Customer Relationship Management is the way companies interact with their customers professionally. Since its introduction, CRM has transformed the world of business and simplified interactions, automation, marketing, support, and other companies’ divisions. Microsoft CRM software has seen rise in adoption by organizations.
One of the most prominent CRM software is Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Like other software solutions, Microsoft has created an adequate software that helps companies take a holistic view of their business and manage everything from one platform.
If you plan to use Microsoft CRM software for your business or are using it already, this post contains some hidden treasures for you. We will discuss and explain the top features of this CRM and how to use it effectively for your business.
What is Microsoft CRM used for?
Microsoft Dynamics CRM has always been marketed as an XRM platform, but Microsoft has promoted the customization capabilities using the (.NET) framework offered.
The principal purpose of Microsoft CRM is to boost sales revenue and improve marketing and customer support operations efficiencies.
Microsoft has been adding features and functionalities in the CRM every year. Now it is a robust software powered by functions like business intelligence, social insights, and several other features.
You can easily access the functions using mobile applications and tablets also. All the devices and members of your organization are present in the same ecosystem, and you can access everything with the click of a button.
Understanding the Dynamics CRM categories
Before we dive into the features and understand how these are used, it is imperative to comprehend CRM categories.
So, Microsoft Dynamics CRM comes in two variants, which are the Online and On-premise versions.
CRM online version
Microsoft Dynamics CRM online is the cloud-based version of the CRM provided by Microsoft. All the licenses, databases, customizations, and other kinds of data are hosted on Microsoft’s servers.
This is one of the best solutions for small to medium scale companies that do not want to get into the technicalities of integrations and software management.
You can practically get started instantly and actually integrate everything with your system in a short period.
The model of commercials is subscriptions based, so you will just have to pay according to your company employees’ strength.
Some of the key factors and features in the online version of Microsoft CRM software are these –
- There is a limit to the customizations and extensions when compared to the on-premise version
- Backups are an integral part of every company, and Microsoft helps you fulfill this need with daily backups of data. However, you cannot initiate backups on your own as is available in the on-premise version
- The subscription plans vary on the amount of data you will be consuming
Is Microsoft Dynamics CRM free ?
One of the biggest USP of the online version is that you get all the added features like social sharing, insights, and others for free which is not the case in the on-premise version.
The on-premise version of the software
The on-premise version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a robust and multi-functional software that helps multiple large corporations empower their operations.
It comes with all the customizations, deployments, data options, backups, and all other features. This option is generally preferred by large corporations and companies that prefer hosting all their data and software in-house for various reasons.
Some of the factors and things to consider are:
- Unlike the online version, setting up the on-premise version takes time and technical expertise. Initially, you will have to set up the integration with your company software
- It is bundled with customizations, and you can practically change any feature to suit the needs of your company
- You can perform manual backups at any point of time and also customize the timings
- There is no limit on the data storage, and you have to manage your own servers which decreases the costing in the larger scale
- Updates of the application need to be installed manually every time
- The costing structure, in this case, varies according to the features that you use. Adding extra features like social listening, insights, analytics, etc. attracts additional costs
Top features of Dynamics 365 for customer management
First, you must understand that apart from the advanced features, It helps you automate almost all the tasks in your business special sales process automation.
The CRM will give you constant insights into the processes in your company. Customer service is one of the divisions which works best when managed using an intelligent CRM system like Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
How Microsoft CRM software helps manage and align different divisions of your company
Aligning the sales and marketing division
Sales and marketing form the backbone of any organization. Aligning the operations together and studying the progress in every step is imperative to any company’s growth.
There are several things in which CRM helps you increase efficiency in the sales and marketing process, and the main ones are –
- You can automate the process of communication with customers and prospects by building funnels and also test them alongside
- Automate the messaging strategy and even set custom and set times to deliver messages to a particular set of people
- You can segregate the leads that you get from the marketing team according to different filters
- Every step of the customer acquisition process starting from lead generation to onboarding can be automated, and you can do constant testing so that you are improving systems at all the times
Dynamics 365 Improves the processes in the sales department
The world of selling is continuously changing, and progressing in the modern age is only possible with your side’s power of technology.
Moreover, Some of the key features that help you improve the sales process in your company are –
- Prediction using the analytics becomes very easy, and you can predict workloads and budgets well in advance
- You can segregate all the functions of the sales procedure and get to know which one needs improvement to increase sales
- Have a centralized data point where all the members in your company can access the information at any moment. You can also monitor the flow of information and other analytics at the same time
Streamlining the customer service division
Customer service is one of the most challenging divisions for a lot of companies. You need to evaluate and improve the system to grow continually.
Some of the critical factors in this division are –
- Microsoft CRM software is compatible with all the devices so all your customers and employees can access the CRM on all the devices
- You can create a user-friendly portal for your customers which can be customized to any level, and your customers and prospects can easily find answers to all your questions
Using insights and data for business development
The best part of a CRM is that it helps you analyze the data that you generate daily. All this data can be used to predict the future course of action and improvise systems.
Some of the notable features with this regard are –
- You can track all your customer’s past sales history and segregate sets of your customers based on their behavior
- You can offer specific benefits to the best collection of your customers to further build loyalty
- This data is often used to predict future sales and work on the customers who are most likely to buy from you
- Make separate funnels and messages for distinct groups of prospects and customers
Bringing everything together on one platform
Microsoft Dynamics 365 business central brings everything under one umbrella gives you operational and administrative powers. You can manage things more efficiently, and even employees can have easy access to resources.
Some of the ways in which Microsoft Dynamics CRM unites the processes are –
- You can build customized dashboards for every member of the team which will display information based on analytics and business intelligence
- All the data in your company is centralized and can be easily accessed by all the people who have access to it
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM can easily be integrated with your custom or any other software
Using the information to improve customer interactions further
The best way to beat your competition is by giving a personalized and unique experience to your customers. This is only possible if you automate most parts of the conversation and study the data to improve your systems.
Some of the factors of Microsoft Dynamics CRM that help you achieve this are –
- You can easily create customized messages for a specific set of customers
- Study the data of customer response and choose the best methods according to customer preference among email, social media, text, phone or any other
- You can customize the customer portal which everyone can use to create tickets which can be answered by any method
- You can make accessible contact forms which can be collected and processed on automation
Conclusion
These are just the top features on a broader scale, which you can use to improve your company’s systems. There is no end to the amount of customization and automation that you can do with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
If you are looking for a strategic and experienced Microsoft dynamics consultant who can help you set up and integrate Microsoft Dynamics CRM for your business, Contact Us to know more about our integration plans.
We have been helping companies ranging from startups to large corporations with CRM integrations. We make sure to give you an ROI driven approach in which we help you set up processes professionally so that you are in the best position to disrupt your Industry!
