Running a small business appears to be one of the greatest challenges there is on the current market. Depending on the niche you are activating with your business, the waves of the market can be so high that you can be quickly swept off your feet without even realizing.
Also, in comparison with larger businesses, smaller ones do not have the strength, financially speaking, to repair big damages. Still, with the right tools and methods, you can slowly develop a small business and turn it into something successful. It requires patience, dedication and work to make it, but it is definitely a possibility.
And since a company, big or small, cannot function properly without a customer service, here are the CRM systems that can fit the condition of your business.
Batchbook
It is a very useful tool for customer management, which also comes at an affordable price, costing only $20 per month.
Also, if you are not sure about purchasing it right from the start, you can subscribe for a 30-day trial. It has a to-do list, reporting tools, various ways to learn about your customers, task assignment to each team member, and keeps a history of all your communication with the company’s customers.
This last feature is very important if you want to have a look at previous communications with a contact.
Capsule CRM
It has a clean interface, being user-friendly, so it is an excellent tool for people that never had any contact with CRM systems before. It has only five icons, which can be used for the main tasks of CRM.
It covers incoming tasks, adding contacts, special sales feature, cases that are open and unsolved, and the possibility to keep a calendar. The system even has a free basic plan to get started with. But even if you choose the professional plan, you won’t pay more than $12 every month.
ContactMe
A great and easy CRM system that will help you with contact sorting, managing all sort of spreadsheets and documents, e-mails, reminders, tools for reporting and many more.
It is quite complex and helpful considering you have to pay only $7.42 per month to use it. This one does not have a free membership, but you can use the 14-day trial if you want to make sure that this system fits your needs.
Netsuite CRM+
If you have a budget that looks a little bit better, perhaps you will afford to pay the monthly fee of $129. You will get plenty of features for that money.
For instance, it is a cloud system, offering real-time data about your customers, from all points of view. It has quite a complex dashboard, which may seem a bit challenging for people that never dealt with CRM before, but it offers features like showing quotes, order statuses, even forecasts of your sales.
The system can also be operated using any mobile device, as it is compatible with any mobile operating system. So it is a solution for business owners that wish to pass to another level.
The Steps That Will Lead To An Efficient CRM
A company will not survive without a proper customer service. But in present days, Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, replaces the traditional customer service, by proposing more efficient ways of treating the company’s clients. Is this the first time you ever heard about CRM?
Then keep on reading as you are about to find out the steps that will teach you how to implement CRM successfully.
But why should you choose CRM? Because this method is focused on maintaining solid relationships with your customers and helping your business make more profit. A great number of companies already adopted this method. So perhaps it is time to join them as well.
Establish a clean and clear strategy for customer experience
You should be aware that creating a mere slogan for your brand and company is not enough. Many businesses do that but fail in following their slogan with an initiative.
You must know very well that are the values and mission of your company, and develop your strategy accordingly, and in a way it will not come in conflict with other strategies you adopted.
Also, once established, make sure you communicate it through proper methods to the department in charge with customer care.
Compose your team out of the right persons
The team that should take care of the CRM subject should be people motivated to work with people, regardless of conditions.
These people should have the correct attitude, more than skills and other abilities, which can be learned in time.
Keep your people motivated and invest in their development
Even if you have the best people in your CRM team, you still need to constantly reinforce them and offer them your best support.
Also, invest in trainings that are meant to develop an excellent personal service, watch the acquired skills and provide feedback once in a while, keep an eye on their performances and make periodic measurements, and offer rewards for the greatest achievements and performance.
The service delivery process should be efficient
It’s not enough just to have customer interaction. You should also make sure that the procedures and processes involved can also retrieve an effective delivery of the service.
A customer will always expect for his issue to be solved in the fastest way possible. So your team should know at all times what to do to be efficient.
Keep progressing
An error is something that can occur anytime and anywhere, regardless of how trained and experienced your team is. Never lay back thinking that your team is the best, and nothing can go wrong. Your team may be the best, but things may go wrong.
So do spend some time and effort in periodic development and improvement.
Be an ensuring manager and you will make the right changes happen
As a manager, you have the power to make things or even break them, according to the case.
Don’t hesitate to get involved in the CRM process, together with the rest of the managerial team, to observe how things go and where improvements can be made. Offering your team reassurance for the job they do can be a great motivation.