What is CRM? Does my company need a CRM? How exactly will it help my business? These and many questions arise in the mind of many people. So, let us explore and try to get answers for these queries.
- What does CRM stand for?
- Challenges faced while working without a CRM
- Some common and simple requirements people look for in a software
- How can a simple CRM software help businesses?
- How can the software benefit my business?
- What happens when we implement a complex CRM system?
- How will it add value to your business?
- How to use CRM in a small business for rapid growth?
- Statistics
- Examples of businesses using CRM to boost sales and revenue
- What factors are essential when selecting a suitable system?
- What is the easiest CRM to use for small businesses?
- Conclusion
What does CRM stand for?
CRM is a Customer Relationship Management software mainly created for the sales, marketing, and support teams to track all the customers’ and leads data, along with the interactions, notes, issues, and sales history.
This data is stored in a centralized database system so multiple teams from your organization can easily access it.
A Customer relationship management tool eliminates the need for spreadsheets or data spread out at different places, and tracks all the client’s data in one place.
The main goal of CRM system is to increase customer retention and expand the customer base.
Challenges faced while working without a CRM:
John had started a business six months ago. The company was doing well, and was growing. But the work process adopted was time-consuming and conservative.
They saved all the customer details in a spreadsheet, shared documents via email, created invoices manually, and sent them through email.
Additionally, they also maintained a separate spreadsheet for managing prospect data. These and much more data was stored in different places.
Whenever the team needed information, they had to search multiple spreadsheets, check past emails or drive documents. The team members also constantly had to call each other for information or customer call details. These tasks took up a lot of their time and effort.
As their business started growing, it became hard to keep track of things, and the work process became lengthy. Also, the team members could not focus on other important tasks.
Though we can run a business using mutliple options, but using a CRM software is highly recommended as it manages all your business in one software, provides great results and helps your business proliferate.
Some Common and simple requirements people look for in a software:
Case Study 1:
Reece runs a recruitment agency. The agency has a vast internal database of candidates in Google Sheets with all the detailed information about the candidate. However, sometimes sorting candidates with particular qualifications or a specific criteria becomes difficult.
They wanted a simple software that can search candidates in ascending or descending form a software that will help create filters with different conditions and options.
Case study 2:
XYZ is an advertising company. They checked various software online but wanted something straightforward to automate their workflow.
Their requirement was that if they added a contact to the system, an email template was automatically sent to the contact. An automated email is sent again if there is no response in a few weeks. The contact is removed from the workflow list if they receive a response.
Similarly, some clients want only a simple service ticket creating software or software to maintain clients’ databases.
How can a simple CRM software help businesses?
Some businesses do not want too many features or much hustle in software. But, on the other hand, many are too focused on sales processes, and not everybody needs it.
Some basic features in a CRM that will help businesses:
Manage Contact details:
The software will help save the contacts and their information like notes, documents, tasks, issues, and invoices. This information will show all the clients’ detailed history.
Search and filter:
Sometimes it is time-consuming to search for specific contacts from a certain group. Searching is easy for a particular field. But many times you may want to search for contacts with certain conditions like contacts with the same interest, created date, same country, or people using similar products.
In this case, you can create filters and search contacts using various conditions and options.
Tags:
Tagging contacts helps segment contacts based on their demographics, interests, or as customers or leads. Once contacts are tagged, you can send them emails, newsletters, or promotional offers.
Document Management:
Document management will help to store all your organizational and confidential documents in a secured place. In addition, it will be easy to search and retrieve them whenever required.
Follow-up:
Businesses need to follow up with their leads at regular intervals. In that case, a call list will be a good option wherein they get a reminder to call their leads or customers for follow-ups.
Campaigns:
Businesses like to send updates or promotional offers to their customers regularly. Campaign management will help to stay connected with your customers.
The above features will fulfill all the basic things a business needs. Further, as per your business needs, you can go for advanced features.
How can the software benefit my business?
Systemize and track information:
Data plays a significant role in growing your business. Knowing more about your customers will help you provide a better and improved service.
For this, storing all your customers’ details and keeping a communication record is crucial. A CRM software will help you organize and manage all your customers’ and prospects’ information in one place, which your team members can access and take timely actions.
This software will save your employees time instead of searching for the information in different spreadsheets.
Integrates work process smoothly with the software:
CRM software comprises of tools like Calendar, documents, email, lead generation, etc. Multiple departments use these tools and update customer information at different stages.
With the centralized database system, it becomes easy for the teams to understand the work status and move forward with the sales cycle. It is like an effective communication tool between the teams that organizes and streamlines the work process from lead generation to conversion.
Automates workflow by eliminating manual tasks:
The software also helps to eliminate lots of manual and repetitive tasks with marketing automation. Some tasks include follow-up reminders, emails, marketing campaigns, promotional offers, and brochures to new and existing customers.
These tasks keep on recurring regularly. So once the workflow is set for new contact entries and current customers, all this work will be automated, saving your team members time and effort.
What happens when we implement a complex CRM system?
Today there are multiple options available. However, every business has different needs, and choosing the right software considering the requirements of your business is very difficult.
Many people choose software with popular brand names without understanding the processes. However, choosing a complex CRM has its disadvantages:
Interface:
Sometimes, the software interface is not user-friendly, and if proper support is not provided, it may take days to understand the software’s working.
In that case, your employees may also have to undergo the training, and the more complex the interface, the more time it will take for the workflow to set up.
The training process can be lengthy and may distract them from their core tasks.
