How to improve CRM management with business intelligence tools

Consumers have near infinite choices when it comes to every kind of product and service imaginable. One of the best ways for a company or organization to stand out is in how they build relationships with their customers.

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms have been around for decades, gaining wide use in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They provide databases specifically designed for recording customer information and tracking interactions — everything needed for more personalized engagement. But by their very nature, CRMs create another problem: the challenge of customer data management. That’s exactly what the new generation of artificial intelligence-powered business intelligence tools are designed to help with.

How business intelligence tools improve CRM management

Business tools are any kind of software or technology platform that makes it easier to manage business functions. Business intelligence tools use AI to take their capabilities to new heights. Here’s what to expect from purchasing business intelligence tools for CRM management: 

Streamlining data capture and entry

CRMs don’t offer much value without customer data. Traditionally, sales team members and other workers had to manually enter this data. AI-powered business intelligence tools can streamline this process by extracting data from intake documents, automatically categorizing it, and plugging it into the correct database fields. Later, AI can extract this information from databases and automatically plug it into other documents for faster marketing and sales processes.

Improving response times

Customers want companies to address their problems quickly. Business intelligence tools equipped with natural language processing can actually detect the intent of emails, texts, and social media posts, without the need for a human to review them. This allows the user to quickly send an appropriate response, improving customer satisfaction, and minimizing the work needed from customer success staff.

Structuring data

Customer data extends beyond identifiers like their name and email address — it encompasses every single interaction they have with a company and even their digital behavior. Unfortunately for companies, of the massive volume of customer and consumer data generated each day, an estimated 80% to 90% of it is unstructured, which is impossible for most CRMs to manage.

Manually organizing all their customer data would bankrupt even the biggest companies. Business intelligence tools do the heavy lifting of sifting through endless data and converting it into useful information that’s captured in the CRM. AI can extract information from sales logs, customer support notes, and website browsing history to structure data around last purchase dates, lifetime customer value, and product interest that can then be used for more direct sales and marketing efforts.

Enabling data analysis

Even when data is structured, the sheer volume of it can be so overwhelming that it’s impossible for strategists to find patterns or any actionable insight. In this case, managers can leverage AI to analyze the data for them. The insight provided by AI can even inform predictive behavior models. Using individual customer data and comparing overall trends, marketers can develop models that predict how likely a customer will be to respond to a sale or how likely they are to buy a particular product.

When doing a business intelligence tools comparison, look for those that automate data capture and structuring — the most time consuming aspects of CRM management. To make the most of this data capture, you should also verify that the tool integrates with your existing CRM. Tools like Automation Hero, for example, connect seamlessly with CRM platform Salesforce to automate mundane tasks like web scraping, data entry, and customer request replies, saving users as much as one hour per day.

With so much competition in the marketplace, customer satisfaction is one of the most important metrics any company can focus on improving. This hinges upon timely responses, tailored outreach, and relevant offers, which can only happen with well-managed data. As digital experiences become the de facto way companies interact with their customers, effective data management will become synonymous with improving customer satisfaction. Schedule a free trial of Automation Hero and see what our platform can do for you.