Before investing in CRM software, it is important to know if it will work for you. A banking CRM platform helps banks provide better customer service to their clients. To get the right product, you need to invest time and money in finding the best banking CRM software that meets your bank or credit union’s needs.

What is CRM software?

Customer Relationship Management software is a program that helps businesses organize and track their relationship with clients. In banks and credit unions, the right CRM application should store and make important customer information easily accessible such as:

  • Credit behavior
  • Purchase records
  • Number and type of loans applied for by the customer
  • How long the customer has been with the bank
  • Credit card applications
  • Account warnings and cases
  • Notes on the account and comments from interactions
  • Marketing and account specific emails
  • Portfolio of products
  • Product offerings

A bank or credit union can use this information to improve its products and marketing efforts with automation tools in the CRM software. CRM software can also help provide a better customer experience by presenting customer and member data in one view  — making interactions seamless and efficient.

How does CRM software work?

CRM software integrates with a bank or credit union’s core system and tracks the actions and behaviors of each client through the banks’ website, social media platforms, and during in-person and phone interactions with the frontline team. The software then sends targeted emails or alerts to the customer based on their interests and triggers relevant to their behavior.

Uses of banking CRM software

CRM software can help improve the customer experience and take your banking business to another level.

The best banking CRM can help you:

  • Take proactive steps in identifying a customer or member’s most recent digital behavior and provide guidance around their unique situation by helping first and selling second
  • Increase sales through building actionable workflows for leads and personalizing marketing messages at scale
  • Centralize customer and member information for a single source of truth
  • Know your customers better by interacting with members across channels and devices
  • Create customer-centric marketing strategies via automated digital and/or offline lead assignment and automated sequences for follow-up
  • Improve efficiency and prevent wastage of company resources by simplifying processes and removing silos
  • Improve customer experience by unifying the entire customer journey from acquisition through onboarding service and growth
  • Manage communication with prospective leads through centralized tracking of all marketing being sent to prospects
  • Measure impact of initiatives in both sales and marketing
  • Streamline internal communication by breaking down silos between teams so lending knows what the frontline is experiencing, the frontline knows what offers lending has made and marketing can see all of it to create meaningful, targeted campaigns
  • Provide accurate sales forecasting

With all that in mind, here are some CRM features that can help banks and credit unions get the most out of CRM software.

System integration

CRM systems come with varied features. Some features may be beneficial to your business, but others won’t. Your CRM platform will not be useful if it doesn’t allow access to your important customer information in real-time. Therefore, you should check to make sure the CRM integrates with your core and brings all your other systems together before investing.

Customer-focused

A banking CRM software system should showcase all customer information in one place – a single source of truth. This will allow you to anticipate customer needs and ensure that your financial institution stays in touch with them. The best CRM program can integrate with existing systems and provide visibility into every aspect of your customer’s relationship with the bank or credit union. It should show important details like wallet share, interaction history, and family information among others.

Cross-sell capabilities

Financial experts believe that it is ten times easier to acquire new customers than it is to sell products to them. The banking CRM application should therefore recommend the best products to your customers based on their lifestyle and purchase behavior. It should also send offers to customers who are already eligible to receive products. This will make it easier for the business to win more customers.

Workflow automation

Automating manual tasks can help increase productivity and simplify work. Team members can then spend most of their time working with members and customers and delivering better services.

Ease of use

The best banking CRM should be easy to install and use. It should integrate with a number of cores and other data platforms you use through APIs. It should also reduce day-to-day challenges like language barriers or handling multiple customers at a time. The software should allow you to set it up easily without the need for code or hiring additional staff to manage once in place