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Customer relationship management (CRM) is more critical than ever. With the CRM market expected to double by 2030, it's clear that businesses are increasingly relying on these platforms to manage and optimize customer interactions.
To discuss why every company should adopt a CRM, we reached out to Nimble – a platform that has evolved from a tool focused on social media to a full-fledged CRM solution.
Our interview guest today is Jenna Dreikorn, who will share insights into the platform's evolution, its unique design philosophy, and how it's adapting to the changing world of remote AI-powered work.
Who is Jenna Dreikorn?
Jenna is a product marketer and a social media associate at Nimble. With a passion for connecting customers to innovative solutions, she is dedicated to delivering meaningful customer experiences and ensuring that Nimble's solutions reach the right audiences in today's ever-evolving digital landscape.
Spotlight: What inspired the creation of Nimble in 2009, and how has the platform evolved since its inception?
Jenna: Back in 2009, Nimble was born out of a vision to simplify the way businesses manage relationships. The inspiration came from recognizing the growing complexity of maintaining meaningful connections in an increasingly digital world. We wanted to create a tool that blended social insights, contact management, and engagement in a single platform, making it effortless for professionals to build and nurture relationships.
Since our beginnings, Nimble has transformed significantly. From a tool centered around social media, we've evolved into a full CRM solution. We've added features like contact data enrichment, email tracking, and task management for better organization and engagement. Our platform keeps up with new tech, refining the user experience for intuitive interactions.
We've adapted by deepening app integrations, boosting mobile access, and incorporating AI insights for smarter choices. But our core mission hasn't wavered: we're here to equip businesses with tools that foster meaningful connections and growth.
Software development radically changed since people shifted to remote work. Can you tell us how switching to remote work has affected the development of your CRM?
I see that software development changed by connecting with more people and finding new opportunities for development growth. Working in a remote environment allowed Nimble to reach more people of different backgrounds, which led to newer software development ideas and feedback.
More perspectives and backgrounds from all over the world allowed us to explore different avenues of growth in Nimble. Especially catering to other remote businesses, our CRM needed to adapt to the new workstyle. Prioritizing automated follow-ups, and prospecting on the go, we needed to advance our software development to keep up with the new networking and relationship-managing processes.
Nimble is marketed as an easy-to-use platform that integrates well with other popular tools. Can you tell us more about the design philosophy that guides your development?
As I met solopreneurs and small business owners alike, I realized that taking a leap into a new CRM can be extremely intimidating and confusing. Creating a design philosophy around usability, customization, and adaptability is something that we wanted to focus on. Navigating Nimble shouldn’t be something that our customers should struggle with, especially during onboarding. Having that seamless design is something that’s always at the forefront of our development guide when creating new ideas and capabilities.
Nimble focuses on building relations and automating contact-building by integrating with other online platforms. What’s the key thing that sets Nimble apart from other CRMs on the market?
Nimble does the work for you wherever you work! Nimble's strength lies in its ability to enrich contact information by synchronizing with social media profiles and email interactions which gives our customers a better look into the relationship they have with them which saves a ton of time, which most people don’t have time for. Especially with building relationships, it takes time and a lot of touches and most people don’t have time to create a process or remind themselves to interact.
What types of businesses can benefit the most from using Nimble?
I believe that every business can benefit from using Nimble, especially those who are constantly looking to keep track of their contacts or manage many relationships at once. Businesses looking for a way to save more time creating a bigger and better contact database and maintaining those relationships will benefit the most from using Nimble because the platform itself does all of this work for them. I see a huge benefit for businesses who are using spreadsheets, as they get stale fast, and don’t remind you to follow up with a contact.
What advice would you give to businesses still hesitant about adopting a CRM system?
Take your time building your database and processes. I see a lot of small businesses and solopreneurs doing most of the work themselves get eager to put a "soup" of contacts into a CRM and expect the CRM to know exactly what to do with those contacts. The only failure of adopting a CRM is not using it.
The best way to get started is to clean up those contacts, whether it's in a spreadsheet, your phone, or LinkedIn. Organize them, and experiment with follow-up processes, workflow stages, or email templates. The more you organize your database and understand how you want to maintain those relationships, whether it's through email or follow-up reminders, the easier it will be and the CRM will start working for you.
Can you share a success story where a business recorded particularly positive results from using Nimble CRM?
A recent success story that I loved diving into was about Recruitment Central — an Australian-based recruitment agency that uses Nimble to keep track of its candidates. Recruitment Central's main use of Nimble was creating personalized messaging. They noted that using personalized messaging resulted in 100% deliverability and 85% engagement in their newsletters and campaigns, which was a huge accomplishment for them.
You first wrote about how AI is revolutionizing CRMs back in 2019, and since then, most businesses have explored ways to incorporate AI into their daily operations. How is Nimble utilizing AI to enhance its platform nowadays?
As AI is everywhere now, it's no surprise that other platforms and Nimble alike quickly adapted to it. Nowadays, Nimble is using AI to enhance contact management through smart summaries pulled from social profiles and websites. Nimble has leaned in on AI and prospecting by creating contact profiles with just one click that gives a fully enriched contact record. This includes avatar, bio, employment, and contact information.
You were listed among the top players in the CRM System market report available on Orbis Research. Can you tell us more about the project and its conclusions?
Being recognized in the CRM System market report by Orbis Research was a real honor for us. The project delved into the competitive landscape of CRM providers, analyzing factors like innovation, market presence, and customer satisfaction. It's a testament to our team's hard work and dedication, especially our development team.
The conclusions highlighted Nimble's commitment to user-centric solutions, seamless integration with other platforms, and the effectiveness of our approach in meeting evolving customer needs. It's a proud moment for us, and it motivates us to keep pushing the envelope and delivering top-notch CRM services to our valued customers.
How do you see the future of CRM developing in the upcoming years, and do you have some features or projects that users can look forward to in the near future?
I see the future of CRM focusing heavily on personalization. With the rise of remote prospecting and networking, personalization is key. People are moving away from general outreaches that begin with "Hi there," and other generalized relationship management. Nowadays, there's no one-fits-all relationship manager.
Every prospect and contact deserves its own personalized and individualized interaction and that's what Nimble is looking forward to. Something that you can keep a lookout for is personalized sequenced emails, aimed to help our customers tailor emails and messaging at just the right time for just the right contact.
Keep up with Nimble and check out more of our interviews with industry experts!
