Benefits of CRM for businesses

BusinessValue_Apr7_CAt the end of the day, the success of any business comes down to whether it’s making a profit. But building and maintaining relationships with the customer base responsible for that revenue is even more significant. Visionary business owners are implementing customer relationship management (CRM) systems as a part of their business operations.

Imagine a product that you purchased a couple of days ago breaks after its first use. You contact customer support and describe the issue, only to be told to wait for another representative to call you back. You wait for hours, and still nobody calls back. After sending an email to customer support, there’s a chance you get a call back, but it’s from someone unfamiliar with your problem and you awkwardly have to explain yourself for the third or fourth time. An effective customer relationship management system can eliminate this problem and many more. Here’s what you need to know.

CRM defined

Customer relationship management is a system that allows businesses to manage, record, and evaluate their customer interactions, in order to provide better services and boost sales. You can use CRM to store customers’ contact details, accounts, leads and sales opportunities all in one place, usually in the cloud so that the information is accessible by anyone in your organization, and at any time.

Why you should invest in CRM

  • Master data management - This is a method of recording and sharing customer data across the CRM process. When customer data is recorded, the CRM system centralizes the data into one file, called a master file. Everyone within the company then has access to this data source, preventing confusion from inaccurate or duplicated data.
  • Collaboration - Nowadays clients want their support from a company’s customer service team to be as fast as possible. But one of the problems in the customer service arena is a lack of consistency. CRM systems are able to ensure customer information is shared among departments to better understand circumstances and requirements, and provide a more consistent service.
  • Customer segmentation - A CRM system arranges your customers into groups based on criteria such as age, gender, location, and even their likes and dislikes. This allows you to target marketing messages to your customers more accurately, potentially increasing your sales numbers.
  • Task tracking - CRM systems have task tracking features that enable your employees to stay on top of important tasks, such as contacting customers via email or phone, and following up on leads. CRM systems also send reminders to employees about their assigned tasks, so that nothing falls through the cracks.
  • In-depth reporting - Another benefit you can derive from implementing a CRM system is a thorough analysis of your customer base. CRM-generated reports give details including an overview of product sales numbers, the marketing strategies that work best, your most successful products or services to date, and even a prediction of whether your sales target will be met at the end of the month.

If you’re looking to improve customer service and increase sales conversion with CRM, contact us today and see how we can help.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.



How to protect your business from disaster

BusinessContinuity_Apr6_CThink your business is immune to disasters? Think again. Disasters can strike without warning and, when they do, your company stands to lose more than just the time and money you’ll have to spend on data recovery and compensation. You could lose years of hard-earned reputation and trust from loyal clients – the two things that could potentially put an end to your operations altogether. It’s therefore important to protect your business from disasters before they even happen. When it comes to disaster recovery planning, there are countless actions you can take to minimize damage and risk. Here are a few to get you started.

Read more...



New features for Google Calendar on Android

Daily planner with the entry MeetingIf you’re one of the many for whom Google Calendar has come to mean the difference between being on time and missing meetings altogether, but you refuse to budge in your love of Android devices, there’s good news for you. You can bid farewell to needing to put up with limited functionality compared to Google Calendar’s web-based service, thanks to a raft of improvements built into a recent update to the Android version of the popular app.

Read more...



Why your Facebook page likes have dropped

SocialMedia_Mar30_CUnderstanding the success of Facebook marketing efforts can quickly become complicated but, if there is one figure that’s critical to monitor on a regular basis, it’s the count of users who have liked your company’s page. This number helps you understand how far your messages are spreading, and what return you’re likely getting on your investment. Beware, though – Facebook has announced a site-wide drop in page likes – here’s what you need to know.

Read more...



How to protect your email account

Security_Apr1_CIf you think your email is fully protected from hackers, think again. A lack of sufficient email security measures can result in data theft, unauthorized access to sensitive information and the invasion of your computer by viruses and malware. Here are some tips to secure your email account from unwanted intruders and the many troubles that come with them.

Read more...


May 2015 Crossword