Achieve a differential customer experience, that values the brand to build solid, lasting and profitable relationships is one of the main challenges of companies. Actions such as customization, interconnection and integration of platforms through collaboration between companies and agents are necessary to improve levels of engagement of any consumer.
Microsoft, in collaboration with SCOPEN, has made a study on CRM platforms with the aim of analyzing the reality of the market in Spain. According to the results, nearly 20% of the companies operating in Spain invest more than half a million euros in CRM platforms. And four out of 10 declare that up to 20% of their sales are influenced or come from their customer engagement platform, a figure that highlights the benefits of these solutions for the business environment.
Companies must build a unified view of their customers, with all data connected in a holistic approach, and this is probably the key phase to digitize any business, regardless of its size and sector. Almost half of the companies (44.7%) they have a Single Customer Data Platform (CDP) implemented in your customer engagement platform. Its main advantage is to offer a 360-degree view of customers, according to 53% of the participants.
In this sense, companies are looking for a range of interconnected business applications that break down the walls between departments and end information silos. The Microsoft report shows that, on average, companies use up to four different technologies within your CDP: from Business Intelligence tools (81.6%), to marketing automation (76.3%) and emailing and SMS platforms (76.3%).
Among the objectives of companies’ data management, personalization (28.9% choose it first), sales (21.1%) and loyalty (18.4%) stand out. To help companies achieve better results, Microsoft has modules such as Dynamics 365 Marketing, which has real-time customer journey orchestration capabilities. Thus, any team you can have live evidence of marketing interactions, sales, trade and service with the aim of attracting new customers or retaining them.
All this thanks to Artificial Intelligence, which helps to personalize experiences and generate trust in customers: they allow conclusions to be drawn to make better decisions, boost productivity and reduce operating costs. For example, it can be applied to automate processes and extract information about the feeling of a text or a conversation, thus knowing better the opinion of users.
«Organizations are more connected and better informed than ever. They are looking for business solutions that can strengthen their ability to be closer to their customers, from any device and through the channel they prefer”, explains Juan Chinchilla, director of the Business Applications Business Unit of Microsoft Spain. “At Microsoft, we offer organizations the best customizable cloud-based solutions to achieve these goals. It is a perfect match for companies that are committed to giving the best experience to their customers.”.
Benefits that drive business processes
Among the advantages of having a customer engagement platform are the launch of personalized marketing campaigns (92.2%), managing business opportunities from start to finish (78.4%) and the integration of other communication systems (70 .6%). In this sense, Dynamics 365 encompasses multiple business applications in the cloud, such as customer voice or Customer Data Platform solutionsand connects the processes of production, sales and marketing, customer service and field services, or the management of finances and talent of a company.
With the benefit of full integration with productivity tools like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 It is a cloud platform based on artificial intelligence that eliminates the traditional silos between ERP and CRM systems.
According to the SCOPEN study, cost (64.7%) is the main obstacle for companies when it comes to having a CRM, followed by the difficulty of integrating with other solutions (47%) and the need to invest in training (39.2%).
Aware of this, Microsoft offers several advantages to help each organization adopt this type of solution, regardless of size and industry: they work with a flexible pay-per-use, cloud-based model with no commitment to permanence, and They offer compatibility with other platforms, keeping all the information centralized. Likewise, the company offers free training through Microsoft Learn to different degrees of specialization: it has more than 1,500 contents in Spanish, from user level to technical certifications.
“As for future trends, data privacy regulations such as GDPR and the discontinuation of third-party cookies have encouraged marketers to take a different approach to data collection based on consumer consent”, explains Óscar López, Research & Studies Director of SCOPEN. “These will be the ones that will have the most impact during the years 2022 and 2023 for 62.7% of companies”. Its main implications will affect the measurement, monitoring and personalization of campaigns (39.5%), higher data quality (23.7%), having first party data (18.4%) and database reduction (18.4%).
A solution adapted to any company
Microsoft makes available to any business Dynamics 365 and Power Platformtwo cloud platforms based on Artificial Intelligence that allow different areas and processes to be connected, with the advantage of full integration with Microsoft’s productivity (Office 365) and collaboration (Microsoft Teams) tools.
“Power Platform can be of great help for companies. It facilitates the automation of repetitive processes without the need for programming. It acts as an accelerator, since it allows everyone -from developers to business users- to create solutions (apps, RPAs, chatbots, algorithms…) with ease and without the need for programming code”, points out John Chinchilla, director of the Business Applications Business Unit of Microsoft Spain.
Companies using Dynamics 365 primarily emphasize that it is a cloud-based solution (43.1%), customizable (31.4%), with different capabilities in data, analytics and measurement (29.4%); and that it can be integrated with different services, such as social networks or company data (23.5%). Similarly, the aspects most valued by customers are 360-degree integration (50%) and being a robust and complete platform (33.3%).
The tool is based on optimal use of data, applying business intelligence and influencing the workflow. It also uses a consistent application platform to ensure consistency, interoperability, and flexibility. The company can select the applications depending on the business processes that it wants to optimize, eliminating silos and gaining in competitiveness. Likewise, it adds value to each of the data analysis layers, allowing to automate specific tasks and improve related activities and the general decision support process.
