ACRM is a clever piece of software for Customer Relationship Management. It is how most businesses of varying sizes track all the communications and build relationships with leads and customers. These pieces of kit replace the need for spreadsheets, multiple apps and databases, delivering more organisation, efficiency and better time management across the departments. They offer these immediate benefits and allow your team to provide a better customer experience, which is the holistic core of repeat trade.
CRM is an excellent tool for building on customer experiences and fortifying relationships. Contact management is the core of any customer information system and a vital part of a CRM system. They are fundamental in modern business for connecting all your data in one place. For access from all your sales teams, departments and customers, from calls, email and text messages to social media, meetings and correspondences. It will store and manage all of the company data for every contact, and industry, from leads to business partners. Finally, the whole team can be in the know as they access the same information from the same place, meaning everyone is up to date on progress, and customers aren't left waiting if someone goes on holiday or is off sick. CRM means anyone can be brought up to speed to help close a deal or follow a customer journey to ensure outstanding service.
Let's compare a couple of the main points of a spreadsheet with the capabilities of a CRM:
Contact Updates: In a spreadsheet, you must provide manual contact updates. However, in a CRM, there are automatic contact updates as actions are taken, and information is provided.
Lead Scoring: With a spreadsheet, lead scoring is nearly impossible, but in a CRM, it is automated based on the rules you set up.
Data Points: A spreadsheet will allow you to input static information such as a name, email, and phone. In a CRM, you can also get communications, history, files, notes and actions taken.
Task Reminders and Tracking: Only you can sort out manual task reminders in a spreadsheet, but these are automated in a CRM.
Segmentation and Personalisation: You can manually sort data and create lists to upload to your email tool in a spreadsheet, or you can use a CRM and create tags for contact types and actions.
Information Flow: With a spreadsheet, the information stays in the document unless imported to another tool, but with a CRM, the data flows from the CRM to the sales and marketing teams' engines.
Whilst CRMs may look like they can provide many solutions to slow and manual processes, they must be aware of what they do not do. CRMs are often custom-made to your needs and are rarely applicable to aid in the backend of production, warehousing, shipping, finance or engineering. Furthermore, CRMs are only as good as the data you give them and cannot manage the information they cannot see, so team training is imperative to ensure everyone is filling out the CRM to the same degree.
If you are a small business, then a spreadsheet might work for you just fine, but by small business, we mean small! For example, having less than 100 contacts or you are only tracking the most basic of data. A CRM is a far more intelligent and complex piece of software that takes the hard thinking out of the process. The joy of the CRM is its automatic updates, saving you time and effort and removing the cause of human error whilst giving your teams more time to focus on more important things.
Small businesses can improve their everyday functioning and organisation using a simple bespoke CRM system.
1. Contact management: This is undoubtedly the core function of a CRM system. It lets you create, store, track and organise valuable information about social media, prospects, job titles, contact information and company details. This is a great little tool for when sales need to quickly access critical information or jog their memory before a meeting.
2. Account management: Keep track of all your client information, particularly during sales. The account management capabilities allow for maintaining high-quality customer satisfaction.
3. Reporting and dashboards: A CRM provides you with routine summary reports of sales figures, email marketing results, sales agent performance and much more, ideal for your sales teams to deliver outstanding results and meet KPIs.
4. Workflow automation: A custom CRM automates actions in various activities like deal management or email automation through triggers such as field entries, customer actions, or inactivity like abandoned baskets.
5. Customer database: As one of the main benefits of a custom CRM system, the ability to organise your customer data and manage interactions with them will put you a whole new step above your competition. This information lets you learn and develop more effective sales techniques and processes.
6. Lead management: capturing leads is essential, and a CRM system helps facilitate that. Monitor their activities and nurture them into qualifying customers.
7. Email marketing: Design and send professional emails in mass and individually to clients at the right time during their customer journey.
8. Sales forecasting: Have full transparency over performance and gain predictions based on existing targets and how those goals are met.
9. Document management: With a dedicated bespoke CRM system, you can hold onto all the essential documents anyone might need in one secure location.
10. Integrations and Cross Platform Compatibility: Our custom CRMs can integrate seamlessly with existing software, allowing data to flow easily wherever and across any platform required.
After reviewing the benefits and possibilities of a bespoke CRM system, we hope you better understand what elements would suit your business best. Are you interested in getting a custom CRM system designed for your business? Chat to us today, and we can help you outline the key elements of a CRM system that would benefit your business most.
