What is CRM Software?
Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps sales and marketing departments to automate and manage customer life cycles. Users can better organize and manage relationships, automate common processes, and provide tools to monitor performance and productivity, as the CRM software amalgamates customer information into a single repository.
Why do I need CRM Software?
With the use of high-quality CRM software your business can better manage the customer interactions, give support, and maintain relationships by using reliable systems and processes.
CRM software offers three major benefits to any business:
- Easy access to customer data: The CRM system allows users to access customer and prospect information during meetings by using a searchable database. Some solutions enable users to synchronize information across multiple devices to provide up-to-date customer information from any access point.
- Simplify processes through automation: CRM software enables users to standardize workflows and processes related to sales, marketing, and customer support to improve collaboration between these teams.
- Feasible insights into business performance and customer behavior: Some CRM software vendors provide analysis capabilities, where users can create customizable dashboards and reports based on customer data.
Following are the some features which you have to look for in any CRM software:
1 Customization
No two companies are the same, so the best CRM software can meet your company’s unique needs. Some CRM solutions allow you to select the features to be included in the package, while others also allow you to customize the basic areas, such as having a contact field added, selecting data to display on the dashboard and creating a custom report Function. You can also use extensions, plug-ins and other accessories for customization to extend the functionality of the software.
Many CRM software providers can use the API to give more advanced options, if you want more customization to truly tailor the software to your business. This gives developers access to all technical specifications and coding to fully customize your software. The API also allows you to integrate the software with the company’s existing business solutions used to streamline processes.
2 Third-party integration
You can save a lot of your time and money, by connecting your CRM software with the other solutions that you already using. Third-party software integration is available in almost all the CRM programs. The key is to choose software that is compatible with the software you use and easy to implement. For example, the popular CRM software Salesforce has its own marketplace AppExchange, where users can easily connect Salesforce to solutions such as QuickBooks accounting software, Mailchimp email marketing software, and DocuSign electronic signatures.
Using the right third-party integration can do a few things to make your life easier:
- Run CRM software directly from Outlook, Gmail or other email clients, so you don’t have to switch between applications all the time.
- Automatically synchronize sales and order information with POS systems and accounting software to eliminate the hassle of manually entering data.
- Use your email marketing software or CRM software to automatically create email lists and start email marketing campaigns, so you don’t have to open both at the same time.
- Use Dropbox, Box.com and other popular cloud backup storage services to back up and synchronize data.
Depending on your software, some integrations may require IT management.
3 Workflow automation
CRM software can make your life easier by automating workflow. Find software that allows you to set custom rules and have salesperson automation capabilities to help you and your team increase productivity.
By using rules, you can set the CRM software to automatically perform specific actions based on triggers or events, such as:
- When a potential customer fills out a contact form on your website, the CRM software will automatically direct the message to the correct sales representative or department.
- When the sales representative receives the message, the CRM software will automatically send a preset response to confirm the message.
- If the potential customer, potential customer or opportunity does not respond to your message or suggestion, the CRM software will automatically send a follow-up message after a preset time (for example, 48 hours or two working days).
- When a sales representative calls or sends a message to a contact, the CRM software automatically records the time and tracks all communications.
- The CRM software will automatically report it to the supervisor and senior management personnel for performance reporting, as soon as the sales representative completes the task.
4 Tracking the Employee
By using CRM software, you can track the activities and performance of your employee as well. Choose software that provides employees with their own accounts, where they can individually track their time, tasks, meetings, sales volume, goals, and other items. The software should also allow supervisors and senior management to access the dashboard so that they can view employees’ personal goals, completed tasks, and other productivity metrics. This can help managers write employee performance assessments, formulate incentives, reward powerful employees, and identify struggling employees and address areas for improvement.