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Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions: Which is Right for You?

Whether you are a small business or large enterprise or a private organization or a government entity, these days software solutions are backbone for day-to-day operations. No business can function without relying on any software application. Even if you are just using emails or WhatsApp, you are still utilizing these software. This blog is not to discuss the emails or WhatsApp, in fact we will briefly discuss about the business solutions, like ERP (enterprise resource planning software), CRM (customer relationship management system), Customer Feedback System, Customer Portals, Intranet Applications, Web-Portals, and core business applications.

Now a day’s a business’s digital eco-system consists of multiple software solutions, some are commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) and some are custom software development solutions. All working in a perfect harmony to drive efficiency, performance, quality and profitability. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE are very eager to optimize their operational efficiency and expenses by leveraging the inherent properties of software applications, such as business process automation, digitalization, analytical data collection and super efficient information flow via advanced communication channels.

The digital technology is evolving at an unprecedented speed, so does the market trends, and customer demands. In order to be more competitive, businesses need to adopt to highly efficient software application. With the growth corporate data and increasing demand for operational excellence also grows, and the decision between commercial off-the-shelf solutions and custom software development has become more critical and difficult. In this blog we will do a comparison between custom software development and off-the-shelf solutions to give you a better perspective of the subject.

See Also: Custom Software for Improved Business Efficiency

Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions: Which is Right for You?
Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions: Which is Right for You?

What is Custom Software Development?

The custom software development is a process to design software application precisely as per your needs, the customized software are tailor-made for a single business or group of users at an organization. This is what makes them far more superior, efficiency and effective. Unlike commercial off-the-shelf software, which are generic solutions, the custom software applications are design from scratch, which perfectly positioned them as the most effective solution for modern business who strive for efficiency and performance.

The simplest way to understand it is to think of building house, if you commission a professional architect, you can make the house the way you want and need, you can control each and every minor aspect of literally everything. But what if you bought a built house, you don’t have much room to make changes, even if you hire someone, you will still going to have certain limitations. This is how the custom software development is different from the off-the-shelf solutions.

The custom software development process starts with in-depth analysis of your organization’s existing infrastructure, operations, internal processes, workflows and challenges that you are facing. This processes greatly improve the efficacy, efficiency and alignment with your operations. Then all key elements are carefully crafted to minimize the adoption and integration expenses, while ensuring all goals can be achieved seamlessly. With the custom software development you can design the software by keeping your goals, challenges, resources and limitations in mind.

The custom software development also tend to delivery exceptionally higher ROI over a longer period of time. But the thing most organizations doesn’t realize is when do they need a customized software application? The simplest rule to consider is to “don’t reinvent the wheel”. Your email client, such as Outlook or Thunderbolt both are off-the-shelf software, do you need to build one for your organization? Absolutely not!

See Also: Why Off-the-Shelf Solutions Fall Short: Advantages of Custom Software Development

What is Custom Software Development?
What is Custom Software Development?

What are Off-the-Shelf Software Solutions?

The off-the-shelf software solutions or COTS, are the pre-built software application, which businesses either purchase or subscribe to. Same like Outlook and Thunderbolt, there are ERPs, CRMs, HRMS, and various other organizational tools which are pre-built, and are designed for a specific industry sector. Moreover what off-the-shelf solution you are using, the chances are very high, your competitors would also be using the same. This undermine your competitive advantage. The biggest advantage of off-the-shelf software solutions is that they are ready-to-use.

The time you purchased them, you will be provided access instantly, and even if the on-premises deployment is required, these solutions can be setup up in a few days. Unlike the customized software application which require a lengthy period of development and testing. For example, Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, all are commercial off-the-shelf software solutions. The big-data software market is dominated by off-the-shelf solutions, but businesses are gradually shifting towards customized big-data and AI-powered software applications.

One of the biggest reason businesses opt for commercial off-the-shelf solutions is quick deployment and very low upfront cost. Most of the off-the-shelf software solutions come with a subscription plan, the payments are done on monthly, quarterly or annual bases. The biggest disadvantage in implementing off-the-shelf software solutions is the lack of customization. Most of the off-the-shelf software doesn’t offer any customization, some large-scale application do offer customization but with very limited scope and the customization cost is also very high.

