Go beyond support: Top 5 use cases for an open CRM platform

Customer relationship management (CRM) is about knowing every critical piece of information on your customers. With the never-ending stream of customer data flowing across different systems and applications, it’s absolutely necessary to have a CRM platform that can harness and manage data about your customers, no matter where it comes from.

It’s not enough just to have customer data—businesses also need to be able to use it to create better customer experiences. An effective CRM platform provides a business with the kind of flexibility that enables customisable and more personalised customer experiences. “Flexibility” is not exactly what traditional CRM platforms are known for, given how disconnected they are from today’s customer data landscape.

An open, flexible CRM platform allows access to vast amounts of customer data, and makes it possible to accommodate the kind of critical use cases that make for truly modern customer experiences. Those top five use cases are:

1) Asset and device management
Track the history and health of your customer-focused assets and connected devices, and do so alongside a complete timeline of critical events, such as repairs, deliveries and replacements.

2) Customer interactions
Get a complete view of the customer journey across every touchpoint, including third party apps and external systems, for more personalised experiences.

3) User and account management
Model account hierarchies and user relationships between your customers, partners and vendors to reflect the way your marketplace truly works.

4) Product and orders
Manage orders, shipping and warranties to understand the entire product and order life cycle in relation to each customer.

5) Product troubleshooting
Capture user activity and click paths to better understand in-product behaviour, resulting in the kind of data that can help organisations guide users to where they need to go.
 

We cover these use cases in greater detail in our eBook “Go beyond support: Top 5 use cases for an open CRM platform”. Learn more about how businesses can get a complete view of the customer experience with Zendesk Sunshine, our open CRM platform powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).