Many people know that they need CRM software without really knowing what it is. Or they have a CRM program, but only use about 10% of it. So…
What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is designed to manage your organization’s relationships and interactions producing greater control, predictability and profitability.
CRM began with a focus on relationships with leads or prospects and customers with the simple goal to improve customer relationships. But CRM has evolved to encompass much more. Now, more comprehensive CRM programs support several business areas, including:
- marketing and sales management,
- inventory management,
- personnel management,
- supplier/vendor management,
- marketing and business intelligence management.
You can select which area(s) are the most suitable for your business.
Automate Communications and Processes and Increase Profit
An effective CRM system assists in staying connected to customers, automating and streamlining processes, and ultimately improving your bottom line.
A CRM system (like SuiteCRM or vTiger CRM) is at its heart a tool that handles contact management, sales management, productivity, workflows and automation of processes more efficiently and effectively than humans.
vT CRM Services specialize in the two best ‘open source’ CRM systems available, SuiteCRM and vTiger CRM, because they are equal to or better than any branded programs and we can offer them to you FREE. These systems enable you to focus on your organization’s relationships with prospects, customers, service users, colleagues, friends and family, vendors or suppliers, as well as business processes. If they’re people, CRM can manage your relationship with them.
There is a cycle that is at the heart every CRM system. It’s your lifecycle with people and that includes all aspects of the relationship from finding new customers, winning their trust and business, to providing support and additional services throughout the relationship. Every interaction is recorded and logged so the whole relationship from the first contact is in the system.
A CRM system can serve everyone in the organization.
From the person at the top to the new recruit, CRM serves the sales department, marketing, customer service, opportunity management, business development, personnel, recruitment, dispatch and every other area in any business. It also serves external interactions through customer portals and ticket management.
A good CRM system is vast.
It is the place where you store customer and prospect contact information, identify sales opportunities, manage and record service issues, and of course automate and manage marketing campaigns. Every successful business has a system in place and most of those systems are just manual practices. A CRM system puts those practices into one place and it makes available all of that information to anyone in the company that has a need for it.
A CRM is the ultimate collaboration tool.
As CRM stores all interactions with your customers, and everyone in your company has access to the information they need from that system, collaboration and productivity naturally increases. When a customer calls, no matter who takes that call, he or she can see how the customer has been communicated with, see their previous purchases and when they purchased, whether they have had prior support tickets, whether they paid on time and so on.
CRM helps your business drive growth.
If you want a business that will grow and last, you need a sustainable strategy; one that can handle growth. You need a system that will run the business whether you are there or not. You need a system that will take your business into the future. You need to set goals, sales targets and business objectives and of course, you need to ensure that your business makes a profit.
A good CRM system features reports and dashboards offering a clear overview of how your business is doing and again, all that information is in one place. You’ll see the status of leads, orders, customer service issues, the sales pipeline, notes, outstanding tasks, status of projects and much more. You’ll be able to simultaneously monitor multiple campaigns, know where your prospect is in the funnel and what’s coming next.
CRM systems incorporate automated workflows which schedule series of events to take place when certain actions are triggered. The CRM can generate code for a leads capture form on your website. When a lead is created the CRM will trigger actions. These could be to email back the potential customer thanking them for their contact and informing them that someone will be contacting them soon (as well as suggesting areas of the website to review) but then also emailing the relevant department, creating action tasks for appropriate personnel. That lead will be managed throughout the workflow from first order and every interaction in the relationship into the future.
Take a look at the Benefits Page but also review the rest of the site for a better understanding of what CRM can do for your business