Guide to easily understand the CRM. Simple explanation for those who are entering customer relationship management systems for the first time.
A CRM software helps you keep your customers’ contact details up to date, keep track of all their interactions with the company, and manage their accounts. It is designed to help you, improve customer relations and, at the same time, provide them with a personalized service that provides added value.
Let’s break this down a bit more.
Your company and employees generate vast amounts of data every day. Every time someone answers the phone and talks to a customer, goes out cold-selling, or follows a promising lead, they learn something new and potentially valuable.
But where does this data go? They will be in notepads or word documents on laptops, or perhaps stored in the worker’s head. If this is the case, details may be lost or forgotten, meetings and phone conversations will not be tracked, and choosing what to focus on will become a matter of guesswork rather than a rigorous fact-based exercise.
Worst of all, if those employees leave the company, then the information disappears.
Fortunately there is a solution to this problem. The solution is Customer Relationship Management or CRM for short. CRM records your customer data and turns it into useful, actionable information that can transform your business.
What is a CRM software?
Fundamentally, a CRM software allows you to manage the business relationships you have with your clients so that your business grows.
In fact, a CRM goes far beyond customers, allowing you to focus on your organization’s relationships with all kinds of people: colleagues, service providers and users, as well as customers.
As it does? At a basic level, CRM software provides a centralized place where you can store customer contact information and share it with employees.
Once the information is registered, you can keep track of all the interactions that the company has with those clients: phone calls made, emails sent, meetings held, presentations made, inquiries received. Because tracking is everything.
With CRM software, every question, every service request, every preference, and every customer contact detail is at your fingertips. And that means that every contact you have with customers is always relevant and reflected.
By better understanding customers, cross-selling opportunities multiply, giving you the opportunity for the company’s customers to hire more services.
In addition to tracking contact history, you can also add notes, schedule follow-ups, and organize next steps. That means you’ll never miss an opportunity to close deals or increase contracted products.
These traditional functions of a CRM software include:
- Sharing files and content between employees
- sales forecast
- Instant messaging between employees
- Email integration with Outlook and Gmail
- Dashboard-Based Analytics
CRM software evaluation and comparison
If you’re sold on the idea of incorporating CRM software, you still have a decision to make. Do you choose a local installation system or a cloud-based system?
A local installation system is only useful if you are the only one using it. However, we are going to compare on-premises CRM systems and cloud-based online CRM systems .
costs
On premises, the initial investment is higher and includes the purchase of a server and installation time. In the cloud a minimum investment is required but monthly payments are made.
Security and maintenance
On-premises, you are solely responsible for server maintenance (unless you hire someone). In a cloud solution, that responsibility falls on the service provider.
competitiveness
Local. Adding new features or functionality to keep up with technological advances can be expensive and complex.
Cloud. New features and functions can be turned on and off remotely and are available to all users.
Mobility
Local. Mobility can be limited to laptops within the office, with the level of security provided by a VPN.
Cloud. Secure access from any Internet-connected device: at home, in the office or on the go.
Backups
Local. Customer data is saved in a backup that you make.
Cloud. The provider is responsible for making regular backups that are included in the monthly fee you pay.
CRM software in today’s world
With the introduction of new technologies, the way we work, manage contacts and connect with customers is becoming more advanced. This means that we have to look beyond traditional CRM functionality. Cloud-based CRM software stands out in this new reality as it is much more agile than its desktop counterparts and can be updated as new technology becomes the standard. The rise of smartphones and social media are just two of these examples.
Mobile friendly
Your customer information should be as up-to-date as possible. That’s why some CRM systems now offer mobile CRM capabilities. This allows salespeople to access key information wherever they are, and update that information immediately after a meeting while still out of the office.
With Mobile CRM you can manage the entire business from your phone, closing deals, servicing your clients and even running marketing campaigns without being tied to a position in the office.
Social Media Aware
Social media is having a huge impact on many businesses and the way they interact with their customers: they have to respond to tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn discussions and much more.
Does it sound familiar to you? If so, you’ll need a platform that helps you make the most of social media as a source of information about current and potential customers.
