What is the CRM

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.

Benefits of CRM

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

Modules of CRM System

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

Main vendors of CRM Software:

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.