Usually these software solutions are divided into various packages and modules. Sometimes just for a single features, businesses might need to upgrade to a 20%-40% expensive module or version. Which can significantly increase the operational cost in longer run. That is not all, businesses often end-having tons of unwanted features which not only increase cost, but also tend to harm the efficiency of the staff who will be using these solutions.

See Also: Custom Software Development for Enhanced User Experience

What are Off-the-Shelf Software Solutions?
What are Off-the-Shelf Software Solutions?

Comparison Between Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-shelf Solutions

Now that we clearly understood the major differences between the custom software development and off-the-shelf software solutions, let us compare various aspects which will help you decide which solution could be more effective for which needs and requirements.

Cost Comparison: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Cost is one of the most crucial and in most cases the deciding factor when business choose between the custom software development and off-the-shelf solutions. However to understand the costing of both solutions, we have to be very careful. Like I have mentioned earlier, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. This means, for certain needs, you will surely go for commercial off-the-shelf solutions, such as Microsoft Office, Emails, Teams, Zoom, etc. However, when it comes to accounting, for example, the Quickbooks or Slack might cost you very less, but will never going to align and adopt to your emerging business needs.

There would be costs associated with upgrades, new modules/features, third-party integration and so on. Above all, if you are dealing with sensitive customer data, you will always be at risk, since your data has been stored with the vendor and technically they have full control and to some extent authority over it. The initial cost on the other hand for the custom software development could range somewhere from a few thousand dirham to several hundred thousand. Which might seem staggering comparing to COTS.

However, with the customized software application, you will have full control and authority over your data, you can customize them the way you want, you can add new features down the road, and on top of that these software has capabilities to scale, adopt and evolve along with your business needs. There would be no operational inefficiencies due to mismatching of software structure and your internal processes and workflows.

You will most likely never stuck in vendor-lock situation, and instead of replacing the entire solution, you can simply add new features, upgrade it or customize it as per your new needs. You can also easily integrate customized software with other third-party tools, databases and solutions without bearing large expenses. This makes custom software development superior than the COTS.

See Also: The Cost of Custom Software Development: Factors to Consider

Cost Comparison: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Cost Comparison: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Flexibility and Scalability: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

I would rather consider flexibility and scalability comparison as direct cost comparison. Because this has huge impact on your long-term cost. Growing businesses often end-up outgrowing their commercial off-the-shelf solutions and end-up paying huge for the replacements. The important and most crucial thing to understand is tha the commercial off-the-shelf solutions are designed for masses, and are designed as per best industry practices and standards. This means a large number of businesses would be using them, hence upgrading an application which has millions of users, and all users can have their own preference, needs, and challenges.

Under such conditions, making huge change in the software could impact millions of users, which will also impact the revenue of the vendor as well. Hence whenever a vendor will decide to upgrade or add more features, or remove some, they will have to be very careful. Therefore the development and growth is extremely slow with commercial off-the-shelf software solutions. The custom software development on the other hand is synonymous to flexibility. The customized software solutions are tailor-made for your business needs, and have potential to keep on evolving with your emerging needs. Adding a new features, removing or customizing an existing features in in your hand.

Moreover, you can do whatever you want to do, there is no restriction or limitation as far as the customization concerns. This level of customization and personalization is invaluable for businesses who want to grow and stand out of the crowd. The customized software keep on evolving with your emerging needs, challenges and growth. Your in-house developers or the outsourcing partner can customize and optimize the features whenever you need them. You can always patch your software or upgrade them to optimize the performance and impact. This way rather ending up replacing your off-the-shelf software solutions, you can keep on using the same application for decades.

