It seems that there are newcomers to the world of CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) at every corner. Most admit to having a love-hate relationship with Microsoft Excel and have a strong desire to give up their table driven business for a life of collaboration, mobility, reporting, automation and integration! More blind faith than an exact science, their introduction to CRMs may of come from a simple Google search containing the words ‘CRM’. This tends to be brought on by the sudden realisation that their business (however large or small) is hand-braked by a reliance on spreadsheets, which are often formula rich, ungoverned and unreliable.
The fact is, even small organisations can benefit from the right CRM, though many believe that they are too small to see these benefits. This is completely false. When it comes to CRMs, the only requirement is that you have customers who need to be contacted, questions and complaints that need to be handled, and the knowledge that software handling your customer relations is sometimes the best course of action.
When you buy or hire a CRM, you just get a platform to work on. This is not going to solve all the problems you still have in your company with your data or our processes. You will need to cleanse the data and govern it. You will need to keep it up to date and force everyone to use your new system.
So, what is a CRM going to do for me?
Your CRM does more than just stay on top of your contacts. It keeps track of your marketing, of your sale tracking, your goals and quotas, manages your email listings, and even your documents. And when it comes to CRM systems, Zoho and Salesforce are two of the best.
But why do I need to have a CRM?
You need a CRM because staff move on. They move on from your business and they move on from your client’s business. You and your future staff need to rely on the CRM to ensure you have the correct information, regardless of who is dealing with the client from your company.
Own it.
A CRM must be considered the central information point for every activity with a client or lead that your business is involved with. You need to enforce the use of the CRM – regularly, run reports on the data collected in the CRM – regularly, and train your staff to use the CRM to ensure the data within it is clean – regularly!
If you are new to CRMs and are interested in finding out ways to maximise the return on your investment why not come send us an e-mail or contact us through our site, our experts will help you and guide you through the process of making your CRM pay for itself.