Customer Relationship Management

Effective use of IT tools can prove to be a competitive advantage for real estate players. The real estate sector is growing rapidly. Forward-thinking companies within the sector are looking to create a competitive advantage through differentiators such as better management and servicing of customers. Strategic technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools can play an important role in this. This article discusses the role CRM can play in real estate and its benefits. Key challenges in real estate With buyers having a vast choice to choose from, to get a premium for a particular property, it is important for developers to reach the right audience and to showcase the value by positioning the differentiators in a professional manner. As the lead-to-customer conversion ratio in real estate is very low, it is necessary to create a healthy pipeline of leads in the sales funnel through effective lead generation campaigns. Also with the number of projects increasing, managing lead generation campaigns for different projects effectively, analysing the leads scientifically, finding cross-selling/up-selling opportunities is a big challenge. Effective use of IT tools like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can prove to be a competitive advantage for real estate players. CRM for Real Estate A world-class CRM makes it easy for real estate companies to manage their business transactions in a far more efficient manner. Here are some of the direct and indirect benefits: • Plan effective promotional campaigns: Real estate players run a number of marketing campaigns like advertisements, mailers, participation in property shows etc. • Analyse sales efforts: By keeping a track of the profiles of existing clientele, the business can come up with a strategy to determine the kind of people they should target so as to maximise returns. Also based on the analysis of past sales success and various metrics related to it, it becomes easier to define strategies for the future. • Management reporting and dashboards made easy: CRM creates a variety of reports and dashboards that can make decision making a lot easier for management. • Better customer servicing: CRM helps to gain an insight into the behaviour of customers and modify business operations to ensure best services to customers. • 'Cross Sell' and 'Up Sell' more effectively: CRM systems facilitate cross-selling (offering customers complimentary products based on their previous purchases) and up-selling (offering customers, premium products in the same category). • One point data entry: CRM acts as an integrated information management between Sales, Business Development, Regional offices and Marketing ensuring transparency and accountability in the business processes, eliminating duplication of efforts.• Institutionalisation of sales knowledge: CRM ensures all the sales knowledge is with the company, as all the sales interactions are recorded and managed with the help of IT. Making CRM a success CRM is an effective tool to manage all customer related information across different stages of the sales cycle and various touch points with the customers. Effective use of a world-class CRM tool can provide a competitive advantage to real estate players. A world-class CRM can service the organisation effectively for 10-15 years, thus ensuring a very attractive payback on the investment. Implementation of any IT tool has its own challenges such as appropriate mapping of organisational requirements, better transformation management within the sales team, appropriate selection of IT framework, seamless integration with other IT tools in organisation etc. A good implementation partner which can understand your industry can help you overcome these challenges much better. A world-class CRM is the need of the hour for real estate companies for better customer acquisition and servicing. About the author: Satish Pendse is the President for Highbar Technologies (An HCC Group Company) which is in the business of improving efficiencies for infrastructure industry. Highbar Technologies has been instrumental in providing IT solutions for leading infrastructure and real estate companies across India. Satish can be reached on satish.pendse@highbartechnologies.com What do you think about this article? Write in at feedback@ASAPPmedia.com