The ultimate guide to CRM systems for online communities: Part 1

An online community is about creating connections, and a good CRM system will help you nurture these connections into lasting relationships. 

Why do I need a CRM system for my online community?

CRM systems have been shown to improve customer relationships and increase customer retention by 27%! That’s because a CRM system centralises all of your information, such as member interactions and activities, to allow you to personalise and improve the member experience. 

As a community leader or manager, a CRM system helps you understand what’s going on inside your community and - assuming it’s regularly updated! - your CRM system will give you real-time data on your members. 

How do I know it's the right CRM system for my community?

We recommend focusing on three things when choosing your CRM software:

1. Features

2. Friendliness 

3. Cost

Features

Before you decide on your CRM system, you need to ask yourself: 

Can this CRM software do what I need it to do? 

At its core, every CRM system should be able to store customer information and have a level of outbound capabilities (such as sending emails). 

Once you’ve checked your CRM system ticks the ‘essentials’ box, start making a list of more tailored features that you would like. 

Every company’s preferred features will look slightly different depending on their industry and goals. A fitness company, for example, will likely prioritise features that can help with: 

• Class scheduling 

• Membership management

• Personalised workout plans

• Progress tracking

Think about what features align with your community and ensure your CRM software meets these requirements. 

User-friendly

You may think a CRM system that’s packed with features and has extensive training videos must be a well-developed CRM worth your time and financial investment, however, that’s not always the case.

The one thing your CRM system needs in order to be successful is to be used!

Your CRM software should be updated as often as possible, and by as many people as possible. If your team finds the software overcomplicated or difficult to navigate, they’ll be put off using it. 

The same goes for unnecessary features. 

CRMs loaded with features that aren’t useful to your community can lead to underutilisation of the software and an overall disinterest in using the tool.

A good CRM system will have a clean interface, a fairly self-explanatory onboarding process, and an intuitive design that helps you focus on the core features that are important to your community. 

Prioritise a user-friendly CRM system so it doesn’t become a dormant tool in your tech stack!

Cost

When choosing a CRM system, one major decision is cost. Every provider approaches CRM pricing differently, but the most common models are: 

Per seat pricing

Many CRM providers will charge per user or per ‘seat’. This means the more team members you need to access the CRM system, the higher the overall cost. 

It’s important to factor in how many users will regularly use the CRM system to avoid unexpected expenses later on.

Tiered pricing

Pricing tiers are typical when it comes to CRM software, with a set of features paired with a corresponding cost. 

For instance, a basic plan will likely come with essential features, while a pro plan can have bespoke features, better integration options, and allow you to add company branding. 

The basic plan might be fine when you’re starting out, however, it’s good to think about your long-term goals and make sure you take this into account when looking at your monthly costs. 

Free trials, typically between 14 and 30 days, can be a great way to test what type of plan you need. It may be that a certain feature is only available in a higher-priced plan and yet this feature is something you consider an ‘essential’ for your company. If that’s the case, you need to know whether it’s worth your investment from the get-go.

Is all CRM data useful?

92% of companies use databases to store information on a customer and prospect, and a good CRM software lets you access all of this information in one place. 

However, how useful your data is will completely depend on what is being added into your CRM system. 

More often than not, there will be some data entries that are actually working against you and it’s important to address these as early as you can. 

Some of the issues we’ve seen companies come up against with data in their CRM software are:

The data is wrong or missing

For a CRM system to work, you have to have accurate data. 

While 74% of companies say their CRM software gives them better access to customer data, a recent study discovered that 91% of data in CRM systems is incomplete and nearly 20% has duplicate client data.

Missing information, like an email address or the wrong number of digits for a phone number, makes the usefulness of your CRM software go downhill. 

Incorrect or missing data can also lead to misguided decisions or strategies for your team.

You should be able to turn to your CRM system and access the most up to date information about your community and its members. If this isn’t happening, then an audit of your data can be very helpful!

There's too much data

Yes, there is such a thing as too much data. 

Say you have a cookie subscription business and a subscriber has told you they don’t eat nuts. This data can come in very handy when sending out an email campaign about a new peanut butter cookie you’re launching or to help you understand why they didn’t buy a certain box of cookies. 

Customer food preferences could also be useful for a running club when determining the type of snacks to put in a goody bag, for example. 

However, the knowledge of a person with a nut-free diet wouldn’t add or do anything to improve the customer relationship at a florist business.

This information would be unnecessarily stored and would ultimately clog the florist’s CRM system with unimportant details instead of focusing on what matters (such as their favourite spring blooms).

Remember, the data stored needs to serve a purpose for your community. 

Keep an eye out for Part 2 of our CRM guide where we’ll talk about who should be using and updating your CRM, automation and manual processes, and our CRM top tips!

Organise your community with a CRM system

At Steadfast Collective, we help customers build community-focused applications. During the process, we regularly help migrate data from CRM systems and advise on the best ways to make the most of your CRM software. 

Get in touch with us and let’s get your data working for your community!