CRM as we know it

The term CRM (customer relationship management) refers to the effort taken by a business to build and maintain customer relationships across the entire customer journey — right from the first marketing touchpoint, through the sales funnel and to their post-purchase customer service as well. 

CRM software refers to the technology used by businesses to store and manage their customer data, allowing them to have contextual interactions with every customer. Most CRM tools today are primarily designed to cater to the needs of a sales team with features such as lead management, sales forecasting, and customer opportunity management. 

However, some features of a CRM such as contact management, transaction history, tasks, and reminders can also be used to provide basic customer service. 

Should you use a CRM for customer service?

In order to provide meaningful customer service, it is better to have a dedicated tool for customer service. By giving your customer service team features specifically designed to provide seamless service — such as a knowledge base or a support chatbot — your team can start focusing on important aspects of support like proactive support, self-service, and more. 

The table below captures the key differences between a sales CRM and a customer service software (also known as a customer service CRM). Once you go through it, you can decide which one suits your needs better. 

 

Parameters

Sales CRM

Customer service software

Definition

A sales CRM is a customer relationship management software that is necessary for tracking and managing processes in the entire sales and lead creation cycles.

A customer service software enables businesses to offer customer support and strengthen customer relationships throughout the customer journey, especially post purchase.

Business functions 

Sales and marketing teams are the teams that use a sales CRM most frequently.

All customer-facing teams including support, customer success, and even sales teams can benefit from using customer service software.

Profiles 

- Sales representative
- Account executive
- Sales manager
- Director/VP of sales
- Chief revenue officer

- Customer service representative
- Account manager

- Customer support manager
- Customer success manager
- Chief happiness officer/chief experience officer

Key features

- Contact lifecycle stages
- Lead generation
- Lead nurturing
- Deal management
- Sales forecasting
- Win-loss analysis
- Reporting and analytics

- Omnichannel support 
- Intuitive self-service 

- 360 degree customer view
- Automated workflows and resolutions
- Proactive assistance
- Reporting and analytics

Business benefits and metrics measured

- Revenue opportunities

- Profit forecasting

- Customer lifetime value

- Churn analysis

- Customer satisfaction management

- Customer effort score analysis

- Net promoter score analysis

- Customer retention and loyalty forecasting

Why is customer service software a better choice for you?

Streamline your workflows

Ideally, your customer service team should focus on making sure that every customer issue is responded to and resolved, instead of spending time with repetitive tasks like updating ticket properties or assigning tickets manually. 

By giving your team a ticketing system like Freshdesk, you can automate mundane and repetitive tasks, route tickets individually, create custom ticket views and more. You can also streamline your workflows and help improve team productivity. 

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Omnichannel Helpdesk-All tickets

Unify customer experience across channels

Do your customers write to you via email, text you on chat, reach out to you through calls and post their issues on social media? If that sounds familiar, then you know that handling customers' issues across channels can get tedious when using specific tools for each channel. 

With Freshdesk, you can keep track of issues coming in from all channels and balance agent workload from a single platform. This gives your team complete context about the customer and the issues they’ve raised in the past. Your team can enjoy a true omnichannel experience and extend the same to your customers. 

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Omniroute

Track and measure customer happiness 

Customer expectations are constantly on the rise. But how do you know if your customers are happy with the service your team is providing?  

To help you with this, Freshdesk helps you generate periodic reports on the number of tickets received, resolved and more, to track and monitor your team’s performance. You can also set expectations in the form of service level agreements (SLAs) for ticket response and resolution. This helps ensure that your team doesn’t deliver a delayed resolution or leave any customer interaction unattended. 

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Create Ticket Rules

What are the benefits of integrating your CRM with your customer service software? 

Integrating your CRM and customer service software gives you a 360-degree view of your customer. This helps you understand your customers' journeys from the time of purchase to their current experience with your product or service. By integrating your CRM software with Freshdesk, you can:

- View all customer details stored in your CRM.
- Create and update details of customers and leads right from Freshdesk.
- Collaborate easily with your sales team. 

Why should you choose Freshdesk?

Get started in minutes

Freshdesk does not require a complicated or time-consuming onboarding process. You can sign up, get your team on board and start supporting customers in no time. 

Help customers find answers instantly

Build a vast knowledge base with help guides, how-tos, and FAQs on Freshdesk to help your customers find answers to questions on their own.

Extend your capabilities

Make the most out of your account by integrating with apps such as Freshsales CRM, Sugar CRM, Slack, and more from the Freshdesk marketplace.  

Be where your customers are

Provide contextual customer support and engage with your customers across email, chat, phone, and social.   

Generate reports in a click

Customize and build reports to track metrics that matter the most to you and your team, without requiring a data scientist or a developer. 

Stay safe with our security net

Freshdesk is GRPR and HIPAA compliant and lets you host data in centers across the globe and offers IP whitelisting, custom email servers and SAML SSO.