In the last few years, the concept of CRM (Customer Relationship Management system) has evolved far beyond being just contact management or lead generation tool.
As we come to the end of the year and the start of 2022, let us have a close look at our top 20 predictions for CRM in 2022 and beyond.
CRM Trends for 2022
AI to become an integral part of CRM: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been positively impacting almost every industry and market segment. According to Gartner’s 2019 CIO Agenda survey, 14% of global CIOs have already deployed Artificial Intelligence. The numbers are expected to grow in 2022 and beyond.
Count of CRM barriers to fall drastically: According to LinkedIn State of Sales 2020, 97% of sales professionals consider sales technology “very important” or “important” and 65% of them use a CRM. In the times to come, the reservations and barriers associated with CRM are expected to fall drastically.
Social CRM will evolve: Social CRM, which is the integration of social media channels into CRM platforms, is likely to be embraced by small, medium, and large organisations like never before. It will help them incorporate more user feedback into their roadmap and build stronger relationships with existing and potential customers.
An all-star line-up of CRMs: Today, the market is full of CRM system options for and this growing competition will bring innovation to the table. The top CRM systems leading the ecosystem include Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, HubSpot, and Salesforce to name a few. More innovation is on the way.
Use of fewer tools: The surge in the count and availability of sophisticated CRMs and core tech tools have assisted sales, marketing, and customer service teams to use fewer tools than ever before. The trend is likely to continue.
Integration of CRM with Voice and conversational UI: According to Adobe's research on voice technology, 94% of users believe voice technology saves time while also improving the quality of life. 2022 is going to be no different.
CRM will stimulate more automation: Top CRMs are likely to offer a series of advanced automation tools and features to stay relevant to tech-savvy customers. CRM is likely to be more synonymous with automation in 2022.
High-definition, holistic view of customers: The selection of a powerful CRM and filling it with reliable and enriched data through other applications is likely to be the talk of the town in 2022.
Blend of CRM and IoT technologies: By 2025, our world is likely to have 64 billion IoT devices worldwide. CRM system providers are likely to utilise IoT for greater organisational capabilities, cost efficiencies, and supply chain visibility.
CRM for everyone: Traditionally, CRMs have been thought of as tools only for customer service and sales teams. Not anymore, times have changed and CRMs would become important and first-hand tools for everyone.
CRMs to keep getting more sophisticated: CRM users of today want more value from CRMs than just contact management, schedule/reminder creation, and interaction tracking. They also want customisation, sales automation, email marketing, reporting, and a central database.
CRM's customer experience to be as important as its features: More CRM providers are making serious efforts to up their customer experience game and others are likely to follow them soon.
Consumers to have more expectations: Organisations will spend more to ensure that all required customer data is accurate and quickly accessible so they can provide proactive and more consistent customer experiences.
CRM growth to come from new markets: A big majority of CRM buyers are from real estate, consulting, distribution, and insurance markets. In 2022, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, banking, and education are likely to dominate.
Millennials and Gen Z to embrace CRM: Millennials and Gen Z are likely to embrace CRM technologies in 2022 being more tech-centric and open to innovation.
Small organisations to embrace CRM: In 2022 and beyond, small organisations and even freelancers are likely to embrace CRM to juggle a busy pipeline, manage contact details, and stay connected with clients and other stakeholders.
Self-service via CRM will be standardised: Chatbots and other self-service options are likely to dominate 2022. They will help in generating more leads, identifying top prospects, arranging meets, asking questions, providing answers, and delivering more personalised content.
CRM will be bolstered with Analytics features: Out-of-the-box analytics features to identify problems, solutions, and opportunities using sophisticated analytics will be the norm.
XaaS - everything as a service: XaaS that includes any computing service paid for via a subscription instead of an upfront cost or delivered via the internet is likely to rule the market.
Better connected CRM systems: Today, CRM systems are more than just tools. In 2022, organisations are likely to give more authority to CRMs to connect all other tools and processes.
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