See Also: Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Your Custom Software Development Project

Flexibility and Scalability: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Flexibility and Scalability: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Maintenance and Support: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Whether you chose commercial off-the-shelf software solution (COTS) or a custom software development, both requires upkeep and maintenance. Businesses often overlooked the maintenance and support while deciding between these two, but it is a very crucial factor to consider. Especially in a fast-paced world, where the time is money, any downtime in a software application or a minor issue could significantly undermine your entire operations. Some issues need to be addressed at immediate bases, as these could have dominoes effect, where one problem or inefficiency lead to another and so on. When it comes to support the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions always lag, no matter how great the application is, the support would usually be limited to general queries and for complex issues, you might have to wait in long queues.

Moreover the support resources for off-the-shelf software are shared and depends on your licensing agreement and in some cases you have to pay extra for premium support. The customized software on contrary comes with dedicated support, the team that built them also offer dedicated support. Another great advantage is quicker problem resolution and timely patches or updates. The software development team that build your application would understand all intricacies of your software hence, they can quickly resolve issues, eliminate bugs, and even made iterations for better user experience and efficiency. You will always prioritized, and in cases of show-stoppers your support team will readily available.

The upgrades, updates, security patches, and iterations can be scheduled aligning with your operating hours, to minimize any impact on your operations. Businesses often do such activities in off-hours or at weekends, to eliminate any downtime. Since you are the sole customer, your requests are always prioritized, moreover you can have direct interaction with the developers which eliminate any communication barrio and ensures quick results.

See Also: Emerging Trends in Custom Software Development

Maintenance and Support: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Maintenance and Support: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Security and Data Privacy: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

In this modern day and age the data privacy and cyber security is one of the greatest challenge. We have witnessed many multinational businesses get completely destroyed after data breaches, most of them still haven’t recovered to their formal glory. Now a days customers are very savvy and aware of the cyber threats, on top of that the media, news and social media also played their role in spreading the awareness. Businesses too are way more conscious about the cyber security. One of the biggest drawback of off-the-shelf software solutions is that your valuable data is stored on vendor’s servers, and even if it is stored locally (which is very rate), the vendor still have full access to it.

Moreover, the vendor is almost fully responsible for the security, but you might also have to take certain measures to ensure maximum data privacy and protection. The off-the-shelf solution are more likely to get targeted due to known vulnerabilities due to the fact that millions of people all around the world have access to these solutions. However, the custom software development enable businesses to adopt to advanced security practices. In fact the security can be prioritized throughout the development lifecycle. A secure development lifecycle help adding multiple layers of security and protection.

Unlike commercial off-the-shelf software solutions, businesses have full control and ownership of their data. They can choose where and how to store their data and no one can be given access to it, outside of the organization. Since the applications are built from scratch in custom software development, your software structure and design is fully confidential and no one knows it. Moreover businesses can have frequent and regular security and vulnerability testing which help them instantly apply security patches, keep the source code up-to-date and keep on adding new security features down the road. These are the reasons the customized applications are considered to be more protective and superior than off-the-shelf solutions.

See Also: Security Best Practices in Custom Software Development

Security and Data Privacy: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Security and Data Privacy: Custom Software Development vs. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

Conclusion

Choosing between off-the-shelf solutions and custom software development is always difficult. Businesses have to consider multiple factors, and majorly it depends on your needs, budget, and long-term strategy. Both off-the-shelf solutions and customized software applications have their unique advantages and disadvantages, but in most cases the custom software development tend to offer extremely higher ROI. Even on technical grounds, the customized applications are technically more superior, advanced and future-ready. For example, if you need an email client, what would be more beneficial? Developing a new email client or opting for Outlook or Thunderbolt? Obviously your needs are the major driver here, but if you need a complex application or tool, then the custom software development is much better choice. The off-the-shelf software solutions have many limitations, the application lack in offering any competitive advantage, and tend to grow at a very slow pace.

Businesses who consider the upfront cost and deployment time only, often end up replacing their off-the-shelf software solution with a more expensive and complex software application after some time. Because the commercial off-the-shelf software solutions tend to grow and evolve very slowly. The custom software development is a comprehensive process, which let businesses build their software from scratch, hence the software fully aligns with your unique and exclusive requirements. Moreover the customized software have potential to evolve along with your business needs. You have full control and authority over the source code, data and security aspects, which is a great advantage. There are no hidden fees or hefty charges for very limited customization. The custom software development is far more superior in every aspect and could be a game changer for businesses.

