Imagine arriving at the office early one morning and just as you’re settling down at your desk, your manager waltzes into your office with a question. 

“Are our customers happy?”

“Um…I think they are,” you reply sheepishly. 

“How do you know?”  

Awkward silence….

How do you know? According to a survey conducted by Oracle, 80% of CEOs say that their companies deliver a good experience for customers. There’s only one problem. When Oracle polled customers, a mere 43% could recall a consistently positive experience with a brand. So there is clearly some major dissonance between how companies perceive their own brand image and how that image is actually regarded by customers.  

What can be done to close the gap between perception and reality? There’s actually one incredibly powerful tool that can assist companies: CRM or Customer Relationship Management. CRM is essentially a system to coordinate all aspects of a company’s interactions with customers, which provides the ability to measure success. One of the top benefits of a CRM system is that it can answer the question: “How are we doing?”

If we look specifically at the staffing industry, a well-developed CRM system integrated with staffing software can be a powerful combination for recruiting success. 

Still not convinced? Here are 5 key reasons why having a strong CRM is essential:  

Synchronized data throughout the organization. From marketing to sales to operations, having a solid CRM solution can help keep multiple departments in the loop on the latest developments and interactions with customers. One of the most valuable assets any company has is its data, particularly the data related to customer history. This is especially crucial with recruiting. Maintaining a detailed and accurate record of applicants, job orders, and customers within a CRM system is vital. Illegible notes scribbled by an employee in a loose leaf notebook is useless to an organization. On the other hand, maintaining detailed notes on job history or applicant status can be immensely valuable if it is properly recorded and shared within a CRM system. 

Enhanced social media marketing. The ability to integrate with sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook is crucial with any modern CRM or staffing software. According to LinkedIn’s 2015 US Recruiting Trends report, social professional networks are the #1 source of quality hires in the US. Nearly half (46%) of all US companies name social media networks as their top source for high quality candidates. A good CRM allows you to store social media information and integrates with all of the top sites. The ability to post job orders, pull down candidate resumes, and capture client information directly from social media can take your productivity to the next level.  

Reporting. One major advantage of using a CRM system is being able to pull real-time reports. It can help answer questions like: Who are my top billed clients? What did Placement Consultant “A” do last week? How many client follow-ups were completed today? An integrated CRM can answer all of these and much more. You can even create custom reports and track unique metrics specific to your company’s activities. 

Increase sales opportunities. Savvy companies tap into their CRM system as a way to identify customer patterns, which can help guide sales strategies. Internal data can provide tons of useful business intelligence such as the hot industries to target or the top positions recently filled. CRM can also help with targeted marketing, allowing you to zero in on the right prospects and develop custom sales strategies for them. 

Helps keep you organized. A good CRM system improves operational efficiency across the organization and can streamline all major actions of customer interactions. It also makes it easy to create follow-up reminders and notifications, track your tasks and events, and generate follow-up statistics. Furthermore, the best CRM systems are designed with anywhere access in mind, meaning they can be accessed “on the go” with a mobile device. For busy staffing professionals, having CRM access directly from your smartphone or tablet can be a game changer. 

Overall, CRM can be a tremendous tool if utilized to its full potential. A strong CRM system can be a one-stop shop for managing all of your customer activities and allows you to keep a pulse on your clients. In today’s competitive recruiting environment, a richly-featured CRM system is no longer a luxury to have, but a necessity. It’s about much more than just keeping records of client interactions. A great CRM system can positively impact every department in an organization and can provide great insight into your customers, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve.