7 Tips for Choosing the Best CRM for Small Business

It is no secret that a large business begins with a small one. Automating business processes is the first step to making a small business bigger, and a CRM for small business could be your company’s first step in this direction.

If human beings must perform all of a business’s processes, business growth can slow or stop altogether. However, a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) will help your business to increase sales, optimize marketing activities and improve customer service. It will store all your customer data and the history of your customer interactions. It will also set and enhance business processes and analyze the results, saving resources for further business development. However, many small business owners still doubt their business requires a CRM system.

 

RELATED ARTICLE: GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE LEADS TO INCREASED PROFITS AND SOMETHING MORE

 

Signs Your Small Business Needs a CRM

Some signs that your company might be ready for a CRM for small business include:

• Is your company’s data on its partners, customers, suppliers and competitors stored in different places so that it takes lots time to consolidate data?
• Do you have a way to record the history of your customers’ interactions with your company? Missing history leads to neglected orders and unhappy customers.
• Is it difficult to control employee performance? Can you track their activities, correctly divide the workload and accurately evaluate employees?
• Does miscommunication between your company’s departments occur all too often? Blunders such as these result in lost time and inaccurate information on orders, customers and partners.
• Do your employees spend most of their working day on routine activities, leaving no time for important and complicated tasks?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your company would benefit from a good CRM system.

 

Must-Have Core Functions for a CRM for Small Business

Nowadays, the software market bursts with a plenitude of CRM systems. However, it is extremely vital to choose the appropriate CRM for small business needs. Take into account the following factors:

 

Availability of Necessary Functions

Modern CRM systems have different built-in functionality. While one might offer all the necessary tools, another could require you to install additional applications. On the other hand, leading solutions combine all the necessary tools to provide a full customer view, document flow, collaboration tools, project management, analytic tools, and more.

 

Tools for Communicating with Customers and Your Team

By this we mean telephony, internal messaging system, e-mail system and so on.

 

Data Migration Tools

Make sure you purchase a CRM system that doesn’t require your employees to manually enter your data into it. Otherwise, the process of implementation can run past your deadline, costing your business time and money.

 

Cost

Usually the cost of a CRM for small business consists of several components: license prices, implementation and support. Familiarize yourself with the developer’s prices for these services.

 

Deployment Options

Premium vendors provide several deployment options to make sure every customer can find something that meets their requirements.

 

Quality Technical Support

The stability of the CRM you choose will depend not only on the quality of the software itself, but also on the professionalism of the tech support team.

 

Mobile Applications

With good mobile applications, you will be able to work from wherever you are. This will save time and allow you to more promptly serve your customers.

 

 

Finally…

The proper CRM solution for your business will lead to higher profits and more accurate sales forecasting. Further, thanks to analytic tools and better employee productivity, you’ll be better able to define strategy gaps.

However, the most important benefit of CRM is enhanced customer service. This feature alone leads to better customer experience and stronger customer loyalty.

An example of a CRM system that perfectly meets the requirements of a small-sized company is bpm’online. The reasons are many:

Synergy

• They provide a unique synergy of business process management (BPM) technology and CRM. This will help you to align sales, service and marketing on a single platform. Further, the system will efficiently manage a customer’s entire journey.

Options

• They have several editions of their products so that you can find a solution that’s right for your business. In addition, they offer several licensing options and three levels of technical support.

Ease of Use

• You can keep all your data in a single database and record your customer interactions. All the communication options are available right in the system.

Smooth Integration

• You can easily transfer data from and to Excel. Also, you can simplify the processes of synchronizing email, contacts and tasks because of their integration with MS Exchange, MS Outlook and Google.

Technical Support

• Depending on the technical support level you buy, the services vary. Still, all the support levels include consultations on functionality and customization, identification and elimination of malfunctions, updates to new versions, access to the company’s online community and offline support.

Mobile Application

• A mobile application allows you to access data so you can plan meetings and activities from wherever you are.

Free Trial Version

• Testing new software is extremely important, and bpm’online offers a free trial version for you to make sure the CRM will meet all your expectations.

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