3 Ways Dynamics 365 CRM Empowers Your Team to Do More

With Dynamics 365 CRM, we all want to accomplish more in less time. While we all would enjoy more personal time, this same principle also applies in business. Who wants to spend their time filling out paperwork, entering data, sending out reminders, or other “busy work” that seems to eat up a great deal of time but with a less-than-ideal return on that effort?

While serving the needs of your customers, you can easily get caught up in those time traps. What is worse, these difficulties are compounded as workers in various departments struggle to collaborate and accomplish their objectives because of a breakdown in communication between departments. Without a unifying system in place, each department begins to function as its entity, even hoarding its data, limiting access, and creating obstacles to achieving excellent customer service.

This is a need that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is designed to fill. When implemented and leveraged properly, it can be a powerful tool that unites your team and enables them to delight your customers. It can make everyone’s life a lot easier and reveal new ways to improve the sales process and even help you discover new opportunities. Let’s take a look at a few ways CRM, and specifically Microsoft Dynamics 365, empowers your team to do more.

What is CRM, and Why Should You Choose Dynamics 365 CRM?

CRM automates and streamlines your entire customer service pipeline, including sales, marketing, customer relations, and field service. The goal is to improve relations with your customers to grow your business. Admittedly, when you have hundreds, even thousands, of customers, it isn’t easy to stay in touch with them all, nor make them feel individually cared for. CRM aims to reach that goal – to help you create excellent customer experiences.

There are many options in the CRM space. At CogentNext, we firmly believe Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the best in the business – and quite likely a good fit for your needs. Let’s see some of the reasons we came to that conclusion.

Modular approach, flexible licensing. One thing is certain: No two companies – even within the same industry – have identical business processes and requirements. So by extension, one CRM solution doesn’t fit the needs of every business.

Many will remember the days of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. But today, Microsoft’s CRM offering has been developed into four distinct applications: Dynamics 365 Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Field Service. This allows you to select the core functionality you need while not having to pay for features you won’t use. Yet it also provides you with an option to grow into that functionality when you do need it. These four apps operate together seamlessly, forming a cohesive CRM experience.

Customizable and Extensible. Dynamics 365 has a plethora of configuration options, out-of-the-box, that enable you to adapt the software to your specific needs. Many of these require no development experience! However, for more specific requirements that go beyond the scope of simple configuration, there are powerful Microsoft development tools and technologies under the hood to accomplish anything you can dream up. Also, it is easy to integrate with third-party systems, such as email marketing, surveys, websites, financials, membership databases, and more. You have several pre-built solutions available via Microsoft AppSource as well.

Dynamics 365 shines as a cloud-native solution; however, you can also deploy it on-premises. You have complete control and can choose deployment and customization options that best fit your budget, resources, and requirements.

But, you may ask, how will Dynamics 365 make us more productive and save time?

• • Centralized data, powerful insights. Dynamics 365 is a powerful, extensive system that allows you to pull data from departmental silos into one central database that everyone can access. Having your customer data in one place allows you to perform powerful analytics and create accurate, up-to-date reports that can help your sales staff identify the best prospects and prioritize opportunities. It also helps your marketing staff distinguish trends that help to tailor your advertising communications, offers, social media posts, and other marketing collateral to your target demographic, sending the right messages at the right times and through the right channels for maximum impact.
  • Power BI, Microsoft’s data analysis tool, works natively with Dynamics 365 to enable beautiful data visualizations, helping sales agents and management alike to make data-driven decisions.
  • Powerful Customer Access. Customers are unique individuals; each one has their preferences. Some prefer to communicate via email, some prefer to call, and still, others communicate via social media platforms. Dynamics 365 allows you to manage customer interactions through any channel, on any device, giving your customer freedom while providing you with control. Additionally, customers frequently have routine requests. At peak times, this can bog down your customer relations staff. Dynamics 365 can be configured to give your customers access to more information, allowing them, for example, to check pricing, order status, order history, and more, helping them feel empowered to make purchasing decisions. In the Field Service arena, customers can even schedule appointments to accommodate their preferences and availability – and the system handles the internal scheduling for you automatically.
  • Service excellence. Dynamics 365 uses AI-powered technologies to help you analyze your processes and customer interactions, identifying ways to provide better service and reduce costs. You also have a 360-degree view of each customer, enabling your representatives to provide personalized experiences.

In the field, technicians have tools to improve the quality of service, shorten resolution times, and earn customer trust. Automated scheduling tools, as mentioned before, even assist in matching technician skills to the needs of each service request, ensuring the highest rates of success.

Next Steps

As you can see, there are many compelling reasons to implement a CRM system – and especially Microsoft Dynamics 365. But it can be a daunting task to deploy a company-wide system. What is more, without experienced help, there are many pitfalls in the process and many optimizations that one could miss.

At CogentNext, we specialize in adapting Dynamics 365 to the unique requirements of each of our clients. Our experts have years of experience implementing systems for businesses just like yours. Our success depends on yours – we’re driven to see you succeed!

Contact us now, and let’s talk about a partnership that can bring your business to the next level.

By Chandra Subramanian, CogentNext Technologies