In this blog we have briefly discussed a few crucial aspects of software development to compare both off-the-shelf and customized software. If you want to learn more or if you want our help to design a bespoke software application for your organization, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Benefits of Investing in Custom Software Development for Your Business in Dubai


Integrating Customer Feedback Systems with CRM for Enhanced Customer Relationships

The customer relationship management is a strategic process businesses utilize to manage and analyze the customer interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. The customer feedback is a source of highly valuable insight which help businesses align themselves with customer needs and expectations. These two are most important and vital component of any business’s growth strategy. Without nurturing customer relationship business can never achieve their long-term goals and without understanding customer needs and expectations, businesses can never strengthen their relationship with customers. The customer relationship management system or CRM is a technological framework which help businesses to automate and synchronize various crucial business processes such as sales, marketing, customer service and support.

These four are the fundamental components of customer relationship, no matter what industry you operates in, you need these processes to build long-term customer relationships. Businesses operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE knows how competitive the markets are and how diverse and dynamic the market landscape is. Such market conditions require a strong, loyal and dedicated customer base, which requires proactive customer relationship management. Same like any other relationship the communication is the key to success.

The customer feedback system provides a crucial source of direct communication, where the customers can freely express themselves and share their suggestions. In this blog we will discuss how businesses can leverage a customer feedback or survey system along with a customer relationship management system to strengthen the customer relationships.

See Also: What is CXM (Customer Experience Management)?

Integrating Customer Feedback Systems with CRM for Enhanced Customer Relationships
Integrating Customer Feedback Systems with CRM for Enhanced Customer Relationships

Understanding the Basics of CRM (Customer Relationship Management System)

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is an integral part of the modern businesses, it is a strategic process, usually managed by a dedicated software application which provide management and analytical tools. It provides a centralized system which host the customer data, providing an in-depth and intuitive understanding of every customer journey from first interaction to ongoing support. The modern CRM solutions also include tools to manage the leads and potential customers. The customer relationship management software (CRM) is used to streamline processes between various front-facing business functions. For example, when a salesman closed a deal, the customer service and support team is notified, the CRM do this in fully or semi-automated way, it records the interaction, conveyed the required information to the relevant team informing them of customer’s needs and expectations.

The biggest advantage of CRM solution is that it reduce errors, provides more wholesome data to the relevant teams and personals, eliminate the need of manual work, and it can manage large number of customers with extremely high efficiency. These features not only enhance operational efficiency, but also drive productivity which results in better quality services and satisfactory customer experience. The CRMs are excellent at enhancing communication and information flow within the organization and these tools can also automate communication with customer, which help businesses save a lot of resources, while instead of compromising quality or performance, boost both of them. That is why businesses tend to rely on customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage and nurture customer relationships. The CRM also keeps everything organized, well-tracked and recorded without any delay.

See Also: Why customized CRM Software is better than Off-the-shelf Solution?

Understanding the Basics of CRM (Customer Relationship Management System)
Understanding the Basics of CRM (Customer Relationship Management System)

Understanding the Basics of Customer Feedback System

The modern market landscape has become very customer-centric, businesses who failed to align themselves with customer needs, expectations and preference couldn’t compete. Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE has a very diverse and highly competitive market landscape. Customers have multiple choices, a single bad interaction could led them to switch to your competitor. That is why it is crucial to understand what is in your customer’s mind and heart. The customer feedback system provides a window into customer’s mind and heart. The customer feedback data help businesses acquire a deeper insight to customer’s needs, challenges, issues, expectations and preferences. The customer feedback system provides a systematic framework which streamline customer feedback management, provide advanced data collection and analytical tools, which help producing actionable insights.

The customer feedback system is a digital tool based on a very powerful software application. This tools help streamlining multiple channels to collect feedback data from broader audience. Furthermore the customer feedback system has capabilities to automate the feedback management process. It also offers real-time feedback and automation which greatly improve business efficiency and reduce the human resource. The feedback data helps management understand the customer needs, identify trends, and identify the areas of improvement. Furthermore businesses can also leverage the customer feedback system to assess and evaluate the changes implemented. The customer feedback system plays crucial role in improving service quality and product development. Businesses can make informed and highly effective data-driven decisions leveraging the customer feedback data for higher success and growth.

