer relationships, streamline operations, and improve communication. However, to truly reap the benefits, it's important to follow best practices that maximize CRM potential.
Here’s a quick guide to help you make the most of your CRM software.
1. Choose the Right CRM for Your Needs
Selecting the right CRM is crucial. Make sure the CRM you choose can scale with your organization and integrates easily with your existing tools. Look for a user-friendly interface with features tailored to financial institutions, such as core integration, loan workflows, transaction insights, and product and service displays.
Action item: If you are vendor shopping, consider the balance of cost, feature fit, and support responsiveness in your assessment.
2. Standardize Data Entry
Consistent data is key. Set clear rules for entering customer information and ensure all team members follow them. This will help prevent errors and ensure that everyone is working with accurate, up-to-date details.
Action item: If your CRM is integrated with your core, then that's where data consistency starts. However, make sure prospect data is entered mindfully into the CRM as well. This will help auto merging down the road.
3. Train Your Team
A CRM is only as effective as the people using it. Provide thorough, role-specific training so your team can use the CRM efficiently. Make sure they understand how to access and input the right information and how to use CRM tools to improve customer relationships.
Action item: Take advantage of pre-built materials from your CRM vendor for your training needs. Train all new employees and offer refresher sessions to all - make them required for employees who need more support.
4. Focus on Adoption over Enhancements
It's very easy to get distracted with enhancement ideas before you've gotten a good foundation built. Prioritize adoption in the early stages of your CRM launch and communicate regularly with employees/managers/departments on where they stand. If your CRM launch isn't successful and maintainable, then no enhancement in the world can get that back on track.
Take advantage of standard customizations available to tailor the CRM to your bank or credit union’s specific needs. Customize fields to capture relevant information, configure dropdown values to match with your terminology, set up workflows for common processes, and adjust dashboards to display important metrics. A CRM that reflects your internal language will be much more effective.
Action item: Stay up to date with your CRM vendor's release notes and new features. You probably have out of the box features that you aren't using! You should absolutely pursue high impact customizations or features with your CRM vendor - when the time is right, but make sure you are using the out of the box solution robustly first.
5. Segment and Personalize Data
Segment your members and customers based on their needs and behaviors, such as loan types, account balances, or financial goals. This allows you to send personalized offers, financial advice, and targeted communication, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Action item: Segmentation is only useful if it is actionable. Reverse engineer this for what you want people to do with each segment.
6. Monitor Key Metrics
Track important performance indicators (KPIs) such as loan growth, account closures, customer satisfaction, and engagement. Regularly monitor these metrics to gain insights into areas for improvement and ensure your team is meeting goals. A CRM is an important tool in your belt to achieve your goals.
Action item: Do your CRM admins know who hasn't logged into the CRM in 2 weeks?
7. Encourage Collaboration
CRM is a shared tool, and collaboration is key. Encourage communication between teams—whether sales, customer service, or marketing—so everyone has and uses the latest customer insights. This helps provide a seamless, consistent experience for your members.
Action item: Ask employees to share how another departments CRM efforts helped them do their job better. Had a personal banker made a note on a client that helped back office provide better customer service? Share these success stories internally!
Conclusion
A CRM can be a powerful tool for community banks and credit unions, helping improve customer relationships, streamline operations, and drive growth. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your CRM software is being used to its full potential and ultimately create a better experience for your members.