Sophisticated users are looking for closer integration between CRM software and other technology products, especially social media monitoring and marketing automation, according to a recent report by Capterra, the business software evaluation service.
Based on a survey of 500 CRM users, Capterra found that the two most desired features in CRM software were social media monitoring (named by 25 percent of respondents) and the ability to pull in social media profile data. According to Capterra, “more and more CRM solutions are branding themselves as a ‘Social CRM‘ to better differentiate their social media functionality from that of traditional CRM solutions.” The desire for social media functionality was the same for B2B and B2C users.
No fewer than 44 percent of respondents said that their CRM was integrated with a marketing automation solution like Pardot, HuBSpot, Marketo, or Act-On. Since earlier research had shown very limited adoption of marketing automation technology, the result, according to Capterra, suggests that CRM users tend to be sophisticated users of marketing and sales technology.
These findings are consistent with the use being made of CRM software outside the customer service department. Sales departments were by far the biggest users of CRM software, followed by marketing departments, with customer service perhaps surprisingly in close third place.
Overall, the survey suggests that users are looking to integrate lead tracking and digital marketing efforts with CRM data.
Capterra also reported on most used CRM systems, with a third of respondents using Salesforce, and 22 percent using Microsoft Dynamics, with Oracle and SAP in distant third and fourth places.