See Also: Understanding Customer Sentiments by Implementing a Modern Customer Feedback System

Understanding the Basics of Customer Feedback System
Understanding the Basics of Customer Feedback System

Why We Need to Integrate the Customer Feedback System with CRM?

Both the customer feedback system and CRM or customer relationship management system plays a crucial role in managing and improving customer relationship. Integrating both can exponentially raise their efficacy and efficiency. Integrating customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM) can provide a unified platform where the customer voice meets the actionable insights. This integration has another great benefits, it provides a more in-depth understanding of customer feedback in context to their history and help personalizing customer service and experience. Personalizing customer experience and services can greatly improve customer satisfaction and help businesses increase customer loyalty. The loyal customers tend to be good brand advocate not only giving repeated businesses, but also helping businesses in establishing good reputation.

Here are some key benefits of integrating customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM):

  1. Enhanced Insight: Combining CRM and customer feedback system provides a 360 degree view of customer preferences, choices, pain points, complaints, service history, customer persona, demographics, and much more.
  2. Better Customer Retention: Requesting feedbacks after every interaction, closing the feedback loop, and regular feedbacks help building trust and strengthening customer relationship which improve customer loyalty and increase customer retention.
  3. Personalized Customer Experience: Combining customer relationship management data and customer feedback data help identifying patterns, preference and customer expectation which help businesses personalized their offering for elevated customer experience.
  4. Streamlined Communications: Businesses can leverage the combined data from customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM) to establish a fast and automated communication framework.
  5. Proactive Problem Solving: The customer feedback data and CRM data help businesses identify reoccurring problems, issues, complaints and customer suggestions which help businesses proactively solve problem and even identify issues which can later become a problem.
  6. Data-Driven Decision Making: In the modern business landscape where the technology is infused deeply into our personal and work lives. It is extremely important for businesses to have correct insights to take data-driven decision which can ensure long-term success and growth.
  7. Build Customer Trust: One of the most overlooked features of a modern customer feedback system is the closed-loop feedback, where customers’ response/feedback is acknowledged and they are informed of actions taken against their suggestions, this help building trust.
  8. Improve Product Development Process: The CRM data combined with customer feedback data help businesses perform in-depth analysis of their products and services, with this insight in hand businesses can develop the products that can perfectly align with customer needs.
  9. Quick Issue Resolution: The real-time customer feedback can be provided to all relevant teams such as customer service agents, technical support team, etc. This will help them quickly resolve issues, take timely actions and escalate problems that are reported regularly.
  10. Increased Sales and Cross-Selling Opportunities: The customer feedback data and CRM data combined can unlock various up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. The inbuilt AI algorithms and analytical tools help identifying such customers.
  11. Strengthening Customer Relationship: The advanced analytical tools provide in-depth insight, the automation help enhancing communication. Acknowledging customer feedback gives them a sense of importance, by valuing customer businesses can strengthen the customer relationships.
  12. Smart Resource Allocation: Every business has limited resources, in order to maximize the efficiency and outcome, businesses need smart resource allocation. The feedback and CRM data suggest the areas where the efforts can be most impactful.
  13. Enhanced Marketing and Communication: For every business the marketing and communication is a key to success. The integration of CRM and customer feedback system help projecting the communication and marketing campaigns in right direction yielding higher profits and sales.
  14. Comprehensive Reporting: For any business actionable insights are crucial, the AI powered analytical tools can combine both feedback and CRM data to produce highly effective actionable reports, the reports can also be automated for swift action and decision making.

These are some of the key benefits of integrating customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM). Businesses can leverage this integration for long-term improvements as well as leveraging it for proactive problem solving. This can greatly improve customer relationship and you gain more loyalty and build customer trust. These features can help businesses gain a great competitive advantage which can be a game-changing in such a dynamic and highly competitive market landscape.

