A survey shows that small and mid-sized financial institutions are continuing to look for affordable and easy to use CRM solutions, but price is the stumbling block for many.
New research from CRM vendor, Sedona, confirms that small and mid-sized financial institutions continue to look for affordable and easy-to-use CRM solutions. Sedona commissioned 77 in-depth telephone interviews with small and mid-sized financial services companies, including current users of CRM solutions, non-users of CRM systems, and companies embarking on a CRM initiative.
Tellers of tales
Survey results reveal that although they have a plethora of high-tech information gathering tools available, the majority (62%) of institutions surveyed believe that teller transactions are the primary means of collecting customer data. Those companies using a CRM solution reported this more strongly than those without (74% versus 57%). Other methods of collecting information include telephone transactions, ATM transactions, Web-collected data, e-mail, and bought-in data.
Profitability deciding factor
There is still a tendency to organise business around products and service lines (93%) rather than around demographically-based customer segments (47%). And while customer retention ranks high across the board (92%), gauging customer profitability to evaluate success isn't far behind. More than half of institutions (70% CRM users and 48% non-users) stating that customer profitability is a major factor when making marketing and business development decisions.
Price a barrier
The price of CRM remains a stumbling block; 35% of the respondents without CRM identify the price tag as the single major barrier preventing their financial institution from implementing a CRM strategy, while nearly 15 percent pinpoint staffing limitations. Other hindrances cited were inappropriate timing, lack of management commitment, or complexity of data conversion.
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