Read on to learn about 5 trends that will shape the future of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) landscape.

1. 5 Top CRM Trends in 2022
It’s often said the job of a business is delighting customers, and rightly so. Customers form the
backbone of a company’s success and ensuring high levels of customer satisfaction enables it to
grow rapidly. According to a study by Gallup, organizations that effectively engage their B2B clients
enjoy 63% lower customer attrition, 55% higher share of wallet and 50% higher productivity.
One of the key elements that allow businesses to provide excellent services to their customers is a
robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. A good CRM system helps organizations
make the best use of data to identify the needs and interests of customers and analyze their buying
behaviors, thereby enabling them to come up with products fully tailored to their specific business
requirements.
Today, we’ll look at 5 key developments that will shape the CRM landscape in 2022 and
comprehensively analyze their impact on businesses.

2. 5 Groundbreaking Trends Poised to Usher in a CRM Revolution
1. Convergence of Big Data Analytics and CRM
As businesses continue to generate enormous volumes of prospect and marketing related data, it
becomes imperative to effectively analyze this huge data in a timely manner to make appropriate
decisions.
Various developments in the realms of technology and data science will enable CRM systems to gather
and interpret massive amounts of data in real time to provide meaningful insights into various aspects
such as productivity of sales teams, efficacy of marketing campaigns and performance of contact
centers.
The CRM applications of the future will be completely analytics-driven, allowing users of the
applications to get the big picture of the customer and a single, comprehensive view of all sales and
marketing activities. Indeed, the confluence of big data analytics and CRM is a trend that will bring
about a fundamental shift in the way companies use data.
2. Unification of Disparate Customer Communication Channels
Many users of CRM tools formulate omnichannel strategies to communicate effectively with their
customers. The strategies enable them to remain in touch with their customers on the channels
preferred by the latter. The omnichannel strategies facilitate high levels of customer engagement and
smooth experiences.
Despite the benefits of the omnichannel approach, there are strong indications that companies will
discard it and connect with their customers using a single-channel communication framework. Recent
developments in IT domain have enabled firms to manage communications using a single application.
The single-channel framework provides all the benefits of an omnichannel approach and prevents the
hassle of switching between various channels, thereby enhancing the productivity of salespersons and
customer service reps.

3. The single-channel framework also helps centralize all interactions with clients, resulting in the
availability of a platform that can provide the people of a company with all the information they
need to close deals
3. Increased Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in CRM
AI is already used widely in various CRM tasks, and its role will only get wider in 2022. One of the
biggest AI-related developments in the CRM arena is the enhanced capability to converse with
customers using chatbots. Chatbots are likely to become more ‘intelligent’ and handle queries of
greater complexity than ever before, thanks to radical developments in Machine Learning (ML) and
other AI-powered paradigms.
Advances in AI are also likely to result in a significant increase in field service efficiencies. AI-enabled
applications help organizations specify criteria to automatically assign a customer ticket to the right
rep and ensure he has access to the necessary spare parts to fix the customer problem
Another area where AI shows great promise is predictive modeling. Companies can use highly
sophisticated AI-enabled algorithms to forecast sales with very high levels of accuracy. Similarly,
businesses can use predictive lead scoring techniques to rank prospective customers based on their
likelihood of making a purchase.
4. Association of the Internet of Things (IoT) and CRM
The IT services market for the IoT is growing at a breakneck pace, and this growth is showing no signs
of slowing down. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that developers of many CRM systems are
leveraging the capabilities of the IoT to provide solutions that enable companies to enhance the
quality of their customer service. This trend in the CRM world will continue into the new year and
beyond.
A major benefit of integrating the IoT with CRM systems is the ability to deliver highly personalized
customer service. The integration enables firms to gain deep insights into the behavior of each
customer, enabling them to customize their products to perfectly suit his unique needs.
The organizations can also run hyper-targeted marketing campaigns; data collected from IoT-enabled
devices allows businesses to access customer data in real time, empowering them to tweak campaigns
very quickly to produce the desired results.
5. Emergence of Business Vertical Specific CRM Systems
Many experts believe the next stage in the evolution of CRM systems is verticalization. Some CRM
solution providers such as Salesforce are already offering industry-specific solutions, and this trend is
likely to catch up speed in 2022.
The trend of verticalization is driven by specific needs of companies in certain sectors. For example,
companies in the banking and financial services sector must follow very stringent procedures to
prevent money laundering and other illegal activities by their customers. Likewise, hospitals and
healthcare providers must ensure complete confidentiality of their patients’ data.
CRM solutions developed for a particular industry can be configured more easily than their ‘general
purpose’ counterparts. This is because verticalized systems are developed to align with various
processes unique to that industry. Staying on with the example of the banking and financial services
sector, CRM solutions developed for firms in the industry include various features that support
screening of customer transactions to prevent fraud.

4. As you can see, the 5 trends listed above will result in major changes in the CRM space. At Solunus,
we help you make the best use of the latest developments in the world of CRM to enable you to reach
your revenue goals. Our strong focus on comprehending your specific requirements coupled with our
unparalleled expertise of Salesforce, the most widely used CRM platform, allows us to deliver the ideal
solution to delight your customers and achieve rapid growth.
Hope you liked this post. How do you use CRM systems? We’d love to know.
About Solunus
Solunus is a dedicated Salesforce partner organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Our
unrelenting focus on comprehending the unique needs of our clients coupled with our unrivaled
expertise of the Salesforce platform enables us to deliver the perfect solutions that create the best
value for IT and business analytics firms.