5 Tips for choosing the Right CRM Solution

Monday.com

July 29, 2013Leave a comment

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution helps organizations deepen relationships with existing customers and build relationships with new customers (and prospects) by organizing and synchronizing business functions and processes.

5 Tips for choosing the Right CRM Solution

Here are a few pointers to try and help you choose the right CRM implementation for your organization:

1. Determine your needs

CRM solutions come in a range of capabilities and costs. There are many competent, reasonably priced ones that are ideal for small organizations while the “big brand” solutions boast of capabilities that stretch across borders, functions and vast amounts of data. Before you choose a CRM solution, it is, therefore important to assess both your current and future needs.

If you are only looking at managing basic customer data and tracking sales activity and generating reports based on the above, an inexpensive solution may do. Some of the more expensive CRM systems may also be available as “stripped-down” versions at a lower cost. Such systems also provide fast-growing organizations with the scalability required to match their needs.

The solution you opt for should, therefore, be based on a proper assessment of your current and future needs.

2. Integration of legacy data

Your organization may have accumulated substantial amounts of data relating to customers and prospects over the years in different formats. The CRM solution that you are planning to implement should be compatible with the format(s) your current data is in. You can then work on historical and current data and perform analyses over the entire period your organization has been in existence.

3. Training and Support

Make sure that the CRM vendor you’re considering provides adequate round-the-clock, technical and troubleshooting support. And, if your CRM vendor also includes adequate training and certification for your staff within the package price, it is a definite plus.

Free CRM solutions mostly do not offer such training and support services; so, if you are considering a free CRM you may have to weigh-up the cost savings against the lack of training and support before deciding on implementation.

4. e-Capabilities

If you are an online retailer or an organization whose Internet or social media dependencies are extensive, you would require a CRM that can work well online and help you track interactions on your social media pages.

5. Compare

Now that you have a fairly detailed idea of the criteria that needs to be fulfilled by your CRM, it’s time to start checking out vendors. In addition to the above criteria, you can also compare vendors based on track record, customer service, price etc.

Your budget will also be the deciding factor in buying a CRM solution. Even if you do not have budgetary constraints it does not mean that you should go for an expensive implementation if it’s features are beyond your needs.

 

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Benefits of CRM

Monday.com

July 18, 2013Leave a comment

CRM or Customer Relationship Management, today refers to the methodologies, software and system capabilities that together help an organization practice effective customer management.

CRM confers organizations with the following benefits:

Benefits of CRM

Customer “awareness”

CRM helps organizations to identify and know their customers along with their preferences. This involves collecting data (name, age, gender, preference etc), involving customers and prospects, and it’s meaningful segregation. Data collection also involves capturing all customer interactions across  departments/functions. Only when an organization truly becomes “aware” of it’s customers, can it devise and execute appropriate marketing plans.

Centralization of data

CRM enables storage of data at a centralized location. This permits all functions of an organization to share this data (depending upon the access levels granted to them). Customer interactions can happen at various points; a centralized database that holds all these interactions can lead to better customer service and customer responsiveness.

Generate market leads

As the CRM solution integrates into every function, it becomes easy to react fast to interest shown by customers and prospects. Have you ever tried Just Dial? Call them asking for details of a specific product retailer near your home and check the number of calls you receive in the next few minutes. A CRM fully integrated with the front-end or customer interaction points is responsible for the speedy response.

Effective Customer Communication

Older customers are generally not very comfortable with “new-fangled” methods of communication like email, chat, sms or “smartphone apps”. The younger generation swears by them. A busy executive may prefer to be informed of new deals or product/service offerings via SMS and email rather than by a call. A prospective customer may learn of an interesting new product/service from a billboard advertisement.

CRM helps record customers’ preferences including their preferred mode of communication. Hence, an organization can communicate effectively and “ASAP” with the customer through the appropriate delivery channel.

Adapt to the customer

An organization that is truly “aware” of it’s customers, can effectively cross-sell from it’s portfolio of products/services or if necessary, appropriately engineer products/services and even offer each of it’s customers a personalized experience. Technology is the great enabler here; imagine the reaction of a customer who logs into an online retailer’s and is immediately presented with the best available offers on his favourite author’s books or the DVDs of his favourite film genre or whatever is his preference.

Understand market trends

A robustly implemented CRM helps an organization keep track of customers’ and prospects’ evolving preferences and extrapolate emerging market trends. An organization can thus “catch” a trend, with appropriately designed products/services, and ride the trend to success. 

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