Top CRM trends Business & tech by BRIANNA BLANEY March 11, 2024 The history of customer relationship management spans over five decades and has spurred the continuous evolution of CRM technology. The global CRM market was valued at $47.79 billion back in 2019 and is projected to reach $157.53 billion by the year 2030, exhibiting a growth rate of 12%. It’s a lucrative business. Customer experience (CX) and satisfaction are some of the driving forces behind modern business success. To meet customer-centric goals, new CRM tools with greater precision are being developed. Every year, new trends come up in the CRM space. Keeping track of these trends will help you plan ahead, meet changing business needs, and gain a competitive edge. So, here are the top CRM trends for 2024. Let’s explore each in some detail so you can be prepared as a CRM user to leverage the most recent technology in your day-to-day business operations. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Of course AI tops the list of 2024 CRM trends. All major platforms are releasing updates to show how CRM users can use AI to be more efficient. (Psst: Watch Insightly’s webinar on this topic and hear straight from the CEO on ways Insightly is adding AI to the platform.) One thing that AI can do very well is understand plain English commands. This is what is so appealing about AI in general, and particularly generative AI. As the phrase implies, generative AI can generate net new content from what it ‘learns’ from various sources. A great example of this in action is writing code. Code writing can be a tedious task that also requires a high level of skill, but with a plain English command, you can get AI to write code for you. In CRM, this can mean calculated fields or integrations become much more accessible and easy to create. Another way that AI can show up in CRM is by helping to grade and score leads so that the highest quality leads are prioritized. By automatically synthesizing data from the lead like employee count, revenue level, geographical location, job level, role department, and more, AI can tell you what leads should command attention quickly. This might take a human time and therefore cause leads to sit which we all know isn’t ideal. IoT technologies IoT stands for “the internet of things” and is used to describe a network of physical objects that are tied to the internet through sensors, scanners, software, and other technologies. IoT adoption has been steadily on the rise over the last decade. According to IOT Tech News, the IHS estimated an installed base of 15.41 billion devices in 2015, nearly tripling to 42.62 billion in 2022. It’s expected to grow at an even more rapid pace, reaching 75.44 billion by 2025. One of the main purposes of connecting the physical and digital worlds is the exchange of information. There has been an upward tick of CRM integrations with IoT tech to make life a little easier. Enriched IoT data IoT technology helps to monitor and service clients in proactive ways. Data generated from these solutions is used to increase customer satisfaction and retention. CRMs are integrating with compact resources that have flexible offline/online capabilities, such as: Wearable monitors GPS systems Cybersecurity scanners Smart appliances Energy meters And more… These advanced solutions lead to greater visibility and cost efficiencies. The more mobile people become, the more IoT integrations we will see. Workflow automation Automation-enabled self-service is another emerging trend in 2024. The concept of self-help in the CRM world is catching on. Working smarter, not harder, happens with automation and CRMs offer many opportunities for workflow automation in businesses. Automating processes can have huge benefits. It frees up your team from manually intensive work. It ensures things don’t get missed or forgotten due to human error. For example, when a new lead is entered into your system, a welcome email can be triggered to ensure that person feels valued and welcomed. Can you put a price tag on that customer experience? Effective workflows can move prospects through sales and marketing pipelines quickly resulting in an increase in pipeline velocity. This synergy has enabled chatbots to complete more contact management tasks without any human interference. They can quickly guide users through the right channels and provide actionable insights. Integrate that with a CRM, and you have an entire workflow that’s completely run by machine learning. This extends to email communications as well, and once set up, these require little to no effort on the part of employees. Entire email campaigns can be automated to nurture sales prospects down the funnel. (If your CRM is on the same platform as your marketing automation application, this can be even more effective with drip campaigns, landing pages and forms all connecting with your CRM. Workflow automation enables a business to offer high-quality customer service while optimizing operational costs. This is something that CRMs are supporting in new and innovative