CRM software have been around since the late 1980s. Over the decades, they have changed considerably, both in terms of functionalities and specialization.

If you’re managing risk for a living, deploying a reliable CRM software is indispensable.

Picking an incompatible or outdated CRM tool causes businesses to lose up to $1.8 billion

each year.

This article explains the three most common mistakes big and small business owners make when buying finance CRM tools.

CRM For Finance: What is it and how is it Different?

Finance CRM software is meant for the financial sector, more specifically, banks, insurance carriers, FinTech businesses, mortgage companies, investment firms, etc.

There are separate CRM systems available for different industries. So when you dig deeper, you’ll come across CRM for sales, marketing, accounting, HR, IT, engineering, and healthcare, among others.

The main differences among these types of CRM are the industry specific UI and data fields.

CRM software for HR applications will have UI designed to track candidates. In some cases, recruiters also refer to CRM as Candidate Relationship Management instead of Customer Relationship Management. The data fields available in this CRM, like candidate joining date and annual salary, will be of little significance to the finance department.

Likewise, CRM designed for healthcare will have data fields that, again, are irrelevant for anyone in finance .

Other than that, you should expect more similarities than differences between CRM software. All of them will have the same components. That’s because the underlying CRM technology is identical.

Why is CRM Software necessary for a Business in the financial field?

Improved customer experience – A CRM enables companies to have a 360-degree view of an entire customer base. Making it easier and quicker to spot pain points and problems, in some cases before they have occurred. With this knowledge, banks and FinTech businesses can deliver a better customer experience, cut down on revenue losses and improve ROI.

Higher sales and revenue – According to CRM.org, businesses can expect $8.71 ROI for every dollar spent on CRM software.

Higher productivity – Finance CRM tools aggregate data from multiple sources and display it in a convenient way under one dashboard. Thus, employees no longer have to go back and forth between browsers and apps to get the data they need. This increases productivity across the board. A survey conducted among 150 US public banks showed significant improvement in productivity after they adopted CRM.

Enhanced collaboration among teams – Teams that collaborate often have higher chances of success. With a finance CRM, you can have all your team members on the same page and have them work with each other. The CRM platform can also be extended to teams outside of the finance department.

Risk mitigation and management – Risk is the central metric guiding decision making in any financial based business. How risk is determined, assessed and implemented into a business model may singlehandedly contribute to its success of failure. So what is the secret? One word; “DATA”. Every transaction, action and decision made in a CRM, generates unique data. Thant data needs to be properly organized and displayed to decision makers so that they make more informed decisions.

Because of such radical benefits, a finance CRM system is of utmost necessity for big and small businesses in the financial domain.