When you started out in business, keeping track of customers, orders, and
leads may not have been that difficult. After all, most companies do start
out slowly. However, it won't take long for you and your staff to become
overwhelmed by the challenge of keeping all your clients happy while also
following up on hot leads and managing enormous amounts of customer data.
You don't need to hire more people or stagnate your business's growth to
solve the problem. The solution is to invest in Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) software.
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CRM technology allows for the culmination of information regarding all
customer-related activities, including marketing, sales, accounting,
support, and more. With the click of a button, you can find out which leads
responded to a direct mail campaign or which customers need to be notified
about outstanding bills. Everything is right where you need it to be.
This technology grew out of a real need of businesses in the 1990s to
meet the changing demands of consumers. As buyers became busier in their
day-to-day lives, they became less patient and less tolerant of inefficient
customer service, limited support, and slow response times. As a result,
businesses turned to technology to create a streamlined way of answering
those needs. CRM was, of course, the result. Companies which use CRM
software can answer customer questions almost instantly and without forcing
the consumers to come prepared with invoice numbers or account statements
because all of that information is stored together in the CRM database.
CRM doesn't just help customers, however. The collected customer data can
be used to help you learn which types of people to target with your
marketing or to keep track of their buying habits that could be vital
information for future sales and marketing campaigns. The applications can
also be used to manage new leads and to track their progress from first
contact to first purchase. CRM programs can even alert you when it is time
to follow up with a lead or a current customer. For example, it may send you
a message when you need to send the next email of the marketing campaign or
notify you to mail a birthday card to one of your best customers so that it
reaches their home in time.
While CRM does offer a wealth of valuable functions and useful features
which would make it versatile in any business environment, these types of
benefits don't come cheap. Large corporations pay thousands of dollars for
in-depth CRM programs, but you don't have to go that far. ACT 6.0 (www.act.com)
is one example of scaled down CRM application that meets your small business
needs. Just like the big guys, the program includes a database, tracking
capabilities, and report creation abilities. It also includes event
notification, an email client, pop-up calendars, pre-formatted
correspondence templates, sales forecasting tools, and more. The program
costs almost $230 for a single user or $950 for up to five licenses. That is
quite a large budget chunk for most small businesses, yet it is considerably
less than what larger companies pay for similar software.
An article in Harvard Business Review stated that retaining just 5% more
of your customers could increase your profits by 70%. Keeping those
customers and continuing to win new ones means taking action, but whether
that action involves purchasing CRM software is up to you. The bottom line
is that Microsoft Access or a similar database program (many office software
suites come with them) could be all you really need to manage your customer
relationships. However, if you do decide to take the CRM plunge, be sure to
do your homework and look for reasonably priced programs such as ACT 6.0 and
others that can offer the features you need at a price that won't bankrupt
your business.
