As a business owner, you can leverage digital technology to deliver exceptional value to your customers and achieve your business objectives. An effective digital strategy can position you to outperform competition through improved products and services, better insight into who your customers are and what they want, increased productivity, and more.

But with so many options to choose from and a limited budget, how do you know which digital capabilities will deliver the greatest return on your investment? Thankfully, the federal government and MNP are here to help. Through the Canada Digital Adoption Program, your small or mid-sized business can access up to $15,000 in grant funding to work with a partner like MNP to build your digital transformation strategy.

In this series of articles, we’ll investigate some of your biggest digital transformation opportunities, starting with strategies and applications to enhance your customer relationships.

Knowing who your customers are and what they want is essential for building a successful business. Your customers are more likely to be loyal to your brand if you can satisfy their wants, anticipate their needs, and deliver consistent and high-quality service.

You have more opportunities to connect with and provide customized content to clients and customers than ever before — be that through a physical storefront, over the phone, online, via a mobile app, etc.

The flip side is consumers have come to expect your business to be available when and where they want, and that their experience of dealing with you will be timely, relevant and consistent across all touch points. 

Having the right technology to capture and analyze data behind the scenes is therefore just as important as the client-facing technologies you use. You can use these tools to better understand your existing customers and their behaviours and needs, and to measure the impacts of your marketing and client acquisition efforts. Even if you’ve already built a customer-centric culture and invested in customer relationship management (CRM), there may be opportunities to improve.

From a technology standpoint, it’s helpful to view your customer relationship opportunities through four distinct, but interconnected lenses. The right ecosystem of tools will help you nurture clients and customers through the entire buyer’s journey, from initial target straight through to a loyal, repeat buyer.

Here are four areas of your business you can enhance through CRM tools:

The right marketing software and strategy will help you identify, track, analyze and nurture leads. You can create targeted and personalized communications and advertising campaigns, monitor their effectiveness, and stick to what works. Your customers are more likely to return when you show them you care by offering them personalized services. CRM tools like Pipedrive and Salesforce are a bedrock for achieving insight-driven marketing that leads to results.

Your sales efficiency and effectiveness would significantly improve if you’re able to prioritize the leads that have the highest conversion potential, engage your customers, anticipate their needs, know when to contact prospects, etc. More importantly, you will be able to save cost and your sales personnel will be more productive as your business processes will be automated.

If you’re an online retailer, you will enhance your customer service by integrating CRM tools that help monitor customer interactions with your store. You can track orders, payments, forecast for future product sourcing, provide after sales services, and discover new product opportunities. Whether you sell on an ecommerce website or on social media, CRM tools will help you take steps such as sending personalized ‘Thank You’ messages to your loyal customers.

Capturing a client’s demographics, location, purchase history, and other behaviour that will enable you create a tailored experience for them. CRMs allow you to automate tailored emails, phone calls, and other forms of communication will show them that they’re seen and valued. This facilitates clear communications, smooth interactions, and positive relationships. You can take advantage of tools such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, Service, Marketing, and Customer Insights.

The federal government has allocated $4 billion to support small and medium size businesses through the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP). The program has two main goals:

Through the Boost Your Business Technology grant, you can access up to $15,000 in funding to cover up to 90 percent of the cost of hiring a digital advisor like MNP Digital. We will help you identify the best digital platforms and strategies to achieve your business goals ­— along with a complete roadmap for how to get up and running.

After that, you’ll have an opportunity to obtain a $100,000 interest-free loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to help pay for your technology implementation projects. And we can help with that, too.