CRMs are fantastic tools for all sorts of businesses, but they’re absolutely vital for addressing the challenges faced by fintech firms.

CRMs are often seen as dull, but necessary parts of a business. A database with additional functionality; a tool that’s needed, but one that offers little additional benefits. However, given the challenges faced by many businesses, and particularly fintech firms, a good CRM, like that developed by FX Back Office, which focuses on the forex industry, can be an incredible resource, helping entrepreneurs and established companies alike better understand their business, keep on top of reporting, analyze cash flow and build great customer relations. Added to that, they also support the digitalization of your business and improve efficiency. Here, we’ll take a look at the key features of a great CRM.

Analyzing your business

Almost any aspect of your business can benefit from integration with a CRM. Cash flow can be easily monitored as you’ll get close to real time input from CRM. Your clients can be studied in detail to discover which might benefit from additional services and products, customer actions can be studied in depth, allowing you to see where your business is doing well and which clients are engaging. And, of course, sales can be measured and tracked at the click of a button.

Financial reporting

As we mentioned at the start, a CRM is, at heart, a database. The data held within can be leveraged to generate any number of reports, significantly easing the challenges associated with reporting. These reports can be customized to meet the needs of the regulatory bodies to which you must report and they can be scheduled to be emailed to pre-set recipients. In addition, a good CRM should be able to do the same for internal reporting, assisting you in understanding your business. The majority of these reports should be generated automatically, allowing you to focus on your business and not the paperwork associated with it.

Building great relationships

CRMs, when used well, can help you understand your clients like never before, anticipate their needs and respond quickly.  Much of this work can be automated, emails can be sent when a new client joins the system. Callback notifications can alert your sales and support teams, allowing them to reach out quickly. Clients can be given – tightly restricted – access to certain elements of the system through a Client Cabinet, or similar client-side software, allowing them gain insight into their own business. Altogether, this means that a good CRM can form the basis for excellent customer relations.

Transparency and total control

With the insights a CRM can give you, you’ll be able to have total control over a wide range of your business functions. Permissions and accesses for staff and clients can be tightly controlled, allowing you to operate in total confidence and securely. In addition, you’ll be able to see exactly what’s happening across your own accounts and, in certain circumstances, your client’s accounts, letting you instantly understand how the business is operating and allowing you to preempt any serious issues. Your client cabinet, or the client-side part of the CRM, will allow your clients to better understand their business, too.

Sales support

Many of these elements, while they’re valuable in their own right, ultimately help to support your sales teams. As a B2B service provider, fintech firms must be able to reach out to clients and address their needs, with the potential for selling additional, or premium products. The wealth of information contained within a CRM, and the fact that it’s easily accessible and presented in a manner that provides true insight thanks to its reporting capabilities, is a goldmine for sales professionals. They can understand your clients, and therefore the market, like never before. 

Efficiency

Finally, there’s one benefit that applies equally to all departments using a good CRM: efficiency. By ‘efficiency’ we mean the ability to work quickly, accurately and reliably. This is an intangible benefit. There’s no real way to track how much faster a good CRM can help your staff work. However, thanks to in-depth integrations with third-party software, meaning they have to leave the CRM less frequently, the ease and speed with which they can pull up information, and the ability to automate a range of tasks, a great CRM will make your teams’ lives easier, meaning they’ll be much more productive. And, as the old adage goes, time is money.  

Final thoughts

While it’s true that CRMs are often seen as mundane tools, a customizable CRM, can prove invaluable to businesses of any sort, but especially fintech firms. Cash flow monitoring, reporting, sales, customer support and more can all be simplified, or indeed amplified, through a contemporary CRM and accompanying client-side software. While many of these functions have clear, direct benefits that are entirely measurable, a great CRM can also increase the efficiency with which your staff can work, greatly improving their productivity.  If your CRM isn’t delivering the goods, perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere.