What Does a CRM Manager Do

If you know NetHunt, you know that customer relationship management is our thing.

Imagine if our CRM system, NetHunt CRM, was a walking, talking human being. Phwoar. They’d be gorgeous. Simple. Organised. Loyal. Always there when you need, and somewhere else when you don’t.

But despite how much I pray for it, our lovely CRM isn’t human; it never will be. It’s somewhere, floating in the clouds; a thing, but not an actual thing. Alas, we can’t automate your next girlfriend… yet. But we can let you in on a little secret. Human CRMs already exist!

They’re called Customer Relationship Management Managers. What? Exactly. Don’t worry, because as usual we’ve got the answers you’re looking for. We can’t promise you that they’ll be gorgeous, organised, or loyal; but we can tell you what to look for when you’re hiring your next CRM Manager.

What is a CRM Manager?

It’s a job. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Manager is an employee that specialises in local, customer interactions within an enterprise; they implement and maintain the systems that manage your customer relationships.

One happy customer can be a cash cow for your business. Regardless of your industry, a happy customer should always be the end goal. A happy customer comes back for more in the future; a really happy customer tells their friends to buy your product or services.

A CRM manager can help your business understand its customers better and make them happier. They should understand each customer’s needs, wishes, and dreams; they should understand the value your business can deliver to them. They should hear, acknowledge, and act on their problems and make sure that these problems never happen again.

What is in a CRM Manager’s Job Description?

A CRM manager’s job is to keep customers happy. The scope of their operations and their methods for getting to this end vary from company to company. Our list below outlines some of the most basic, common day-to-day jobs that a CRM manager can find themself doing.

• Planning and delivering CRM strategies to increase loyalty and retention across a company.
• Deciding on the structure of a chosen CRM platform structure and ensuring it works seamlessly across each arm of an organisation.
• Ensuring the CRM platform captures all required information at key points in the customer cycle.
• Mapping customer journeys by analysing touch points along a pipeline and maximising commercial opportunities with this information.
• Overseeing direct communication with customers through a chosen CRM system and resolving customer complaints quickly.
• Monitoring and maximising customer lifetime value strategies ensuring maximum profitability.
• Segmenting customer databases and maintaining lists of segmented customers.
• Identifying new leads and target audiences to optimise ROI.
• Migrating different communication channels to more effective, cost-worthy ones.
• Developing strategies for testing all aspects of a CRM and making sure the most effective approach to customer relationships is always taken.
• Bringing departments together and maintaining high levels of cooperation between them.
• Knowing your competition and strategising accordingly.
• Acknowledging individual customer concerns and needs and then catering to them.

Now, that’s customer relationship management!

What Qualities Does a CRM Manager Need?

They need a lot of different qualities. As you can see, CRM managers have their work cut out for them. They should be blessed with the ability to balance their time between solving customer requests and streamlining communication processes. A CRM manager requires cross-department cooperation to be successful in their job. Apart from the obvious communication skills, project management skills, and a process-focussed approach to different tasks, a CRM manager generally needs skills across different areas to get the job.

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE

Generally, a CRM Manager should have obtained a bachelor’s degree in marketing, IT, PR, business administration, economics, finance, or any other related field. In the absence of a degree, they should have had extensive working experience and proof of success in one or several of these fields. Most companies advertise for their candidates to have a bachelor’s degree and three years of experience in CRM.

MANAGEMENT skills

A CRM manager should have a natural tendency to lead both people and projects. They must be able to communicate on a customer level, an employee level, and on a basic human level. They must take a logical approach to problem solving, be super attentive to the finest details of what customers are asking, and be somewhere near immune to stress.

ANALYTICAL and CREATIVE skills

People who can analyse data to understand customer behaviour and to evaluate a wide-range of processes have strong enough analytical abilities to be a CRM manager. On the contrary, they must also be creative enough to create content, to send eye-catching email campaigns, and to work with social media.

What Tools Does a CRM Manager Use?

Well, a CRM system of course. If a CRM manager is well-versed enough in the world of CRM, they’ll have the knowledge-base to choose a CRM that fits a business’s exact niche. That’s no mean feat, when we take into account that the CRM market is the largest software market in the world and is expected to top $85bn by 2025.

• In the real estate biz? Check out how CRM can help your business, and then check out which three systems are perfect for you!

If you’re feeling a little bit more flexible than a niche CRM system, look no further than NetHunt CRM. Our CRM system is built inside Gmail, offering a fully-fledged CRM dashboard inside your inbox. Our simple but powerful CRM system is completely intuitive and flexible to fit exact business needs and niches. We’ve got all sorts of different industries hooked on simple data migration, automated LinkedIn lead generation, complete customer context, and automated pipelines!

• In fact, we’re really into LinkedIn lead generation at the moment. Check out our recent webinar where Anastasia told us everything we need to know about it!

Psst! There’s some whispers going around the internet that we’re actually the best CRM for small business.

What Else Should I Know?

You should have a clear idea in your head about your ideal CRM manager. They’re smart, organised, analytical, creative, born to lead, and bothered to listen. You should see gaps in your company, exactly where a CRM Manager is going to fit into your business. You might even have somebody in mind to give the top job to, great. Just make sure they’re aware of the following things before you start throwing promotions around.

• Despite how tempting it is to automate everything within your business and put your feet up, it’s dangerous. The human touch is a highly-coveted asset in modern business. Full automation spells bad news.

Find out everything you need to know about sales automation, here!

• CRM is a far-reaching term, no matter which company it is applied to. Regardless of whether your business concerns collecting money, manufacturing goods, or selling products, it will definitely benefit from a more balanced, dedicated approach to customer relationship management.
• Perfecting your customer relationship management doesn’t happen overnight; it doesn’t happen with the recruitment of one employee. Instead, it’s important to build a culture of maintaining customer relationships across every aspect of a business.

Learn about how to align your sales and marketing teams for the benefit of your customers, here!

• Short term isn’t the aim of the game here, nor is an immediate impact. Patience is essential as you build, train, and breed good customer relationship management within your business.
• Using more refined approaches to CRM, your CRM manager will be able to customise the trade cycle for each individual client. As a result, the chances of closing a deal are much, much greater.
• Having a clear picture of your clients’ needs and desires means you can work towards them and satisfy them. In turn, your customers become more trusting, more frequent, and more valuable for your business.

Check out everything you need to know about customer retention strategies, here!

Done and dusted. A CRM manager puts customers at the centre of your operations. Having a dedicated role to maintaining the lines of communication between your business and your customer is essential to perfecting your customer journey, increasing your retention rates, and beating the churn!

Recruiting a top CRM manager is up to you, but when it comes to CRM systems… NetHunt is still king.

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