The connective tissue between people and hardware

PEOPLE AND HARDWARE

The digital switchover could be a cause for trepidation, with businesses seeing the cost of new systems as a cause for concern. Remy Clarke, director of Cymer Marketing Solutions, is optimistic – he views the switchover as an opportunity for businesses to become

more e cient WORDS BY TOM YOUNG

Any big change, especially in business can be scary. But the digital switchover can be an opportunity to improve your business e ciency. Remy Clarke has been working on just that.

“It’s about making your work digital and shifting processes over to a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that brings everything together so it’s concise, can be reported on, and enables you to react quickly to it.”

His company, Cymer Marketing Solutions, won ‘Best CRM Solutions Provider’ at the MarTech Awards 2022 and has seen a steady growth in business as the switchover draws closer.

“We’re the connective tissue between the people and the hardware. We’ve been working closely with the IT Business to do this – they go in as the IT and telecoms specialist, fi nding a system process and software that integrates with the CRM, and we set that up, so they have the complete package. We ensure it works as it’s meant to work.”

With new telephony systems, there’s an opportunity to integrate your phone calls with your CRM, automatically building a client profi le.

“It allows you to gather information about a caller – who they are, what business you do with them, any outstanding work or payments that might be calling about, etc. It means you’re better prepared to build relationships and respond to them in the right way and through the right channels.

“It’s about taking advantage of the fact that the phone lines are going from analogue to digital – and rather than viewing it as an inconvenience, seeing the opportunity it presents. What can you do now that you couldn’t before? By integrating your CRM package, your client database is always up to date. It’s ideal for call centres, but it’s now becoming more a ordable for smaller businesses too.”

The digital phone lines also o er an opportunity to automate other aspects of your communications, with a CRM capable of generating automatic email responses for missed calls.

“If a client rings outside of o ce hours, they’d get an email saying: ‘Sorry we missed your call; our business hours are X to Y – please try calling us again then or leave a message and we’ll call you.’

“There are all kinds of features built into CRM packages now, and it’s about identifying what’s relevant to you and your company, and what makes your marketing systems more e ective and more e cient.”

To discuss ways a CRM can make your business more e cient post-switchover, visit cymermarketing.co.uk.

WITH NEW TELEPHONY SYSTEMS, THERE’S AN OPPORTUNITY TO INTEGRATE YOUR PHONE CALLS WITH YOUR CRM