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The world of B2B can be a battleground, with customer needs on one front and operational challenges on the other. You're striving to provide impeccable service while grappling with the chaos of customer data and support requests.
If this daily struggle resonates with you, know you're not alone. B2B companies like yours deal with these challenges daily, and the solution may be closer than you think.
In this detailed guide, we'll explore CRM with help desk solutions, which can greatly help businesses like yours by making operations smoother and boosting customer satisfaction.
Before we dive into the finer details, let’s define what exactly a CRM help desk is.
A CRM with a help desk solution is a comprehensive software platform that combines the functionalities of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with those of a help desk. This integration equips businesses with the tools to not only manage and nurture customer relationships but also to provide efficient support and resolve issues effectively.
With this unified system in place, organizations gain the ability to effortlessly monitor customer interactions, extract valuable insights, and deliver outstanding customer service. This, in turn, fosters stronger customer loyalty and enhances operational efficiency.
Traditionally, CRM systems have been associated with sales and customer relationship management, while help desk systems have been regarded as technical support and customer service solutions.
Yet, in our ever-changing business landscape, these distinctions between the two systems have become increasingly blurred. The integration of CRM and help desk systems offers a holistic perspective on customer interactions across sales, service, and support, ultimately resulting in a more cohesive and satisfying customer experience.
The synergy of CRM and help desk systems provides a comprehensive view of customer interactions, making it easier to provide personalized and efficient service. Here’s how they complement each other:
Statistics show that 33% of customers get frustrated by having to repeat themselves to different customer service agents. Integrating CRM with the help desk solves this exact issue by providing businesses with a 360-degree view of their customers.
Customer service representatives can access a complete history of customer interactions, preferences, and feedback. This unified information helps in delivering personalized service and addressing customer issues more effectively.
Another benefit of using an integrated system is that it eliminates the silos between sales and customer service teams. With shared access to customer data, these teams can work together more efficiently. For example, sales can be aware of any ongoing service issues a customer might be facing, which can inform their sales strategy.
The most valuable data often lives within your CRM and ticketing tools. Yet, when you can harness the power of data from both these tools in tandem, it becomes a double win!
The amalgamation of customer data from both systems provides valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. These insights can guide business decisions, help prevent customer churn, and improve resource allocation while making your company more profitable.
Most importantly, by implementing the CRM help desk systems, you can ensure that every customer interaction is informed, efficient, and tailored to individual needs, thereby enhancing the overall customer experience and boosting customer loyalty.
A robust CRM help desk system should pack the following features as a standard:
First and foremost, a robust solution should consolidate data from sales and support touchpoints to enable a comprehensive view of customers. Having this data in one place allows you to understand customer preferences, purchase history, and communication interactions, enabling more personalized and effective customer service.
Data insights are invaluable for B2B companies. Studies demonstrate that data-driven organizations experience 30% annual growth. Look for a solution that offers robust reporting and analytics tools to help you track customer trends, measure team performance, and make informed decisions.
It’s not uncommon for your customers to engage with you via different channels. While you might have a preference for one, you can’t always control what your customers do.
A solid CRM help desk should centralize multiple channels, ensuring a consistent customer experience. This way, support agents can view all interactions in one place. Meanwhile, sales reps can dig into different support data points irrespective of the channel.
A study by Capterra discovered that 58% of U.S. companies regret at least one software purchase made in the past 12 to 18 months. Therefore, finding the right CRM help desk solution for your business shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Apart from doing the usual research into different vendors, you must also consider your company’s size, industry, budget, current technology infrastructure, and specific functional requirements. Here are a few key aspects to guide your decision-making:
Ensuring that your chosen integrated CRM help desk solution seamlessly integrates with your existing systems is crucial. Incompatibility can lead to data silos, inefficient workflows, and decreased productivity.
To mitigate this risk, carefully assess the compatibility of the CRM help desk solution with your current technology stack. Look for solutions that offer robust APIs and support for popular integrations.
