Customer service is a broad concept in the banking industry. Banks are service-based businesses and much of their activities involved elements of service. There is hardly any tangible product, other than selling banking and financial products. In today’s banking industry, customers are empowered with choice.

Many customers maintain banking relationships with more than one bank. Therefore, the banking industry has to consider initiatives that enhance performance and drive customer retention.

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a solid business strategy that enables banks to create brand value and understand their customers’ needs. CRM systems provide tools to segment and deliver the right service to the customer by acting on certain information. It provides the ability to track and build relationships with customers, and identify specific products and services. All outcomes can be tracked an measured. A well-planned CRM strategy can increase any bank’s likelihood of success with marketing and the whole customer experience.

There are three distinct challenges that a CRM system can help banks solve: evolving customer profiles, connecting information, and responding appropriately. CRM information serves as the master record, with integrated systems used to process date. So, customer profiles, customer service, and marketing can be combined to identify opportunities.

Integrating a CRM with other banking systems can be complex but can be accomplished to work successfully. CRM and ERP are both valuable business software solutions, even though they are used to achieve different business goals. Banks can employ both systems. A CRM system handles front end information – managing customer date. This helps banks understand their customers, and up-sell and cross-sell products.

An ERP system handles back end information – managing customer information once services have been added. This can include accounting information, financial data, and even supply chain management. Integrating these two into one powerful system that provides even more advantages. Sharing information and providing visibility to both systems increases productivity and simplifies processes.

One of the biggest advantages of CRM and ERP integration is that it gives a full view of the customer. Together, these systems provide complete visibility into the customer’s needs, history, product preferences, account standing, and more. This gives better insight into the customer and can help build relationships.

A CRM and ERP solution that is fully integrated gives banking employees the ability to access pertinent information in real-time. Without this access, employees will not be as efficient. Customers will be able to recognize this. Therefore, it empowers employees and serves customers better.

Without an integrated system, many bank processes were manual and very time consuming. A key benefit to merging CRM and ERP is better productivity through streamlining processes. It also reduces errors and duplication with data entry. A bank’s CRM system does not need to come from an ERP vendor. Most ERP vendors offer CRM modules, however, some are much better than others.