See Also: Key Features of an Enterprise Application Software (EAS)

Why We Need to Integrate the Customer Feedback System with CRM?
Why We Need to Integrate the Customer Feedback System with CRM?

Conclusion

Integrating customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM) could be a great strategic move. Especially if you are operating in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere in UAE where the business landscape is highly competitive. These markets are subjected to change at a very rapid pace, the customer trends keep on changing frequently. In such business landscapes it is vital to have a deeper and most accurate understanding of customer behavior. Businesses should know what their customers like/dislike, what they need, what bothers them and what do they expect form their favorite brand? Businesses tend to rely on multiple digital tools, business solutions and software applications. Most of the time, these different solutions have different user group, the information and data gathered could remain in silos, which cause latency and lag. The integration empower these solutions, eliminate lags, and streamline information and data flow.

The customer feedback system is a modern software-based solution which help collecting multi-channel feedback and enable businesses to implement modern feedback strategies such as continuous and real-time feedback, closed-loop feedback, etc. Similarly the customer relationship management system (CRM) is also a digital tool which is used to streamline various operations at sales, communication, customer service, and technical support, etc. Combining both the valuable insight form a customer feedback system and extraordinary data-driven capabilities of modern customer relationship management system (CRM), businesses can streamline various internal and operational tasks, drive efficiency and productivity and take most effective decisions for higher success and growth.

The integration help fostering a culture of personalized customer experience, improved efficiency, higher productivity, proactive problem solving, improved decision making, and greater customer satisfaction. The market trends, customer preferences and expectations keep on changing, integrating customer feedback system and customer relationship management system (CRM) ensures that the business remains agile, informed, proactive, more adaptive and responsive towards such changes.

In this blog we have briefly discussed how this integration can help businesses. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help to integrate customer feedback system with CRM or built a completely integrated bespoke solution for you, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: 5 Techniques to Integrate Customer Satisfaction Survey with Queue Management System


Integrating Queue Management with CRM Systems

In a dynamic and vibrant market landscape, where competition is fierce and customer expectations are soaring, businesses must prioritize efficient customer flow management. A high-performance queue management system is essential to streamline operations and deliver exceptional customer experiences. For any customer service center, the customer flow is a critical factor in determining overall customer satisfaction and happiness, two key elements for sustainable business growth. In the UAE, particularly in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi, businesses are increasingly turning to digital solutions to optimize their queue management processes. A modern queue management system is more than just a ticketing system, it’s a comprehensive tool for enhancing the customer journey and managing the overall experience. It also help empowering the service staff and has ability to effectively improve operational efficiency.

A queue management system is a digital solution comprised of software and hardware components designed to streamline and enhance queuing processes and customer experience management. As a centralized solution, it can connect multiple branches or locations, making it ideal for multi-branch businesses. By monitoring and managing customer flow and experience across all branches in real-time, a digital queue management system empowers branch managers, senior management, and head offices to gain a comprehensive view of customer service and staff performance. Same is applicable for medium and small businesses, they can leverage queue management system for superior performance and fast growth. This enables efficient resource management and proactive measures to prevent congestion and crowd formation, which can significantly impact customer satisfaction. In this blog we will discuss how the integration with CRM System can greatly improve the overall efficiency and impact of a digital queue management system (QMS).

See Also: What are the Different Types of Queue Management System?

Integrating Queue Management with CRM Systems
Integrating Queue Management with CRM Systems

Why Integrating CRM Solution with a Queue Management System is Important?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is an indispensable tool for modern businesses. It empowers organizations to analyze, manage, and enhance customer experiences throughout the entire customer lifecycle. The primary goal of a CRM is to foster strong and enduring relationships with customers. By storing and analyzing valuable customer data, CRMs provide a comprehensive view of each customer, including demographics, purchase history, and it can also capture the entire customer interaction. Modern CRMs are designed to seamlessly integrate with various channels, effectively managing both physical and digital customer interactions. This versatility makes CRMs invaluable business assets. Management teams and business leaders rely heavily on CRMs for actionable insights and business intelligence data, which are essential for data-driven decision-making.

