Using CRM software tools, with easy access to accurate and actionable data, is crucial for any modern business. Not only do they improve decision-making and overall business performance, but they also help sales and marketing teams to work more efficiently and effectively. A comprehensive CRM automation tool can help you organize, track, and analyze customer interactions and behavior.
But to do all these successfully on your CRM automation tool, it’s important to generate the right reports.
In this blog, we discuss the importance of data accessibility and usability in a CRM, how CRM automation tools provide users with the tools they need to make informed business decisions, and the types of reports that are important to generate.
Importance of Data Accessibility and Usability in a CRM Automation Tool
A CRM automation tool is only as useful as the data it contains. The ability to access accurate and up-to-date data is essential for making informed decisions and staying ahead of your competitors. An effective automated CRM system should provide easy access to customer data, including contact information, purchase history, and customer interactions. The data should be organized in a way that makes it easy to search, filter, and sort.
This means that every report needs to be well designed, with clear visualizations and actionable insights. Team leads and managers should be able to drill down to identify trends and patterns that will help them take the right actions.
A lot of businesses struggle with data accessibility and usability on their CRM systems and this often results in lost opportunities, poor decision-making, and reduced efficiency. Without easy access to accurate and actionable data, your sales teams may miss out on potential deals or waste time on ineffective strategies.
Below are some other reasons to be intentional about reports on your CRM automation tool.
Why You Should Generate Regular CRM Reports
1. CRM reporting provides a clear understanding of what’s happening in your business
If you want to get a clear picture of the activities and results of ongoing campaigns in the marketing and sales units of your business, then CRM reporting is the way to go. You’ll have detailed updates on customer interactions and behavior; you’ll also be able to track key metrics like customer acquisition, retention, and churn.
With that information, you can add meaningful contributions toward your marketing and sales efforts, improve customer service, and drive growth. You’ll also be able to identify key trends and patterns in customer behavior, monitor customer satisfaction and loyalty, and analyze sales performance.
2. Reporting guides the decision making
By utilizing the reporting features on your CRM automation tool, you’ll be arming yourself with everything you need to make strategic business decisions. You can identify untapped markets or customer segments for targeting, tailor your services to meet more customer needs, allocate resources more efficiently, and develop targeted strategies to enhance customer loyalty and promote lifetime value.
CRM reporting data also helps to assess returns on investment. By reviewing your customers’ UTM sources, purchasing patterns, purchasing power, and behaviors, you can assess the health and effectiveness of your investment. CRM reporting data will help you understand the current and future trends of your organization.
Types of Reports to Generate on Your CRM Automation Tool
1. Sales Pipeline Report
The sales pipeline is a container for all the steps involved in a sales process. It encompasses every element of the revenue generated from a sales transaction.
Starting with the initial contact with a potential customer, a sales pipeline covers different phases of a sales process until the deal is successfully closed. With a well-defined pipeline report in place, you can determine the necessary effort needed at each stage to reach the final sales goals.
2. Lead Source Report
A lead source report helps to track and analyze the number of leads generated from a particular source. This report helps you identify the most successful source for future campaigns and sales team improvements.
3. Sales Activity Report
A sales activity report is a comprehensive document that provides insights into the effectiveness of different sales activities in a company. This report will furnish your sales managers with valuable information about the sales team’s actions during a specified period – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or completely custom.
The report will contain crucial sales metrics, such as leads generated, closed deals, revenue generated, sales, conversions, phone calls, and more. This information is vital in determining the effectiveness of sales strategies and making informed decisions about future courses of action.
If your sales reps are motivated through competition, the sales activity report also facilitates a detailed comparison of their performance. By providing a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your sales team, this report will drive sales growth and improve overall sales performance.
4. Customer Service Report
A customer service report documents the progress and performance of all customer interactions and account management activities. It provides insights into the effectiveness of your agents and service representatives when resolving cases, retaining, and satisfying customers.
A comprehensive customer service report will equally account for the average resolution time, over a particular period. You’ll also have clarity on customer behavior with dashboard metrics like customer lifetime value, churn rate, and the number of active subscriptions.
5. Campaign Performance Report
A campaign performance report evaluates the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and strategies. This report tracks critical metrics of your marketing strategies, such as Returns on Ad Spend (ROAS), conversion rate, Click-Through Rate (CTR), and other relevant metrics.
Tracking the success of your marketing campaigns through the campaign performance report allows you to identify the strategies that generate the most revenue for your business. You can optimize those strategies to achieve even better results in the future.