For B2B companies aiming for growth, scalability is paramount. You don’t want to purchase another tool later down the line when your business grows. Thus, your CRM help desk solution should have the capacity to adapt to your evolving needs as your customer base expands.
Per the G2 2023 Software Buyer Behaviour Report, the top consideration for small businesses and enterprises when purchasing software is how easy the tool is to implement. And this certainly applies to the adoption of any CRM help desk.
Prioritize a user-friendly interface and intuitive features to prevent your team from spending excessive time learning the tool. Quick adoption leads to faster deployment (and faster results)!
Thena is an intuitive yet robust Slack-based B2B customer support tool, which can support teams of all sizes, ranging from small startups to larger corporations.
Thena consolidates requests from Slack, email, and the web into one unified hub. From there, you can efficiently assign, close, convert, and review incoming customer requests, providing truly omnichannel support across various communication channels.
In addition, Thena offers valuable insights into crucial customer service metrics, ensuring you're always on top of your game and consistently exceeding your customers' expectations. Our data reveals that Thena can reduce response times by an impressive 95%.
And we’re not done yet. Thena perfectly integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot CRM solutions, seamlessly transferring contextualized customer request data directly from Thena. This integration provides your sales team with a deeper understanding of your customers' history, including past issues, inquiries, and resolutions. What's even better? Setting up this integration is a breeze, meaning you can start benefiting from our tool immediately!
So, if you’re looking for a user-friendly help desk CRM solution, Thena might be a good option for you.
Zendesk offers a comprehensive CRM solution known as Zendesk Sell with integration options for its famous help desk software, Zendesk for Service. This combination provides end-to-end customer relationship management.
Sales teams can access customer support information right within the CRM, enabling them to provide personalized service and close deals more effectively. Zendesk's renowned help desk capabilities, including ticketing and multichannel support, complement Zendesk Sell's sales-focused features, making it a versatile choice for organizations looking to align their sales and support efforts.
Freshsales by Freshworks is a CRM tool that includes a help desk feature, Freshdesk, which can be seamlessly integrated. It's known for its user-friendly interface and automation capabilities.
This integration allows businesses to manage sales and support activities within a single platform. Sales teams can access customer support history, making it easier to address customer needs effectively. Freshsales also offers lead scoring, email tracking, and reporting, making it a valuable choice for organizations seeking an intuitive CRM and help desk combination.
HubSpot stands out as one of the most popular integrated CRM and help desk solutions. Within HubSpot's offerings, you'll find a powerful CRM complemented by the Service Hub feature. This integrated suite empowers you to oversee customer interactions, handle support tickets, and streamline task automation.
Once you have your CRM with the help desk running, you must ensure you make the most of it. Here are some practical tips to follow:
To maximize the benefits of your integrated CRM and help desk, align them with your account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. ABM focuses on personalized interactions with high-value accounts, and your CRM and help desk should be tailored to support this approach. Ensure that your customer data and support processes are in line with your ABM objectives, enabling you to deliver personalized and targeted assistance to key accounts.
One of the most valuable aspects of CRM and help desk integration is the wealth of data it collects. Use this data to inform your decision-making processes. Analyze customer interactions, support tickets, and feedback to identify trends, pain points, and areas for improvement.
Likewise, leverage data analytics to make informed decisions about product development, customer support strategies, and marketing campaigns. The insights gained from these data points can help you enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth.
Don't let your CRM help desk work in isolation. Make sure to connect with other vital systems in your business toolkit, like marketing automation, email marketing, and project management software.
When all your tools are under one roof, you can ensure that important data flows smoothly between departments, simplifying workflows and providing a unified perspective of customer interactions. Above all, linking all your systems together means you can offer a more comprehensive customer experience.
Integrated CRM help desk system can propel your business toward greater operational efficiency and a more customer-centric approach.
Make the leap today with Thena—the ultimate help desk solution within Slack. Try it at no cost.
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