Pricing:
The more popular the brand, the price is more likely to be high. You need to consider your budget before implementing any software as it may include:
- Installation cost
- Software price per user – it can be monthly, yearly, or one time
- Upgrades, if you need any
- Hardware and software requirements
- Customization requirements
- Finally, the training costs
Implementation:
It may take months to implement a complex system tailored to your business needs. For example, setting up reports you need, setting up the dashboard, setting up the whole sales process, standardizing payment processing, and other tasks.
How will it add value to your business?
Improvised customer assistance:
With all the customer data in the system, you will be able to analyze the customer requirements through their inquiry or purchase history.
This will help you understand the customer needs better where you can suggest them or offer them to buy better options.
This personalized touch will make the customer feel important and improve customer relationships.
Increases customer engagement and retention:
Once customer starts using your product, providing them good after-sales service and addressing their issues and concerns without delay is essential.
A strong customer support and ticketing system in the CRM will be beneficial, wherein the customers can add issues in the system, assign it to concerned team members, and customers can track them until resolution.
Quickly addressing and solving issues will help build trust. With this kind of service, the customer will prefer buying your products rather than going to your competitors, improving customer retention and showing interest in a broader range.
Increases productivity and team collaboration:
Using CRM technology creates a proper workflow wherein no critical tasks are missed. Your team members, on a day-to-day basis, are very clear about what they will be working on. The manager/supervisors, through the system, can check the work status and get an overview of daily tasks.
If they find any shortfall in the work status, they can assign more workforce or resources to speed up the work. This improvised workflow will not only increase productivity but also improve work efficiency and reduce burnouts.
How to use CRM in a small business for rapid growth?
Consolidated information:
The software is a vital collection of customer and leads data. It provides an overview of consolidated customer information across the organization in one place.
Intelligently storing and organizing this data will help your marketing team to make quick decisions and close more deals.
Automated reports:
CRM has an effective reporting system and is an excellent tool for analyzing customer needs. This data analysis provides proper insight into customer behavior and likes and dislikes.
In addition, this analysis will help to build a better plan to optimize sales and marketing and create targets accordingly.
Speeds up conversion process:
Leads are potential for your business growth. So managing leads with a CRM system will provide statistics of all their details in one place.
The system will manage all the workflow related to the leads. In addition, your team members know when to email or follow up with the leads. With every step and recorded communication, you can create a better sales strategy and decide on your next step, increasing the chances of conversions.
Statistics:
| The CRM industry is expected to reach $80 billion by 2025. |
| 91% of businesses with 10 or more employees use CRM software. |
| Companies using CRM see sales increase by 29%, and sales forecast accuracy increase by 42%. |
| Using CRM software has increased business conversion rate by up to 300%. |
| 47% of CRM users say that it significantly impacts customer retention. |
| 74% of companies say that the software gives better access to customer data. |
| 64% of companies say that CRM tools are very impactful. |
Examples of businesses using CRM to boost sales and revenue:
Businesses who have shown promising results and improved customer relationships with the software:
Wells Fargo:
Wells-Fargo is a well-known bank with millions of customers who have to keep track of property and assets. CRM enables them to connect and communicate with their customers smoothly.
The customer issues are also dealt with promptly with the help of the system, and this builds a better relationship and increases customer retention.
British Airways:
A CRM has helped them better understand their customers with the insights they got through analysis. The software has provided them with a marketing communication platform for customers where they can send emails, unique offer campaigns, and more information on earning points.
With the reports about customers and volume of requests, their marketing has gone up by 150% and increased their revenue.
Cisco:
Cisco implemented a CRM to increase their team productivity and identify sales opportunities. They started using WebEx to simplify their work process.
This program helped them resolve customer issues, and due to this implementation, the sales team could focus more on productive and strategic tasks.
As a result, their team became more productive, their travel-related expenses were reduced, and they had satisfied users.
The above examples show that implementing a CRM system is vital for all businesses to help you better serve customers.
What factors are essential when selecting a suitable system?
Every business has different requirements, and it is tough to find a system that is suitable for your business. So if you list your needs, it will be easy to find one.
Some factors you need to consider are:
- How many users will be using the system?
- Pricing is a significant factor to be considered, as you need to assign some budget for installation, maintenance, and subscription on a monthly or yearly basis.
- Do you need an online or cloud version?
- Will the CRM system be easy to use, or will it require some training?
- Does it have a custom reporting system as per your requirements?
- Can you customize the software to your business needs?
- Do you need a simple software for only storing customer information, or do you need it for your sales lifecycle?
- Does the software provide integrations?
- Will you get support, demo, or documentation to understand the working of the software?
- Are there any charges for upgrades?
- Does it have a mobile app?
- What kind of security will the software provide, as it will store all the confidential documents and information?
Check out the free version first to try out the features and functionality. If you find this decision-making process difficult, use our Decision matrix template.
Jot down all the features and the companies you have shortlisted in the template mentioned above. Give a rating for each and make a final decision.
Which is the easiest CRM to use for small businesses?
OfficeClip CRM/Contact manager is one of the easiest CRM to use for small and medium-sized businesses. It is built to use for all types of companies. It is an all-in-one solution to manage your teams and clients.
OfficeClip has a Free version with unlimited users and the basic pricing starts from $3/user/month.
Opt for the Standard edition with all the essential features for basic needs.
As your business and requirements grow, you can opt for the Professional edition with advanced features like more custom fields, report management, activity tracking, etc.
You can opt for the Enterprise edition for sales lifecycle, more features, and integrations.
Conclusion:
Implementing CRM software by choosing all the right features to fit your requirements will provide positive results and increase your revenue.
Deepa Kapoor is an online writer for small businesses. She loves to write on the advancements of new technologies and how it affects our lives. She always explores ways to make small businesses more profitable. When not writing, she enjoys reading books and cooking exotic traditional food.