6. Profitability Report
A profitability report from your CRM automation tool provides a detailed breakdown of revenue generated by specific customers. It helps to identify the most loyal customers and those with the highest potential for repeat purchases.
This report plays a critical role in identifying high-quality leads for businesses. When you discover the leads with the potential to generate the most profit, you can allocate more resources toward nurturing and converting them.
7. Win/Loss Sales Report
A win/loss sales report is the analysis of why sales deals are either successful or unsuccessful. This involves evaluating various factors such as the industry, company size, personalities involved, competition, and the source of the lead. By considering these variables, you get to make informed decisions about the reasons for a deal’s success or failure.
Organizations conduct win/loss analysis for different purposes and may use various methods. For instance, a new company operating in a less competitive market may use it to improve its performance against a specific competitor, while a well-established company operating in a complex competitive environment will mine the data from a win/loss sales report to enhance its overall performance across multiple markets and channels.
Whichever category you fall in, this type of report helps you stay realistic while acting as a pointer to growth opportunities.
8. Goal Progress Report
A goal progress report evaluates the success of campaigns based on predefined objectives. The specific goals being measured will vary depending on the department. For instance, in sales, the progress report may track the total revenue and number of deals won during the current fiscal period. Meanwhile, in marketing, the progress report may focus on the number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) delivered or the total revenue generated by each source.
While progress reports offer high-level insights, they still serve as a reliable benchmark for campaign performance. It eliminates the need for a detailed examination of pipeline and channel metrics. Progress reports are easy to populate on a dashboard and by providing team members with a shared understanding of progress and allowing team leads to identify when it’s time to make changes, these reports help keep everyone aligned and focused on achieving common objectives.
CRM Automation Tools with Extensive Reporting Features
There are numerous CRM automation tools that cater to multiple industries and sectors. However, these are five (5) platforms that offer extensive reporting features.
1. Salesforce:
Salesforce is a leading CRM platform that offers extensive reporting features, such as:
- Customizable reports and dashboards: Users can create custom reports based on their specific requirements and visualize the data through interactive dashboards.
- AI-powered analytics: Einstein Analytics, Salesforce’s AI-driven feature, provides actionable insights and predictions based on historical data.
- Real-time reporting: Salesforce allows for real-time data access, ensuring up-to-date information for decision-making.
2. HubSpot:
HubSpot is a popular CRM automation tool that offers powerful reporting capabilities, including:
- Customizable reports: Users can create custom reports by filtering data based on specific criteria.
- Dashboards: HubSpot provides a variety of pre-built dashboard templates that can be tailored to your needs.
- Cross-functional reporting: HubSpot’s reporting tools integrate with marketing, sales, and customer service data, enabling comprehensive analysis.
3. Ontraport
Ontraport is an all-inclusive CRM automation platform with a powerful reporting system, featuring:
- Tailored reports and dashboards: Users can design customized reports and visualizations tailored to their needs.
- Sophisticated analytics: Ontraport CRM’s sophisticated analytics suite enables data segmentation, funnel examination, and cohort assessments.
- Automated report scheduling: Users can set up reports to be automatically generated and distributed at predetermined intervals.
4. Microsoft Dynamics 365:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an integrated CRM and ERP tool that provides powerful reporting features, such as:
- Power BI integration: Dynamics 365 is integrated with Microsoft’s Power BI, enabling advanced data visualization and analytics.
- Customizable reports: Users can create and modify reports based on their specific needs.
- Real-time data access: Dynamics 365 provides real-time access to data, ensuring up-to-date information for decision-making.
5. Pipedrive:
Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM automation tool that offers a range of reporting features, including:
- Customizable reports: Users can create custom reports by defining their filters and parameters.
- Visual dashboards: Pipedrive provides visually appealing dashboards that help users track key performance indicators.
- Revenue forecasting: Pipedrive’s reporting tools offer revenue forecasting capabilities based on deal probabilities and expected close dates.
Wrapping Up…
Generating the right reports on your CRM automation tool will help you make informed decisions, improve operational performance, and stay ahead of the competition. It is important to choose a system that provides users with useful reporting tools, is easy to use, customizable, integrates with other tools and offers training and support.
If you have the right CRM automation tool but still struggle to set up meaningful reports, our expert business process management and automation consultants can help you harness the power of your tool by creating custom reports tailored to your unique needs. Take the first step toward streamlined decision-making and improved performance. Book a no-obligation consultation today and discover how to transform your data into actionable insights.
PS: We are HubSpot and Ontraport certified experts with 10+ years of combined experience.
