Running a business can be challenging, especially a startup. But a good CRM tool can help to scale your business, attract more customers, and increase profit. A customer relationship management (CRM) system is used to improve business productivity though it can be complicated to administer. Business owners always ask a lot of questions about CRM, like why do I need a CRM? Why is CRM important for business? So, in this guide, we will focus on the most popular confusing questions about CRM and how to choose the best CRM system.
What business problems does a CRM solve?
- Organizing your data. Unorganized businesses are not profitable and CRM helps to keep and manage all your data on a single platform.
- Client communication. With CRM you can call, message or email a client without having to switch between windows.
- Marketing. You will be able to personalize customer experiences and improve marketing campaigns with marketing automation, it is possible to create a single view of your target audience.
- Work from home. CRM has simplified our lives and you can easily check the last updates on the deal and access all data.
- Saves time. No need to do repetitive tasks every day since almost everything is automated. It means that your team can spend time on much more productive tasks.
- Social media. Every business is now present on social media as well as customers. CRM allows businesses to analyze what the consumers want and how the company can ensure good brand visibility. Analysis of demand for the offered products and services, as well as the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and promotions.
- Workforce efficiency. The cooperation between different departments of your business is important for motivation and increasing profit. CRM makes it possible to perform various tasks on a single platform (e.g. sales, marketing or customer support) in order to boost your productivity.
- Leads. Whether your leads come from, CRM can improve lead capturing with targeted content.
- Forecasting sales. CRM consolidates all the marketing touchpoints and analyzes the sales trends. Increase sales by segmenting customers and enabling contact planning.
- Tracking and reporting. Using CRM, it takes only a few clicks, making it easy to create reports and review progress at any time. Safety of all information about each client, recording of all relationships, including data on purchases, etc.
How to choose a CRM system?
It is important to choose it correctly, otherwise, the implementation will be useless. Let’s look at the detailed instructions, which consist of four stages.
- Define the tasks that the CRM system should perform. Ask yourself: What needs to be improved? How much time will it take? What errors can be excluded?
- Choose the type of CRM system: operational, analytical, collaborative, campaign management, strategic. Also, they may differ in how information is stored: cloud-based (the program and data is stored in the cloud) and on-premise (it is installed on the client’s own network).
- Make a list of CRM systems that you want to test. Almost all developers provide a free trial period.
- Test the programs and perform analysis based on the criteria you are interested in. Make a list of questions that interest you.
Evaluation criteria
Let’s look at the list of criteria for choosing a CRM system:
Functionality. You must be sure that the system has all the necessary functions for your business.
Interface. It should be simple and convenient, otherwise, your employees will not be able to work with the system.
Customization. Check whether customization and training are available.
Integration. Make sure that you can connect your phone and email, integrate with landing pages, mailing lists, social networks, various messengers, etc.;
Techsupport. You also need to be sure of the timing of its response and communication channels.
No doubt that CRM can play a critical role in any business’ success. Evercode Lab can develop a CRM system for your company based on your needs and requirements.
Our company has been on the market since 2011. During this time, we managed to implement several successful products, including
- fast food delivery service – FoodFox (now Yandex.Food)
- Atomic wallet – multi-currency cryptowallet
- CRM system for Cadfem CIS
- ESCAR system for nuclear power plants
- OnDoc – personal health monitoring system,
70% of our projects are focused on the international market. If you want to learn more about how to choose the right CRM system, please leave your contacts and get a free consultation.