There is no denying that the internet has transformed the way we live, work, play, invest, and more. One of the biggest changes that the internet has brought about is how people invest their money. With the plethora of online trading and investment services and apps, the average person is now able to invest, trade, and manage their portfolios on their own. This has led to a huge demand for reliable and reputable online forex and CFD brokers. Essentially, the products provided by brokers are very similar. For example, most brokers offer access to trade the same underlying assets, such as the EURUSD currency or common stock CFDs. As such, brokers now have to focus on service and the customer experience in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors. What this means is that brokers need robust and comprehensive back-office applications and tools to streamline their services and add value for their customers. While customer relationship management solutions, aka CRM, are not a new concept, many brokers have taken off-the-shelf or generic CRM platforms and have customized them to their specific needs. While this is certainly doable, its time consuming and expensive, plus every time the broker wants a new feature, it requires new development, testing, debugging, and more. The fact is, as a broker, you want to focus on your clients and not on software development. On the flip side of this, many brokers end up having to adapt their business processes or make workarounds to fit the limitations of the CRM software which is never a good plan. This is why the need for purpose-built FX broker CRM solutions, like Proftit, have taken centre stage in recent years. In this article, we will explore 7 must-have features in a forex broker CRM, so let’s dive right in.

Before you can even start the sales cycle and onboarding new clients, you need to get leads knocking on your door. There certainly is no shortage of traffic generation sources and techniques, but your brokerage needs to be able to manage each and every marketing campaign effectively. From organic SEO traffic to email marketing, knowing exactly what marketing is working, what needs optimization, and campaign ROI is essential. While there are a vast number of generic marketing management tools available today, running a brokerage has its own industry-specific nuances which are why you need these tools within your forex CRM and not as stand-alone solutions. The ability for marketing personnel to be able to manage campaigns, see the data with ease, make informed decisions quickly and implement strategies can be the difference between mediocre and excellent results.

Once the marketing campaigns start ticking over and delivering leads, this is where CFD brokers need to be top of their game. Converting these leads is essential for success, so sales agents have to have the right tools at their disposal. As these leads come in, they need to be assigned quickly and efficiently to the most appropriate agent, so having a forex CRM that gives you the ability to segment and assign leads based on specific criteria can make all the difference. For example, if you offer multiple languages, you don’t want to send a foreign language client to an English agent. It’s proven that the quicker a lead is contacted and managed, the higher the conversion rate. To ensure that agents can do their job as effectively as possible, they should have a management dashboard that gives them all the vital info they need without having to keep customers waiting.

Getting all the components of the brokerage to work in unison and cohesively is vital. All too often, the emphasis is on marketing and sales, and once a new client is onboarded, this is where many FX brokers fall short with their CRM. Having the ability to manage the entire operation and back-office is where brokers can truly differentiate themselves, add value, and extract the maximum value from clients. There is the adage that if you don’t look after your customers, then your competitors will. So, the more satisfied your clients are with the services they receive, the longer they will remain loyal to your brand. A purpose-built forex CRM allows the broker to streamline all their operations such as support, regulatory compliance, fraud and risk management, withdrawals, and much more. When all the operational elements of the organization are integrated and there is a well-mapped workflow, the customer experience becomes elevated and clients are not forgotten or neglected. A forex CRM should also have automated escalation so that managers can stay on top of what their staff are doing and can take action if and when they need to. Other key features that should be included in the forex CRM are the ability to manage multiple brands, call centres, sales and retention teams, payment processing and even multiple accounts for a single trader. The last thing you want as a broker if you have many brands or diverse teams is to have multiple CRM implementations as this creates more complexity and operational inefficiencies.

This is a rather obvious feature that your CRM should have, but a dedicated FX CRM is ready built with deep integration into the most popular trading platforms. This means that an “out-of-the-box” FX CRM will have all the integrations needed for everyone to do their job. More than this, it is not just the data, but the FX CRM will also allow for managing things like margin, deep insights into the trader’s activities, and trading history. A dedicated FX CRM is constantly updated and maintained to deal with new features that the trading platforms may have, therefore eliminating the need for endless development of non-dedicated FX CRM solutions.

The value of having data that is accurate and accessible can never be over-stated. Running a brokerage requires having the right information at your fingertips to make fast and informed decisions. Everyone in the organization should have access to the reports they need to do their job effectively. Sure, there are stand-alone analytics solutions out there that can be integrated, but this can be costly and complex, especially because of the industry-specific elements. This is why a must-have FX CRM feature is a user-friendly reporting and analytics component. Staff should also be able to build their own reports and drill down with granularity without the need to turn to analysts or developers to create such reports.

Data is the lifeblood of your organization, from customer details to sales funnels, financial information, and more. Having full control of your data and being able to assign what each employee can see and share is critical. Every business today has external and internal threats when it comes to its data. Unfortunately, many brokers fall victim to data breaches by staff which can have devastating effects on the business. A forex CRM should be built with robust security and permission-based features that ensure no loopholes are left, plus all actions need to be logged for tracking and auditing purposes.

It goes without saying that your CRM provider needs to give you the support you need. However, this is a key differentiator between a vanilla CRM and an FX CRM. The FX CRM support staff understands the intricacies of a brokerage and how all the parts fit and work together. A major downside of a vanilla CRM is when you need support, you could be faced with someone who doesn’t have this deep understanding of how a forex brokerage runs, which means resolving issues will take longer than they should, and the last thing you want is your brokerage coming to a standstill.

We have covered some of the most crucial features in a forex broker CRM, but there are many others too. While generic CRM can be adapted, it is never the optimal solution and the total cost of ownership ends up being way more expensive. Proftit is a purpose-built CRM for forex and CFD brokers and the team behind Proftit comes from a long and experienced history in the trading industry. Their in-depth understanding of all components and trading platforms has allowed them to build more than just a FX broker CRM but an all-inclusive, comprehensive FX brokerage management solution. To learn more about Proftit and how it can elevate your brokerage, contact Proftit today.