New research suggests that the CRM market will hit $89 billion by 2025
According to a new report by market intelligence firm Report Linker, the Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) Software industry is projected to reach $89.9 billion by 2025. The report attributes this growth to the increasing importance of customer experience and engagement for marketers and sales teams.
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As the pandemic transforms the way brands and customers interact, personalization is emerging as a key competitive differentiator for brands. Customers expect personalized interactions, meaning that organizations need a full view of the customer journey that includes a detailed account of touchpoints, engagements, and interests. The summary of these interactions requires everyone in the organization to be on the same page and updating a customer record for a complete picture. Yet, for many organizations, teams still work in siloes—sales doesn’t talk to marketing, marketing doesn’t talk to service, service doesn’t talk to sales, and so on. This disconnect causes teams to struggle in alignment and initiatives, and not only does the company suffer, but the customer also suffers.
It is this lack of alignment that supports the customer belief that 54% of organizations need improvement. The low-quality, siloed experiences leave customers with lackluster impressions, and with customer experience more important than ever, it’s imperative to close the experience gap. By aligning the organization and a cohesive strategy that dismantles the siloes around departments, marketers can unlock their ability to achieve a positive experience for current and future customers, further increasing profitability and retention rates.
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With organizations looking to design effortless CX journeys, CRM solutions are key to executing the strategy. It is not surprising that the CRM industry is set to explode globally. The report suggests that Europe and the U.S. are the largest markets with a combined share of 76.3% of the market, with China quickly catching up, posting a whopping 12% CAGR.
Understanding how marketers interact with customers and how customers perceive these interactions is important to build a better CX function. CRM solutions allow marketers to use NPS scores, surveys, and conversations to gauge what they must change with their organizational customer experience, then continually hone the journey. Customers are the health indicators of this process, and checking in with them regularly is important. Companies leading with CX begin by putting customers at the center of sales and marketing and think of customer service as an opportunity center—not a cost center. And every campaign, conversation, and collaboration should work toward the larger goal of creating extraordinary customer experiences and increasing customer lifetime value.
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The relationship between marketing, sales, and service may be a highly complicated one, and dismantling decades-old siloes won’t happen overnight. But now that companies are competing in the experience economy, it’s more critical than ever to tear down the walls that separate these teams. As soon as marketers have full support from leadership, it’s time to start building a newer, better model—one that unites these mission-critical teams.
And that’s where CRM promises to transform the way organizations go about marketing in an increasingly digital world. At a time when sales are also becoming virtual, the CRM market is set to experience phenomenal growth as organizations look for newer, more innovative applications of the technology. It’ll be interesting to see how the market evolves in response to increasing omnichannel purchasing pathways, as witnessed during the pandemic.