Written by: Victoria Yu
Victoria Yu is a Business Writer with expertise in Business Organization, Marketing, and Sales, holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.
Edited by: Sallie Middlebrook
Sallie, holding a Ph.D. from Walden University, is an experienced writing coach and editor with a background in marketing. She has served roles in corporate communications and taught at institutions like the University of Florida.
Updated on July 21, 2024
CRM software, or customer relationship management software, is lauded by many advisors as the future of business and customer relations. But how exactly does it benefit businesses? And what can we expect from CRMs in the future? To answer those questions, let’s look at 45 of the most recent CRM statistics in 2023 to objectively determine the true layout of the CRM industry and how the market might change in the future.
Key Takeaways
Customer relationship management (CRM) software tracks customer touchpoints and data in hopes of improving customer management and the customer experience.
CRM software is prolific across the world and in almost every industry, with market segments valued at billions of dollars each.
Rather than being accessed on-premises, CRMs are now increasingly being accessed through the cloud and mobile devices, reflecting the world’s shift to online workspaces and marketplaces.
Though CRM platforms could greatly improve a business’s customer experience, sales efficiency, and operations, the usefulness of a CRM system depends on how well its features and functionality match the needs of the individual CRM buyer’s business.
In the future, the CRM market is expected to grow regardless of market fluctuations and continuously improve, thanks to new AI technologies.
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of CRM, let’s start off with a description and overview of CRM.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is when a business tracks customer-company interactions and creates customer profiles so a company can derive data-driven insights and improve its customer experience through personalized interactions.
Though the term technically applies to all efforts to track and personalize customer experiences, CRM usually refers to a software solution platform that records, stores, presents, and manages all that data in one easily-accessible location.
As a customer progresses through the marketing, sales, and customer service departments on their sales journey, each of these departments use the CRM platform to manage customer accounts, tracking each customer’s progress, actions, and preferences. This breaks down information silos and gives businesses a comprehensive understanding of their customer journey and customer base, helping to shape overarching marketing strategies, individualized sales tactics, and personalized customer service interactions.
CRMs can also automate routine tasks in the sales process, thereby boosting employee efficiency.
On a micro level, companies aim to use CRMs to improve their sales conversions and customer retention by using the customer profiles within to personalize their messages and interactions with customers, appealing to them on a personalized level.
On a macro level, a company can also use its CRM to analyze its customer database to segment customers and improve its strategies with data-driven insights.
CRM solutions sound great, right? The rest of the world thinks so too, as shown by how quickly the global CRM industry is growing. A majority of organizations are already using CRM for sales and are looking to implement CRM technology to improve customer service and automation, as well.
Not all CRM vendors and consumers are made equal. The biggest merchant in the CRM industry is Salesforce, while the biggest consumer markets are large enterprises, retail companies, and North American businesses. However, other industries and countries are catching up, representing an opportunity for growth.
Though CRMs are currently most popular for distribution, engineering, and government organizations, specialized CRMs for unique industries such as healthcare and banking are also gaining traction. Conversely, industries that don’t focus on increasing revenue or don’t deal in physical products have been the slowest to adopt CRM technology.
Traditionally, CRM software was installed directly onto a company’s servers and could only be accessed on-premise. However, with the rise of remote workers and the digital marketplace, businesses are increasingly turning to cloud-based CRM platforms that can be accessed over wifi, as well as mobile CRMs that can be accessed through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. These cloud-based and mobile CRMs have been found to be more effective at sales enablement than traditional on-premise CRM solutions.
Though we gave a broad overview of what CRMs could do to help companies, what specific outcomes are businesses hoping for when they adopt a CRM platform?
In general, company demand for CRM tools is driven by customers’ increasing demands for more pleasant and personalized customer interactions and better customer service. Some other considerations are making sales processes more efficient and improving communications and analytics.
When shopping for the best CRM platform for their specific needs, companies often utilize buying groups of IT employees to make the decision, since IT employees often handle the day-to-day management of the CRM system. Beyond the CRM’s basic tools and features, these buying groups also consider the CRM system’s cost, data privacy compliance, user experience, and implementation support when making their purchase decisions. In other words, CRMs are judged by both what they can do and how easy it is to do it.
Though CRMs can provide amazing returns on investment and benefits when utilized properly, a majority of companies find their CRM systems to be poor fits with their business needs, requiring further research and effort before they can identify and implement a CRM solution that best suits them.
Though companies in 2023 fear a recession, it doesn’t seem to mean that they’re going to cut spending on CRMs – on the contrary, spending for information technology such as CRM platforms is expected to increase in the coming years.
As the CRM industry develops further, companies will contend with growing issues in safely utilizing all of the data they collect. However, they’re also poised to capitalize on new AI integrations into CRMs, such as Salesforce’s Einstein GPT, One AI’s solution for CRMs with multilingual capabilities, and HubSpot’s CHatSpot.ao content assistant.
Customer relationship management (CRM) has evolved enormously beyond simple Excel spreadsheets full of customer data. Now, the global CRM market is a multi-billion dollar industry spanning the world over and touching every facet of the business world.
Though many businesses are eager to implement CRMs, finding a suitable solution for each business’s needs is proving to be a struggle. Hopefully, as the market matures further and new technologies are introduced, the CRM industry will continue to grow and improve operations and customer satisfaction for all CRM buyers.
As CRMs become more and more commonplace in every industry, your company will likely have to adopt one in order to meet consumers’ rising customer service standards and stay competitive with businesses around you.
However, there’s no need to buy one right after forming your business. CRMs can cost anywhere from $10 to $100 per month per user for SMBs, so be sure that you have the cash flow to support your CRM before you even consider investing in one.
Some vendors of CRM software are HubSpot CRM, Salesforce CRM, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Zoho CRM.
When shopping for a CRM, consider what end goals you’re trying to achieve, and base your search around those aspects. For example, if you’re looking to improve your sales department, you could search for CRMs that aid in marketing automation, lead generation, and sales pipeline management.
Additionally, consider if you want an on-premise, cloud-based, or mobile CRM. The pricing structure for a CRM will vary depending on your deployment type as well as per vendor.
Thinking about the future of sales, customer service, and data analysis, it may also be wise to consider searching for a CRM with AI integration and capabilities.
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