A queue management system is fundamentally a customer experience management tool. It streamlines customer flow and enhances the overall customer journey. By capturing valuable business intelligence and analytical data from every customer interaction, the system can also be used to optimize customer relationship management processes. Integrating a customer relationship management (CRM) system with a queue management system (QMS) can significantly enhance the capabilities of both solutions. By combining CRM and QMS, businesses can streamline internal processes and workflows, ultimately leading to improved and elevated customer experiences. The integration means that both CRM and QMS will be able to access the data from one another. This data sharing or synchronization lead to advanced automation and help businesses build innovative features to enhance customer experience.

See Also: Touch Less Customer Experience, Use the RSI Queue Management System

Why Integrating CRM Solution with a Queue Management System is Important?
Why Integrating CRM Solution with a Queue Management System is Important?

Key Advantages of Integrating Queue Management System (QMS) with Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)

The integration of the queue management system (QMS) and the customer relationship management system (CRM) involves connecting various data points from both platforms. This means that a certain type of data from both systems will be available to utilize by various features and components of both systems. The integration help improving and personalizing customer experience and service. The queue management system can authenticate the customer or identify them and pull all the relevant information from the CRM and from its own data repository. This enables a queue management system to personalized customer experience and journey based on their previous interactions, preferences, demographics and broader customer profile and customer groups. All these features are very helpful in improving the customer experience.

The queue management system comes with a powerful software with smart algorithms and AI. The queue management system software application offers UI for the customers which are available at interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosks, online portals or mobile applications. Then there is a dedicated dashboard for the service staff which help them to manage and control the queues. Apart from that the queue management system also offers a dedicated administrative dashboard for the back office which can be customize as per the needs. The branch managers, site supervisors, senior management, head office staff and IT team have their own customized administrative dashboards with different levels of access and control features. These dashboard help respective staff users and empower them with control and information. When the queue management system (QMS) is integrated with the customer relationship management system (CRM) all those features can be improved and additional features can be added for better performance and efficiency.

See Also: How a Queue Management System Can Transform Your Business Operations

Key Advantages of Integrating Queue Management System (QMS) with Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
Key Advantages of Integrating Queue Management System (QMS) with Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)

CRM Integration with Queue Management System Helps Elevating Customer Experience

In a queue management system customers normally sign-in from an interactive ticket dispensing kiosk. These kiosks also ask some basic questions such as preferred language, required service or purpose of visit, etc. However, in modern queue management systems various digital channels are also integrated such as online portals, mobile applications, appointment booking system, visitor management system, SMS and WhatsApp based system, and QR Code based sign-ins. All these channels and interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk can be leveraged to collect valuable insights and to empower various internal business processes and workflows which resultantly enhance and elevate customer experience. For example, these kiosks can comes with facial recognition, Emirates ID Scanner and other biometric technologies which can instantly identify the customer, this help businesses personalize the customer experience and cater to their needs and expectations.

The queue management system not only able to identify the customers’ ID but it can also tally it with the customer data base stored in the customer relationship management system (CRM). A queue management system provides a comprehensive control panel for the service agents. This dedicated agent dashboard offers excellent features to control the customer flow and perform queuing process related several tasks. This dashboard also offer features that empower service agents and help them in pre-service and post-service tasks. This also help service agent to review the past interactions and help them serving customer with better service and experience. Whether it is an existing customer (a deal) or a new customer (a lead) the queue management system can pull data from CRM or push data to CRM which triggers relevant functionalities and enable service agents to enhance service quality. All these features are only possible when a queue management system is effectively integrated with your CRM.

See Also: What are the Basic Components of Queue Management System?

CRM Integration with Queue Management System Helps Elevating Customer Experience
CRM Integration with Queue Management System Helps Elevating Customer Experience

CRM Integration with Queue Management System Boosts Efficiency

The customer relationship management system (CRM) integration with queue management system (QMS) can bring several advantages which not only help elevating customer experience but also help boosting efficiency. The integrating between customer relationship management system (CRM) and queue management system (QMS) help improving several internal processes. The biggest and most fundamental advantage of this integration is to share customer data which includes details of past interaction, purchase patterns, and detailed insights about customer behavior. This information can be a game changer if utilized effectively. The queue management system leverage this information to personalize and optimize customer journey. This information is also very helpful in improving staff performance and efficiency as it helps them in expediting and enhancing customer service. This insight also help improving customer flow and effectively managing different customer segments.

