EnglishHow to Choose the Right CRM for Your Online Brokerage Business
With more than 10 million forex traders across the globe, online brokerage firms need an efficient way to track customer data, create transparency within their teams, enhance performance, and boost collaboration. The best solution is to leverage a CRM (customer relationship management) program to capture and utilize this data. A good quality CRM can also help to automate manual processes making your company more agile.
Whether you are opening a new firm or looking to update your existing program, brokerage businesses need to understand how to properly evaluate and select the best CRM system for brokers. In this article, we’re going to cover the key questions to ask and how to narrow down the list of potential CRM providers.
Things to Consider When Selecting a Forex CRM
There are lots of options available when it comes to CRM programs for the forex and brokerage industry. For this reason, you should carefully evaluate each solution and ensure it aligns with your business objectives. Before selecting a CRM provider, you want to make sure that they have experience supporting online brokerage businesses and confirm that they have a good reputation in the industry as a software provider.
● System Integration - One of the most important things to check is compatibility between the new CRM and your existing systems or platforms including MetaTrader (mt4 or mt5), cTrader, and other trading technologies such as PAMM (percent allocation management module). The goal is to have seamless integration so that there isn’t a need for manual efforts between the two systems. Processing manual data transfers can cause inefficiencies and data integrity issues.
● Technical Support - If something goes wrong with your CRM system, you want to work with a provider that responds quickly to your requests. Don’t mistake the responsiveness of the sales representative to indicate how quickly technical support requests will be resolved. In many cases, these are two separate teams. Online reviews are a great way to find out how what other customers are saying about the CRM provider’s support services.
● User-Friendly Interface - In one survey, over 86 percent of respondents stated that user-friendliness was the most important factor when selecting a new CRM system. Ask the sales representative to provide your team with a live demo or free trial. Make sure that you include the people from the team who will be using the system the most. They will be the best suited to provide valuable feedback.
● Cloud-Based vs Self-Hosted - You may have the option between selecting a cloud-based CRM program or hosting it on your own server. There are pros and cons to each method. Cloud-based CRM systems typically have a lower startup cost, faster setup time, and don’t require your team to have deep technical expertise. Self-hosted requires a larger initial investment to set up on your own server, but you can have better control over security and maintenance. Check with your IT department to find out what they recommend.
● Reporting and Analytics - Your CRM system will be collecting massive amounts of data regarding your customers and their trading activity. This data is useless if you can’t use it to create dashboards, reports, or other analytics to help you make business decisions. Reporting could include trade volume, customer trends, and forex performance alerts.
● Customizable - Building a CRM system from scratch is extremely expensive and takes a lot of time. For this reason, most online brokerages chose to leverage an “off the shelf” CRM product. However, each business is unique and has special requirements. You want to make sure that the program has the functionality that your business needs while being flexible enough to allow you to build and implement customized tools.
● Set-Up Process and Assistance - Rolling out a new CRM platform requires a lot of work including configuring settings, adding users, and transferring data from an old CRM system. Discuss with the CRM provider how long the process will take, what training will be provided, and what dedicated support will be available to resolve any unforeseen problems.
● Security - Your clients trust you with extremely sensitive personal and financial information. The CRM system you select must provide a sufficient level of protection against cyber-attacks. Ask about the CRM provider’s security technology, policies, and certifications.
Deciding Which CRM Provider is Right for Your Brokerage Business
It’s critical that you take the time to evaluate several different providers. This will allow you to compare the pros and cons of each company. Making the wrong decision could disrupt your business or force you to change CRM programs again. Although cost is a huge factor, don’t let this drive your decision entirely. The features, benefits, and utilization of the CRM system are most important to your firm’s ability to attract and retain the best clients.
FXbackoffice allows for easy integration with popular trading platforms such as MT4, MT5 and cTrader. Our Forex CRM helps in automating key business functions into one comprehensive solution for your online brokerage.