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As a growing business, you probably rely too heavily on spreadsheets and email to lock in all your customer data. But is this method really working for you?
CRM in business is no longer just a tool for customer data management, it’s a strategy to streamline operations and improve relationships between you and customers. CRM in business lets you take back control of managing customer relations and your sales process, all while staying organized.
If you are not getting the desired results from your current system, maybe it’s time that your business adopts a CRM. We’ve compiled a list of eight challenges that the right customer relationship management software for your business can help you overcome.
Do any of these eight scenarios sound like you?
It’s tough to remember every client conversation. But a desk covered in sticky note reminders or a corkboard cluttered with business cards isn’t the solution.
If you’re digging through your email messages, then finding the information you need is taking you twice as long as it should.
Or, worse, follow-ups and deadlines slip through the cracks.
Staying organized is one of the biggest benefits of implementing CRM in business. A CRM compiles all your company information systematically as you’re collecting it. That means you stay organized and in-the-know of what to do next.
When you first started tracking clients, you recorded basic qualifiers like name, contact information and their position in your sales funnel.
But now your business is growing—and so is the column count in your spreadsheet. More data is relevant to making the sale, but accessing that information is frustrating.
If the search box can’t find the customer information you need, your spreadsheet system is no longer effective.
CRMs are designed to be instinctive so that locating customer data is quick and painless. No more scrolling. No more squinting at what you wrote.
Leads slipping through the cracks is a common issue when an effective CRM in business is not in place or used properly.
Important data, such as when to follow-up with a potential customer, gets dismissed simply because you don’t have the time to enter it in your spreadsheet.
But there are too many risks to putting this off. You lose important customer information. Your employees aren’t on the same page. Your customers aren’t happy with their customer experience.
Ultimately, your company loses customers and potential sales.
CRM makes it easy to enter your customer data as well as clearly spell out when to follow-up with potential buyers. Grow your customer relationships, not your to-do list.
Customer interactions can become more complex in a number of ways. For example, a new inquiry from a customer could be built on a previous interaction you’ve had with them months before.
Or you could be referred to a different employee who works at the same company to answer a specific inquiry. Or perhaps it’s the other way around and your customer’s correspondence is taken over by a different member of your team.
All of these changes can get overwhelming and difficult to capture in a spreadsheet. When you rely on a simple data sheet to capture all the history of client interactions, you run the risk of losing valuable previous information to inevitable human error.
A CRM helps you capture all the information from past interactions with a customer with a detailed timeline of communication and events.
Also, when you are referred to separate contacts from the same company, you can create valuable parent-child relationships within your contact data, so you’ll always know who is linked to who in your database.
Compiling sales reports by plugging in rows of numbers into custom-made charts and graphs takes time away from what you really need to do.
Sales reports are crucial. But what value do they bring if your reports don’t pull data that you can analyze and apply to further your sales goals?
You should be able to fully analyze your data and create actionable goals from your reports. If you can’t, then it’s time to expand your data collecting process.
CRM can create customizable reports based on your customer data, allowing you real insight into your customer behavior, sales margins and company campaigns.
Learn more about Nutshell’s reporting and analytics features!
It’s not easy to access and enter data into spreadsheets when not at your desk. But you can’t press pause on your business simply because you’re out of the office.
That’s where a spreadsheet system limits you. If an important customer calls while you’re on the road, getting immediate access to your customer’s details is challenging, if not impossible.
You simply can’t be as effective with your customer data when you’re away.
CRM not only lets you access and update customer details from any smart device as well as let your team instantly view your updates back at the office. That means you always stay connected and updated.
A growing team is a sign of growing business. But it also changes how you run your company.
With more employees, your customers are more likely to have conversations with more than one team member. Your employees need to have access to all customer interactions and data so that calls and follow-ups go smoothly.
A spreadsheet is a great start to snagging customer data, but it’s not built to nurture team collaboration on customer communication.
CRM lets your teams collaborate together on a lead, a campaign or a support ticket alongside your customer data. Multiple emails and file forwarding not needed.
You say, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could ___?” more than “it’s so great that we can ___.” Wouldn’t it be great if you could have your contacts organized in groups? If you could apply a bulk action to specific customers? If you could automate certain email responses?
If you daydream more about what you wish you could do with your customer data rather than actually having the capacity to do it, then you’re ready to migrate your system to CRM.
Ultimately, CRM in business is about more than just managing customer data. It’s about creating a sustainable and effective framework that empowers your team to work efficiently and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Still not sure if a CRM is right for you? Read this guide to see if your business is ready.
Try Nutshell free for 14 days or let us show you around before you dive in.
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