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Maintaining a customer base in your CRM is just the first step in using the technology to support your sales and marketing efforts. It’s when you let the CRM data be the driving force behind your campaigns that you realize the most value.

That’s because CRM data can offer significant insight into how your customers and prospects think and act. In a recent report from Econsultancy and IBM Watson Marketing, 66 percent of organizations said CRM data was the best data for better understanding the customer journey. When you tap into this information, it can go a long way in generating business.

Before you kick off your next campaign, take into consideration the following ways you can apply your CRM data.

Credit unions face an array of challenges when it comes to keeping up with the latest technology trends. From growing member relationships with the latest online and mobile solutions, to keeping those same members protected from cyber attacks, credit unions have a lot of technology balls in the air.

Here’s the top five technology trends that have an almost-daily impact on credit unions.

Replacing or implementing a technology solution can be a game changer for financial institutions. In many cases, the initial investment in a platform is dwarfed by the gains in productivity, effectiveness, and profitability. But to get there you’ll need budget, resources, and support — which means you’ll need the executive team on your side.

Research shows that one of the top reasons that software implementations fail is due to a lack of executive buy-in. That's because all major organizational changes have to happen from the top down. In this blog, find out how to convince leadership that a new technology solution is worth the investment. Here are a few ways to win executive support:

Banks need something different to empower growth.

Existing tools are inadequate and disjointed: bankers might be using the core banking system along with spreadsheets, emails, appointment books, or sticky notes — but those aren’t shared across the organization, so knowledge becomes siloed. As a result, the customer isn’t serviced appropriately, sales efforts are crippled, and growth is stifled. 

Financial institutions need to unify systems to provide easy access to knowledge across every department, make bankers more efficient, improve sales and marketing, enhance customer service, and provide tools that allow everyone in the organization to get things done — which is the key to meaningful growth.

Here’s how banks and credit unions can position themselves for growth:

Year after year, we hear from financial institutions, “We aren’t ready for CRM.” It leads me to wonder, “How can we not be ready? Aren’t we in the business of maintaining and cultivating relationships with our customers? Aren’t we expected to know the interactions our customers and prospects have with our team?”

It’s no secret that winning and retaining customers is the key to business growth and success. But, given the dynamic and ever-increasing customer demands that financial institutions face today, that’s easier said than done — especially when it comes to implementing and enforcing processes that effectively support your interactions with prospects and customers.

A CRM system is absolutely essential to making that culture shift throughout your financial institution. Here are a few reasons why you should make CRM part of your strategic plan: