For most people, a morning coffee is usually followed by opening a bunch of applications for emails, calls, meeting schedules and projects. Those working with the CRM only open one — and find everything already there: tasks, clients, colleagues, financial tools, reports and ratings.
Innovations are indispensable for development. Small companies, being flexible, have more advantages as compared to big ones, where innovations can take from a couple of weeks to several months pending approval on all the management levels. In small companies, it just takes much faster.
WHY DO YOU NEED a CRM?
- You can delegate all the time and effort consuming tasks to CRM and gain the time to think over strategic tasks.
- CRM will help you adjust and improve business processes.
- CRM provides for efficient time management and reasonable usage of employee skills. For instance, it is possible to take notes right in CRM contact profile during the conversation with client, which makes it needless to copy the notes from notepad or draft to the program interface. You can forget about filling document templates manually, sending out regular email campaigns, posting ads or compiling reports.
- CRM is a unified information database. There is no need to upgrade or synchronize system versions. All company users resort to one and the same data source, which makes it easier for the management to assess the company as a whole or to do a profound study of a certain process in order to make the most precise decision possible.
- CRM reduces the human factor, thus bringing the number of mistakes down to the minimum. Such things as tiredness, distraction, negligence, etc. are out of the question, when you are using CRM: the system conducts duplicates search and ensures secure data storage and logging all activity.
- CRM also provides easy access to consolidated and organized information as opposed to sketchy notes stored in a bunch of different files. Fast access to data and explicit statistics contribute to better quality analysis that results in well-informed decision making.
- CRM guarantees data security. Each user or department can only access the information they are allowed to access.
- You can easily control and manage company finance.
- CRM allows order payability estimation.
- You can optimize logistics using CRM.
- CRM is a key tool in increasing the quality of customer service.
- Accompanying documentation arrangement takes no time in CRM.
- CRM automatically builds real time reports and analytics — just in a couple of clicks.
- With CRM, you have all the records and control.
WHAT IS WORTH AUTOMATING?
In the majority of cases, automation begins from accounting and warehouse, followed by sales, production, procurement, customer service, quality control and personnel management.
It is, however, much wiser to start from the following:
- time and effort consuming tasks that demand the most of commitment, concentration and attention: for instance, turnover control and analysis, dividing cash flows, cost accounting, etc.
- automation of standard routine operations for employees (sales reps, real estate agents, etc.): for example, setting system tasks, creating call processing scripts and ready-made answer scripts, allocation deal stages from initial request to delivery, automation of invoices.
- automation of problem areas: for instance, try to increase employee efficiency by introducing targets, ratings by calls made or by deals closed and start controlling the expenditure of workplace tools. In terms of procurement, for example, you can introduce accompanying documentation automation and control the regularity of supply. Another challenging area is reports and analytics.
Small businesses are recommended to start from client communication automation including:
- incoming call processing scripts;
- callbacks;
- tackling claims;
- handling feedback and suggestions.
The data must not get stuck in numerous departments on its way — not to mention the "lap of honor" among employees, which is sometimes given to a client request before it is processed.
Business processes should be automated gradually, upon occurence, starting from the most challenging and extensive ones. It is also important to keep in mind the final goal of the automation and always remember what it is all for.
Important notice: if your company is bothered with vast volume of information, which is difficult to handle manually, — automation is right for you: it will simplify your work and get it organized. However, automation cannot rectify the business processes that were initially incorrect; it is also quite useless, if the work of employees and departments is not well coordinated.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CRM TECHNOLOGies?
- Increase in company productiveness and efficiency combined with higher quality employee performance. Regular recurrent tasks are taking less time; it is possible to run multiple processes simultaneously. Efficiency improvement and time saving is ensured by the introduction of calendar and contact tackling tools.
- Increase in the accuracy of forecast. At any time, CRM can compile any kind of report or statistics, that will fully and precisely reflect the data valid for the current moment, as compared to manual reports that are only valid for the moment they were made.
- The possibility to predict the client willingness to close a deal — proceeding from "contact warmth" and client advancement down the sales funnel.
- Increase in sales and profit. The more is known about clients and their purchasing habits, the higher the chances to close another deal are. Client communication scripts help new employees quickly adapt and start selling.
- Better customer experience combined with lower cost of client service. CRM registers everything: the number of times a client contacted you, client's requests, questions and what they ended in, call recordings. etc. In most cases, there is no need to forward the call to another employee/department.
- Increase in client loyalty, which is quite predictable: when all client's expectations are met and there is always a timely response from the company providing accurate and relevant information, all issues are quickly and effectively solved — the client respect is guaranteed. It is quite natural that clients would stay with such a company and become a regular customer.
NOTA BENE