CRM – Customer Relationship Management is a strategy for managing a company’s relationships and interactions with its customers and prospective customers. It may involve use of CRM Software, strategy or systems with the goal of improving customer service or assisting customer retention, using analytics and increasing sales.
CRM often involves using technology to organize, automate and synchronize service, sales and marketing functions of the company
It can resolve customer complaints, track leads, close opportunities, automate sales process and present complete view of your customers life cycle
A CRM has several functions that include tracking customer interactions, automate sales cycle, track leads and get new customers
Some of the main CRM modules are:
Service Management
Help desk or Complaint Management system lets you gather all customer complaints into one common help desk system where you can categorize, assign and resolve customer queries
Sales Force Automation
Automate sales work flow in one platform and streamline lead-to-sale processes giving managers the ability to track team sales performance
CRM Dashboard
Get an updated view of entire sales funnel, reports, lead status, customers, sales, users, analytics on a interactive graphical dashboard
Contact Management
Contact Manager to maintain company’s contacts, leads, accounts, customers, phone numbers, e-mails etc
Lead Management
Capture leads from various sources like website, form, CSV, mobile, contacts, email and easily categorize them as per current status
Sales Pipeline
View Online status of lead in progress and their respective stage like Customer lost, Customer Won, Leads, Negotiation, Proposal
Marketing automation
Consolidate various customer interactions over email, phone, social media or other channels and view detailed analytics
Reports and Analytics
View customers, deals, leads, sales – day/week/month reports online and leverage it to improve your sales activities
Features in a CRM Software:
CRM software consolidates customer information into a single database so companies can more easily access and manage sales and marketing information
Some of the features in CRM Software are:
CRM Dashboard
View entire sales funnel, reports, lead status, customers, sales, users, map etc on a interactive graphical dashboard on monthly/yearly basis
Web to Lead
Directly collect and capture the lead from your website – contact us page and add into CRM Software in leads management module
Contact Management
Manage your contacts, leads, accounts, customers, phone numbers, e-mails etc in a centralized place
Accounts Management
View and Manage your Accounts – company info, contacts, phone numbers, e-mails etc in a centralized place and view sales information
Leads Management
Capture leads from various sources like website, web to lead form, CSV, mobile, contacts, email and easily categorize them as per lead status
Deals Management
View Sales Pipeline and online status of leads in their respective stage – like Customer lost, Customer Won, Leads, Negotiation, Proposal, Prospects in a drag and drop format
Customers Management
View and Manage your Customers database – contacts, phone numbers, e-mails etc in a centralized place and view customers history
Sales Management
View company sales – monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, view sales target vs achievement
Forecast Management
View details of sales vs forecast, percentage quota achieved, top achievers, amount in pipeline etc.
Territory Management
View details of sales, territory-wise as defined by sales management. It helps sales staff by defining geographical sales based on customers, forecast, achievement and territory
Analytics
View customers, deals, leads, sales, pipeline, forecast, sales by users, map on a – day/week/month, reports online
Notifications
Get alerts when web to lead form is filled, appointment, lead generated or any other activity, also receive email alerts based various CRM module activation like form submission, daily report etc
Geolocation
Use Google Map – web mapping service, to display the location of customers, Accounts, leads etc so you can view map in CRM software
Appointments
Setup Appointment using Online Calendar and use it as a scheduling application that lets sales staff to keep track of events, appointments,meetings etc
Newsletter
Launch an email marketing campaign and send email newsletters to customers, Accounts, leads etc and track the mail response
Mailing
Internal messaging system to send emails to customers, Accounts, leads etc via CRM Software
Document System
Upload, Track, manage and store documents. Product literature, presentations and other sales and marketing documents can be stored online and shared with prospects
Product Management
Add products and view the sales related data of the product at all stages of the sales cycle
Invoicing
Create and send invoices, add product information, pricing, discount, delivery charges etc
User Management
Enables admin or sales manager to control user access and on-board and disable users from using the CRM Software.
Admin
Dashboard of all company related settings like add/edit/delete users, view analytics, add API settings, send newsletter, view reports, change logo, CSS and do any other administrative function
API
Easy to use REST API that allow developers to interact with site remotely by sending and receiving JSONs and can also be used to develop custom iPhone and Android Mobile app
Help Desk System
Contact center, Complaint or ticket management system to facilitate service requests and ticket prioritization to provide post sale customer service to clients
The five main companies providing CRM software are:
1) Zoho CRM
2) Salesforce.com
3) Microsoft Dynamics
4) SAP CRM
5) Oracle CRM
CRM Installation
There are several option while choosing to install a CRM system, the main two are:
Cloud CRM
Cloud CRM or SaaS/Hosted CRM means where CRM Software and customer data resides in the cloud and is delivered to users via Internet
It does not involve buying Hardware or Software so it is less expensive and clients have to pay on Monthly subscription fees
On-Site CRM
With data security and GDPR regulation in force, more and more companies are opting for on-site CRM.
It also has the advantage of getting a custom CRM software developed with domain related data capture forms and feilds and can be setup in local host, company intranet or own web server
More and more business’s are now setting up a CRM system for their company.
A Customer relationship management system helps better understand your customers’ needs and how to meet those needs while enhancing company’s sales and improving business process management.