A CRM dashboard is a feature of CRM solutions that allows sales and marketing teams to capture and visualize data on customers and deals. Dashboards are often used by sales and marketing teams to visualize what ways they can improve their business operations and provide services to customers. They are digital interfaces that display charts, graphs, and numbers based on business data residing in the CRM platform.
In this definition...
What Is a CRM Dashboard?
A CRM dashboard is a tool for displaying large amounts of collected customer, revenue, and operations data in a consolidated, accessible format. It typically includes a collection of data visualizations and reports that reveal metrics like individual sales representative performance and current deal revenue.
Dashboards enable businesses to predict their future sales data because they can visualize current deal progress. Sales and marketing teams can tailor dashboard information to their specific sales flows by organizing reports and graphs within the dashboard. They can also design dashboards for specific teams. For example, a dashboard specifically designed for customer service might include charts or graphs about agent performance, most common customer complaints, and which support channels receive the heaviest communication.
Also read: Types of CRM Software
Features of a CRM Dashboard
Common features of CRM dashboards include:
- Reports: A CRM dashboard often includes a collection of reports, which can be in list, chart, or graph form. The dashboard may not include the entire report but rather a snapshot of it. Businesses can often use pre-built dashboard templates to slot reports into, so that users can view growth of revenue over time and numbers of leads and deals in a consolidated location.
- Customizability: Teams are able to place reports of their choice on a dashboard, creating a story that executives and other stakeholders can easily follow. CRM dashboards also allow access controls so businesses can limit who sees what data. Often dashboards also have options to link or share, so that the content can be placed elsewhere within the business.
- Forecasting: Sales teams are able to predict revenue based on current deal data and trends displayed on the dashboard. They can use this real-time information to adjust decisions like communication with leads and budgeting.
- KPI progress: CRM dashboards list sales and marketing teams’ key performance indicators (KPIs), tracking the progress the business has made on designated KPIs.
Also read: Advantages and Challenges of CRM Software
Benefits of a CRM Dashboard
In a CRM dashboard, information is presented visually, making it easier to view business trends over time. Teams can visualize current revenue and deal progress through charts that track revenue during a specific period of time. They can also monitor sales representatives’ performance, so managers are able to coach reps based on their individual metrics.
High-level presentation of data in a CRM dashboard can reveal both potential problems and opportunities. If stakeholders who aren’t constantly close to data notice a strange trend on a graph, they can alert sales and marketing team members who are able to investigate that issue and take steps to remedy it. Conversely, if a particular campaign is very successful, teams are able to focus on that campaign’s dashboard data and use it as a guide to further marketing efforts.
CRM dashboards make data available for executives in a way that’s easy for them to digest and that contributes to business decision-making. Although executives may only rarely look at the actual CRM dashboard, sales and marketing teams can use these tools to present KPIs and campaign progress to company leadership in an easy-to-understand format.
Finally, CRM dashboards help users to focus on a single data source, which increases both accuracy and efficiency. Important data has already been compiled within the CRM tool, so users don’t have to constantly pull data from a separate tool like Google Sheets or Excel.
Also read: Most Important Benefits of CRM Software
Who Uses a CRM Dashboard?
- Sales representatives view individual and corporate performance, benchmark themselves against the goals their organization has set for sales performance, andalso view team KPIs.
- Sales managers look at trends in their reps’ performance, so they know how to better lead them. Managers also have an overhead view of any problems or drops in lead engagement, which they might not be able to see without a graph to visualize the change.
- Marketing teams measure the performance of each campaign and leads’ responsiveness to them, such as click-through rates on email campaigns.
- Customer support teams review metrics about client issues, like how many complaints have been addressed by service representatives or the most common difficulties that customers have. Other use cases include tracking which service team members have solved the most customer cases.
Examples of CRM Dashboards
A variety of CRM platforms offer dashboards that support different user needs. Take a look at some of the top CRM dashboards and their key features:
HubSpot
In the following HubSpot dashboard creation tool, users are able to view data and visualizations separately. They can choose which characteristics to display and easily pick a chart type.
Image credit: HubSpot
Zoho CRM
In some CRM dashboards, users are able to drill down, or specifically filter, a segment of a report so they can view more detailed data. In this Zoho CRM dashboard, the option to drill down is available. Users can then select from a column of drill down options, like deal stage and deal owner.
Image credit: Zoho
Insightly
Although having too many graphs or charts on a dashboard isn’t recommended by experts, this opportunities dashboard from Insightly shows how sometimes exceeding the number of suggested reports can lead to a very compact, organized dashboard.
Image credit: Insightly
Zendesk
Dashboards can also be created to show help desk progress, such as the busiest times for ticket submissions. These metrics can help businesses decide how many service agents need to be available during specific hours.
Image credit: Zendesk
How to Set Up Your CRM Dashboard
When preparing to set up a dashboard, keep the following considerations in mind.
- Design the dashboard based on who will be viewing it: Is this dashboard a comprehensive overview for the executive team to view overall revenue for the quarter? Or is it designed for a small marketing team to show how a particular email campaign has been performing? Select a dashboard layout, charts, and graphs to best convey data to the right group of people.
- Design each report separately before compiling reports into a dashboard: Each report should display a segment of data that is understandable on its own.
- Choose a layout from your CRM software: If you’re creating a dashboard based on an email marketing campaign, for example, decide which facets of the campaign you want to cover and select a layout that will illustrate each facet in a logical order.
- Don’t overload your dashboard with too many charts and graphs: The customer relationship industry has settled on a recommendation of five to seven reports per dashboard; you may want fewer, but just keep user experience in mind. Too many reports can make a crowded dashboard that’s difficult to comprehend.
Considering a CRM solution for your business? Read Best CRM Software & Tools next.
