How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Business!!

In today’s customer-centric and result oriented business dynamics, you need every advantage you can get to enable your team with a lightning decision-making ability to stay ahead of the competition. When it comes to best utilise your time and boost productivity, customer relationship management (CRM) tools are solid solutions. CRM systems offer a whole lot of ability to follow individual customer behaviour, track overall sales, analyse patterns, and manage communications across multiple channels. A good CRM will help your sales, marketing, customer service, research teams—really your entire company—keep their eyes on the customer in everything you do.

(Stats above shows the outcome of the survey done by Tech News World for more than 500 organizations)

Choosing a CRM for your business doesn’t have to be difficult. By considering the elements mentioned below, you can ensure you choose the right solution to address most if not all of your business needs:

Compatibility

While compatibility with multiple systems is becoming less of an issue as more and more applications are connected through APIs, you still want to check to ensure that the CRM system you choose can interface with all other applications you already have in place? Does the solution lock you into using solutions provided by the vendor? Is the API platform well documented and easy to use?

The biggest thing to remember about CRM solutions is that they only do so much on their own. In order to really make the most of these systems, you need something that is easy to integrate with all other third party tools you use.

Going Mobile

Mobility is key in today’s world. Your sales force will most likely be mobile and will use a plethora of devices, from phones to tablets to laptops, to access your new CRM system. Look for a tool that can be accessed using a variety of web-enabled devices. Remember that most sales people are early adopters of technology, so you will want a platform that will be updated regularly and remain current with new technology.

Customer Service Needs

Although you won’t always need technical assistance, you’ll still want to pay close attention to the customer service support offered by your CRM vendor. While some companies offer 24x7 support, others only provide support during specific hours of the day.

In addition to timing, you’ll also want to consider the contact methods supported by your chosen CRM provider. Do you prefer conversations on the phone? Maybe live chat and email are better for you. Whatever works best for you, you’ll want to ensure that your chosen vendor supports it.

Price Models

As with many businesses, the price is an important consideration when it comes to choosing a CRM provider. Although it’s tempting to purchase the cheapest solution, but you need to remember that it isn’t always the right course of action. You need to take a holistic look at pricing and choose a system maintaining a balance between your resources and solutions needed to boost your productivity.

Also remember to keep an eye out for hidden costs. Some vendors have pricing models that look cheaper overall, however in the long run you end up paying more.

User Adoption

Whether your organization is large or small, you need to choose a CRM solution that can be used by your entire organization. In order to encourage adoption, you should ensure sales and marketing teams have their voices heard during the vendor selection process. Find a CRM that minimizes friction so your team will actually use it. Reduce people, process, and system friction as much as possible.

Conclusion

Smart businesses are putting the customer first. By using customer data, they are able to deliver relevant and targeted content that adds value to the customer experience. And without CRM software, you will find it difficult. As mentioned earlier, choosing a CRM system for your business doesn’t have to be a difficult process. The great thing about modern systems is that they’re designed to scale with your organization. By purchasing user licenses on as needed basis, you can start small early on and grow as your business and requirement grows.

Let us help you with one more amazing stats to find the current preference of most of the business around the world when it comes to choosing a CRM.

(Stats above shows the outcome of the survey done by Tech News World for more than 500 organizations)

As the CRM industry continues to grow, your competition is putting more focus into understanding what customer wants, and needs as 2017 is the year of customer. Don’t get left behind.

Now it’s your turn. What is your favourite CRM?