In this weekly CRM roundup, you can find various CRM topics and useful tips that can help you increase your business productivity. You can learn how bad customer data can hurt your CRM initiative, how CRM can nurture business development, or just have fun catching up on the latest and best CRM news.

Have you shifted to social CRM and migrated to cloud-based application, assuming that this will bring you the success you needed?! It failed, probably, because your marketing, sales and customer service teams were not happy.

In her article, Jakki Geiger explains why the valuable teams for your success could be unsatisfied with a new CRM , especially when having customer experience and data that are not organized, yet are concrete to help customers in the most effective and convenient way. Jakki explains why this happens by introducing us to “The Catch 22 of CRM Projects”. This article is a great example of the consequences of not being able to make the most out of your CRM.

As the title says, CRM is definitely more than just a sales tool. As Belly Lyle explains, CRM has many functions; it develops new offerings, retains customers by integrating and analyzing their data, and thus, increases their loyalty.

Belly Lyle alleges that in order to achieve success with our CRM, we have to use modern CRM systems that can easily “learn” about customers through multiple channels and social media.

Moreover, Belly warns from the most common reasons of CRM failure – the readiness of your CRM teams. The benefits Lyle mentions of the modern CRM systems are important to remember, as they’re vital to any business looking to succeed.

This fantastic infographic, by Avectra, discusses perfectly what CRM is, and gives several statistics on the effectiveness of adopting the social strategy. For example, 62% of executives agree that adopting social CRM improves customer service and loyalty. In addition, it lists the top benefits of having social CRM, as it teaches 5 excellent ways to use it. Furthermore, it warns, in an amusing way, from the social “Social CRM myths.” I found it highly fruitful since it reviews many aspects of social CRM and its importance! Enjoy!

In his great post, Philippe Brissaud lists the best practices for CRM implementation and deployment. There are many considerations to take, which depend on your own choice, of On Premises Deployment, Azure, or Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Deployment. Philippe Brissaud discusses these three CRM solutions, their benefits, differences and how to make the best practices CRM deployment and implementation out of them. I believe that this source can be helpful for many of us because it contains high quality information!

Well, last but not least, this post is very special and useful, since Ross Keating covers all the information one could ask for concerning CRM relationships; improving sales by creating authentic and trusted relationships in CRM among people you do not know.

It is not a secret that CRM is critical to achieve business success, increase sales, improve customer service and experience, and also to build relationships with potential customers. With social media, it has become more relevant and possible to build these relationships that are necessary for any business promotion. It has become possible because buyers and customers always look for information before contacting a vendor around the web and via social media. This great article explains the use of “social selling” techniques that are needed to be adopted!

We should always remember that our customers are the key to our success. We have to know and understand their needs so we can give them what they really want, and never let them down. Marina Lermolaieva reminds us of the significance of a satisfied customer and how to maintain this satisfaction with CRM. She offers 8 great dispensable ways to do it with CRM through essential practices that ensure better CRM functionality.