Does Dynamics 365 meet the CRM Trends of 2022?

Microsoft announced their Wave 2 release for 2021 wherein exciting new features will be gradually released from October 2021 to March 2022, and it’s only the beginning of an array of features that will be continuously developed for 2022 and onwards.

Mobile:
In recent years, we’ve seen a large rise in mobile phone usage, and for good reason: it’s portable, convenient to carry around, and provides quick access to the internet. Especially during the pandemic, the demand to work remotely had never been so high, being able to carry your access to work anytime, anywhere, is very important. This trend also applies to CRM, and Dynamics 365 has made a few updates as a response.

Microsoft offers a lot of mobile app counterparts for its computer applications, but as far as CRM goes, Dynamics 365 Sales has been one of the apps with upcoming developments for 2022. The wave 2 updates focus on making the CRM experience easier for users on mobile, streamlining their work overall.

These updates include:

• A worklist of prioritised activities;
• Quick actions that serve as prompts to speedily complete tasks;
• Ability to summarise activities after a meeting or call;
• Create follow-up action items;
• Speech-to-text notes;
• Ability to generate links and share them;
• Digitally delegate tasks for better collaboration;
• Using AI to automate personalised Marketing

Having personalised marketing efforts for the customer is nothing new. However, with the industry advancing in the aspects of AI and other related technology, CRMs in 2022 are expected to automate the delivery of highly customised offers to clients. This not only applies to emails and ads but also in the initial profiling of a customer during the lead scoring and segmentation phase.

Customer Journey:
Orchestration was released in August 2021. It allows for highly personalised AI-driven communications with clients based on real-time updates, and can soon be aided with Power Automate flows. A client journey can be intelligently customised by adding event triggers, as well as using the client’s demographics and other attributes. When a client hits a trigger, a new and separate journey is created to make sure that each client receives the most appropriate personalised experience.

Other updates include:

• Link customer Journey.
• Orchestration with data stored in your own Azure Data Lake.
• Dynamics 365 Customer Insights integration to enhance engagement and segmentation.
• Simplifying segmentation with new segmentation builder.

A Unified Communication Channel for Users:
Having a singular software for all communications is going to be more common in the coming years, especially for CRM, where users have to send messages through various channels. Having this setup will eliminate the hassle of having to go back and forth through multiple channels to check messages, emails, texts, etc. Because in the end, what’s important is the message, not the medium, therefore a channel-less communication approach will greatly help with CRM adoption as well as productivity.

In light of this, Microsoft has been focused on developing the new MS Teams Integration for Dynamics 365 with no extra cost. Although it’s not a complete “channel-less” solution, it is a huge step towards that direction, as the new Teams integration will allow users to seamlessly collaborate, mention, notify, and view opportunity details using teams.

Specifically, enhancements are being developed to allow notifications from Dynamics 365 to be received in teams, as well as to view customer records, details, and even create notes to be saved in Dynamics 365, on the side panel during a Teams meeting. These updates will allow users to collaborate more efficiently, both within the company and towards their clients.

Overall, these updates will surely increase the functionality of Dynamics 365 as a leading CRM for 2022. However, it also presents a new set of unfamiliar features to its existing users, as well as for the users to come. While it’s already been established that Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a complex CRM intended for intermediate-level users, it is always a good thing to simplify the user experience.

According to statistics, 72% of CRM users are very much willing to trade in functionality for ease of use.

Simply put, users want their CRM to be easy to use. One of the best ways to solve this issue is by subscribing to a Voice to CRM service. It reduces touch points and allows users to access features and input data using their voices. This is perfect for complex CRMs such as Dynamics 365. It makes data entry fast and easy, giving the company a competitive edge.

Book a consultation with Aspira today to see how your organisation can benefit from Dynamics 365.