ways. Flexible APIs In CRM, APIs are the roadmap to customer intelligence. An API is what integrates platforms together. It is the glue that binds enterprise systems and helps to capture greater revenue growth. Flexible APIs create a valuable record of customer preferences, while driving successful strategies. It’s one of the key technologies that enable cloud-based CRM applications to flex in response to sales and marketing needs. They’re fueling an unprecedented level of data-driven insights. Additionally, CRMs with open API integration are enabling entirely new business models. As the development becomes increasingly customer-centric, APIs allow for greater versatility and flexibility in designing custom: Workflows Graphical user interfaces (GUI) Screen designs Process steps Over time, APIs will redefine the nature of how cloud-based CRMs operate. Today, nearly every CRM will offer API features (some more scalable and mature than others). Cloud-based CRMs have enterprise-grade APIs that orchestrate a wide variety of databases. Cloud management is helping APIs become more customer-oriented by providing scalable integration frameworks and technologies. This allows for greater collaboration across departments, teams, divisions, and channels. APIs are facilitating a new era of integrated CRM systems that are innovative and data-driven. Dynamic user interface One of the top CRM trends for 2024 also involves dynamic user interfaces. As CRMs evolve, the need to manage multiple functions in one spot becomes apparent. Rather than using separate systems for sales, marketing, service, and operations, new CRM dashboards are multifaceted. A business can condense robust sales and marketing tech stacks into a single spot. Brands like Insightly provide several dashboards for universal insight. Toggle between opportunities, projects, and leads with a simple click. Colorful visuals that include charts, graphs, and gauges help a business assess important data at a glance. Dynamic CRM dashboards display a quick overview of your most critical reports. It presents complex information that’s easy to digest and share with the team. As CRMs continue to evolve, the user interface will convey more and more data streams, in less amount of time. Voice controls As technology like Alexa and other voice-activated hardware become more and more common on households, business software will soon follow. Customers are getting comfortable with conversational AI and this means, CRMs are following suit. According to a PWC report on voice technology, 90% of consumers who had heard of voice-enabled products and devices and 72% of those had used a voice assistant. That means that conversational apps are critical for the evolution of CRM tools. Voice technology is a key factor for accessibility and helps to increase user engagement. Voice-assisted virtual assistants within CRM infrastructures are helping salespeople track, manage, message, update, and notify teams about customer data in real-time. This leads to faster decision-making and a quicker close. In the near future, you should expect to see an increase in the usage of voice assistants and supporting hardware in CRM processes and interfaces. One last thought Most trends in CRM are influenced by brands that can quickly pivot to meet evolving customer needs. In order to stay relevant to tech-savvy consumers, top CRMs need to offer tools with AI, advanced automation, IoT integrations, flexible APIs, a dynamic user interface, and voice technology. Does that seem like a big ask? Not really. The truth is, most of this technology is currently in place. More intelligent and contextually-aware CRM applications already incorporate machine learning, AI, and business intelligence. The companies that are getting ahead use CRMs to build lasting customer relationships, drive sales, measure performance, and contribute to business growth; all while keeping customer satisfaction at an all-time high. According to a study by SelectHub, “CRM will continue to outpace overall enterprise software growth, as the plethora of technologies and strategies they support directly contribute to revenue growth.” This is because the technologies and strategies that CRM applications support contribute directly to new customer acquisition and retention, gross margin growth, and a healthy return on investment. If you’re looking for a CRM that stays on top of trends, Insightly is a great place to start. Request a product demo, watch a demo on demand at your convenience, or jump right in with a free trial. AI | Customer Data Management | Data visualization | Startups | Trends BRIANNA BLANEY Brianna Blaney began her career in Boston as a fintech writer for a major corporation. She later progressed to digital media marketing with various finance platforms in San Francisco. She prides herself on reverse-engineering the logistics of successful content management strategies and implementing techniques that are centered around people (not campaigns). In her spare time, she’s a self-proclaimed chef and lives in Dallas with a squirrel.