The queue management system is also capable of monitoring and measuring performance and various KPIs of service staff. This information is vital to improve customer flow management. The queue management system has ability to understand which service agent is good or more efficient at what services, which service agent is more efficient with what customer segment and various other such insights. These insights when coupled with the customer details fetched from the CRM, enable queue management system to effectively route customers for better experience and efficient customer flow. This also help management improve their resource allocation and various HR related processes. Furthermore integrating the queue management system (QMS) and the customer relationship management system (CRM) automates the data entry and the customer check-ins which eliminate the human related errors and improve accuracy.

See Also: The Role of AI in Enhancing Queue Management Systems

CRM Integration with Queue Management System Boosts Efficiency
CRM Integration with Queue Management System Boosts Efficiency

The Future or Queue Management System Integration with Other Business Solutions

We discussed the integration of customer relationship management system (CRM) with queue management system (QMS) brings a multitude of advantages which collectively result in better customer experience and enhanced operational efficiency. As the technologies are advancing rapidly, the market landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and the customer demands are subjected to evolve quickly. The integration of queue management system with other business solution is inevitable to meet the growing business needs. For example, the queue management system can be integrated with the financial system to aid transactional interactions. For businesses who require payments for their services, the interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosk or any other digital channel can be equipped with payment features. The interactive self-service ticket dispensing kiosks can receive cash payments, and also support various digital payments and contactless payments.

The queue management system also support ability to directly integrate the appointment booking portals, mobile applications, online portals and various digital communication channels such as WhatsApp and SMS, etc. Businesses can also integrate the queue management system with Email Gateways to trigger automated emails such as acknowledgment messages or online surveys, etc. The queue management system can be integrated with central information system, ERPs, and other business solutions. Businesses can also enable customers and visitors to submit and scan various documents which are required for any particular service. The queue management system can also be integrated with various IoTs such as printers, scanners, passport scanners, QR Code and Barcode readers, Facial Recognition cameras, POS, cash payment devices, RFIDs, and various other peripherals which enhance its capabilities and help businesses elevate customer experience via innovative features. These integrations can also greatly improve internal processes and workflows effectively driving operational efficiency.

See Also: How to Implement a Queue Management System at an Airport?

Customized CRM Software Offers Better Adoptability and Future Readiness
Customized CRM Software Offers Better Adoptability and Future Readiness

Conclusion

In a modern and highly competitive market landscape such as in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and broader UAE integrating customer relationship management system or CRM with a queue management system (QMS) is not just a technology upgrade but a great strategic move. This integration will bring a multitude of advantages which can help businesses gain competitive advantage. This integration create a powerful solution which help businesses dealing with many challenges and enhancing overall efficiency and empower businesses with data-driven decision making. By leveraging the combined strength of these two incredible solutions businesses can personalize customer experience, optimize customer journey and expedite their service delivery mechanisms. By streamlining customer flow, minimizing customer wait time, and elevating overall customer experience businesses can gain customer loyalty and achieve higher customer satisfaction. These two are the key factors for a long-term and sustainable business success.

See Also: Queue Management in Banking: Enhancing Customer Experience

The technology and digital business solutions are evolving at a rapid pace, this also open up various possibilities to integrate the queue management system with various other business solutions. Businesses can leverage the power of custom software development and integration to build innovative features which help them elevate customer experience and operational efficiency. For any business the operational efficiency is crucial it helps them minimize the operational cost while simultaneously boosting operational efficiency. The ability to leverage the combined potential of a queue management system and a customer relationship management system can put you ahead of your competition and help you strengthen your relationship with customers. In this blog we have briefly discussed the importance and key advantages of this integration. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a bespoke queue management system for your business or organization, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

See Also: Importance of Queue Management System for Government and Public Offices