Is Mobile CRM the future?

How many companies actually use mobile CRM? And for those who use it, how many have it tacked on to their business strategy as something on the side? And how many have an actual, thorough business strategy for its usage? It could be just me, but save for a couple, most of the CRM implementations I’ve done never had mobile CRM as an important part of their strategy, if it was even a part of it at all. Is mobile CRM useless?

Granted, it’s not necessary for every business. Of course, it’s generally the most useful for sales reps and others that are often on the move. Very common for those people is the Dynamics 365 for Outlook app for example, which is the most ‘mobile’ usage I have mostly seen (and a very good one, if I might add). But it can be used for much more than synchronizing mails and contacts from your mail app to CRM, and in much more situations. Especially coupled with marketing automation.

With the Covid-19 outbreak a new age has dawned upon us, where things presumably will not go back to being the same. Some of it, for the better, some of it for the worst. A lot of businesses were forced to rethink their business strategy. From the way they offer their services and products to the way they’ve altered their positioning (such as the resurgence of the drive-in cinema in the US or restaurants that have put a greater emphasis on take outs, for example). One of the reconsiderations that stood out the most to me was the way we use our office. Why? I like being at the office.

During the lockdown, many were forced to work from home. And all the infrastructure to connect remotely to the office have made it easy to keep business process running from home. Hell, I’ve been in a project that ran just as well from home as it did from the office. I’ve heard managers say their office will never be the same again, as many people have expressed appreciation for being able to work from home more (I’m not one of them!). And it’s clear that for some businesses it is not necessary anymore to be at the office 5 days a week.

Thus, recent developments have definitely shown that just like sales reps, office personnel and other staffers are also not tied to a desk anymore. Enter, mobile CRM.

I think the use of mobile CRM can accommodate these recent developments in our workspace. It offers so much flexibility… and not just for sales reps.

• Are you on the move and need to catch up on important cases quickly before you head into the building? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• Just realized you have some after meeting notes that you want to pen down real quick? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• Are you organizing an event and you want to manage your attendance registration by, for example scanning entry tickets? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• Need to help a really important customer out asap, but you’re in the car and can’t go online on your laptop? Bust out your mobile CRM (quick responses like this really help improve the customer experience!).
• One of your employees asking you to approve of some transactions asap that you actually should have done last week, but you’re in the supermarket? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• Do you need to manage survey responses at a fair, while you’re busy networking? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• At home, but your Wi-Fi connection has an outage again? Bust out your mobile CRM.
• Need to track and process social media activity on the fly? Bust out your mobile CRM
• Does your significant other say you’re on your laptop too much? Bust out your mobile CRM (while pretending you’re looking for a gift for your SO ????).

And this only scratches the surface, as there are many more applications for mobile CRM.

And how do you make this possible? As a Dynamics consultant, from experience I can say PowerApps is a way to go. PowerApps allows you to create mobile apps and design a mobile CRM that provides your users the most efficient and satisfying experience on their mobile devices. You can create such apps with relative ease using the drag-and-drop user interface. Also, there are many different kinds of data you can integrate into your mobile CRM app (over 200 connectors) and these apps are compatible with all operating systems (click here to find more information on PowerApps).

And why wouldn’t you consider it? It appears to definitely have a positive effect on your business. According to studies employees are more productive (+15% on average) when they have more flexibility to work remotely. Another study discovered that companies even gain an extra 240 hours per year from employees due to mobile working. It is already known that this added mobility helped increase sales figures, as 65% of sales reps achieved their sales targets using mobile CRM vs 22% of them achieving their targets using traditional CRM programs. Additionally, users of mobile CRM experienced a 74% increase in customer satisfaction, an 87% improvement in sales, and a 73% improvement in business process efficiency (find that study here). Data quality may also go up, due to not having to wait until you reach your laptop to register the information that you have obtained in CRM. And with PowerApps (among others), it has become much easier to create a work environment that is appropriate for mobile phone or tablet usage.

Again, as a Dynamics consultant, I also see Microsoft definitely recognizes the value of mobile CRM. With the upcoming 2020 Wave 2 release, they’re putting in the work to enhance the mobile experience. From the continued emphasis on simplicity and quick access for the Dynamics 365 Sales to increased mobile integration options for Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and more. I can’t see the future going anywhere else but mobile.

Bottom line: don’t forget about mobile CRM.

If you’re curious about mobile CRM and how DynamicHands can assist you with your mobile implementation, e-mail me at neillon.carmichael@dynamichands.

I would like to hear your experiences regarding mobile CRM. Please share and discuss!