Bringing in Mobile Technology into eCRM with Mobile Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management manages the existing as well as the probable customers of a company. It goes much beyond by instilling confidence in a client by exhibiting efficiency in the various functions and the workflow of the company. With support from smart, new age technology like mobile devices to automate and integrate various lifecycles of the company the CRM is evolving into a completely new mobile Customer Relation Management or mobile CRM.

Businesses go full force on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to office or workplace then why not a new concept - Do Business with Your Own Device (DBYOD)? For employees in the field, or stationed outside the workplace, or employees on the move keeping up the relations with the customers using their own devices is not only logical, it is the call of the day.

Mobile CRM takes Customer Relation Management to the next level by enabling the employees, especially the ones out on the field by interacting with the customers in a completely new way on the go.

The ease of setting roles and defining security features for groups of users makes it easy for each employee to interact with the customer from wherever, whenever using the CRM system with own device. Typically such users could be from various departments or sections of the company.

Sales Department Field Force Service People Marketing Personnel Mid-Level Management Core Management

Desirable Features of a Mobile CRM

The feature list for a Mobile CRM can turn overwhelming and at times complicated enough. But being practical is the mantra for the day. The quite simple and common sense based feature list proves to be useful and relevant making it acceptable to all. Security

Safety measures become a 3 fold process when it comes to designing a mobile CRM.

Device Safety

Mobile Device Management policies should be implemented and integrated as a part of the CRM to monitor and safeguard the devices in- house and on the field.

Safety of Data Keeping the data of the business as well as that related to the

customers safe using the various verification techniques and secure communication protocols requires due importance.

User Administration

There has to be a co-ordinated effort for implementing security and keeping the user roles and profiles in mind.

Creation of users, their roles, hierarchies and mapping of rights requires a lot of insight and efforts.

Constant monitoring through an Administration panel in the back office

should be integrated into a prudent workflow.

Ease of Deployment

An efficient mobile CRM like any other system has to be easily implementable

and understandable.

Since users of diverse abilities and purposes are to use such a system, a simple and lucid set up attracts acceptance. Usability and relevance of these

systems are very important as well. The CRM should be easy to comprehend and use by all levels of users.

Friendly UIs for a Great UX

It is very important that a good User Experience is rolled out to the direct and the indirect users of the system. The direct users would be the employees themselves and the indirect users obviously would mean the customers.

Modern day mobile CRMs entice the customers into the workflow along with the employees to generate cohesiveness.

The UX should bear in mind that the various devices used by the field workforce would not be PCs or desktops. Taking full advantage of a modern day device requires insightful designing of the UX.

Native experiences and Cross platform experiences should be as uniform as possible.

Certain special capabilities of the mobile devices have to be further put to use to be able to make the best out of the mobile CRM or the mobile eCRM.

Photo and Video Captures Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Voice Recordings

Technology as the Guide

A contemporary mobile CRM is the one which blends in the ever increasing array of devices into the system. Sounds simple but is really tough with the ever increasing combinations of hardware like the smartphones and tablets besides the traditional laptops with platforms like iOS, Android, Windows Phone or even Blackberry.

An efficient system takes care of native CRMs as well as cross platform CRMs as available and rolls out uniformity.

A mobile CRM needs to be able to give the freedom to its user to choose their own devices and platforms rather than bogging them down with limitations and restrictions.

The smartphones, the tablets, iPads and quite soon even the smart watches

have to be there.

Smart Data Synchronization & Clouds Data synchronization and database sharing takes a completely new turn with

Cloud technologies making their mark across devices and technologies.

Deploying multi-user, multi-device systems becomes smooth and simple with a storage compatible across devices, platforms and users.

And Finally, Multichannel Customer Engagement Has the Last Word

This is the latest buzzword in this relatively young technology. Engage the Customer, create customer relations on multiple channels right from social media to the stable websites and finally the app based CRMs on the mobile devices of the customers themselves. The driving forces of modern day technology applications, are set to metamorphose the mobile CRMs into the more powerful app based CRMs.